My Tritech: Pauline Jepp, Senior Software Engineer
Studying computers may seem slightly mundane to some, but little do people know just how exciting it can be. The places it has taken me in my career have been amazing. I first moved to Calgary in 1999 to complete my PhD in Computer Science with a concentration on 3D Computer Graphics and Artificial Intelligence. I always enjoyed video games and computer graphics, and wanted to learn how they were made. What was meant to be a six month visit turned in to an eight year stay after falling in love with the city and the surrounding mountains, I just couldn’t leave it.
After gaining my PhD I secured a post-doctoral research role in Lisbon, Portugal for two years where I worked in the Computer Graphics and Human Computer Interaction lab at a research institute associated with the Technical University of Lisbon. When I finally returned to Aberdeen in 2010, I took on the position of Senior Software Engineer (R&D) at Tritech.
As lead engineer for our SeaTec projects I’m responsible for meeting with customers to ensure requirements are understood and achieved. Our SeaTec software adds target detection and tracking capabilities to our Gemini sonars so it’s an incredibly interesting area to work in as no two projects are the same. I work with customers to design, test and implement solutions. It’s also my responsibility to create and improve core algorithm performance.
The most challenging part of my job is analysing massive, fuzzy data in a bid to identify patterns, but this is also the most interesting area for me. I also particularly enjoy working on projects where the objective is to identify marine life such as sharks, seals and porpoises in sonar data.
It amazes me in 2016 the lack of young girls still not looking to STEM subjects as a career path. In my undergraduate class there was 20 females in a group of 200 and I doubt this has changed much today. Throughout my career, I’ve experienced a lot of sexism, and had to prove I was better than many of male counterparts to get the same recognition. Luckily, I’ve had some amazing male and female mentors and colleagues with the philosophy that the only important quality is your ability to do a job and Tritech has certainly championed this.
I understand how daunting it can be young girls to look at STEM roles as a career path but I think we should throw out all these gender stereotypes when it comes to what you can do with your brain. If you like problem solving, abstract thinking and science, embrace your inner geek and enjoy it - I couldn’t imagine doing anything else!
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