Simon Lawrence

MMath Mathematics 2018

I started at Warwick in 2014, and a quick four years later, I graduated as a Master of Mathematics. While my degree was in pure and applied Mathematics, I knew that I always wanted to go into tech after I graduated. A lot of my friends were looking for jobs in finance, but I knew that wasn’t for me. I heard about an event that TPP were running at the University with a speaker that I was interested in going to see. I went along to see the speaker, make the most of the free food, and learn a bit more about TPP.

An opportunity to work in the healthcare industry was one of the main factors that convinced me to apply to TPP. Everything that you work on is designed to have a positive impact on people’s lives, which is something that is hard to find elsewhere. I had some coding experience before joining TPP, but not enough to where I would feel comfortable developing entire projects by myself. Thankfully, the rest of the team here at TPP are really friendly and willing to help out whenever you get stuck! Now, I am confident in taking the lead on a project, and I frequently find myself helping out newer members of the team who are in the same position I was in when I started.

Two years later and I’ve been lucky enough to work on a whole range of exciting projects, including designing and implementing a machine learning solution for disease prediction, developing healthcare apps for iOS and Android, and carrying out performance analysis for one of the largest databases in the world; it has over 50 million patient records and over 1.7 petabytes of data! I’ve also had the chance to travel with TPP, I’ve been to China to assist in deployment of an integrated health insurance system as well as trips to France and the British Virgin Islands!

I had never properly visited Leeds before moving here, so initially I was a little apprehensive, but after a few weeks I came to love it. There is always something to do in Leeds and that’s partly down to the diverse mix of cultures we’ve got here, but also the natural surroundings. This means that graduates don’t need to worry about having nothing to do once they leave University. There’s a plethora of great bars, restaurants, music and live entertainment, but Leeds is also on the doorstep of loads of natural beauty spots. The Yorkshire Dales, the Peaks, and the Lake District are all in very close proximity.

During the current global health crisis, we here at TPP have been working our hardest to provide local and national health bodies with the data and tools they need to tackle outbreaks. As a part of this, I have been involved with making sure that the NHS’s centralised patient summaries include all of the most pertinent information for Covid-19. This meant that I had to design, develop and manage a system to perform the necessary updates for over 20 million patients across the country. Alongside NHS Digital, we have ensured that those caring for patients in the UK have got the most up-to-date data possible. It’s been great to see something that I’ve worked on from start to finish have such a positive impact, especially in these difficult times.