Hudds computer scientist chosen by Microsoft and Google
Mon, 23 May 2016 13:17:00 BST
Romanian Raluca is pick of the crop for Google’s Code U project
EVEN before her graduation from the University of Huddersfield, Romanian-born student Raluca Georgescu has enjoyed invaluable opportunities with two of the world’s most powerful software companies. It has reinforced her ambition to forge a career with a multi-national corporation. But she is also ambitious to use her computer skills to aid education and development in some of the world’s poorest regions.
Raluca, aged 22, has now completed her BSc degree course in Computing Science and will graduate in July. She will then relocate to London for a Master’s course before embarking on her career, armed with a CV that already boasts links with Microsoft and Google.
Her University of Huddersfield degree course included a year-long work placement, and Raluca earned an internship at Microsoft’s London site. She was put to work on Bing, in particular its auto-suggest features, and she made contribution to refinement of the software.
“It is rare that an intern gets to work on a search engine directly,” said Raluca, “I was part of an awesome team, with a great manager supporting me,” she added.
Now Google, seeking high-calibre students from European universities, has picked her to take part in a six-week project named Code U.
Raluca has been teamed with four other students, who are at universities in Poland, Romania, Spain and the UK. There have been regular conferences, advice sessions and assignments via the online platform Google Hangout.
The project culminates in a three-day session at Google’s London HQ, where Raluca will meet her fellow team members face to face and have valuable opportunities to network with Google personnel. Raluca has also secured a three-month summer internship in London, working as a front-end developer for top cloud computing company Salesforce.
In addition to her career goals, Raluca is active in campaigns to encourage more women to study and work in computing. She gained a bursary in 2015 to attend a Texas conference on the subject and she founded a Women in Computing circle at the University of Huddersfield, with a membership of female students, researchers and lecturers.
She also has a passion for innovations that have a social impact. For the final-year project of her University of Huddersfield degree, Raluca devised technology designed to promote education in Sub-Saharan Africa. It is an app that aims to optimise video streaming and online courses in countries where internet connections might be slow and where there is widespread reliance on mobile devices.
Raluca is from the Romanian city of Constanta, where she developed her passion for computing when attending a high school that had a focus on mathematics and technology. She chose the University of Huddersfield for her degree because it offered just the course she wanted, focussing on web technologies.
