UWA Master of Business Analytics student Joel Kotturi applied his technical and analytical skills to improve visibility of UWA regional activity during his McCusker Centre for Citizenship internship with the UWA Regional Plan Project Team.
Joel applied for a McCusker Centre internship to gain experience beyond traditional commercial analytics and contribute to meaningful work with a practical and beneficial application.
“I wanted experience that went beyond just commercial data work,” he said. “I liked the idea of using analytics in a way that actually mattered to people.”
During his internship, Joel worked as a Regional Activity Mapping Project Intern, contributing to a regional mapping and Business Intelligence project. His work involved building Power BI dashboards to visualise UWA’s activities across northern and regional Western Australia, mapping key facilities such as hospitals, schools and Aboriginal health services, and developing a Python application to automate and streamline the data capture and reporting processes.
His supervisor, Sandra Finlay, praised his dedication and the quality of his work.
“Joel was an exceptional intern and his contributions invaluable,” she said. “Our work has culminated in the production of a multi-page Power BI report with high-quality dashboards that will be implemented University-wide. This project built upon strong foundations laid by a previous McCusker Internship involving two equally dedicated and talented interns, Gaia Gang and Shasvanth Sundarraj. The final product is outstanding and would not have been possible without the expertise and significant contributions of all three interns.”
A key highlight for Joel was seeing his work come together into a final product with real-world application.
“Seeing the dashboard come together and knowing it would actually be used,” he said. “It felt good to build something that has a real purpose beyond just a university project.”
One of the most challenging aspects of the internship was working with incomplete or delayed data from other teams.
“A lot of bodies were under-resourced and couldn't always respond quickly,” he said. “Learning to work around that and stay productive was a good lesson.”
Reflecting on his experience, Joel said the internship significantly broadened his perspective on university connections with regional communities and data accessibility.
Through his work, Joel contributed to developing tools that help the university better understand its presence and impact across regional Western Australia.
“The dashboards and maps I built enable UWA to produce a clearer picture of where it's active in regional WA and where the gaps are,” he said.
Joel believes the experience has been highly valuable for both his technical and professional development.
“I improved a lot technically with Power BI, Python and ArcGIS, but the bigger thing is learning how to work on something ambiguous and real,” he said.
Joel strongly recommends a McCusker Centre internship to other students.
“It’s one of those rare placements where the work actually matters beyond a grade,” he said.