I am Patrick Chen and I study BSc Artificial Intelligence and Computer Science at the University of Edinburgh. I just finished my 12-week intern with the University Website Programme (UWP) Team. I feel that I have gained many technical skills as well as valuable experiences through the internship.

What I have done

My main job was to develop Snapshot from scratch, which is a website audit tool for EdWeb editors and managers. It provides page and cookie information to editors and managers so that it’s easier for them to know and update the pages. Snapshot is made up of three parts:

• a site summary
• a collapsible site structure
• a sitemap

It replaces the manual work of logging page information and structure, and the information is always kept up to date.

Analyse your website with Snapshot

Snapshot’s summary of the Website Programme EdWeb site

What I have learnt

I have learnt many web technologies and programming languages through the development of Snapshot, such as Flask, Scrapy, PHP and Bootstrap. These complements my university studies very well and has broadened my horizon.

Apart from the technical skills, I experienced what it is like to work in an office. Also, as a foreigner, the internship experience gives me a clear understanding of what it is like to work in the UK and what is expected from an employee.

What I feel

The project was planned and managed very well. I had chance to go through the whole software engineering agile development – an iterative process of requirements gathering, prototyping, development and user testing.

Moreover, the UWP Team was very helpful and friendly. I had technical trainings and support from many different people. I also enjoyed the events and socials that happened in the team.

I am proud and happy that I have successfully developed Snapshot, and sad that I have to leave. I will definitely miss the team and this unforgettable experience!