Interested in Hosting a Student from the VADA Program?
What is the VADA Program?
The VADA Program is a graduate training program offered at the University of Manitoba and University of Victoria. It aims to train the next generation of health, health informatics, and computational science graduate students to translate complex health data into insights that can be used to improve the health of populations and support healthcare decision making. Students who participate in the VADA Program undertake thesis research in the area of data analytics or visualization, complete a course entitled Foundation of Disease Analytics, and participate in intensive training during a week-long Summer School.
Who are the Students in the VADA Program?
Students in the VADA Program are Master’s and PhD students pursuing their education in various disciplines such as computer science, statistics/biostatistics, health informatics, mathematics, social sciences, and epidemiology. They are developing their expertise and knowledge in data analytics and visualization.
Internship Structure
All VADA Program students must participate in an internship or research exchange. Internships are up to 16 weeks in length for PhD students and up to 8 weeks in length for Master’s students. They normally occurring during the period from May to August. The goal of an internship is to help students put their skills learned from the VADA Program into practice. Internships can be completed with industry, government and academic partners.
Are Students Remunerated during their Internships?
In recognition of the work completed by students during their internships, hosts provide remuneration to students.
What other responsibilities do internship hosts have?
Hosts are expected to provide a work space for the student for the duration of the internship as well as a computer/work station and any necessary software or equipment as required.
Benefits to Internship Hosts
Hosting students from the VADA Program is a great opportunity for a partner to leverage the skills of students to further existing work being done around data analytics and visualization or to explore new areas.
What do hosts have to say?
“It was extremely beneficial to our team to have Shannon placed with us for an internship. Shannon was able to bring a fresh and focused perspective and applied her skills and interest in data analysis and data visualization as well as her background in knowledge translation to immensely improve our public health surveillance and reporting capabilities.”
– Maritia Gully, Manager, Population Health Assessment and Epidemiology – Island Health