Master in Computational and Applied Mathematics
Student Interviews
Working in a creative environment
Maia Weddin finished her Master degree at IMM April 20th. 2005. In May she was offered a job at GN Resound, the technology leader in the international hearing healthcare industry. The company use open platform digital signal processing (DSP) to help restore the sounds of life. IMM has been the chosen scientific partner in many of GN Resounds latest technological achievements and a number of IMM students have done part of their thesis work here.
- "You worked at GN Resound during the final year of your study?"
"Yes I made a research project for GN Resound. It was part of the company's external research program and I was physically placed at IMM but also had a desk here at company. I went to meetings quite often in order to ensure agreement on project objectives and to get scientific advice both from Ole Winther at IMM and from my counselor here."
- "What was your project theme?"
"I worked on speech and voice recognition. It took a course on the subject at IMM and since this particular course was open to people outside the university there were several participants from GN as well. I became further interested when I saw a poster at the university in which GN applied for students for their research program. I visited the GN Resound web page and it was very promising. At the DSE fair at DTU I spoke to the company representative. He was very supportive and he recommended that I started as soon as possible."
DSE (Student-Company contact (Danish: De Studerendes Erhvervskontakt)) is a fair held each autumn at DTU. A large number of companies present their research initiatives and their products in order to attract future colleagues. It is a unique opportunity for students to expand their network and get information on the possibilities of project co-operation and employments. The setting is relaxed and informal and very often the meetings results in actual agreements between students and the companies.
- And the project theme was apparent?
"Not from the beginning. After the fair I contacted Ole Winther who agreed to be my counselor and then began the process of selecting a project. GN sent some proposals but I did not immediately accept any of those. I was mainly interested in speech recognition but after some discussion with GN we agreed on voice recognition and everyone was happy in the end."
- "GN Resound is obviously a very attractive place of work for young engineers yet it seems that you got the job so easily?"
"I did prepare myself thoroughly before my meeting with the company representative at the DSE fair but being a student from IMM is certainly also part of the explanation. The department has a reputation of excellence in scientific performance and its large number of Ph.D. students combined with a network of scientist from all over the world does impress the companies. Students from IMM are generally regarded as attractive potential employees."
Morten Nonboe Andersen, January 02, 2006.