Leeds consultancy hires 16-year-old for QR code project

Leeds consultancy Parallax has hired 16-year-old Edward Hesketh for a paid internship and assigned him to a multimillion-pound client technology project. The placement led to work on a QR code device for a major car park operator.

Hesketh, a pupil at UTC Leeds, wrote some of the code for the device and co-designed its hardware enclosure during his summer work experience after completing his GCSEs. He also designed and 3D-printed the casing used for the product, according to Parallax.

The project focused on a device designed to solve a commercial problem linked to sharing promotional access in physical locations. Businesses offering discounts to selected customers through QR codes risk those codes being photographed and shared more widely than intended.

The client wanted a way to offer discounted parking to partner hotels and gyms without allowing the code displayed in a car park to be reused beyond its intended audience. Parallax built a unit that displays cryptographically secured QR codes that expire after 24 hours.

According to the company, the device uses an e-ink display and an offline architecture. Its battery life is expected to last for years because of deep sleep operation.

Early talent

Hesketh was identified at a careers day at UTC Leeds by Jakub Szamuk, who joined Parallax as a teenager and now works on its engineering team. That connection led to a paid internship in the company's Leeds lab during the summer break.

"Edward absolutely wowed us with his abilities and enthusiasm, so we decided to throw him in the deep end by putting him into a team in our lab on a real-life client project," said Jakub Szamuk, Engineer at Parallax.

"Not only did he write some of the code on the device the team created, he even designed and 3D-printed the enclosure for the hardware," Szamuk added.

The assignment is unusual for a student still below driving age, given the device's use in car parks and its expected public deployment. Once in operation, the product could be seen by large numbers of motorists each month.

Jo Walton, Operations Manager at Parallax, outlined the business case behind the work. "Our client wanted to give its customers discounted parking at partner hotels and gyms, which only works if the code in the car park itself can't be leaked.

"We built a device that displays cryptographically secured QR codes that expire after 24 hours. E-ink and deep sleep result in battery life measured in years, with an architecture that runs entirely offline.

"So Edward is going to be able to see his work in production, potentially accessible to millions of drivers using car parks every month, before he himself is even old enough to drive."

Skills pipeline

The internship also highlights the role technical colleges and local employers are trying to play in building an engineering skills pipeline. UTC Leeds focuses on technical and vocational education, and Hesketh has already completed his full computer science course two years early, according to Szamuk.

That background appears to have helped him move quickly from school-level study into commercial development work. Rather than observing from the sidelines, he was given software and hardware tasks within a live client brief.

Parallax describes itself as a technology consultancy that designs and builds digital products and services, with work spanning artificial intelligence, internet-connected devices, software engineering, hardware engineering and user experience design. Based in Leeds, it works with organisations ranging from startups to large brands and public sector bodies.

For companies in sectors such as parking, hospitality and leisure, securely distributing location-based promotions remains a practical challenge. Static QR codes are cheap and simple to deploy, but they can undermine exclusive offers if they are copied and shared.

A dedicated device displaying expiring codes offers a different approach, especially where mobile connectivity is limited or operators want equipment that can run without regular maintenance. The use of e-ink also points to a low-power design suited to long-term installation in places such as car parks.

Szamuk said the experience could help Hesketh as he continues his studies. "Edward plans to continue at the UTC for his A-Levels this coming academic year, having already completed his full computer science course two years early. With a project like this on his CV, he can expect to be in high demand among employers when that time comes. We very much hope he will keep in touch with us."

Hesketh described the placement as a positive introduction to commercial engineering work. "I've had a really good time working at Parallax. It has been great to meet and work with the other engineers developing the project, and I'm pleased to have had the opportunity to do work for a client of the company. Everyone at Parallax has been very welcoming, and I very much enjoyed my time there."