UWA Master of Data Science student Isaiah Rama Veera used his skills and experience to help develop a Disease Notification Dashboard for WA, as well as a second dashboard specifically focused on salmonella, during his McCusker Centre for Citizenship internship with the Department of Health.
With the internship reinforcing his motivation to build a career supporting better health outcomes for the community, Isaiah said working with a team in an environment where his ideas were genuinely valued had been the highlight.
“I really enjoyed brainstorming with the team and learning more about the impact epidemiologists have on public health. Seeing my ideas contribute to tools that will help track disease outbreaks across WA, ultimately protecting the community and potentially saving lives, was very rewarding,” Isaiah said.
The internship gave Isaiah the opportunity to step into a team lead role, as he oversaw the work of six people contributing to the project.
“This opportunity enabled me to significantly strengthen my leadership capabilities, guiding a cross-functional team and managing the project lifecycle end-to-end. It also allowed me to transition from a data analyst to a data engineer, building robust data pipelines, improve data quality processes, and gain practical exposure to cutting-edge tools used in industry today,” he said.
“The internship helped me realise how much I enjoy working in healthcare analytics and using data to generate insights that can have long-lasting impact.”
Isaiah recommended the McCusker Centre internship program for other UWA students.
“The internship program is a great chance to work on real problems and build scalable solutions that add genuine value. If you’re willing to go above and beyond and really immerse yourself in solving problems, you’ll get a lot out of the experience.”