Jelle Degen (22 years old) is a master’s student in Business & Analytics Management at the Erasmus University Rotterdam. He spent the last five months as an intern at Boskalis Nederland. His objective: making more efficient use of risk data. “By using data in a smart way, we can make better use of the available knowledge and experience within the organization.”
Together with the university and Boskalis Nederland, Jelle decided to focus his research on risk predictions during tenders. And he came at the right time, as more and more attention is being paid to smart data solutions. “Every project comes with risks”, Jelle explains. “It’s important to predict as many of them as possible during the tender phase to be able to make an adequate offer. In the current situation, risk managers mostly predict these risks and the necessary measures based on their own experience. A time consuming process, leaving a lot of the company’s knowledge unused because they don’t have access to it.” Jelle took on the challenge to make this knowledge more accessible.
To start with, Jelle had to find a way to standardize all the risk file data to turn it into a usable database. “That phase wasn’t just about categorizing risks in a uniform way, it was also about creating awareness among colleagues. The large amounts of data can only be used if everyone documents risks in the same way. Step two was to make the connection with project details such as activities, location and contract type. Which risks and measures tend to occur at which types of projects? “Based on all those variables, I used a machine learning algorithm to predict the relevant risks depending on the project data.”
Although Jelle’s thesis gives a wider insight in the industry-wide importance of these kinds of data solutions, he wanted to leave something behind that Boskalis could actually use. That’s why – even though he already turned in his thesis – he’s still working hard to complete an application for risk managers. “They’ll be able to upload their project data, press a button and instantly get access to a top 20 of risks that they’ll be likely to come across. A nice step forward compared to looking them all up manually.”
“Doing an internship isn’t required for my master’s degree, but I would definitely recommend it to fellow students”, Jelle emphasizes. “You can choose to write your thesis based on a ready-to-use dataset, but you won’t be able to experience the practical link with the business. I got the chance to find out which data was available, what it means and how to prepare it for use. That whole extra dimension made the internship a great learning experience.”
Overall, Jelle was very impressed by how involved his colleagues were during the process. “Whenever I needed a hand from someone from the GIS-team, survey or a risk manager: everyone was ready to help and genuinely excited about my internship project. Their appreciation really motivated me to create something worthwhile.”
Jelle can’t tell us much about his next career step yet. “Data management is a hot topic in every business, the possibilities are endless. To start with, I’d like to gain more experience working with experts in this line of work. That will give me time to learn more and think about what kind of data projects I’d like to set up in the future.”
Would you like to graduate and gain valuable practical experience in a place where you can make a serious mark with data? The next internship period starts in September 2024. Check out the job description for our data science internship here.
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