“I’m lost for words. I mean, it’s been such a tough season with highs and lows, and in the end, it came down to the last race. I am just so pleased that it was enough for me to win the title. We drove an incredible race, we had a very good pace, and I’m very happy for the team that we not only won the drivers’ world championship but also the team title. The team has worked insanely hard this season, and this is the reward we deserve.”
In addition to the World Championship, this weekend Modis and the Mercedes-EQ Formula E Team announced the winner of their global campaign `Lead the Charge: One season, your career in pole position’ with over 2,000 applications from passionate tech and engineering talents, ranging from 66 countries. The Mercedes-EQ Formula E Team and Modis have chosen their ambitious talent to join the team for the eighth season of the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship and announced Shreyas Raman as the winner.
In early June, the Mercedes-EQ Formula E Team and Modis launched a campaign to find tech talent for the opportunity of a lifetime. Through the ‘Lead the Charge: One season, your career in pole position’ initiative, Modis began the search for a driven, passionate individual to work closely alongside the Mercedes-EQ Formula E Team Principal Ian James for one electrifying season.
Shreyas Raman was chosen as the winner of the campaign and the perfect candidate for this unique opportunity. He is in his final year of his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering at Yale University and is now joining the Mercedes-EQ Season 7 ABB FIA Formula E World Champion Team later this year. Shreyas has gained motorsport experience in race engineering in US Formula 4, where he engineered Yale’s first all-electric car for Formula Hybrid competition – highlighting his skills with a 1st place prize for project management. Shreyas’ passion for motorsports, was evident from his first application, where he said
‘’When I found out about the Lead the Charge opportunity, I knew I had to apply right away. I have grasped every opportunity to build a career at the intersection of motorsport and electric mobility, and I am driven by a strong belief in racing for the future. This opportunity with the Mercedes-EQ Formula E Team is one that I have sought for years and hope to make the most of.’’
Modis’ expert tech recruiting teams from across the globe managed the selection process with several rounds of interviews. As part of the process, 1,200 viewers attended a Live Q&A session with Ian James, where he answered real-time questions about this exciting opportunity and the future of Formula E. The global recruiting teams selected 10 candidates who were invited to a challenging virtual simulation task where their ability to work in a team, and communication & problem-solving skills were put to the test. From this 10, only three finalists were invited to the final round. Jan Gupta, President of Modis commented:
‘’The campaign has been a real success. We’re delighted that so many talented individuals across the globe applied to be part of this fantastic initiative. It has highlighted the overwhelming enthusiasm and excitement for electric engineering and reinforced our belief at Modis that finding the best talent out there is key to drive a sustainable future of tech and engineering. Congratulations to Shreyas, to come out on top of over 2,000 competitive candidates is a huge achievement.’’
At the end of this year, Shreyas will start his nine months with Mercedes-EQ Formula E Team in Brackley, UK. He’ll get some exciting international travel opportunities, with the chance to join the team on race weekends around the world and learn what it takes to run a successful Formula E team. Ian James, Team Principal, Mercedes-EQ Formula E Team says:
“I’m excited about next season with Shreyas joining us. It was a tough decision to take as the level of talent of all entrants was extraordinary, as well as their passion for Tech and Motorsport. Throughout this campaign, Modis has showcased its strong expertise in recruiting with its access to a global talent pool. This allows us, as a team, to attract the best people possible.”
To recognize also the teams behind successful drivers, the 7th Formula E World Championship Season 7 was also concluded by Modis honouring the best engineers across all Formula E teams, with the “Modis Engineer of the Year Award”. This year’s award was handed over to Jeremy Colancon from Rokit Venturi Racing.
Benefits of Learning Coding in School
Coding is fast becoming one of the most important subjects taught in schools. Here are five reasons why it’s beneficial to your students.
1. Coding is the new literacy
It’s no secret that children grow up with an almost innate ability to adapt to new technologies. The way they pick up smartphones, computers and games consoles seems like second nature – but it’s just the nature of being young. Our ability to quickly pick up complex or technical tasks diminishes with age. For example, the older you become the harder it is to learn a new language.
The same goes for technology use and, more precisely, coding. Today, the importance of learning to code rivals even that of reading and writing. It’s a core skill that can help a child develop a deeper understanding of how technology works. Given the extent to which technology shapes our lives, learning to code helps develop a better understanding of the world around us.
2. Prepare for the future jobs market
Schools have a responsibility to provide their students with all the tools and skills they need to succeed in the modern workplace. Increasingly, that means an ability to code. Glassdoor reported that eight of the top 25 jobs in the US are tech-based and require some level of coding proficiency. These don’t necessarily have to be computer programmers but include roles such as Data Analysts and Scientists.
Similarly, a 2016 Burning Glass report found seven million job openings that year which value coding, with roles such as computer programmer rising 12% faster than the market average. These roles are also among the best paid around. Jobs requiring coding pay $22,000 a year more on average than those that don’t.
There is little point in focusing on skills that leave students with limited options when it comes to hitting the jobs market. By incorporating coding into the curriculum, you hand children an essential tool for building a successful career.
3. Develop problem-solving skills
Coding can often be daunting. Presented with a significant problem, frustration can quickly build if you find yourself constantly walking down dead ends. But coding teaches a child that complex problems are simply a series of smaller problems that can be fixed in sequence. Coding can often be compared to hypothesis testing in science, particularly when testing whether a set of code will stand up and work correctly. Children will be taught to identify a problem, break the code down into segments and test each one, repairing faulty parts before moving onto the next problem.
It’s this mindset that makes great coders, and one that pupils will benefit from regardless of subject or circumstance.
4. Instil perseverance
To succeed in the method of hypothesising, testing and refining, you need one characteristic more than any other – perseverance. Creating a set of code only to see it fail upon testing is disheartening, especially if the solution isn’t immediately obvious. But if at first you don’t succeed, try, try and try again.
Coding takes incredible levels of perseverance to try new things, test and find solutions to problems. It’s another vital life skill that students will draw upon for the rest of their lives.
5. Heighten language skills
Recent research for the University of Washington found that a natural aptitude for learning languages is a better predictor of coding proficiency than maths. Instinctively, you might think there are strong comparisons between maths and coding, but code is a language, and mastering it requires many of the same logical steps to be taken.
Code has a natural grammar and vocabulary to unlock. If you find a child is particularly good at it, you should also find their ability to learn new languages is heightened.
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Who do you nominate for “Developer on focus”?
Ivo Nikolov, Associate professional programmer analyst in DXC Technology Bulgaria
What is the reason behind your nomination?
Ivo deserves to be a Developer on Focus because of his unique inspiring career path that proves everything is possible if you are passionate about it.
Ivo studied Marketing and entrepreneurship in Scotland. Back in Bulgaria, he landed a position as a Digital Marketing and Sales specialist at DXC. Always eager to learn new things, he decided to take a course in Programming basics with Java and immediately fell in love with coding. He quickly found out that all you need to get started in software development are a problem-solving mindset, curiosity and patience to go through the trials and errors to the successful compilations. This new passion brought him to make a surprising career turnaround. Despite not having any technical background, Ivo wanted to work as a developer and applied for such a position in DXC. His enthusiasm and passion were rewarded, and he started working as a developer on a project for a multinational insurance company. With the new position came new challenges. The job required learning a new programming language specific to the development of DXC Insurance. Without hesitation, Ivo took the internal training and now works as a well-rounded software engineer.
Describe his professional qualities.
Ivo strikes as a professional eager to learn but what makes him a good developer is his impressive problem-solving ability.
Tell us some more about him as a person.
When he’s passionate about something, Ivo invests himself 100%. Challenges are what keeps him going forward.
Can you describe how his typical day goes?
For Ivo, every day of the week varies in terms of routine. Starting work at 9 am, he tries to go through all administrative activities to raise his speed and sharpness. After that, he switches over to the supporting development tasks when his attention to detail is at its highest. In the last 1-2 work hours he prefers to check the completed work, debug and fine-tune the code wherever possible. Following the end of the workday, he goes to a kickboxing session to relieve himself of any stress and meet with friends. And last but not least, before going to bed he watches a video lecture from one of his programming courses, going the extra mile in his software development path.
What challenges does he face? What kind of projects is he working on?
His daily challenge so far is to become as confident as possible in coding with the new programming language. Always striving for perfection, he wants to give his best working on the development of an Insurance solution platform for a DXC customer.
Does it happen sometimes that he helps his colleagues in the execution of their Tasks?
Maybe it is Ivo’s mixed profile that makes him such a good team player and he doesn’t miss an occasion to help a colleague in need. Currently, he is collaborating with a QA specialist to find bugs in the platform.
If you had to describe him with 3 words only, what would they be?
- Studious
- Passionate
- Dedicated
What are their hobbies?
Reading as much as possible for pleasure.
He has chosen kickbox to be his workout and sport activity, but he also likes outdoor running.
When it comes to travel, Bulgarian historical places are his favourite destination.
What kind of music does he listen to? How does he like to have fun?
His choice of music depends on his mood, ranging from old school disco classics from the ’80s to contemporary electronic dance music.
In his free time, Ivo meets with friends and loves going to standup comedy shows. Another passion of his is hiking trips.
Does he like gaming?
When it comes to gaming, Ivo used to play online football-oriented games such as FIFA and PES. Now his favourite game that keeps him up late at night is coding.
Which does he prefer – Android or iOS and why?
As an end-user, he has always been on Android and doesn’t intend to change.
Despite both systems having pros and cons, with Ivo old habits die hard.
What is his style?
His style is rather casual and prefers comfort over trends.
What are the programming languages he uses? Which are the ones he prefers?
His first programming love and preferred language is JAVA. But he also works with GraphTalk – a coding language specific to DXC Insurance platform development.
Can you tell us an interesting story about him?
Ivo shared a fun story that happened to him recently. Currently, he’s attending a course on Windows system administration. Instead of installing a virtual machine on his computer, he wiped up his entire PC with Windows Server and immediately started looking for a professional to reinstall his computer. Until he realized that HE was the professional in question and did it himself.
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