Industry placement at Interlate: an incredible opportunity for PhD candidate Niranjan Adhikari

Niranjan Adhikari, a PhD candidate from the Advanced Process Prediction and Control (APPCo) group at JKMRC, shared his industry placement experience as part of his PhD studies. Students can extend their horizons through industry placements and gain significant personal and professional skills.

As a PhD student, I had the incredible opportunity to join Interlate in an industry placement. Interlate is a software and services provider for the mining industry to enhance operational productivity through data science and professional expertise in data-driven decision-making.

Throughout my placement, I had the opportunity to apply my research skills in a business setting and work with a team of experts in my research field, receiving valuable feedback. I spent most of my placement time working on a project focused on using machine learning algorithms to build and implement soft sensor models. I also had the opportunity to work on the exploration of some development tasks around microservices and python. This was an exciting challenge as it required me to combine my knowledge of programming, machine learning and mineral processing.

Overall, my PhD placement at Interlate was a fantastic experience. My supervisors there not only helped me understand the project's technical aspects but also gave me valuable insights into the industry and helped me see/envision industrial applications for my research. I had the chance to collaborate with other team members, including metallurgists, software engineers, and data scientists. This was an excellent opportunity for me to learn from and share ideas with people from different backgrounds.

I'm incredibly thankful to Interlate for their valuable input into my professional development. I highly recommend other PhD students consider doing an industry placement in their field of study. It is a great way to gain practical experience while making valuable connections in the industry.