I think having that kind of hands-on experience, both the technical and soft skills side, can really make a difference for students who don't have much prior tech work experience, or for someone like me who hadn't worked in the UK before.
What did your IXN project explore?
My IXN project was a GenAI-powered Knowledge Management System, in collaboration with the AA. I worked on this project as an intern.
I built a conversational information retrieval system that allows patrols to ask natural language questions and get accurate, comprehensive vehicle-specific answers. It was based on a domain-specific Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) system which was built on a vector knowledge base containing all the related domain resources.
The project’s goal was to turn traditional keyword-based search into something much more intelligent and conversational, therefore improving the patrol’s work efficacy.
How much time did you spend working on your IXN project?
Since I was working as an intern, I worked five days a week for three months from June. Actually, because this was for my dissertation, sometimes I would spend extra time outside of working hours when I wanted to refine certain parts or push things further.
UCL Industry Exchange Network (IXN)
The UCL IXN programme connects students with industry through assessed projects built into your degree, helping you gain real-world experience for your future career.
Did you visit the AA’s offices?
Yes, I went into their London office twice a week, and I also visited their office in Oldbury where my team was based.
It was a valuable experience for me personally, because this was my first experience of working in a British workplace. Being in the office meant I could meet some of my teammates in person, have natural conversations rather than just on calls, get a feel for the work culture, and build stronger relationships with them (I made friends there!). That side of work was just as valuable as the technical work.
Did you join internal team meetings? How was that experience?
Yes, I was actually working across two teams simultaneously, a business team (roadside operations) and a technical AI team.
With the business team, stand-ups really helped me understand the real-world context behind the project. I also get to know my colleagues better.
In addition, I joined stakeholders’ meetings to discuss my project, giving me opportunities to explore more about the company’s business and other people’s jobs.
I joined regular scrum meetings with the AI team. These were useful for sharing progress and raising any blockers.
Beyond that, it gave me a proper hands-on understanding of Agile methodology which is something widely used across the industry, so it’s been directly relevant ever since.
What were you most proud of with your IXN project?
I think what I’m most proud of is that the project wasn’t just a theoretical exercise, it was solving a real-world problem for actual users.
The technical architecture was something I put a lot of thought into. I built quite a complete system, from data processing and retrieval to response generation, and integrated multiple advanced techniques in the RAG system to improve accuracy and performance.
But what I’m really proud of is that I was able to design something that genuinely improves the user experience: making it faster and easier for patrols to find the right information.
What soft skills did you pick up that you use in your current role with Amazon?
Firstly, adapting to an English-speaking work environment. This was my first time working fully in that setting, so there’s a real learning curve around work culture and communication styles. But that adjustment during the internship has been really helpful for my current role.
Secondly, stakeholder management. Throughout the project I was regularly reaching out to people across different teams, whether it was to clarify requirements, get access to data, or ask for feedback.
Even at Amazon, although I wasn’t working closely with many other teams in the early stages, the skills I’d picked up made me much more confident in 1:1s where you’re trying to get up to speed and build connections.
When you were interviewing for full time roles, how useful was the IXN project experience?
I actually applied for jobs before starting the internship, so it wasn’t on my CV at the time. But the experience was still quite useful for behavioural interviews.
Having real, substantive work experience gave me strong material for those questions. I could talk about navigating ambiguity, working across teams, making technical decisions under constraints which were all drawn from the project.
I think having that kind of hands-on experience, both the technical and soft skills side, can really make a difference for students who don’t have much prior tech work experience, or for someone like me who hadn’t worked in the UK before.
The information included in this interview was correct at the time of publication (June 2026). We’ve shared this story to bring the IXN experience to life for prospective students. While every student’s journey is different, these profiles reflect real past projects. Please note that specific partners and topics change annually based on industry needs and project availability.
