In our ‘Introducing Altum’ -series, we’re introducing you to the people behind the scenes taking care of our different operations. This time we will move on to our R&D (Research & Development) department to find out what our SW/Testing Expert Miikka does, what he sees as the best parts of his job and what led him to seek a job at Altum.
Read on to find out more!
What is your title?
SW (Software)/Testing Expert
How long have you worked at Altum?
Almost four years.
What is your educational background?
M. Sc. in Physics.
What made you want to work at Altum?
I was working for another startup before, which unfortunately didn’t take off. My professor at the University of Helsinki introduced me to another startup called Altum Technologies, which eventually led to my interview for a technical position at Altum. I saw great potential in Altum and when I was presented with the opportunity to work here, I gladly took it.
What do you do during a regular workday? What are your tasks like?
As is probably the case for almost all of us here at Altum, my workdays are very different from each other, and my job entails a wide range of responsibilities. I work mostly on our system development, particularly the development of transducers. I have also taken part in our QA (Quality assurance) and QC (Quality control) functions to make sure our product is always up to standards. I also frequently handle tasks related to customer projects, conduct tests in our facility, analyze data, and report findings. I’ve also traveled abroad for installations and customer visits.
To try and give an example of one of my workdays, yesterday I worked on debugging with a colleague. This included opening up our transducers to try and figure out what was the issue and doing some fixes accordingly.
We also have a rotating monitoring week, and during that week most of my time goes into monitoring all our devices installed around the globe and making sure they all run smoothly.
What are your favorite things about your job?
Simply put, I like my daily tasks and enjoy the work I do. I appreciate the freedom and flexibility that working at Altum provides. On top of that, the atmosphere here at Altum is great.
What are the most challenging things in your job?
Due to a wide range of different tasks, time and stress management can sometimes be challenging.
What new things have you learned recently on the job?
Recently I’ve learned more about electronics and waveform distortion. During my time here at Altum I have learned a lot about power ultrasonics, and overall, when working in R&D, you constantly learn something new and that makes the job enjoyable. If I wouldn’t constantly be learning, I would be bored!
What makes Altum a trendsetter?
Our overall mission of helping industries improve their processes to reduce CO2 emissions and inflict positive change in the fight against climate change. We have the opportunity to create change, and our solution is an easy first step for companies in the process industry to take towards more sustainable operations.
Would you like to share something funny or interesting that’s happened to you during a workday?
I don’t really have anything specific to share, but I really enjoy the way our internal meetings and day-to-day conversations often have a touch of sitcom and humor, and I do enjoy occasionally joining in it myself! This makes most of our internal meetings great fun 🙂
Thank you Miikka for the interview!
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