Looking for feedback on my documents (Exceptional Promise)

Hey everyone! I am in the process of putting an application together. Very excited this route exists, and to see how its benefitted many people in the community.

Would love to have some feedback on my application:

  1. The strength of my evidence
  2. Thoughts on using an old University Professor as a reference

Short Bio for this post

I am a Biomedical Engineer with a software and hardware background. I have had experience managing teams, and working within startup and research environments. Currently working in a Research and Development at Imperial College, has involved lots of data science, app development, embedded coding, hardware design, and some machine learning.

Mandatory Criteria

Doc#1. Current work contract as a Research Engineer for a lab at Imperial College London. Currently sponsored on a Skilled worker visa

  • Screenshot of contract

Doc#2. Proof of being a co-founder of a startup. We were one of the first UK contact tracing apps, have proof of apple and google play store release.

  • Have proof of funding (Reference)
  • Endorsement letter from high ranking government officials (Letter)
  • Involved with the UI/UX, user research, data analysis, and app development (Reference)
  • Proof of being company director (Screenshot of government website)

Doc#3. Proof of being a part of a team of four to create an app. This app allows University students to check in and out of lectures during COVID-19 to allow for anonymous contact tracing.

  • We got this app approved on the Google and Apple play store. (Screenshot of submission)
  • Received a recommendation letter from the University president (Letter)
  • Involved in UI/UX, data analysis, A/B Testing, and app development. (Reference)

Doc#4. Letter of endorsement from a non-profit startup. I worked there for two years, they 3D print prosthetics for countries overseas.

  • Delivered 20 prosthetic systems. (Reference and emails)
  • User research, technical design, automating processes (Reference)
  • Coordinated volunteers (Reference)
  • Travelled to Ecuador to conduct user research and deliver prostheses. (Emails)
  • Ran a community event to raise money to fit three prostheses for a patients in Ecuador (Screenshot of event and money raised)

Doc#5. During final year of university, led a student team develop a wearable device for Achilles rehab. I did this outside of school.

  • Heavily involved with designing, data analysis, embedded programming, and managing the development. (Reference)
  • Led a student team
  • Won multiple awards, got a grant, went to a conference, and published a conference paper on this (Screenshots of each).

Optional Criteria #1: At least 1 example of proof of recognition for work beyond your occupation that contributes to the advancement of the field

Doc#6. Mentorship and community building.

  • Supervised four master students in app development, and machine learning projects (Proof through reference and emails)
  • Ran tech work shops for indigenous youth in Canada (Proof through reference)
  • Showcased a novel printed prosthesis at conferences, elementary schools, and potential investors (Proof through emails)
  • Was on a panel to help guide first year engineering students (Reference)
  • Community talk I did showcasing work from my undergrad to a non-technical audience of 80 people (Email)
  • Largely involved with organizing a conference at my University showcasing biomedical technology, with over 300 attendees (Email)

Doc#7. Reference letter from a CEO of a startup I contributed towards for 6 months, helped set up their product operations, UI/UX design, and helped code the backend.

Optional Criteria #2: At least 1 example of exceptional ability in the field by academic contributions through research endorsed by an expert

Doc#8. Involved in four academic publications. I am first-author on two of them. (Citation, links, and my contribution)

  • Will write about the technical aspects I contributed with for the publications (Data analysis, statistical validations, usability research)

Doc#9. Won 4 research awards/grants during undergrad to support conducting research during internships. These internships were all in different countries, and are fairly prestigious.

  • Attaching proof of award, and a few news articles showcasing the winners.

Doc#10. Reference letter from a world-renowned professor who was my mentor during University

Reference Letters

  1. Current employer. They are a CEO of two companies, and a world renowned professor,
  2. CEO of a non-profit organisation I worked under for two years
  3. University Professor who I worked under for 1.5 years, and supervised me when I led a student team develop a wearable device

Many thanks for going through this and providing feedback, I am incredibly grateful, and excited to share my journey!

All the best :slight_smile:

Should I post a condensed version to improve chance of getting feedback? I don’t want to spam the boards, but it won’t let me edit it down at this point either

@Sukhpreet Your evidences look good but keep in mind that you can use the same evidence for multiple criteria such as mandatory and optionals. So, try to think of how the evidences could be written/arranged in such a manner that they could be shown in multiple or at least 1 criterion (mandatory or optional).

This advice is from another applicant and not an official advice.

Hey @somdipdey, thank you for getting back to me! Just finalizing the application now.

Just for clarification on what you meant. So lets say for a piece of evidence where I was a startup founder and used that for my MC, I can also use that for OC1 or OC3 if transferable? In regards to submission, would I create separate documents, or explain in the individual piece of evidence how it demonstrates multiple pieces of Criteria.

I have changed my submission quite a bit from the above after reading the guideline in depth which seems to be the key for this.

This is a very valuable insight, thank you!