AI & Computer Science Intern at Dialexy Ltd

I am currently a masters student at Edinburgh Napier University completing an MSC in Computing. I applied for this placement as part of the Making the Most of Masters initiative which allows students to complete their final dissertation while gaining work experience at a company. I applied to Dialexy as the project proposed by the company sounded both interesting and challenging, however, I knew I would receive guidance throughout my placement.

What did you achieve during your placement and what tasks did you undertake?

During my placement I worked on researching and creating Intelligent document recognition models for the company’s platform. This was done using two different machine learning techniques, Image processing and Natural Language Processing. I also created tools which facilitated the creation of images to be used to train these models. Overall I was able to try and test multiple techniques used in this field of study and come up with a series of suggestions for a model that could be used by the company’s platform.

What have you gained personally from this placement?

I believe gaining experience working for a company has been crucial to my development as a programmer. Had I not done this placement, I do not think I would have chosen such a challenging topic for my dissertation. It has forced me to really push myself and develop further than I probably would have done completing a traditional dissertation.

As Dialexy is a small company, there is the opportunity to learn about many aspects of software development. You are constantly surrounded by a small team of programmers with who you can share ideas and are constantly learning from.

What do you think the business has gained from having you on placement?

It is my belief that my research and development has both given the company some new ideas to implement, with regards to machine learning and document processing. I was able to help them improve their document recognition system which is installed on their platform.

Would you recommend the programme to other students, and if so, what would you say are the key benefits?

Absolutely, in terms of comparing this to a traditional dissertation. Here, I was able to both research a topic I was extremely interested in while getting the chance to actually implement my findings in a live system. This has been much more challenging than university and I have improved my programming ability as a result. The skills learned will also look great on my CV and will make it easier for me to find a job.

What are your future career plans?

With the knowledge I have gained while working at Dialexy and during my studies, I plan to begin searching for a job in software development. I hope to be able to use the machine