Students Head South for the Summer

Every summer there’s a southern hemisphere phenomenon: we open our doors to the the crème-de-la-crème of undergraduates as part of our ongoing mission to nurture the next generation of industry pioneers!

We’re one of New Zealand’s major exporters and have a worldwide customer-base. Playing on a global stage means keeping our advantage, and that demands innovation – so where better to source new thinking than in the minds of the industry’s ‘next big things’?

Competition for places is tough; we typically only entertain applications from students in the top 3% of their class and generally recruit no more than a dozen or so who have the ‘spark’ we are searching for.

The lucky few get to work alongside industry experts from day one. They’re encouraged to add their own touch, be creative, to push the boundaries of what’s possible and, of course, to learn as much as they can. The summer students program is our premier recruitment activity for junior staff, so it really is an opportunity like no other.

In recent years, summer students have worked on producing a prototype of an interactive voice training package to teach people how to speak effectively in adverse noise conditions. Students worked on creating the user interface and the implementation of advanced speech processing algorithms.

Other students have tested and evaluated advanced Public Safety audio technology, including bone conduction microphones and throat microphones; accessories which, historically, have been particularly difficult to test. We shared the students’ final report with our third party manufacturer – their feedback was glowing as it gave them detail that far exceeded the the typical quality they’d come to expect from their competitors.

Educate to Innovate

Over and above our summer program, we encourage domestic and international students to use our global headquarters as the base for their studies.

The German government recently sponsored a Masters student from the Computer Engineering Department at Aachen University to conduct a 19-week research project.

Even High School students get a break here. Recently a 15 year old student expressed an interest in doing 3 days’ of work experience with the company, particularly in the area of Mathematics. He completed a challenging mini-project to write a scientific calculator application for a smartphone, and also got to see what working in a ‘real engineering environment’ was like. He’s since gone on to study Computer Science at University

The other thing to mention is our close relationship with the University of Canterbury – we offer a number of  scholarships for post-graduate students and we also sponsor the best students in both Masters and PhD research projects.

Our employees also have the chance to further their own education and go on to complete MBAs, Masters and even PhD qualifications.

Interested in learning more about becoming a Tait summer student? Or exploring Tait scholarship opportunities? Find out more here

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *