Meet our Interns 2019

Meet Victoria and Tom.  They joined Shoal as Summer Interns in 2018/19 and are still working with us today. Victoria and Tom met at the University of Adelaide, where they are studying mechanical engineering. They were both tutoring first year students, when they came across our Summer Internship program. To apply, they were asked to answer the question:

“How much pizza will be consumed on Mars in the year 2100?”

Victoria and Tom’s first thoughts were:

“Yummmm pizza,” …and their second thoughts were “hey, we can figure this out. Let’s enter this together.”

Having worked together on various university committees and tutoring, they already had a respect and understanding of one another’s skillsets. But trying to answer such a loosely constrained problem, with no definitive answer, was daunting at first. So, they broke it down to consider the individual factors and how they influence each other. They logically dissected the problem and justified the reasons why they chose certain elements that led to their answer.

Here’s what they did:

At Shoal, when it came to assessing applicants, we were impressed with the way Victoria and Tom approached the question, which ended up being quite complex. We had posed a question that had no correct answer, but rather enabled us to assess the applicants’ way of thinking against complex problems; one of the many qualities Shoal values in all employees. Tom and Victoria were already thinking like systems engineers and we liked that.

We also liked that fact that they were very different to one another but had successfully worked as a team together. Tom loves the outdoors; rock climbing, surfing, bike riding and touch footy, and tinkers in robotics. Victoria drives herself hard in other ways; tutoring, leadership roles in committees, and lecturing. Their respect and trust in one another impressed us.

Victoria and Tom worked with us for three months, from November to February, on an internal research project, whilst also contributing to projects we were working on across transport and defence. They have continued their employment with us, following their successful internship. You can read more about their experience here.

To learn more about the Shoal Internship 2021, click here.