We have had a number of graduates join ITL since the late summer, Dylan Sumner – Mathematician, Lukasz Okrazewski – Software Engineer, Josh Sharland – Design Engineer, Aaron Greenhalgh – Software Engineer and Sam Horne – Mechanical Design Engineer. This blog series will follow each graduate over the next year as they progress in their roles. Our first post will focus on Dylan, Aaron and Josh but make sure to check next week’s blog which will feature Lukasz and Sam.

Dylan Sumner - Graduate Mathematician

I began my career at ITL as a Graduate Mathematician in September 2015, despite my title I have actually not yet graduated from the University of Sheffield as the graduation ceremony takes place in January 2016, so I feel as though I’m living somewhat of a lie at the moment! I think I’ve taken quite a strange path to the role I’m occupying at the moment, my undergraduate degree was in Artificial Intelligence at the University of Reading, I then continued on to study a Master’s degree Cognitive and Computational Neuroscience at the University of Sheffield. So neither of my two degrees have much in common with what I’m doing at the moment, however, there are some overlapping concepts which have made the transition a bit easier.

I moved into a flat in the centre of Manchester to be closer to work. I’m originally from Cheshire, not too far away from the office, although I’ve moved around quite a lot in the last few years so I had a stressful couple of weeks moving out of my university accommodation in Sheffield and then into my new flat, whilst starting a new job at the same time. It was tough trying to keep up with all the new things going on at work and then having to deal with things you don’t expect to be issues in your new flat such as waiting for weeks on end for your internet connection to be installed!

I’ve been eased into my duties at ITL, I had a couple of weeks of learning under a senior Mathematician and I found that experience really beneficial as it allowed me to get to grips with the basics of what I was going to be taking over without overloading me with too much information in a short period of time. In simple terms, my job here is to design mathematical machine learning algorithms to correctly classify fake and real banknotes and coins. I’ve been able to start work on my first proper project in the last month or so, and now I actually feel part of the team here at ITL.   

Aaron Greenhalgh - Graduate Software Engineer

I am a recent graduate from Liverpool John Moore’s University, where I studied a 3 year BSc course in Computer Engineering - achieving a second class degree with honours!

I have been under employment at Innovative Technology Ltd for just over 3 months now as a 'Graduate Software Engineer', the job roll itself links directly with my previous academic studies and constantly requires me to expand my talents with programming.

Already during my short time at ITL I have learnt new programming techniques, a variety of languages and gained valuable career experience within a working environment. I thoroughly enjoy what I do and I am currently working on previous ITL software packages that play a key part in managing the various banknote validators designed by our Mechanical/Electrical engineers. These packages are in fact quite often used by our customers and it's crazy to think that my designs are being used all over the world, despite the short time I have been employed here.

To sum up my experience, working with ITL so far has been an amazing opportunity and I am very grateful to my colleagues and team leader Tim Beswick for the required training and advice that I have been given.

I’m very much looking forward to my future within ITL and would highly recommend anyone reading this article to take full advantage of the various work experience/graduate placements they have to offer on their website. 

Josh Sharland - Graduate Design Engineer

I went to university just down the road at the University of Manchester so ITL was ideal in terms of location for a graduate job. Even though I’m close by I still spend close to an hour on the tram in both the morning and the evening, which can dampen even the keenest employee’s enthusiasm, but I’m getting paid and enjoying the challenge!

In my role as a Mechanical Design Engineer, I am directly applying a lot of the principles I learnt during my undergrad degree in Mechanical Engineering. I am involved in the design process for many of the parts manufactured by the company, I actually find this quite enjoyable since I can be somewhat creative. I also have a hand in the actual mechanics of the parts once they have been designed so I am able to be involved with the process all the way through, beginning with the concept design and then the actual engineering of the part.

My first impressions of the company are very positive, everyone is a pleasure to get along with and the office is a cool place to spend the day. The tram stop is a couple of minutes down the road from the office and the surrounding area has a variety of options for lunch. I’m looking forward to the rest of my time here at ITL as I feel I can learn a lot and develop myself as a Mechanical Engineer, whilst enjoying the days I spend at work.