Customer Story: FHNW Institute for Data Science project communication
- Angina Herrmann
- 1 day ago
- 2 min read
The FHNW Institute for Data Science runs projects that bridge research, industry, and education. Determined to increase their visibility, reduce project leaders’ workload, and improve the quality of science communication, the institute brought in Maend. A bonus benefit of the collaboration: internal people feel more motivated.
Organization: FHNW Institute for Data Science, an applied university institute Services: Content creation: Project descriptions and photos for a lay audience Scope:
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Hanna Sathiapal is responsible for Space Sciences Education and Public Engagement, which also makes her the point person for communicating the many industry projects at the Institute for Data Science. As a publicly funded organization, FHNW wants to be transparent about its work and impact. In theory, Hanna says, each project leader is expected to create a non-technical summary of their work for the university’s website. In practice, this task was low in the staff’s priorities and often got pushed back. In 2024, Hanna brought in Maend to fill the gap.
We set up a simple process for creating a project story. Hanna connects Angina with the project leader and asks them to dump all publicly available project documentation into Angina’s email. Angina studies the materials and schedules a quick video interview with the leader for clarifying questions before writing the text. Meanwhile, Ave organizes a photoshoot with the project team to create visuals to match the university’s branding. Hanna, the project leader, and the possible external industry partner all get to review the text and images before they’re published on the university website. The internal effort is modest and well defined.
Prof. Dr. André Csillaghy, Head of FHNW Institute for Data Science, has long admired the potential of science communication to make complex content easier to understand. Switzerland has a lot of room for improvement in engaging people and justifying public spending. André was pleased when Hanna found a partner to elevate their institute’s communication. And indeed, the quality did improve. “Without Maend, we wouldn’t have had access to contemporary storytelling and professional photography”, Hanna summarizes.
Yet an even more important gain might be the smooth process: Maend sets deadlines and makes sure things move steadily forward. Hanna was surprised by how easy and straightforward it can be to work with an external partner. André was delighted to see how actively the project leaders have participated. “Having someone external nudge them helps our people ease the pressure of packed schedules. They feel really motivated when they see their projects in a new light”, he noticed. And now the FHNW Institute for Data Science has a steady flow of project descriptions to publish on the website, feature in presentations, and keep the public informed about their activities.
Some examples of project descriptions created by Maend:
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