I have been working at ITL for almost six months now and am gradually getting to grips with all aspects of the marketing that we undertake.  Next year, I am looking forward to making a real contribution to ITL’s global marketing strategy for 2015.

As we are an international company, we have customers all over the world and due to final posting deadlines, Christmas cards are thought about very early. This year, Dayna and I decided that I would attempt to create a Christmas card bespoke to ITL. A few alternative designs were created; you can see the actual card we sent out here.

The coming three months are our busiest time of year with preparations for the London exhibitions well under way and the exhibitions themselves taking place upon our return from the Christmas break.

As a global and ever expanding organisation, it is incredibly important for ITL that we have a presence at exhibitions as it allows us to communicate with both customers and stakeholders all under one roof as well as showing our existing product range and launching our innovative new products.

With the first exhibition taking part in January, the stand design has been my main priority. I was provided with a scale drawing of our 9×9.5m² stand by our stand builder. I spent time honing my Photoshop skills and worked with our stand builders to create the perfect stand layout.

I am really looking forward to visiting these shows for the first time and will let you know in our next blog how they all went. Fingers crossed the stand design is our best yet!

Mia Harding, Graduate Marketing Assistant

Over the past 6 months, since joining ITL at the end of June, I have been working within a team designing the next generation banknote validators.

My first major task on the project was to define new components on internal systems. I have had to familiarise myself with a few of the systems used at ITL; Teamcenter, PADs and Live Part Library to name a few. Although new to me, it was quite an easy learning curve as I have used similar programs during University and at my previous job.

I have also worked closely with the team leader (John Tillson) in developing the circuit diagram which was later put together in an internal system. Presently I am almost half way through developing the PCB layout; this has been ongoing for the past couple of weeks since the completion of the circuit diagram.

My MSc program was based on Electronic product development and this project is helping me to put into practice the skills gained from University. Of course there are more real world challenges here, but the MSc program helped me to be more prepared for these various challenges.

Jean Gilbert Nzeye, Graduate Electronics Design Engineer

Over the past month I have been providing technical assistance to our operations department in the production of a brand new product that is yet to be released.

I have gained valuable knowledge of the product through exposure to the assembly and repair of units, something that has been very useful as recently I have been fault finding and identifying where improvements might be made in the production process.
Seeing the production of the units has shown me how products are designed for easy assembly and where it is appropriate to use certain design features.
At the moment I am part of a team designing and prototyping the next generation of ITL’s cash handling products.  I designed the mechanical components of the product using 3D CAD software and produced a prototype shortly after using the 3D printer in our onsite workshop.

I am looking forward to working with electronic and software engineers to develop the product further and provide solutions to any mechanical problems that might arise.

Michael Tillson, Graduate Design Engineer