Nätverk har blivit ett signum för HKIG. Vi driver i dagläget flera nätverk för olika yrkesgrupper. Därför är det självklart för oss med ett nätverk för universitetsstudenter.
Varje vårtermin erbjuder vi de studenter som utför ett examensarbete på någon av våra medlemsföretag att ingå i ett nätverk. Syftet är att studenterna ska få möjlighet till att träffa varandra och anställda på våra medlemsföretag. Alla delar med sig av sin kunskap och erfarenhet. Studenterna får också presentation av olika medlemsföretag och därmed en insikt i vår arbetsmarknad. Vi har gjort intervjuer med några av studenterna som kommer att berätta om sig själva och sina examensarbeten. Först ut är Jose Drummond som genomför sitt examensarbete på HEMAB.
Tell us about yourself. Who are you? My name is Jose and I’m from Guatemala. I came to Sweden in autumn 2019 to study a master program in Sustainable Energy and Power Systems at Linnaeus University. I have a bachelor’s degree in Energy Systems Engineering and I worked a couple of years as a project engineer for an electricity company in Guatemala. I come from a family with a large electrical background; my father, his two siblings, and my grandfather are all electrical engineers. I knew from a young age that I wanted to become an energy engineer but during my studies I kind of developed a big interest for statistics and data science as well (which is the topic of my master thesis at HEMAB).
How did you find your master thesis? I wanted to do something where I could combine my data analytics skills with an electricity project. A teacher from university recommended me to have a look at the electric utilities in Sweden because many of them were currently carrying out thesis projects with smart meters. That’s how I found HEMAB, which is the utility company in Härnösand. HEMAB oversees all the distribution activities around the area (district heating, water, electricity, broadband) and they are owned by the municipality of Härnösand.
What is your master thesis about? The aim of my master thesis is to explore and evaluate all the new functionalities that HEMAB can implement with the new generation of electric smart meters. I am working mainly with Lisa from the development department but also other people from the metering and grid operation areas. The idea is to study the feasibility of each functionality; rank them by cost-effectiveness; and, finally, test some of them to find out how HEMAB can improve their metering operations.
What do you do during the day? Right now, we are in the first stage of the project, so I spent most of my time reading papers, contacting people from other companies to get more information about the meters and getting familiar with the system used by HEMAB. In the coming weeks we hope to start testing some of the functionalities.
What is it like to carry out your master thesis during a pandemic? It can be challenging sometimes. You must get used to spend most of your day sitting in front of the computer and meeting all the new people just through a webcam. However, I was really surprised of how quickly people adapted to this “new reality” and how well organized they are. So far, I haven’t had any problems communicating with my supervisor or the other people from the company. If I get stuck with something, I can just easily pick up the phone and call someone or set up an online meeting and they will help me.
What do you want to do after graduation? I love the topic of my thesis and, honestly, I could see myself working with smart grid applications the rest of my life. I truly believe that the digitalization of the power grid will change the way we produce and consume energy in the near future.
What do you do in your freeetime? I am a sports fan. Watching sport, playing sport, talking about sports, I never get tired of it. I also enjoy a lot spending time in the nature (something that I got from the Swedish culture) and now I regret not doing it more often before. TV series, books and just chatting with my friends are also part of my daily routine.
