Quintessa welcomes Ben Porter from the University of Bath and Danny Bosworth from the University of Manchester as they start their placement year with us as part of undergraduate courses in Physics, and Computer Science and Mathematics, respectively. We also welcome Josh Nicholas, who has rejoined the company as a permanent employing following completion of his MPhys degree which included an industrial placement year with us in 2022/2023.
Ben and Danny will be working with us on a range of mathematical modelling, geoscience, decision support and software development projects over the coming 12 months.
Josh has joined Quintessa's Henley office, where he is a member of the Maths and Software team. He received a first class honours degree in Physics from the University of Bath, and will be working on a variety of projects, including the DECOVALEX international research project and providing support to Quintessa’s EDF Energy work.
Quintessa has a long history of employing university students on placements. Such placements are mutually beneficial; the students gain relevant experience in a professional environment as well insight into the fields in which we work and how mathematics is used in industry. The company's size means that the students can actively participate in a wide range of business activities. For its part, Quintessa benefits from talented individuals wishing to undertake such placements, using the opportunity to progress interesting research and development projects and to capitalise on the value of a fresh outlook. Hosting placement students is part of Quintessa's STEM outreach activities designed to inspire future generations to engage in Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) subjects.
In the past, students on placement have made significant contributions to the development of three of our free software downloads, Graph Grabber, LATIN and Portfolio Picker and to updating our website. Behind the scenes they have been involved in various mathematical modelling initiatives and supporting the testing of Quintessa's software. To date, four placement students have also gone on to become permanent employees following completion of their studies; Neil Chittenden, Rebecca Newson, Louise Bruffell and most recently Josh Nicholas.