Student internships
Te Pūnaha Matatini is the Aotearoa New Zealand Centre of Research Excellence for complex systems, with researchers and students based across the country. We coordinate an internship scheme for partner organisations including iwi, ministries, government departments, and private companies.
If you are from an organisation that is interested in collaborating with us on future internships, get in touch at tepunahamatatini@auckland.ac.nz.
Meet our interns from the 2024-25 summer
This year, four Te Pūnaha Matatini interns from Waipapa Taumata Rau University of Auckland worked on a range of summer projects co-sponsored by partner organisations.
Internship programme coordinator Associate Professor Mike O’Sullivan said “it was fantastic to have a diverse range of internships over the summer of 2024-2025 at Te Pūnaha Matatini and to partner with a diverse range of organisations, namely Te Hononga Akoranga COMET, Pūtahi Manawa | Healthy Hearts for Aotearoa New Zealand (HHANZ) and Whakarongorau as well as work with teachers from Rutherford College in Te Atatū, Auckland. I enjoyed my involvement in all the internships, getting to know the interns, working with great people from all our partner organisations, and working on complex systems research with impact.”
Riley Parsons, a third year Biomedical Engineering student, investigated the connections between telehealth and “brick and mortar” health services. Riley investigated how Healthline interacts with emergency departments across the Midland region.
Using R studio, Riley analysed data from both Healthline and several emergency departments across the region, to understand how Healthline use is currently impacting emergency departments, what impact it could have if more people used Heathline appropriately, and the kinds of patients showing up to emergency departments who might have been better suited to Healthline. The bulk of the work involved matching and comparing data between the two services, filtering and interpreting datasets, and creating models to estimate potential impacts. This was Riley’s first time doing this kind of real-world data analysis, and it came with a bit of a learning curve. “In order to do the analysis, I had to teach myself a lot in R – beyond the scope of what I had covered in uni – figuring out how to tackle problems as they came up and researching and learning about functions and what they could do for me. I also got to present my findings to several different groups of health professionals and researchers which helped me build confidence in explaining technical work clearly. I’ve come away with stronger coding and communication skills, a much better appreciation of the research process and the myriad of problems that can come up during it, and a sense of how meaningful this kind of work can be.”
Engineering science honours student Gayatri Ganesh worked on a project evaluating the impact of the Healthy Hearts cardiac rehabilitation programme. The aim was to assess the long-term health outcomes of participants in the programme, specifically focusing on Māori and Pasifika populations. Gayatri’s work involved analysing data on health outcomes such as mortality and hospital readmissions for both participants and non-participants of the programme. She used statistical techniques to examine how ethnicity and rehabilitation participation, in combination, influenced these outcomes. “This internship has provided me with valuable experience in applying statistical and data science techniques in a real-world healthcare setting. I now have a deeper understanding of the importance of healthcare data analysis, particularly in the context of ethnic disparities in health outcomes. The skills I developed in data analysis, statistical modelling, and reporting and the ability to present those findings in an appropriate manner to stakeholders, both in academia and industry, will be incredibly useful as I transition into future roles.”
2024-25 interns
- Victor Notoa: Evaluating the success of STEM initiatives in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland, joint internship between Te Hononga Akoranga COMET and Te Pūnaha Matatini
- Gayatri Ganesh: Understanding the benefits of cardiac rehabilitation in Te Toka Tumai Auckland, joint internship between Pūtahi Manawa | Healthy Hearts for Aotearoa New Zealand (HHANZ) and Te Pūnaha Matatini
- Riley Parsons: Investigating connections between telehealth services and “brick and mortar” health services, joint internship between Whakarongorau and Te Pūnaha Matatini
- Joanne Daniel: Te Pūnaha Matatini annual report data intern