We couldn't do what we do without our talented people. Their creativity and energy makes our work possible. To understand more about what makes a Createc person tick, we interviewed Research Associate, Ahmet Cinar. Find out what he had to say about life in our Oxford office below.
Introduce yourself to us.
My name is Ahmet Cinar, I’m a Research Associate at Createc based in our Oxford office and I specialise in Computer Vision projects. I’ve been with Createc for 18 months now.
What are you working on at the moment?
About four projects at once, but I’ll tell you about the one I’ve been working on today. It’s called Anonymous Crowds. I’m helping to develop computer vision algorithms to anonymously track the movements of 1000’s of people simultaneously. The technology we’re creating has applications in crowd safety and could be used to make data driven decisions in public places such as train stations. The technology can help determine the critical densities at which actions need to be taken to improve traffic flow or safety, for instance, closing a barrier or deploying additional staff at a train station. It’s exciting to me because it could really make people’s day-to-day lives better.
What did you do before starting with Createc?
I joined Createc after completing my PhD at the University of Sheffield in Fracture Mechanics. I was using digital imaging tools to build algorithms that automatically detect, analyse and characterise cracks in materials. During my master’s I’d studied Maths and Computing, which gave me a good grounding to move into computer imaging.
What attracted you to Createc?
After my PhD, I still loved solving problems through research, but I didn’t want to be driven by writing papers. For me, Createc perfectly bridges the gap between academia and industry. We invest heavily in research and development, but everything we do has practical, realistic and commercially viable applications in the real world. I don’t know of any other organisations that offer the same blend of deep R&D within a commercial setting.
I also think it’s a real perk that I get to work in a great city like Oxford, but I can also regularly visit our head office in the heart of the Lake District. I love getting out in nature but I’m not ready to move out of a city, so for me it’s the best of both worlds.
How would you describe the office environment at Createc?
Our Oxford office is small and close knit, we’re all friends as well as colleagues. When people join Createc, we choose them as much on culture fit as on skills so that we can keep the open and supportive office we have. There’s a sense of freedom and autonomy too, we all manage our own workloads and it’s our responsibility to ensure we do well. Lastly, I think it’s also important to say it’s a challenging environment, we’re often working to tight deadlines and learning at the same time, but I think that’s part of what makes it such a great place to work – you’ll never stagnate whilst working here.
So, what have you learnt since starting with Createc?
Too many things to list. In terms of technical skills, I’m constantly learning. So far, I’ve gained practical skills in LiDAR, Structured Lights, C++ Architecture, new mathematical functions and many more. We all support each other here by sharing knowledge and training is available if you need it, but mainly I’m my own teacher. Anyone joining our team needs to be really motivated to learn new things because whilst we do apply existing theory and research where we can, the technology we’re creating often doesn’t exist yet.
Finally, can you describe what sets Createc apart in one sentence?
We’re creative people, given the freedom to solve problems and make a better world through technology.