Meet the team | Maria

You may be familiar with our technology but do you know the brains behind it? Every now and then, we’d like to bring the Voltaware team closer to you and what makes who we are.

Meet Maria - our Data Scientist and a key member of Voltaware’s Data Science Team. Maria joined Voltaware more than 2 years ago and contributed to the successful delivery of our main projects with utilities. Maria is now leading on our real-time disaggregation algorithm, which will provide a new range of next level insights for our utility customers. She shares her journey at Voltaware with us.

How did you take an interest in Data Science?

Mainly by reading articles about Artificial Intelligence in my free time. I got genuinely excited about the potential of Artificial Intelligence, its incredible benefits and the complex problems it can solve.

Besides, data and Artificial Intelligence became ubiquitous in our daily lives, sometimes without us noticing it and involving serious ethical issues when inappropriately used.

I was eager to learn more. So much that I decided to change my career path altogether, from Banking and Financial Markets to Data Science. This eventually turned out to be a great choice for me.

How did you hear about Voltaware and what motivated you to join the team?

After completing a MSc course in Data Analytics, in September 2019 I started searching for a job and came across one of Voltaware’s job advertisements with an open position in Milan’s office. As I gathered more information about the company and the energy disaggregation field, I felt that Voltaware’s objectives were aligned with mine.

First of all, I am interested in environmental sustainability and I was, back then, looking for a company that could make a difference in this respect.

Secondly, I was looking for a position in a company with a strong focus on Data Science, that would give me the opportunity to apply the skills and knowledge acquired during the Master course, but also to grow personally and professionally and acquire new skills.

I thought that Voltaware was the right place for both these goals.

What is your role at Voltaware and how does your typical day look like?

I am Data Scientist and my daily tasks can vary depending on the ongoing projects. At Voltaware we continuously develop improvements of the existing energy disaggregation algorithms and new product features, therefore no day is the same as the previous one. For the last few months my focus has been on a project that will radically change our approach to energy disaggregation with the ultimate goal of having the energy disaggregation results in almost real time. My daily routine usually involves data analysis tasks, problem solving and plenty of coding in Python, as well as coordination with the rest of the team to align on the progress and objectives.

What is your role at Voltaware and what skills - technical & soft - have you learned since joining the team?

I learned countless skills since joining Voltaware, given the variety of projects and tasks I worked on. I definitely took my (Python) coding skills to the next level, as I spend most of my time coding.

I improved my technical knowledge about Data Science techniques, learning from the rest of the team. I enhanced my communication skills, having to regularly present my work and findings to technical and non-technical people, both from the Voltaware team and from utility clients.

I learned to be more creative and improved my problem-solving skills, having to solve complex problems with the best possible approach. I also acquired a significant wealth of knowledge about electricity data and smart metering.

Did the global pandemic affect your work at Voltaware or the Team?

When the COVID-19 pandemic started, Voltaware promptly asked all the office-based employees to switch to smart working, in complete safety. The whole team responded very positively to this new way of working, ultimately contributing as always to the achievement of the company’s objectives.

Personally, the pandemic hasn’t affected me at all, I continued to do my usual work, only from home and with the valuable support and collaboration of my colleagues, always reachable through video calls.

Can you tell us about your personal and professional goals this year?

My personal goals are to attend a photography course, participate in a photography contest and start learning Spanish.

My professional goals are to complete, together with the rest of the team, the real-time energy disaggregation project and subsequently develop new features with interesting insights for our clients.

What do you like to do outside work?

My hobbies outside work are traveling, trekking and photography.