ICDS News

Penn State Institute for Computational and Data Sciences (ICDS) Communications Intern works to elevate ICDS through web development, training video editing, and market research projects as part of his internship with the Institute.

ICDS spotlights freshman communications intern

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Internships offer students the opportunity to not only gain real-world experience and training but also let them interact in new environments that could lead them to successful career paths, according to Todd Price, interim communications lead at Penn State Institute for Computational and Data Sciences (ICDS). 

Prakhar Singh, freshman computer engineering major in the Penn State College of Engineering and Schreyer’s Honors College, started as a communications intern at the ICDS in fall 2024, where he has gained experience in video editing, website design and development, and market research. 

“I was drawn to ICDS’ internship because technology was involved,” Singh said. “It is equally as creative… I am getting the opportunity to edit, design and develop content for ICDS projects.” 

Though Singh wasn’t aware of ICDS prior to his internship, this experience not only taught him about ICDS’ mission to enhance interdisciplinary computational and data science research across Penn State, but he also learned about the Roar supercomputer and what it takes to maintain it. 

“The first project I worked on was a video for ICDS training. Originally, it was going to be one large video, but the team decided to divide the training up into a few short videos. I was able to work on editing those videos and better understand the tool utilization,” Singh said. 

Singh also worked on a market research project which compared the Roar supercomputer to other U.S.-based institutions’ systems. Singh created a spreadsheet that compared software and hardware, pricing and how restricted data and storage were handled. 

“Prakhar was able to take on a work project that we have been trying to solve for years and made it easy to read and digestible,” Price said. “We were able to have him work on the market research project to see where ICDS fits in the Big Ten and what high-performance computing (HPC) services looks like to an outsider who may not know about HPC.” 

Through this project, Singh was able to learn more about other institution’s HPC services, computer hardware like Central Processing Units and Graphics Processing Units, lessons he can take with him in his program. 

Singh is also working on a website design project as part of the U.S. National Science Foundation Campus Infrastructure (CC*) grant program. 

Through the internship, Singh was able to learn valuable skills utilizing different tools from Adobe, as well as Figma, a webpage templating tool that creates wireframes and mockups. 

“My main goal through this internship was to learn more about ICDS and computer infrastructure and engineering, but I also wanted to build connections and a community,” Singh said. “I think internships are a great opportunity to learn something you wouldn’t be able to in the classroom. While some of the tools I learned to use are not directly part of my course work, they help strengthen my technical skills and can be really beneficial in the future in this industry. Working in a professional setting, you can work on soft skills that have been very useful in my classes. The internship has helped my communication skills, and I have learned more about teamwork, taking initiative and responsibility. I have learned a lot about a real workplace environment.”

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