Patents in Computer Science

Nowadays it’s really important for a computer scientist to know about patents. There is no need to know about them in depth, that’s what lawyers are there for. I’ve recently been encouraged to think about possibly innovative and patentable products and have therefore thought a lot more about this than I used to. (Not that I managed to come up with any ideas..)

A short definition:

A patent is a right granted by a government that gives the creator of an invention the sole right to make, use, and sell that invention for a set period of time.

Time: EU 20 years from the actual date of filing an application, US 20 years from the earliest filing date of the application on which the patent was granted

Patentable inventions:

In general a patent will be granted for an invention so long as it :

• is new or “novel”: the invention must never have been made in public in any way, anywhere, before the date on which the application for a patent is filed.
• involves an inventive or “un-obvious” step: this step must not be obvious to others with good knowledge and experience of the subject of the invention.
• is capable of industrial/useful application: an invention must be capable of being made or used in some kind of industry

 Note that you cannot patent software in the UK. But you can in the US.

While I can understand the importance of knowing about patents, I’m not sure if I actually like them. While the idea behind the concept is great, the execution leaves much to be desired. Small companies have lost lots of possible revenue and big companies continuously abuse their powers.

A promised this is but a very short intro, it’ll hopefully encourage people to inform themselves a bit more.

A few good links:

Patent office US

Patent office UK

Patents EU

Long time no write + IBM placement started!

Its been a long long time since I’ve written anything. After completing all of my applications and interviews and accepting the offer from IBM  I’ve been swept away by the workload caused by assignments and exams. Luckily it was worth it and I succeeded in getting a first class result.

This year I only had 2 weeks of holiday and then had to move to Eastleigh for work. After 2 additional weeks of settling down in my new accommodation and getting to know my flatmates I finally started my placement.

In IBM the whole process is as follows:

The first 2 days are Induction. Here you receive valuable information about the placement, get to know other interns and are shown the company’s premises. You also find out who is responsible for you. Each intern is assigned to a General manager and a personal manager in addition to the Task Manager. As the titles say the Task Manager is responsible for work related issues, the Personal Manager for personal development related issues and the General Manager for any other issues. There are a lot of interns that start at the same time so you get to know quite a few of them. In addition to the induction there are socials in the first week to further encourage communication between interns.

Well that’s it for now. I’ll keep you updated.

My choice – next steps

I finally decided which company I am going to choose. It was quite difficult to choose between two great companies IBM and Intel but in the en I decided to go with IBM.

I talked to several colleagues and asked for help from my advisor and some other professors and in the end it seemed like this is the best choice for my future.

One of the suggestions I received from one of my professors was to ask the company I chose to decline if it was possible to go on a summer intern ship instead. I thought this idea was awesome, and will certainly try it. The worst thing that could happen would be that they refuse. I would have never even thought about trying this so I was very thankful for his suggestion.

For everyone that has received an offer and is currently going through the process of completing the mass of forms required to accept the offer. Make sure to read everything thoroughly and don’t be afraid to ask for help. The companies usually give you the contact details of a person that you can contact in case you have questions.

Also in my case my university also requires a cover letter that states you want to go on a year in industry and a form that your future manager needs to complete so make sure to check if your university might require something similar.

Other than that the process is pretty simple, just make sure to keep it within the time range.

The Ultimate Housing Guide – Birmingham Pt 2: After Renting

Honestly many students have a problem with their current rented property but either don’t care or think they don’t have the right to complain. I only know a few people that ever complained to their agency and I am one of them. And if we keep our mouths shut about the current quality of living it will never improve.

The Ultimate Housing Guide – Birmingham Pt 1: Renting

Even though I claimed that I’ll start a series that will give you tips and some information on housing and writing applications, applications are all I have been writing about. So I decided to finally write what I’ve been aching to write for months. A guide on how you can avoid renting a crap property (Pt 1) and if you already did, what you can do about it (Pt 2). I know it might already be too late for this years students but it might be of use to the following. (This took ages to write.)

Note that I am going to focus on renting a shared house as you already get enough support from the company/university if you have any troubles with student accommodation.

The Viewing:

This is the “first” step after you have gone to an agency or checked various websites. You arrange a viewing to be able to see the actual building in reality. I greatly recommend doing that as friends of mine that didn’t had got quite big shocks when they arrived at the house after not viewing it.

Even if you feel like you are intruding into somebodies privacy, you have to be aware of the fact that usually you only have one viewing so you need to make sure to have seen everything of the house. I made that mistake and once I moved in I noticed so many flaws that I wished I never signed the contract.

UPDATE! IBM Software Development Placement -> OFFER

Today something unbelievable happened, even though I as I told you before, I passed the IBM Assessment centre and was told that I still have to complete the final interview to be matched to a manager. I received a call today saying that I will get an offer without having to complete that interview. As you can imagine I’m ecstatic, TWO offers one from IBM and one from Intel each of them amazing companies from which I could learn a huge amount.

Now comes the hard part I need to reject one of the companies. This will take a while but I have already started to consult friends, family and lecturers. Of course I will update as soon as I have made my decision and received some more information about the placement.

 

Microsoft MACH – Telephone Interview

Again this is a quite delayed post as I had this interview last week on Tuesday, the day after the Intel assessment centre.

I have to be honest I did not really enjoy this interview since as I have read before in preparation Microsoft just hires some people to ask you questions that have been typed off on some form and they read it off and type your answer. Nothing really friendly and ‘cold’ in a way not at all the way I imagined Microsoft to be.

The interview was basically split into 5 parts each of them concerning a certain characteristic that is important to succeed in their company. Motivation, Awareness, Confidence, Tact and Drive. In total it took precisely 45 minutes to complete it.

First of all before asking anything they ask you to confirm some data you have provided and remind you that they will request for proof if you pass. Then they explained that it is important to follow the STAR concept when answering the questions. Honestly do so, since I actually read that somebody had been rejected because of poorly structured answers.

Intel Information Systems Engineer placement – Assessment Centre -> OFFER!

One of the main reasons why I was so busy the past week was the fact that I got a call the same day that I got rejected from Nomura inviting me to an assessment centre for Intel. I actually got this call before I received the rejection from Nomura and even though I still had hopes them I immediately accepted the suggested date. Monday of the following week.

Compared to other companies application process Intel’s is much shorter it’s just:

Online application -> online test -> information request call -> assessment centre

But what amazed me the most was that the person that contacts you is actually your future supervisor. He is the person you communicate with.

Back to topic. The assessment centre entailed a 10 minute presentation, a competency based interview and a technical test.

Before I start to talk about my assessment I have to say that my assessment experience might differ from yours as I was the only applicant being tested. There had been another assessment centre with more applicants on the same day in the morning but I was not able to attend that.

Nomura – Rejection & Feedback

Last week Friday 2 days after the actual assessment centre I received a call from on of the recruiters responsible for the placements. Since

it was a call I got my hopes up and thought I might have passed the assessment centre but this was not the case. I got rejected and ironically the

person that called me to inform me about the rejection was the one that introduced me to Nomura and made me want to work there.

Even though at that moment I wished she had just e-mailed me about the news in the end I was really happy about the fact that even though I was rejected

they still took the time to call me. They also provided me with extensive feedback.

Basically the way it works in Nomura is you only get the position if you managed to score a ‘distinctive’ in all or most of their areas. I don’t actually know what all of the

areas are but some of them are Initiative, Leadership and Teamwork.

Edited! Nomura Final Stage – Assessment Center

EDIT: I really apologise for  breaking my promise and not updating but I was really really busy. I’ll tell you why in the next post since this one is dedicated to Nomura.

I just got back home after the long and tiring assessment process. In addition to being stressed out because of the assessment, the London Midlands trains just had to decide that a bit of snow is too much for me and delay all and cancel some trains… . So it was quite a challenge to get to London on time, but luckily I managed to.

No on to the interesting part. I honestly have to say that even though IBMs headquarters are further away and the process was similar Nomura’s assessment centre actually seemed more strenuous. I believe it was the lack of breaks I had in between the interviews and the group exercise.

For me it went as follows: Interview (45min) -> Interview (45 min) -> Group exercise (60 min)

Both interviews were as they said competency based and the Group exercise was the usual business type exercise.

Now let me tell you a bit more about how my interviews went and what I believe I screwed up again.

For the first interview I had 2 interviewers one from the Technology department and another from Project management (I’m not too sure about that anymore). I have to say that I got really confused about their demeanour. You know these movies where you have a good cop and a bad cop interrogating it gave me the same feeling only they switched roles at some point. Back to the point.

So their behaviour incredibly distracted me but I still tried to answer their questions as well as I can. It is quite noteworthy that this time it gave me more of an interview feeling rather than the conversation I had in the first stage.

The questions they asked me and I can still remember were: