Helen Bowyer: IBM graduate turned manager
Employer: IBM
University: University of York
Subject: BSc maths and computer science
Graduated: 2006
I did a sandwich year at IBM during my degree and returned as a graduate to work in the emerging technology services team at our software development labs. We work on new, interesting areas of technology, including customers’ real-world problems, fundamental research and our own ‘incubator’ projects in areas that interest us.
As well as my technical work I’ve recently become a manager: I line-manage five colleagues and am involved in project management, including overseeing budgets.
Sending museum exhibit info to visitors’ mobiles
As soon as I started my graduate role I was assigned to a project looking at applications for mobile phones and a month later flew to Venice to present to a client by myself. The work investigated receiving messages via a mobile that were relevant to the user’s immediate geographical location.
It grew out of work to send messages to deaf people in train stations and was developed into technology to allow museums to transmit information about exhibits in different rooms to visitors using their own phones rather than audio-guides. My client in Venice was a museum interested in this technology.
Fundamental research
Since then I’ve had a number of work trips abroad, including spending a couple of weeks in the US each year.
I’m involved in fundamental research in partnership with the MoD, the US Army Research Laboratory and academics in the UK and US. We’ve recently analysed how soldiers collaborate and communicate with each other in the field.
Soldiers used a modified, commercially developed military game as a simulation environment and we gathered data on where they were and how they were communicating by using our own specific messaging middleware (software that connects different applications, ensuring that messages are sent and received).
Translating sign language
My ‘incubator’ project, which I work on in quieter periods, focuses on translating sign language. I worked with a deaf colleague to learn British Sign Language and develop ideas, then passed this project on to a team of undergraduates interns on our ‘Extreme Blue’ programme.
They developed a prototype that took a voice input in spoken English, translated this and provided input to an avatar to produce British Sign Language as the output. The team presented this at the European Expo and the programme won a National Council for Work Experience award, which was a big highlight for me.
Fitting my job and outside interests together
I’m office-based but have lots of interaction with clients (who often visit) and colleagues from different teams. We have a flexi-time system, so when I’m not needed by clients I can organise my hours to suit myself. In winter I often work 8.00 am till 2.00 pm, spend the afternoon riding in the New Forest and finish my work later in the day.
Technical training as a graduate
I had lots of technical training when I first started and have had business training in areas such as negotiation, project management and people management. Everything is constantly changing, becoming more connected and intelligent, so I need to be adaptable and pick up new technologies quickly. A lot of my project work comes in unexpectedly but we have lots of e-learning resources and the unpredictability keeps life interesting.