Claire Donoghue

"Claire designs new products using software engineering and technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) and computer vision.Claire is an inventive, persistent, creative and curious individual. These are all characteristics suited to her career as a Software Specialist. Being inventive and creative is a vital part of her role, as Claire invents new products and then writes the code for them. In addition to this, Claire says she is persistent. Persistence is key in this industry because there will be multiple problems to overcome when working with technology but it is important to push through and find the solution. This role fits the personality type of ‘Coordinator’ well as essentially Claire is continually inventing and exploring new products to provide better a service. "

"As a Software Specialist, Claire invents new products using software engineering and technologies such as Artificial Intelligence and Computer vision (helping computers to see the world). A typical day for Claire will involve inventing new products, discussing ideas with people and then writing the code to bring the ideas to life. Claire’s work is confidential but every day she works on something new and exciting, something that could have a positive impact on people’s lives. Her company, 3M, produces products for almost every industry you can think of – food production, healthcare, and automotive, using new technologies and new materials. They manufacture everything from post it notes to air filters, car wrapping to plasters, microneedles to structured cabling. Claire gets to travel fairly often and works on a global team. In the past she has travelled to China, US, Canada and all over Europe. One of the most exciting parts of her career was presenting her work to hundreds of people at a conference in China. "

"Claire always enjoyed maths, problem solving and making things which stemmed her interest in computer science and research. At University, Claire specialised in computing at undergraduate level before completing a PhD in Artificial Intelligence. Alongside this, Claire gained work experience as a software engineer – she says work experience is invaluable when deciding what career or what area you want to specialise in. Prior to her current role, Claire worked a software engineer at an investment bank and as a researcher in academia. She now has future aspirations to become a corporate scientist – equivalent to a professor.Claire’s starting salary was over £30,000."

"In her spare time, Claire loves being outdoors – doing activities such as canoeing and hiking. Previously, Claire had an exciting skill whereby she used to juggle fire devil sticks – sticks that you can manipulate with two other sticks whilst it is on fire! Advice that Claire would give is that the most important quality is persistence on a problem so do not give up! "