As promised last time, here comes second and last part of internship blogs. This time Cathleen, Lorena and Lucas shared their experience. By closing this topic, I would like to express our sincere gratitude to all companies, that despite current challenging times provided internship opportunities to IMFSE students. And of course, a big thank you shall be given to all participants, that readily agreed to participate in this blog.
Cathleen
Where did you undertake your internship?
I am doing my internship at DBI, the Danish Institute of Fire and Security Technology that is located in Copenhagen in Denmark.
What projects you were working on? What sort of activities did you undertake?
I have been working on projects using COMSOL modelling software to model different experimental tests that were completed by others at DBI. I have also done a literature review of a material called stone wool to understand its properties to be used in my model. I have done a lot of research on COMSOL including participating in a in an introductory web workshop put on by COMSOL which was very helpful in learning more about the program and how to use it.
What did you like the most about your internship?
During my internship, my supervisor Darko was very helpful and could answer any questions I needed. He was always only a short email away and willing to help me understand anything I was unsure about. The work has been really interesting and the different insights from my coworkers at DBI have been invaluable to my work.
What challenges did you have?
The main challenge I have had during my internship is with it being online due to COVID. I am doing a lot of research and working on the program so that is easily done alone. It has been really interesting to keep my motivation up when working from home (especially when I have a 6-month old puppy to distract me). It is definitely a different environment to be working at home vs. in an office and it takes some getting used to before you get the hang of it.
Do you have any advice for future students?
Some advice I have for future students would be to always ask questions and don’t be afraid to go back and get clarification on any concepts that you are unsure about, whether you have already learned about them in class or not. Sometimes it can be difficult to apply concepts you’ve learned about in theory to real applications, and that’s why we have mentors to help the transition from a theory-based environment to an applied working environment.
Lucas
This is the list of my questions: Where did you undertake your internship?
I did my internship in the Netherlands at DGMR Engineers and consultants of the future.
What projects you were working on? What sort of activities did you undertake?
I had the opportunity to do research about fire safety in PV panels, and I also could work in a project of a residential building located above an open mall.
What did you like the most about your internship?
I could put in practice some of the knowledge that I acquired in the first year. We had to think about fire safety measures that could increase the ASET (available safe egress time) of the residents of the building. Thereafter, I had to perform an analysis in FDS to verify which solution would give me the best outcome.
What challenges did you had?
To just run the model and see the results is not enough, it is also necessary to interpret them. It is not always straightforward to understand the reasons why we are having certain values, and what should be done to achieve our objectives. In this project, most of the proposed solutions did not give us acceptable criteria for the evacuation of the residents required by the regulation. Therefore, we had to think about other alternatives to achieve them.
Do you have any advice for future students?
If you have the opportunity to do an internship, do it. You will be able to see how important are the things that we learned during the first year. Don’t forget to apply to more than one company in order to have more chances of getting a place. Finally, enjoy your vacation. You are going to have plenty of time to do it.
Lorena
Where did you undertake your internship?
I worked with FPC Risk Belgium. They are a consultancy company located in Antwerp. I was also involved in one project in FPC Risk Netherlands (I traveled once for a site visit). Due to COVID-19, I was only able to attend the workplace in Antwerp just once, after that teleworking became mandatory in Antwerp.
What projects you were working on? What sort of activity did you undertake?
I had one main project, but since my thesis is going to be also with the same company, they thought it will be interesting for me to be involved in a project that involves automatic warehouses. However, the project just started so I will know more about it in the next few months and maybe work on it while doing my thesis.
My main project was related to the protection system’s update of a tank farm with company X (I am not sure if I can release the name). The legislation in Belgium for storage tanks is changing next year so company X is looking to update the protection of the facilities to comply with the new legislation. However, since the whole system is already in place, they did not want to make a huge change to the facilities. What I did was to check the new requirements of the legislation and check what was different. Then, I did a risk analysis and check some of the possible scenarios that could lead to the worst credible case. With this, we did a heat radiation modeling to check the radiation contours of the fire, and check what part of the facility was affected and had to be protected. And finally, we did some hydraulic calculations to check the required capacity of the cooling and foam systems. Within the main tasks, there were multiple steps like talking with the authorities, talking with the company, and looking for other similar facilities already in place that comply with the legislation.
What did you like most about your internship?
What I liked the most was the opportunity to work with highly experienced fire safety engineers. The internship also shows me that the work is never boring, although looking at the legislation is not my favorite part, it is interesting to come up with a new idea to comply with the requirements. Sadly, some of the requirements are just not feasible, but forcing yourself to think outside of the box to come up with an idea to protect a facility makes you constantly think and challenge yourself. I realized that most of the ideas come with experience, so getting to know how some really bright and experienced people think was the best.
What challenges did you have?
The main challenge was that all the documents were in Dutch. Although FPC Risk and Company X are international companies, the project and the reports were developed in Dutch. Additionally, the legislation was also in Dutch. So, during the internship google translate was my best friend.
Regarding the project itself, I was working with two main softwares: Phast and KYPipe. Phast is a dispersion modeling software that I have previous experience using it. On the other hand, KYPipe is used for hydraulic calculations and this software was new for me. However, it was intuitive and since the facilities are small, it makes it easier to use.
Do you have any advice for future students?
Take advantage of the IMFSE network in addition to the published internship positions. I knew I wanted to do my internship with FPC risk, since they have a strong industrial profile, so I did a search on their employee’s database and found a former IMFSE alumnus who helped me to get an introduction. Just remember that mentioning IMFSE can open several doors.
For anyone interested in watching the streaming of the conference, feel free to use the YouTube link of Day One (
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