Profile

Now, where to start?

I am probably the most unlikely person to be here, as I have not studied to be an engineer. I am currently studying Physics at the Open University while working for a wonderful new company (we are only one year old). The thing about studying is, I don’t have to, but I do it because I love it and I want to learn more about it.

In my free time, I love playing my guitar and I am learning to play the piano. Another passion of mine is writing, so I am trying to write my own songs (not yet very successful) and I am learning how to write for the theatre (which is great fun).

And when I am not doing that, I am volunteering at a local charity, help them with their finances and organise their website.

And then there is my big family: I have lots of brothers and a sister and thanks to them, lots of nieces and nephews and some godchildren as well. So when I am not on this Island, I am in Germany playing with them and attending family events (there is always a lot happening)

So, at work, we are currently exploring how we can use AI (Artificial Intelligence). We are a technology company that is building software for financial institutions. In Finance clients usually ask lots of questions, for example, they would like to know how much money they have or what they can do with it. We would like to use AI and build a chatbot. This chatbot can then answer those questions.

The great advantage is, that a chatbot can answer questions day and night and on weekends and holidays, and you don’t have to pay it! 🙂 But even better, it can get smarter and learn from each conversation, the more our clients will interact with it, the better it will get.

Another thing people really like to know: When I save, say £50 a month, how much will I have after 5 or 10 years? We can use AI to make this like a fun and interactive game where we ask a few questions and can then show you what could happen with your money. Also, we will have some lovely plots and graphs, probably have some nice colours, too.

And if you are interested, here is a bit more background to my actual job:

As a Product Analyst, I try to figure out what our clients need so that they can use our software. I then need to describe that to our developers. The developers are responsible for writing the software. This is not always easy, you have to be very good in describing the details:

Imagine you have an idea about a great Lego castle and you now need to give another classmate enough information so that she will be able to build it as well, but without you showing her any pictures! 🙂

Most likely it will be different. You never know, it could even be better. If it is not exactly as I imagined, I have to talk to the Developers and work with them so we build a castle that we both agree with.

At my company, we are doing something called Sprints. Sounds strange, I believe. So what does it mean?

Every two weeks we set ourselves goals, tasks we would like to do and finish. And then we have those two weeks to complete them. That means how and when I do mine, is very much up to me. We usually have meeting days: Mondays and Wednesdays, where we catch up and talk about our homework, the other days are up to me.

I usually like to work at home 1 or 2 days, the other days I am in the office. I will try and work out the details for what I would like the developers to build. Then I will ask the other team members to read it as well. They might read my ideas and might not understand it. That is a bad sign, it means I might not have described what I need very well.

We will then discuss it together and with the developers. If they are happy, then they can start working on it.

I would love to get more kids excited about coding and building their own programs, so I would like to use the money to sponsor a couple of events/workshops and hopefully get kids engaged that would usually not go.