“Technology has always been a core part of Wiremind’s DNA. Close to two thirds of our team are engineers, many of whom have undergone a research project as part of their studies. It is both the desire to stay abreast of academic research as well as give back to the very academic institutions that enabled our team to develop, that has driven many of our university partnerships to date,” says Charles Pierre, Wiremind Group Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer.
“We are proud and honoured to work with some of the world’s leading institutions and minds in three vital fields: technology, engineering, and applied mathematics. Our university partnerships allow us to put theory and advanced research into practice to solve real-life business problems. Aside from the obvious gain for our customers, this joint approach benefits all involved parties: Wiremind enjoys the expertise of top academics, academic research efforts are stimulated by actual complex industry scenarios, and finally, we as a company are able to provide students with a career path and work experience. This helps position us as an employer of choice for talent in what is still such a competitive hiring environment.”
READ: Innovation delivers operational efficiency
More than half of Wiremind’s annual new recruits have previously participated in internships with the company during their academic studies. All those embarking on work within Wiremind, are offered a comprehensive onboarding programme covering the company’s multiple facets. This provides them with a sound understanding of the industry context, and the processes and problems that Wiremind is attempting to solve through the application of its products.
Wiremind’s university partnerships broadly fall into two categories: Research and Career.
READ: Wiremind and WestJet Cargo explore capacity forecasting
Research partnerships are centred on a particular research subject. Postgraduate students join Wiremind during their studies, are assigned a Wiremind mentor (in addition to their academic professors) and given access to anonymised data for use as part of their academic study. Current research examples include explorations into the application of advanced machine learning methodologies in the field of demand forecasting in collaboration with the University of British Columbia and Sorbonne University’s LPSM faculty. Another example of research is reinforced learning as a model for improved palletisation processes within SKYPALLET, which we are also actively engaged in together with Sorbonne University’s LPSM faculty.
Career partnerships are primarily focused on providing industry experience to students through internship opportunities which often materialise into full time positions, following graduation. “This is well ingrained in the French education system,” Charles Pierre explains, “and Wiremind has been offering such internships since its inception. However, we are particularly excited by our most recent partnership with CentraleSupélec since, as the university’s industry partner, Wiremind will be assisting third-year Supply Chain and Operations students to undertake a business-related project as part of their studies.” In addition to the internships offered, Wiremind team members will be presenting and engaging the entire student body at a number of events jointly organised with the school.
