Vermiculus Engages with Umeå University Through Guest Lectures and Collaboration

John-John Markstedt, one of our developers, recently gave a lecture at Umeå University as part of the course on distributed systems. The lecture focused on sharing practical experience from real-world system development and offering students a deeper understanding of how complex, business-critical systems work in practice.

The course on distributed systems at Umeå University

Drawing on Vermiculus’ work with high-performance, distributed systems in the financial sector, we’re able to present technical challenges that mirror those found in production environments and go beyond textbook examples. This lecture was about starting a dialogue, encouraging curiosity, and bridging the gap between academic theory and the realities of modern system design. It gave students a chance to engage with the kind of problems they’ll face, and to see how flexible and robust infrastructures are built and maintained in practice.

Our connection with Umeå University has deep roots. Many of our current colleagues began their journeys there, and the university remains a strong source of talent and insight within our teams. We have great confidence in the university’s education and in its students, and that’s the reason why Vermiculus keeps investing through alumni recruitment, participation at Uniaden, and other academic engagements.

The connection goes back even further than Vermiculus itself. Several of our current team members were involved in the early efforts to strengthen the dialogue with the university and to better prepare students for the real-world challenges involved in developing financial systems. These efforts eventually resulted in a specialised course track in Financial IT, which was previously offered to engineering students from various disciplines. 

“We benefit greatly from having Umeå University here in the city, educating great engineers year after year. That’s why it’s important for us to give back where we can, such as offering internships, master’s theses, course material, and, of course, guest lectures. When done right, close collaborations between industry and academia can be very symbiotic for both parties,” says John-John Markstedt. 

John-John Markstedt at Umeå University

This type of engagement is part of a long-term approach, and our involvement at Umeå University is one example of how we invest in knowledge and people of our field.