Giacomo Inches, Sr. Innovation Consultant, Martel Innovate

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Servizio alumni

28 Novembre 2022

In order to help current students and recent graduates to find their way in the working world, many of our alumni shared their career story. Here the story of Giacomo Inches, Sr. Innovation Consultant for Martel Innovate in Lugano & Zurich (CH). USI Degree: PhD in Informatics, 2015

How did you start your career?

After my Ph.D. I started working as a Technologist and Information Retrieval Developer in start-up (Newscron) incubated at the USI startup center. There I could immediately apply the knowledge acquire during the Ph.D, however after a few years the company relocated and I got a new position in the R&D team of a large consultancy company (Fincons Group) active in all Europe. Since then I had been working on projects funded by the European Commission (EC) or the State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (SERI).

Why did you choose a career in Martel Innovate?

I decided to work for Martel Innovate because it is one of the top companies in Switzerland and Europe in the sector of innovation and EC funded research.

What is your current role/duties?

My role is multifaceted: I coordinate large EC or SERI funded projects with partners from all Europe and I write proposal for open call to acquire new projects or customers; I work with the team of developers in my company to make sure the goals of each project are reached.

In your opinion, what are the qualities necessary for a successful career in Martel Innovate?

In Martel we require stamina, openness, integrity, flexibly and passion for innovation.

What positive aspects and qualities meant most to you during the study programme you attended?

USI was and still is a very multicultural and open environment: there I could learn to exchange ideas with people from all over the world and have a very applicative approach to Research.

What competences and/or skills acquired in your USI Study Program have been useful/are useful to your professional career?

For sure USI and the Ph.D. program thought me resilience and a critical approach to technology and innovation. In particular I should mention some special courses I attended: the proposal writing course, a class on how to create a start-up and the patent and invention workshop.

What is your advice to USI students entering the job market?

Some advises for newcomers in the job market: do not stop at the first difficulty and be resilient, find a right balance between personal and professional life, do not value a job only from its economic aspect, learn as much as you can from doing your job, try to have a positive impact on society and environment.