I am currently in the Quality of Experience (QoE) for Networks research team. We look at how we can use data from the network to improve the QoE our customers receive. This can be helping understand the performance of new products, analysing broadband usage statistics to help plan infrastructure upgrades and looking at what new data we can collect from the network, and how we can leverage that using machine learning and automation to improve the network.
Now starting his fourth and final year of the apprenticeship scheme, Adam Morsman shares his journey so far and what his team are doing to improve the Quality of Experience for our customers.
What do you and your team do?
What does your day-to-day role consist of?
I am an apprentice within BT’s Applied Research department, now starting my fourth and final year of the apprenticeship scheme. Within this role, I spend 4 days a week working with my team on projects for BT and 1 day each week studying for a Bachelor of Science (BSc) in Digital and Technology Solutions from the University of Exeter. The projects I work on depend on the team I’m in, as for the first two years of the apprenticeship I completed four 6-month rotations in different teams before settling into the team I am now in. However, no matter what team I am in, I am always working with interesting technology and learning lots of new skills to help me solve problems, and contribute to research projects that will bring benefits to BT.
I also get the opportunity to volunteer outside of my daily role and I’m leading a project at the moment to develop a virtual reality application for the Bawdsey Radar Museum.
What’s exciting about Technology at BT?
At BT, we work with and make use of a wide range of technologies. There is always something new and exciting being worked on. Being such a large company means that our innovative use of new technology has the potential to have a large-scale impact for either our customers or our employees.
What impact does your work have in the business and/or customers?
Applied Research is all about developing/making use of new technologies to bring benefits to BT by improving internal systems and processes, development of new products/services and making improvements to the network that will overall provide a better experience for our customers.
In my team, we focus on investigating how we can leverage the data we get from the network to gain insights that will allow us to make changes to the network that will improve the QoE our customers receive.
What’s the best project you’ve ever worked on?
One of my favourite projects that I have been a part of is actually a project I am currently working on. For this project I am automating the gathering, and visualisation of performance data for a product trial. This is saving a lot of time, meaning any issues can be quickly identified, resolved and a confident evaluation of the products performance can be made before launching the product for customers.
What was your career path?
I studied A-levels in maths, psychology, physics and economics at Northgate Sixth Form and whilst I was there, I knew I wanted to gain a degree, but wasn’t sure what career I wanted to take. I heard about the degree apprenticeship in Applied Research at BT through a friend and the idea of getting a degree from the University of Exeter whilst being paid to work with exciting new digital technologies was very appealing to me. I was also attracted by the fact I would be rotating through different teams, meaning I could find out which areas I enjoyed the most before settling into a team.
What have you learned about your career since joining BT?
I have learned that I really enjoy learning about new technology and how things work as this is something I have had to do throughout my apprenticeship. I have settled on data analysis as my specialism for my degree and so I have a much clearer idea of the work I enjoy, and therefore the roles I would like to pursue to further my career in my specialism. I am excited to see how I can take advantage of the many opportunities that exist within BT that will allow me to apply and improve the skills I have learnt during my apprenticeship as well as acquire new skills.
