Aline Coutrins Balestra, Graduate Diploma in Information Technology student, was one of the students who presented a poster at the event.

On Tuesday EIT’s Schools of Business & Computing held their traditional end-of-year Poster Evening with over 70 students, staff and industry representatives attending.

For Dr David Skelton, Head of School, Business and Computing, the event is the highlight of the year. “Everything we do leads up to this evening. It’s a great way for our students to present their work and build their networks. It’s also a great opportunity to thank our industry partners.”

The schools’ connections with industry partners such as Fingermark, Re-Leased, Napier City Council, Devine Computing, Hawke’s Bay Regional Council and NOW are a unique selling point for both business and computing programmes.

The two schools are offering highly successful internship programmes. They run as part of the degree and postgraduate programmes, help students and graduates get a foot in the door of the job market.

One of the students who presented at the event was Russian born Ivan Zhigalov. Ivan worked as an oil geologist in Russia before moving to New Zealand. He just finished his Graduate Diploma in Information Technology and turned his internship at The Smart Machine Company into a job. In his project he worked on mission planner software for autonomous agricultural vehicles.

Hariza Adlan on the other hand completed an internship at the Hawke’s Bay Regional Council as part of her Bachelor in Computing Systems. Recently she landed a job as database administrator with Toyota. Hariza highlighted how she thoroughly enjoyed her work placement. “Through the internship I gained valuable real-life experience and it helped me map out my career path.”