The Nordic Edge office, Innoasis, has been crowded with students this summer, and several of them have been recruited through our new programme, Innoasis Forward!

 

Bridging business and academia

The goal of Innoasis Forward is to make it easier for companies to recruit students. To achieve this, we have helped our cluster members with standard contracts and helpful guidelines and shared the job postings around the Norwegian academic sphere. The result has seen several students getting summer jobs with our cluster members, and the link between academia, new competence, and the companies has been strengthened.

The Innoasis Forward site is still open for business, making it possible for our members to recruit students for part-time jobs, projects engagements, and so on. We are now looking to expand into other activities, aiming towards being a dynamic link between business and academia. We hope that Innoasis Forward can function as a tool for keeping young talents and competence in the region.

Making use of student competence

“This summer we have been enjoying the fresh ideas of Nils & Thanh, the first interns at InfoTiles. Startup life is hectic, so it’s been rewarding to see what is possible when raw thinking has the time and space to germinate. Nils has been busy integrating Machine Learning capabilities into our technology stack, focussing on flood management with water metering up next. Thanh has been challenging us to stretch our ambitions in UX, analytics and alerting. The fruits of her labour will help customers make sense of their data in intuitive workflows that provide insight without the need for a data science degree.”

Adam Wood – Chief Product Officer at InfoTiles

 

We have talked to Nils & Thanh, who have been delighted to share their experiences with us.

The University of Tromsø student Nils, who is studying machine learning and data analysis of watercourse data, says that “this opportunity has strengthened my ability to continue into the work-life when ending my studies. The work has been as relevant as it can be and improved my insight into how I can apply my theoretical knowledge to practical work.”

Business student Thanh, form the University of Stavanger, follows up and states that, “it has been great to get hands-on experience that extends academic learning. In addition to being a unique opportunity for me to work within my field and acquire valuable work experience.”

Recruiting young talents

Other cluster members who has been making great use of students this summer is, Reveel, AgroSense and the smart city department in Stavanger municipality.

We have spoken to Nils who has been working for Reveel this summer. He just graduated from High School and says that “it has been truly valuable to see how I can apply academical skills to practical work, especially at such young age. I can now see what and how I need to work to reach my goals. It has surprisingly been my best summer yet.”

Head of Innoasis, Karl Fjelde Nevland, states that he is “glad to see our cluster members promoting and making use of students,” adding that “this is not just valuable for the students, who are gaining relevant work experience, but also for the companies who get access to up-to-date academic knowledge. Nils, Thanh and Patrick are good examples of this.”