Who are you?
My name is Erik Duijm and I have been working at Districon since June 2021. I have a bachelors in mathematics and physics. Afterwards I completed a masters in Computing Science from the Utrecht University. The focus of my masters was on algorithmic data analysis. Here my passion for working with data showed itself. The math behind the algorithms to extract hidden knowledge from data intrigues me. To get hands-on experience, I worked parttime as a data engineer at PostNL during my masters. After graduating I started at Districon.
At Districon I work as a consultant within the digital transformation team. In this function I find myself working mostly with the customers data. Whether it needs to be moved to a data lake or is ready for sophisticated machine learning algorithms. It all crosses my path.
Outside of work I enjoy playing (board)games, chess and Dungeons & Dragons.
My experiences
I have been working for almost two years at Districon and have participated in many exciting projects. The projects are very different, but they all center around data. Every question the customer has is another puzzle to solve. The intellectual challenges or the added societal benefits of the puzzle are what excites and drives me.
A good example of such a puzzle is the dashboard I am helping to develop for the port of Rotterdam. The dashboard maps the emissions in the port area. Here logistics, data and societal problems meet in a unique way. This project is the result of a strong cooperation of coworkers from the port of Rotterdam, BigMile and Districon. An interesting challenge with real impact.
Other projects that I am involved in, range from dashboarding to creating bespoke webapps; from network studies to investigating alternatives for traditional optimization. This allows me to learn a lot. This includes new techniques and knowledge but also knowledge of many different domains. What I find impressive at Districon, is the amount of knowledge present in the company and the willingness and eagerness to share it. There are many initiatives to transfer the knowledge among coworkers. There is a great opportunity to develop yourself.
Vision of the future
Problems are becoming increasingly difficult. With some customer questions, we run into the limits of the computational power a computer offers. Thus, we must get creative and look at alternatives and new techniques.
The world of machine learning and other impressive algorithms offer many opportunities. These opportunities are starting to reach the world of smart supply chain and logistics. I expect the supply chain of the future to be even more (artificially) intelligent.
Next nominee
For the next edition of ‘in the spotlight’ I would like to nominate Thy Anh Nguyen. Ever since we have joined the Royal HaskoningDHV family, Thy Anh has a unique perspective, as she has a background in both supply chain and civil engineering.