Alumni Highlight- Sasha Kucharczyk
Engineering alumni Sasha Kucharczyk has accomplished great things since graduating from UofG. We asked him about his experience at the University and his life post-grad.
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Q: What was your major? Why did you choose the U of G? When did you graduate?
A: I graduated in 2008 with a major in Engineering- Systems and Computing. I chose to go to UofG because it was one of the few schools in Ontario that offered a degree relating to Systems Engineering, Robotics and AI. At the time, I saw myself pursing a graduate degree related to one of those two fields, so it perfectly aligned with what I wanted!
Q:When did you become interested in your field?
A: I was interested in how the brain works and how people think since I was little. This transitioned in late middle school to early high school to 'how computer's think'. As I grew, elements of the field started to become more and more interesting with me realizing that certain activities made it seem like time flew by while I was doing them.
Q: How did the program prepare you for your career? AND Did you have an A HA moment? A time when something you learned, or a professor just blew you away?
A: Honestly, it didn't but in a good way. Going into the program, I thought I was going to become an academic. I realized late in the program that academia related to Robotics and AI wasn't for me. I enjoyed ‘doing’ more than researching. I enjoyed the subject areas, but wanted to focus on something that directly impacted the lives of people. Oddly enough, if I came to that realization earlier in the program, I think there were many opportunities that could have been pursued that would have helped accelerate my professional development and my career.
Q:Tell me a little bit about your current job?
A: I am currently the COO and Co-Founder at Preteckt, which is a company that I helped found in 2015 that is focused on helping vehicle maintenance teams make better decisions. We work with various municipal transportation and trucking fleets across North America to help them keep their vehicles more reliable, reduce their operating costs, and help eliminate headaches for their maintenance teams. The job and company marry my interest in AI alongside being able to do something meaningful for society.
Q: What would do you tell future students about Guelph? What would you tell them about the field?
A: Success and happiness in life is a marathon and not a sprint. Spend the time to make sure you are heading in a direction you want to be heading, and that you are pursuing a path that is taking you somewhere that is meaningful and important to you. If you find that you are not then don't be scared to change program professional focus, change majors, or even drop out. At the end of the day, school is about learning, so use it to learn about who you want to be and why.
Engineering is a toolset. Part of it is technical knowledge and ability. However, the more important part is probably training on how to think and tackle problems. Being able to solve a problem to get the right answer can feel nice, but the thing that will pay dividends in the future is understanding how to frame and structure a solution to a problem so that you can solve the problems you will encounter in the future.
Q: Where do you hope to be in 5 years?
A: Five years is both such a short and long period away so much can change in the world in that time. However, I have a general idea of what I want to be 'when I grow up'. I eventually want to be a position where I can help others successfully pursue turning their dreams/ideas into reality. I don't know if that means eventually pursuing a career related to Venture Capital, managing a technology accelerator, or just acting as a mentor/adviser.