Lukas, student intern from Groningen, tells us about his time interning at Thomas Swan & Co.

Two weeks have flown by, certainly because all interns are just having a great time in Newcastle! After the first weekend and some let’s call them, great nights out, Thomas Swan’s interns were ready for some challenging workdays again. Starting your second week in a chemical company is undoubtedly more relaxed than starting your first one. No safety instruction courses nor puzzled faces during chemistry lessons!

in week 1, our workforce of five initial students was subdivided into two smaller groups, conducting research on printable electronics and the composites market. However, we work together supporting each other as one whole group – team spirit! The group responsible for research in the composites market were able to start their research early on and immediately established high standards for the remainder of the project.

To give you an impression of the actual tasks though, both teams were preparing to contact companies and, if possible, individuals being leaders in their respective composites or printable electronics industry. This happened by desk research and the creation of adopted email templates in preparation for the big reach-out on Thursday. On Thursday, our big day, the interns ultimately reached out to about 60 companies via email and enquiry online forms. One intern, who does not want to be mentioned by name in this blog, unfortunately reached out to a great number of companies using the wrong unedited email template. I guess stuff like this happens from time to time!

The weekend was reserved for some let’s call them very special nights out and one of my personal highlights during free-time of the GEO project, our trip to Scotland – Edinburgh. I still cannot believe that we managed to organize reasonably priced train tickets in advance but we did. Concluding, the second week was as fun as the first one and raises expectations for the final week. Complementary second week thoughts are devoted to the Scottish accent; Javier’s progress on his MBA dissertation and our taxi driver who has apparently spent £1000 on Angry Birds throughout the last two years!

How time flies! I didn’t expect the past three weeks to go by so fast, but sadly today is my last day in Newcastle.  The GEO internship has definitely been an incredible experience for my colleagues and me. We all worked very hard during throughout the three week project and concluded the internship with a formal written report and a presentation to the CEO of Thomas Swan & Co. along with senior Board Members and representatives from the Business School!

In our final week, we divided the group into two sub teams , two students focusing on printed electronics and three looking at the composite markets. Having finished our research and the task of trying to identify potential customers for Thomas Swan, this week we mainly focused on our final report and presentation.  The final presentations on Friday went very well and both teams delivered an impressive speech! Despite some drawbacks and challenges along the way, our supervisors at Thomas Swan and Newcastle University told us that we did an excellent job. We all very pleased to know that our hard work over the past three weeks has paid off!

After the presentation, we came back to the Business School and gave some feedback to the GEO Team, along with the FSB interns. In the evening, we planned a farewell party which was one of the most unforgettable nights! We had pre-drinks at our accommodation and then went to Tiger Tiger. Although we only worked together for a short time, we formed such a great bond and I will cherish the GEO experience and the memories for a lifetime.