Our Data & AI team was strengthened in January 2023 when Arttu Pönni, who has previously had a career as a university researcher, started as a Data Scientist in Intito. The transition from academia to the business world had been on his mind for some time. After graduating with a PhD in theoretical physics, Arttu began to long for a more practical and permanent job. Postdoctoral positions at universities are highly competitive and last from one to two years. Constantly moving from one country to another didn’t seem attractive either.

Arttu had no previous experience as a Data Scientist. The university world had taken him with it since his undergraduate days. When the job advertisement for a Data Scientist at Intito came up, it seemed to fit Arttu’s plans for the following reasons:

• The opportunity to deliver concrete solutions to customers.
• As a consultant, you get to work on a wide range of projects for different clients with varying needs.
• In a small company, you have the opportunity to know everyone on a more personal level.

“I’m very interested in technical things. But I realized that I could do them outside of university. After a very theoretical career, working with customers in a concrete and practical way seemed like a good change of direction,” says Arttu.

Arttu Pönni, Data Scientist, Data & AI team, Intito

Practical solutions for customers using familiar methods

In the end, the transition from academia to the business world was not as big change as Arttu had thought. Research work changed to client projects, but working methods remained quite similar. Arttu still solves quantitative problems with programming, statistics, and mathematics. The transition was easier and smoother than he had imagined.

“The problems to be solved were far from practical in the university world and their potential impact will only be seen years later. Now I’m working with the Data & AI team to provide customers with the solutions they need. The solutions deliver tangible benefits to them in a straightforward and fast way,” Arttu explains the differences between the work of a researcher and a consultant.

The Data & AI team’s Data Science Club maintains continuous learning

The university used to share knowledge about research in the field by having the article reader present the main points of the research to others in an informal way. At Arttu’s suggestion, a somewhat similar practice was introduced in the Data & AI team. The Data Science Club was born, which meets every two weeks.

The purpose of the club is to maintain continuous learning and expand the knowledge of team members. For example, at one of the Data Science Club sessions, one of our Data Scientists talked about different time series forecasting methods. As Intito wants to invest in continuous learning, knowledge sharing, and the development of its employees, the Data Science Club was a warmly welcomed idea and a concrete action to promote this.

“The Data Science Club is an informal event where someone shares what they have learned recently. Time is set aside for discussion and questions. The club hasn’t had time to meet very many times yet, but I’ve enjoyed the sessions a lot. Self-development and continuous learning are important to me and I enjoy being able to do those in Intito,” says Arttu.

Vaasa and Forenom as first customer projects

Arttu joined Vaasan’s client project as soon as he started work in Intito. He already had the right skills for the job. The work in progress is the clustering of stores using a mathematical method. The aim is to categorize the stores where Vaasan sells its products according to similarity. The results may help to find stores that do not belong to the category in which a human would have placed them. This will help Vaasan to better understand their customers and provide a better service for them.

Another customer project that Arttu joined in March 2023 is a forecasting solution development for Forenom. The aim is to use the forecasting algorithm to optimize both the resourcing of customer service and the resourcing of the cleaning needs of Forenom’s apartments. In addition to customer projects, Arttu is learning presales skills for the Data & AI solutions offered by Intito. In practice, this means getting to know IBM Planning Analytics and learning how to demo the Intito Vision solution suite.

“I was pretty sure that I would have regretted not having tried working at Intito. My first week of work was full of orientation sessions, which gave me a good overview of my new job. I thought I would like it here, based on the interviews, and I was right. Everyone has been nice and supportive. After three months of working here, I can say that I’ve settled in well and feel I made the right move with my career”, Arttu smiles.