£11.44 per hour plus £1.38 holiday pay
Advertising End Date
03 May 2024
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  • Research Internship - SCC - Thaliana: Game Development Project

Role & Department Overview

This internship is offered as part of an exciting programme of summer research opportunities for UK undergraduate students who meet widening participation criteria. Each internship will be supervised by an academic member of staff.

These opportunities are designed to give students experience of contributing to university research. These internships would be ideal for students considering continuing onto postgraduate study.

 
Pay Rate: £11.42 per hour plus £1.38 holiday pay
Interview Date: 13th May 2024
Start date: 1st of July 2024
End date: 26th of July 2024
Location: Remotely and On Campus 
Hours per week: Up to 36 hours per week 

Job Description

“Thaliana: Quest for Gene X” is a game resource developed for teaching young adults about plant science research through gameplay. The game has been developed using PlayCanvas, a web-based game-engine that uses JavaScript and WebGL. The primary task of the intern is to test, identify and resolve bugs in the existing game. The intern will be responsible for making the code resilient to crashes emerging from one-off events and fixing known bugs with the codebase.

To be successful, the intern will need to have a good working knowledge of JavaScript and have some prior experience with game-engines, preferably PlayCanvas.

  Major Duties:

  • Introduce fault tolerance and recovery code to allow game to continue running from previously completed checkpoint.
  • Debug and fix the path-finding algorithm which produces unexpected behaviour in certain situations.

Person Specification

To be eligible, you must be a Part II UK fee-paying student who meets one of the following widening participation criteria. Please confirm which criteria you meet in your cover letter.  

 

  • I am from a low-income background (i.e., household income of £30,000 or less). 
  • I am the first in my family to progress to higher education (neither of your parents attended university except as a mature student).
  • I am from a neighbourhood where higher education participation is low (defined as your home postcode being POLAR4 quintile 1 or quintile 2) Postcode Checker - Lancaster University
  • I am care-experienced. 
  • I am a carer.
  • I am on the Lancaster Success Programme or the GROW Your Future Programme.
  • I am a mature student (aged 21 or over at the start of undergraduate studies).
  • I have a disability (including learning disabilities, physical or mental health conditions).
  • I identify as Black, Asian or Minority Ethnic. 

 

Candidates who meet one of the WP criteria, will then be assessed according to the following criteria:  

 
  • Currently a UK part II undergraduate student at Lancaster University
  • Has performed at 2.i standard or higher in their coursework so far.
  • Has computer language skills sufficient for the planned activities; this could be evidenced by familiarity with Javascript, HTML source code, or advanced programming skills.
  • Can avoid errors of detail in writing and formatting.
  • Can explain their motivation for completing this internship to a high standard.


To apply, please upload: 

  • Your CV
  • Your cover letter that confirms
  • Why you wish to do an internship
  • Which WP criteria you meet
  • How you meet the other criteria outlined in the person specification
  • If you have a disability and would like a guaranteed interview if you meet the minimum role requirements, please disclose your disability in your cover letter.

We welcome applications from people in all diversity groups. 

Accommodation is not provided during these internships.

 
Working in this role will help develop the following skills and experience:

  • Analysing
  • Collaboration
  • Creativity
  • Knowledge Sharing
  • Multi-tasking
  • Organisation
  • Perseverance
  • Persuasion
  • Planning and organising
  • Problem solving
  • Research
  • Resilience
  • Self-motivation
  • Teamwork
  • Time Management
  • Verbal communication
  • Written communication
 
 
 
 
For further information please contact Dr Dr Abe Karnik- [email protected].
 
 
You are required to submit a cover letter to support your application. Applications without a cover letter will not be considered.
 

Please note: Unless specified otherwise in the advert wording, this role is only open to individuals living in the UK.

Under the terms of this work, we endeavour to provide the advertised number of hours however, hours are not guaranteed and that work may cease if there is a fall in demand. 
 
Adverts that display a closing date should be treated as a guide. We reserve the right to close the vacancy once we have received sufficient applications, so we advise you to submit your application as early as possible to prevent disappointment.

 
Apply

Help and advice on making applications can be found on the Lancaster University Careers pages. Visit www.lancaster.ac.uk/careers.

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