Maarten Betman (37 years old) is a geotechnical engineer at our Dredging division’s engineering department. He also has a role as a data engineer in our data science team and is very excited to join the new AI department.
Maarten started at Boskalis as an intern over a decade ago. He returned for a holiday job before taking part in our operational traineeship in 2014. By speaking up and following his own ambitions, he really managed to navigate his own career within Boskalis. “I joined the engineering department and gradually started shifting my focus towards data science. I was interested in digitalization and started automating my own project tasks. Before I knew it, my main job was automating processes and facilitating other geotechnical engineers in doing the same. Joining the data science team was a logical next step for me.”
Automating Boskalis’ geotechnical design work is one of the most satisfying parts of Maarten’s work. “It’s my mission to create tools for engineers to simplify their job and reduce time spent on side matters, so they have more time and energy left to focus on actual engineering. There’s a lot of time to save in processing and visualizing data, as well as in executing large amounts of sums. For example, a manual calculation on a sizable land reclamation project would have taken 400 man hours. The same calculation took our automated tool two hours. These kind of applications really show how much difference automation can make.”
AI DEPARTMENT
Along with most of his data science colleagues, Maarten will join the new AI department that’s being deployed in 2025. “We’re creating this team to keep up with the rise of artificial intelligence and implement AI on a strategic level, to get the most out of it on Boskalis’ world-wide projects.” Maarten will probably focus on the value area ‘project simulation & optimization’. “We’ll be working on data tools to simulate countless project scenarios and make predictions based on huge numbers of data streams. By doing so, the project team can start optimizing before the actual work has even started.”
SERIOUS IMPACT
Although Maarten’s main focus is currently on the dredging business, the AI department will be developing apps to be used company-wide. “It’s very satisfying to work on solutions with the potential to add so much value throughout the organization. I’m looking forward to working together with various departments, seasoned AI professionals and to incorporate their knowledge into the organization.”
Maarten feels that joining the AI team is a great next step to develop himself along with the organization and pursue his ambitions in data and automation. “I would definitely recommend other data and AI enthusiasts to apply for a job in our AI department. It’s not just a great opportunity to work with numerous kinds of practical data, you’re also contributing to projects with serious impact: from offshore windfarms in the United States to coastal protection programs in the Netherlands.”
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