This opportunity is great for people like me.
"Being able to spend a summer at Cambridge University working as a Google DeepMind intern has been a great opportunity. I missed out on going to a Russell Group university for my bachelor’s degree – but now I’ve done this, I hope I can go on to great places in the future."
So says Michael Ogunrinde who, in summer 2024 took part in the first Cambridge ‘Research Ready’ scheme. This new internship programme offers an experience of carrying out research in artificial intelligence (AI) to those from backgrounds under-represented in this field.
The internships are supported by Google DeepMind, the Hg Foundation and the Royal Academy of Engineering under the Google DeepMind Research Ready scheme, with additional help from Cambridge college Hughes Hall. The programme aims to help build a stronger, more diverse and inclusive global AI community. Research Ready internships are being offered again in summer 2025 and after his experience last summer, Michael would encourage other undergraduates to apply. The experience was transformative for him, he says.
Like his fellow interns, Michael worked on a project here in the Department of Computer Science and Technology. He was supervised by researchers working on the training of artificially intelligent agents and really valued this, he says, because "in future, I want to create a start-up in robotics, probably in human-robot interaction. So it was great to meet researchers here who are working in that area."
Michael moved to the UK with his family eleven years ago when his father decided that the UK would offer them better opportunities than their native Nigeria. He is currently a third-year undergraduate studying Computer Science at Sheffield Hallam University.
He is a motivated and high-achieving student. But during his A Levels, one bad exam meant he missed the grade he needed for a place at a Russell Group institution. At the time, he regretted this and worried that it would hold him back. But after being able to spend a summer working as a researcher at Cambridge, he feels very differently, he says.
"The research team I worked with all gave me positive feedback. I was like, wow, people at Cambridge really want you to do well – and that’s so motivating!"
During his internship, Michael researched using AI tools to design the most efficient pathways for a group of agents (such as robots). These already exist for two-dimensional spaces. His challenge was to find a better way for them to move around a three-dimensional space, like a factory, without bumping into obstacles or colliding with each other.
His project was a success. Using a type of deep learning algorithm that is well suited to analysing visual data (a Convolutional Neural Network), he came up with a model that resolved 60 per cent of the conflicts between the paths of the robots and obstacles. This is a significant improvement on an existing model that works in 2D spaces and resolves just 41 percent of conflicts.
Along with the other participants in the Research Ready programme, Michael was invited to the Google DeepMind offices in London (see picture right) to present a poster there detailing his work.
The Research Ready programme is a widening participation initiative. It aims to encourage high-achieving students who might not otherwise consider doing so to think again about postgraduate study.
The paid internships are open to current undergraduates or recent graduates who have the potential to become the future of research in Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning.
During the programme, interns live in a college to get a sense of Cambridge life and in addition to their project supervisors, have PhD students as mentors who can share with them their experiences of what it’s like to do a postgraduate degree.
Several of the participants in the pilot 2024 programme in Cambridge came from non-research intensive universities eager for the chance to find out what it’s like carrying out research at university. This was true of Michael. And the internship was an eye-opener for him.
"When I came to Cambridge and met my mentor, he was so supportive. He suggested courses I could do online to boost my knowledge of key concepts, and gave me information about Master's degrees I could apply for," Michael says.
He adds: "And the research team I worked with all gave me positive feedback. I was like, 'Wow, people at Cambridge really want you to do well' – and that’s so motivating! At Sheffield Hallam, I’m working for top grades while some of my fellow students just want to get a degree and that’s it. At Cambridge, it was great to be surrounded by people who see study as the future."
Michael chatting to a speaker at a careers workshop in the Department about how postgraduate study could help the interns in their future careers.
Michael chatting to a speaker at a careers workshop in the Department about how postgraduate study could help the interns in their future careers.
With his confidence boosted by his internship experience, Michael is now setting his sights on postgraduate study at a top university. And that, he hopes, will help him with his long term aim of founding his own company in the field of human-robot interaction.
"I'm hoping to come back to Cambridge to do a postgraduate course," he says.
"I know it'll be hard for me to be accepted as a student from a non-Russell Group university, but I worked really hard on my internship project because I knew a good reference from my supervisor would help. The fact I was accepted onto this Google DeepMind scheme at Cambridge University will also help my CV."
During the Research Ready programme, interns were offered research skills workshops and other information sessions. This included a careers workshop here in the Department where former PhD students came along to share their experiences of how postgraduate study had helped them with their subsequent careers.
"One of the speakers gave me some really good advice," Michael says. "He told me that if I was interested in creating a start-up, a PhD would be good preparation for this and might help me come up with the idea for something that is not even on the market yet.
"He said it would also help me be more realistic about achieving my goal of creating a start-up. I used to just think, 'Oh yeah, I'll create a start-up', without thinking at all about the technical difficulties involved and how hard it might be.
"That’s another reason why the whole Research Ready programme has been so good for me. Without it, I wouldn’t have ever met people like him."
- Are you interested in a Research Ready internship? Applications for the 2025 programme are now open to current undergraduates or recent graduates who have the right to work and live in the UK and who possess the potential to become the future of research in Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning.
- See full details at: https://www.cst.cam.ac.uk/outreach/deepmind-research-ready
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