Pictured is Nam in the office working on developing the World Avatar (TWA) dynamic knowledge graph.
During the summer break following the second year of my Computer Science undergraduate studies at the Technical University of Berlin, I had the exciting opportunity to intern at Cambridge CARES in Singapore for the development of the World Avatar dynamic knowledge graph. The German Academic Scholarship Foundation (Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes), which supports my studies in Germany, generously provided additional funding for this enriching three-month experience.
In the first few weeks, I received materials to learn about the semantic web tech stack and delved into multiple publications and preprints to get to know the World Avatar (TWA). As the internship progressed, I went through a diverse range of tasks that contributed significantly to my professional growth. For instance, I deployed the forecasting agent to predict energy time series and implemented modifications to enable forecasting with covariates as well.
As the agent had issues deploying on an already existing energy network knowledge graph, I identified the issues and developed code changes to resolve these. As I am interested in an academic career in the future, conducting a comprehensive literature review about time series forecasting incorporating knowledge graphs was particularly enjoyable for me.
From the beginning, I felt very welcomed and found the atmosphere at CARES to be collaborative, supportive, and fun. My colleagues kindly invited me to join them for lunch at the NUS food courts and I got to participate in various activities outside of work, including hiking, football, and axe throwing. I felt very well taken care of in administrative and organisational matters, especially thanks to Katy Jones’ assistance, both before and during the internship.
Throughout my tasks, I worked closely with Dr Casper Lindberg, who served as my supervisor, and I received great help and guidance from Markus Hofmeister and Mingchuan Tian, who were responsible for the parts of TWA I worked with. I am grateful for their support.
My time in Singapore was an amazing experience, and I extend my heartfelt gratitude to everyone at CARES for making it a precious memory. This internship has enriched my professional journey and I will cherish it as I continue pursuing a research career.
Dinh Nam Pham, computer science student at the Technical University of Berlin
CARES occasionally hosts internships (usually for undergraduate or graduate students studying a Chemical Engineering or Engineering programme). Please visit our internship page to check for any current opportunities.
