"I do staff scheduling for use in the coordination and planning of the vast number of procedures and activities that take place on a day-to-day basis at an airport”, says Sara Bisander Nielsen, a 25 year-old Civil Engineer, specialized in Applied Mathematics.
She works as an associate for a product called Workbridge at e2efactory in Copenhagen. Workbridge offers a package of solutions for all resource and management processes for, e.g., planning and booking, and especially systems for real-time planning for companies. Sara does, e.g., development and operations tasks for the immense program, which is currently in use at different international airports.
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"Even on a normal day at the airport plans are continuously altered. Just imagine the work that needs to be done in terms of coordinating and making alterations if a plane is cancelled or delayed. It affects fuel supply, cleaning, catering and planning of work hours for all staff groups involved, etc. At a company such as an airport, plans are revised every day and we are forced to solve problems in real-time and develop revised plans on the spot. The trick is to avoid overlaps and holes in the planning, and this is where the optimization programs that I work on contribute to optimizing air traffic and all related procedures and activities".
Was Not Sure Which Direction to Take
Sara was not sure what she wanted to do after high school but her mathematics teacher drew her attention to the possibility of getting a degree from DTU.
"Initially, I thought about becoming a Structural Engineer. I had read about Informatics, but frankly, it didn’t appeal to me because I thought you only learned about computers and that you had to have been doing programming since you were 11 years old to be able to benefit from the courses. However, I discovered that the Department of Informatics also offered mathematics courses, which could open the door to many different types of jobs. This is when it became interesting to me".
Sara embarked on the Informatics courses at IMM in 2000. She more or less followed the recommended course of studies which was estimated to take two years and contain courses in mathematics and computer science. One of the courses in particular attracted her interest; operational analysis. This lead to Sara specializing in the field of operational analysis, and she concluded her education in the spring of 2006 by doing her final exam project on transportation planning.
"Operational analysis really attracted my interest. It offered to me a clear picture of how to apply math when solving specific and complex problems".
Jigsaw Puzzle
Her thorough studies in the field of operational analysis are the reason why Sara was offered her current job, because it enables her to develop the operabilities that are needed for extensive staff scheduling.
"Of course, it has been somewhat of a jigsaw puzzle to collect and coordinate every piece of information. For instance, I have worked on developing an alert-function that is triggered whenever a planning problem arises at the airport. For instance, if too few people have shown up for work we are not able to solve all the tasks in the way they need to be solved, and also, problems may arise in terms of complying with working hour regulations. The alert function alerts the persons responsible that a problem has occurred, it allows them to quickly intervene and come up with relevant solutions, and at the same time, we are able to assist in foreseeing and planning for the new solutions".
"I really enjoy my job. The company is young and the greatest difference between studying and working is that I no longer have to do everything on my own. It is quite different from my time as a student, when I experienced getting stuck from time to time trying to do an assignment".
Social Commitment at IMM
While attending IMM, Sara was highly involved in the social environment at IMM and DTU. For instance, on four occasions, she was a freshman advisor and she also sang in the DTU campus choir, Polyphony.
"The boy/girl ratio at school was good which makes for an excellent social environment. Several of us girls did our final exam project on the same topic, and we are still friends today. I had a wonderful time with lots of social and academic input".
At the same time when Sara handed in her thesis, she placed her résumé in a job database – and then she went on a vacation for a couple of weeks. Upon returning home, she found several invitations in the mail from companies that wanted to see her for an interview.
"I went to a couple of interviews but I wasn't particularly interested in any of the offers they gave me. However, one day some of my classmates and I were approached by e2efactory, asking us if we wanted to find out more about the company. Initially, I was under the impression that it was just a briefing, but as time went by, I realized that it was in fact a job interview. Granted, I had a lot to learn about the rules of the corporate game, because I had not had a student job. This was a brand new world to me. After having completed a couple of interview rounds, I started working on September 1, 2006. I had never dared to hope that it would happen this quickly, but I am thrilled that it did, particularly because it confirms my assumptions that the academic competencies that I have acquired are in fact a sought after commodity in real life", says Sara Bisander Nielsen.