Each year we ask our interns to write a post reflecting on their time working in the DH Lab. Here is Evelyn’s:

I’m Evelyn, a third-year English undergraduate student coming to the end of my second year as a Digital Humanities Intern at the University of Exeter. This year I have worked closely with the Bill Douglas Cinema Museum and their collection, and each week has been a new puzzle to solve.

One of my greatest challenges was working on the Raspberry Pi box, a project inherited from a previous intern, Ellen. The museum wanted a visitor survey system that would allow users to press a button to anonymously collect information about whether they were a student, international, local, or other British visitor. They also requested that the Pi would run headless, connected to physical buttons, in other words, running with no screens required. After brushing up on my originally rusty Python knowledge, I devised a system, wrote my own code, and created a working input-output system. Then I worked in OpenSCAD to design accurate side pieces that would both fit tightly but also still have wiggle space to be removed if needed. Plus, they needed little holes to keep the Pi cool and space for cables to move in and out. After a lot of trial and error, experimenting, learning, and finally succeeding, the Pi Box is now set up at the exit to the Bill Douglas Cinema Museum.

Outside of the box, I have digitised various board games, toys, and other wacky and wonderful items for the museum, each with its own challenges. For example, this Universal Studios Florida liquid toy, which proved especially challenging because of its transparency, and how still one needed to be to not disturb any of the liquid during filming and photography.

Then, while working on a 1970s Doctor Who board game, I used photogrammetry and Agisoft MetaShape to make a 3D model of the Dalek game pieces. Many of the pieces were damaged, so I wanted to create a 3D model so I could try and 3D print more pieces to complete the set and keep the better pieces in a virtual state so they can be explored and played with undamaged.

Finally, I was very pleased to try my hand at making a reel to show other students who may be interested in applying a glimpse into some of the projects I’ve worked on. Allowing me to share and reflect on my time within Digital Humanities.

This second year as an intern has really challenged me and forced me to swim out of my comfort zone but also excited me with new opportunities for growth. The work was much more independent, and I felt now I had a good grounding of skills I could start exploring and designing my own methods and workflows, but still with a great team of experts on hand whenever I needed it. Thank you, Digital Humanities, for having me back for a second year; this has been such a wonderful opportunity to turn my English degree into something more than just staring at books.