Cynthia Chen, who graduated from UWA with a Master of Information Technology degree in July this year, has been named as a recipient of the 2025 McCusker Centre for Citizenship Outstanding Intern Award for her contribution to advancing the fight against malaria with The Kids Research Institute Australia (The Kids).
Over her 100-hour internship, Cynthia worked with The Kids’ Global Disease Modelling Team to develop an AI-powered chatbot tool to enable more efficient malaria research. After completing the internship, she was offered employment to continue her work and has been working part-time as a software developer with The Kids since.
“Cynthia’s internship role tasked her with developing a generative AI chatbot that utilised large language models to help us navigate the OpenMalaria research software,” said Chitra Saraswati, Research Officer at The Kids.
“OpenMalaria is quite technical, with new users facing a massive learning curve. The software’s wiki is very comprehensive, so it’s useful as a reference, but challenging as a guide for users first starting out with it. The chatbot Cynthia developed helps these users navigate the software, and it also helps users correctly program data inputs, saving researchers valuable time,” said Ms Saraswati.
For Cynthia, the journey since beginning her internship has inspired her to use her skills to make a difference, and recognition with the Outstanding Intern Award has added to her motivation.
“This recognition has encouraged me to continue exploring how information technology can be applied in public health and for social good,” Cynthia said.
“It has now been almost a year since I started working part-time as a software developer contributing to medical research, and I have grown significantly in my technical skills and gained a much deeper understanding of how research teams operate.
“I have improved my programming and analytical abilities, while learning the importance of interdisciplinary collaboration; communicating with medical researchers and translating complex research needs into practical technical solutions has been invaluable for my professional growth. Starting with the internship, this experience has broadened my horizons and made me determined to continue pursuing meaningful and impactful opportunities in my future career,” she said.
“I am very grateful that the McCusker Centre internship program was available to me. It allows students to apply what they have learned in the classroom to real-world challenges. I’ve learnt that technology can not only solve complex research problems, but also truly improve people’s lives and health.”
Cynthia is one of eight UWA students and recent graduates named as recipients of the Outstanding Intern Award for 2025, selected from more than 140 interns nominated by their supervisors.
The Awards were presented today at UWA by McCusker Charitable Foundation Directors the Honourable Malcolm McCusker AC CVO KC CitWA and Judge Denis Reynolds AM.
Image: Chitra Saraswati, Research Officer with the Kids Research Institute Australia, with McCusker Centre for Citizenship Outstanding Intern Award recipient Cynthia Chen and Professor Melissa Penny, Professor Fiona Stanley Chair in Child Health Research