There’s a lot of buzz around the idea of ‘smart cities’ right now. From self-driving cars that know when and where you want to be picked up, to whole neighborhoods sharing energy between houses to lower costs, there are many ways in which technology can enhance the places where we live and work.
But it’s not all about creating a super-futuristic world — some of the most exciting and impactful work is being done in automating boring, repetitive tasks, to give people more time for the things that matter.
William Rubano is a Building Automation Specialist, and his job involves exactly that — finding ways of making buildings smarter and people’s lives simpler. “I love the smart cities trend. Where we’re going, it seems like a really bright future. When you walk into an office building now, the lights just come on, the air conditioning just sets, everything is just comfortable automatically, so you don’t have those extra worries. As we move on with technology, more and more is going to be automated — life is going to be easier and we can focus on enjoying our time more.”
Having started his career in the US Navy and moving to Siemens in 2015, today William’s role requires him to go into buildings and solve the problems associated with automating huge systems — both the physical systems and the software that goes with them. Luckily, as a self-taught computer programmer with military mechanical experience, William is a natural when it comes to troubleshooting.
A passion for problem-solving
“When I was in the military, I loved figuring out issues. Say a system isn’t working and we don’t know why. All we know is the pressure is too high — I’ve got to look at the pump, I’ve got to look at the valves, I’ve got to really look at the system as a whole and figure out where the problems are coming from so that I can solve them, or build an alternative solution so that it doesn’t happen again.”
William says he acquired most of his computer knowledge from personal experience combined with a love of gaming. “I really never worked professionally with computers, but when I was growing up my father owned a computer store so the knowledge rubbed off on me,” he explains.
In the days before Google was around to provide an answer in an instant, William would challenge himself to work things out unassisted. “If my computer broke, or something went wrong, I was always trying to figure it out,” he says. “I would be pulling parts out to see which one was broken. I built my first computer when I was about six or seven years old, and I’ve been doing that ever since.”
Having spent years as an engineer with the US Navy, William found his transition to civilian life has been supported by his role at Siemens, and he continues to build and fix things with a view to making them better. “I’m an engineer in my personal time, too. I really like to build things, to fix things. My friends might play a video game or use a computer application and run into obstacles — places where things could be made easier. I’ll try and come up with a program that makes it better.”
William Rubano began his engineering career in the US Navy when he was 21, before starting at Siemens in 2015 as a Building Automation Specialist. He hopes to continue his career with the company and eventually take on a management role in which he supervises other field engineers. Find out more about working at Siemens.
Photography: Fernando Decillis
Illustration: Angelica Lena
Video: David Parker
Animation: Sentiospace
