KE@Work: information for organisations

Maastricht University's Department of Advanced of Computing Sciences places their brightest and most ambitious bachelor's students at partner organisations in the Euregion. With the KE@Work programme, students work in your organisation for two days a week. For the duration of two years, they tackle an AI- and/or Data Science-related challenge under supervision of both you and one of our academic staff members.

KE@Work (Knowledge Engineering at Work) is an honours track of the Data Science and Artificial Intelligence bachelor's programme, which teaches a mix of Artificial Intelligence, Data Science, Computer Science and Applied Mathematics. Since we started the KE@Work programme in 2014, our students have completed projects at a wide variety of organisations such as APG, Mediaan, Accenture, and Q-Park.

Why participate in KE@Work?

Gain access to cutting-edge knowledge in the domain of Data Science and Artificial Intelligence
Meet our top 25% students and acquaint them with your company before they graduate
Two-year programme duration allows you to explore business cases in-depth

We are always on the lookout for new partners with challenging projects. Will your organisation be on next year's list? Don't hesitate to reach out to us - we'll gladly tell you more.

Quick navigation
What can KE@Work students do?
What's in it for you?
What is required from KE@Work partner organisations?
Get in touch!

What can KE@Work students do?

To be frank: a lot! KE@Work is an honours track within the Data Science and Artificial Intelligence bachelor's programme. Data Science and Artificial Intelligence happens when computer science, artificial intelligence and mathematics meet.

Curriculum and qualifications
Naturally, our first-year bachelor's students follow courses on programming and mathematics. In addition, they learn about computational and cognitive neuroscience, data structures and algorithms, and software engineering. In the second and third year, we teach them about databases, machine learning, mathematical modelling, operations research and natural language processing.

Only top-performing students are selected for the KE@Work programme. To qualify for the honours track, students need an average grade of at least 7.5 during the first year of their programme. In addition, we teach them skills like corporate communication prior to participating in KE@Work.

Importantly, KE@Work students are not on their own: each student is supervised by an academic staff member of the Department of Advanced Computing Sciences.

When we started KE@Work, we didn’t have any data scientists on board. We now have seventeen. Five of those are current KE@Work students. Others completed KE@Work with us and stayed after graduating. In total, 15 of our 17 data scientists have a connection to the Department of Advanced Computing Sciences in Maastricht.

Elmer Nelis, managing director of Mediaan, January 2019

Students & projects

Since KE@Work started in 2014, we placed over 177 students from 48 different countries with more than 60 partner organisations.

Scroll through some of the projects to get an impression of KE@Work's who, what and where.

Iga Skorupska (Poland)

Works at Aucos: "to analyze time anomalies in loading and unloading processes. The main focus will be on finding the cause of these anomalies and predicting them to improve plant’s efficiency."

Tsvetan Naydenov (Bulgaria)

Works at VDL Nedcar: "to predict the probability of a downtime on a certain production line in the assembly shop of a car manufactory and automatically inform the person responsible for that line."

Berfin Inal (Turkey)

Works at Sitech: "to explore the possibilities of securing process safety and societal acceptance using all kinds of data available."

Nikolas Oikonomou (Greece)

Works at Q-Park: "to try and identify the different types of customers in Q-Park's parking facilities, understand their parking behavior and link these insights with the company's business objectives."

What's in it for you?

When Professor Frank Thuijsman initiated KE@Work, he envisioned a 'triple-win' structure: a programme in which all parties - student, university and corporate partners - benefit.

Only the best students
Participating in KE@Work gets you a top-performing honours student, who works an average of 20 hours per week at your organisation. We employ a matching procedure, where you conduct 10-minute interviews with eligible KE@Work students. After the matching procedure in June, the student will work towards exploring and solving your big question for the duration of two years. In addition, the student will write their bachelor's thesis on a topic of interest to your KE@Work project.

Students choose to join, because they see – for whatever reason – something in it for themselves. That motivated group of students is your starting point.

Danni Liu, KE@Work alumna

We often hear that KE@Work students challenge and transcend the expectations organisations have of them. At the level these students perform at, they don't just learn from you. KE@Work students bring a lot of technical know-how with them, especially when it comes to the latest advances which may not yet have found their way into your organisation.

Furthermore, the KE@Work programme offers you a unique opportunity to get acquainted with highly desired graduates - and to do so before they even enter the job market.

Academic supervision
Through KE@Work, you also receive feedback from an academic working at the cutting edge of Data Science and/or Artificial Intelligence. This person is an academic staff member of the Department of Advanced Computing Sciences, who acts as the dedicated KE@Work supervisor who will help the student with the academic challenges of the project.

What is required from KE@Work partner organisations?

Are you an organisation with an office in the vicinity of Maastricht and do you have a challenge that can be solved through Data Science or Artificial Intelligence? Are you open to hosting some of our best students to implement solutions for the duration of two years?

If yes, great - these are the most important ingredients! In addition, we expect KE@Work partner organisations to provide the following things:

In-house supervision
KE@Work students have two supervisors: one academic supervisor provided by the university, and one supervisor provided by the organisation they work at. As local supervisor, it's your job to introduce the student to the office culture and act as a mentor in the professional environment.

Don't worry though: we prepare KE@Work students with workshops on things like corporate communication, and we have a dedicated KE@Work coordinator who is ready to assist you in case problems arise.

Involvement in the KE@Work trajectory
Partner organisations are involved in the whole KE@Work trajectory. This includes the matching period, during which you pitch your project (pitch event) and conduct interviews (Speed Dates) with students interested in working at your organisation. Prior to the pitch event, all participating companies will receive a copy of the CV’s prepared by students during one of the workshop sessions. Students will receive a bundle of all available projects in the same week.

During the pitch event, all participating companies have the opportunity to pitch their project(s) (5 minutes for a single project, 10 minutes for multiple projects). After the pitches, we will organise a social gathering so you can get to know each other better.

To ensure that you find a match, we will organise speed dates in the week after the pitch event in which all companies will talk one-on-one with the students who have their project(s) high in their ranking. This way, we aim to match students and projects as effectively as possible. Once all projects are matched, we will proceed with the contract signing.

Once the project started, you will interact with the academic supervisor on a monthly basis. At the end of each semester - so twice per year - you will evaluate the project and discuss its continuation.

Internship fee
Participation involves a fee which covers both the student's intership fee and the cost of academic supervision. The total fee amounts to €925 euros per student per month in the first year of the programme, and to €975 euros per student per month in the second year of the programme (excluding VAT).

KE@Work cohort 2019-2020 — Cohort 2019-2020

Get in touch

Do you have any further questions, or are you interested in participating in KE@Work? We're happy to talk to you via kework@maastrichtuniversity.nl.

Anouk Quaden

^{KE@Work coordinator}

Anouk runs KE@Work on a day-to-day basis. She's your first point of contact for all matters relating to KE@Work.

Kurt Driessens

^{KE@Work co-coordinator}

Kurt joined the KE@Work team as co-coordinator in 2023. Previously, Kurt's roles included programme director and head of the programme committee.

Prof. dr. Frank Thuijsman

^{KE@Work initiator}

Frank founded KE@Work in 2014. He's a fulltime professor, who is still actively involved with the programme.