A Career Built From Legos
In another edition of Sunday breakfast interviews, I talk with my longtime friend, Kamilah about how she became an engineer. Kamilah is currently at LinkedIn working as a Software Engineer on the iOS app.
Meet Kamilah Taylor, software engineer, robot artisan and changemaker.
When do you know you wanted to get into some kind of engineering?
By engineering, do you mean engineering and science? I don’t think I made a clear distinction until later.
I really enjoyed my first robotics kit — a Lego Mindstorms kit. It’s a robotics kits where you build with Legos. We used the kit in a class I took in high school with Mr. Maley. The class was called Math Technology, but it was really just introduction to programming using Lego Mindstorms kits. I think that was our sophomore year.
What that your first interaction with programming?
No, but it was the one that really got me into programming. My first programming language was Logo — which I learned I was nine. It was a triangle that moved about the screen. You would say “If this, than that” and it would turn in a certain direction.
After that Math Tech class, I did AP Computer science which was pretty disastrous because our teacher was actually the spanish teacher. I still really enjoyed it because the material came pretty easily to me.
Somewhere around that time, I was trying to figure out what I wanted to do. I had always been a math person and I really got into it with Ms. Newell’s Calculus class. But I was hesitant about computer science because the guys were sort of mean to the girls in our class. I was worried that it would be the same in college.
One of my friends was the only girl in her CS class which was hard. Luckily, in my class, there were a lot of girls and actually most of us went into a science or engineering discipline — Sita, Leila, Adrianne. Leila’s getting her PhD in medicine, Sita is getting her PhD in biomedical engineering, and Adrianne is at SpaceX. She’s actually a rocket scientist.
What did you end up studying in college?
At college, I studied physics, math, and computer science and did well in all three. I was getting really into reading about theoretical physics and thought about focusing on that, but I liked all three so I just kept taking classes in them.
What did you graduate with undergrad?
Double major in Math and Computer Science. Two credits short from a minor in Physics.
It was hard for me to give up physics…
A huge fascination with relativity and quantum physics. It’s really beautiful. But I ended up feeling more drawn to the skills I used in CS and Math.
What made you decide to go with grad school?
Part of it was maybe because of my Dad’s academic background. In my head, I thought I would do research and not get a real job. It was the next thing I wanted to do.
What did you think you would research?
I was sort of split — I applied for both robotics and also numerical methods (simulations). Scientific computing basically. These both make use of math, physics and CS so I wouldn’t have to give anything up.
But then, I took a math class where I used a lot of methods from scientific computing. I realized I didn’t like that branch of math as much so I gravitated towards robotics.
Up until then, robotics was mostly a hobby. It wasn’t until I was applying to grad school when I realized I could actually do it for a living.
Did you take robotics in undergrad?
No, I don’t think it’s that common in undergrad unless it’s a school with a really strong robotics program.
When you left grad school, what did you think you would do?
I was trying to go into robotics but it ended up being difficult to do as a career because most of the funding came from the government. Even at private companies, there are often government funded programs. Many of the other opportunities were mostly contract work which is difficult on a visa. Robotics is still a pretty young field.
I went into grad school for a PhD but I filed for a year off and never returned. I wanted to explore what industry was like to see if I really needed the PhD to be happy in my career. Once I was working, I realized I didn’t want to be in academia any more.
What did you do with your year off?
I worked at Wolfram. I was actually working on a robotics project which I got hired for because of my experience with Lego Mindstorms. My mom was really excited that all the money they had spent on Lego kits wasn’t wasted — it actually got me a job.
Yes — I had some recent experience from my grad school research. When I was implementing a research paper I had done, I used Lego Mindstorms because it was easy and low cost. At the time, Wolfram was recruiting in our department. One of the managers, Peter, found out I knew about the Lego Mindstorms kits and had a math background.
My year off was sort of my test of academia versus industry. Before I accepted the position at Wolfram, I had also gotten an offer from a robotics company but I was uneasy about taking a contract position on my visa. At Wolfram, it was a software engineering position but with a robotics focus which ended up being a great move.
To connect Mathematica to their robotics platform. It eventually got cancelled but it does live on in Mathematica. You can still see the demos online. We also did some work controlling a Roomba with Mathematica.
[Check out one of Kamilah’s impressive demos on YouTube]
You can think of it as prepackaged mathematical functions. It automates several things so you can focus on what you’re actually trying to accomplish.
We’ve reached my limit of math understanding. Let’s talk about how you made it to the Bay Area.
At some point, I was unhappy being in the middle of the cornfields. I’m from an island [Jamaica — not Queens]. So I decided to move out to the the Bay Area.
It was my second time applying out here but the first time I applied to mostly robotics companies which are hard to get. This time, I applied for more general software positions. These days, with Google putting money into robotics and a couple of startups, it’s getting a little easier to find a robotics position, but they are still few and far between.
Moving out here was pretty seamless. I took a software engineering position at LinkedIn. I do remember feeling like I had to be constantly catching up because I didn’t have quite the same background as other software engineers. I had never worked on such a massive website but I did have my computer science background.
Luckily, that experience of learning new things has continued through my career — I didn’t realize that’s what it would be like. I think that’s why I don’t miss academia because I’m still always learning things.
What are you doing these days?
I’ve transitioned to working on mobile which is a lot of fun. It’s certainly all the rage these days. Mobile is so rapidly evolving that you have to work a bit harder to stay on top of the changing landscape.
So mobile changes a lot faster than web?
Well, it feels like a lot of things on web change at a little bit of a slower pace, more gradually. Mobile feels like it transitions in jumps. There’s always a new OS coming out, new hardware, new sensors, new capabilities…in bursts rather than waves.
What do you like about working with iOS?
iOS is such a popular platform. It’s pretty unique to get in front of so many people. It’s more controlled than Android but you have more knowledge of the experience someone is getting on iOS. With Android, you may know what certain phones are getting, but not necessarily how all users will experience your application.
I’ve been an Apple fan for a while so I also like being in their ecosystem and keeping up with what they have to offer. I prefer Objective-C and I think they had a head start in some of the developer tools.
There is something to be said for the Android approach. They’re both really great platforms. I’ll probably start learning Android soon.
We’re seeing a lot of new devices come out — smart watches, heads-up navigation systems, Google Glass. What potential do these have to change your work?
Sure, there’s a lot out there. All of these advances are exciting. Part of what I liked about robotics was that physical embodiment of what you are producing. I see these devices as part of the mobile world but it’s still rapidly evolving. There are some compelling use cases, but I haven’t yet seen one of these devices where I feel the need to have it in my life on a daily basis.
When you say “part of the mobile world”, what do you mean?
These are all mobile devices — just different form factors.
Is there something you think you could use?
Something similar to the smart watch would be good. The ways of interacting with them is clunky but ways of getting information getting better. Google Now has improved that.
I still think there’s some work to be done. I’m watching Apple to see if they can work their magic to make it useful or graceful enough that I want to own one. A lot of the smart watches coming out seem to be manly and huge.
What’s the best thing about being a software engineer?
Being able to have a big impact on people. They use the things we create in their everyday lives — in ways you never imagined.
One of my favorite parts of grad school was coming up with that first research paper. When I was thinking through and sketching out how it would all work, that was satisfying. The idea was to deny info to a robot that it needed to accomplish a task. It needs to navigate but it has no GPS. The only thing it knows is that it’s pointing to a tower. As long as the tower is emitting a signal, the robot can still navigate. I was able to build a demo where we implemented a proof of that concept.
Coming up with a new product or idea captures a lot of that same feeling.
What’s the most challenging part?
I think focusing — some days there are so many things that you could be doing. It can be hard to know what to focus on.
Who inspires you? Who do you look to for guidance and inspiration?
My fellow female software engineers. I’m always really impressed by what they are doing — really funny, really nerdy — it’s awesome. I very much enjoy having that community.
What are the some of most promising companies to carry us into the future?
Because I think they’re changing how comfortable we are with sharing resources. They’ve changed the notion of how you can get to places. Two years ago, if someone had said “there’s an app and you can call some random stranger and they’ll pick you up and take you home”, I would have been like no way in hell.
And I’m sure there are some awesome startups out there that are doing great things I haven’t heard of yet.
What advice do you have for someone who wants to be a software engineer?
Always make time for side projects. If you want to get into software engineering, be willing to work on your own thing. The successful engineers I’ve seen spent time on the side working on a passion project.
What do you want to see in the next few years?
Follow Kamilah on Twitter @kamilah
Email me when Alexa Roman publishes or recommends stories