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Developing skills

During university, Joseph used part of the ELS award to fund his master’s project in digital signal processing for lean burn combustion in gas turbines. The combined programming and experimental skills from this project have informed much of his career.

Joseph joined PA Consulting, having become aware of the product engineering consultancy from an ELS placement with Thames Water. “I got exposed to lots of projects, which was part of the plan that the ELS programme helped me put together – to find a place that could help me find a good fit.” He came up with a way of using computational fluid dynamics to model the flow of biomarkers through the cardiovascular system, which led to him founding a company called PlaqueTec.

Advice

“Don’t overthink it, just apply,” says Joseph. He didn’t think he would win a place because other applicants came from universities “with much better reputations”

Starting a company

He developed the liquid biopsy system, and associated machine learning tools, to demonstrate the first spatially correlated plaque biomarkers in the cardiovascular system, which are indicators of heart attack risk. “That was a big highlight for me,” says Joseph. 

Having completed the R&D phase with PlaqueTec, he joined a startup called Cazana, where he developed natural language processing and machine learning algorithms to read car advertisements and value cars. He negotiated the first deal for the platform, which he says was “hugely improved by the negotiation skills that were first taught to me on the ELS scheme”. Cazana’s technology is now used by insurers, dealers and finance providers in 40 countries. 

How the ELS helped...

Opening doors: “Despite being students, very senior people were willing to talk to us about how their companies worked.”

Contacts: “I’m still friends with a lot of people from the ELS programme. It’s nice to catch up with them and meet them around the world – and see the success they’re having in their careers.”

Back to his passion

Joseph then returned to his passion; medical devices. He specialises in developing AI and machine learning for medical applications at Cambridge Consultants, where he also manages internal investments in breakthrough technologies. “It’s brilliant; I can help people to work on advanced technology that they have a passion for and bring these technologies to the medical market sooner” he says.

Having the Academy’s name behind us allowed us to open conversations.

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