Team Spotlight: Introducing Kay
Every week we ask a Terra team member to let us know who they are. Here’s Kourosh.
What wearables do you use?
I recently got the Apple Watch Ultra. It was an award to myself for finishing my first 10k run — my old watch used to die halfway through my runs… haha!
As a member of the Terra Avengers family — do you lift?
I used to lift a lot more before, but at the moment, I’m focused more on agility training and cardio-related stuff. This type of training is a form of meditation for me. It clears my mind, helps balance the busy student and working life, and allows me to spend time for myself.
What are some of your hobbies?
I do a lot of running at my local gym, and over the summer, I set many running goals — I ran my first 10k after a few weeks of training, and I plan on doing a half marathon sometime soon. I passed by Buckingham Palace earlier this year during the London marathon, and that’s something I’d love to be a part of in the future. Other than that, I used to be my high school swim team captain.
Could you tell us the legendary story of being Terra’s fastest-ever hire?
Haha, yes. Two weeks after I started my Computer Science degree at King’s College London, I went to a career fair at Bush House at King’s, where I met Raouf at Terra’s stand. We started talking about wearables and Terra’s API. I think he realized that I was genuinely interested in space when we found a mutual interest in human health devices through a professor at Oxford University. He invited me to our office in Holborn, London, where I met Elliott and Kyriakos, and then I was offered a part-time SWE role only a few hours later, haha!
Are any particular extracurriculars you’re involved in at Uni?
I love to create art from pencil sketches to ProCreate to gouache. I especially like bridging this into my computer science degree and machine learning projects. For example, I focused my IB diploma on building the Fourier Transform mathematical model from scratch, where I wrapped a sine wave to create a symmetrical pattern. This creates advanced shapes and colors, and I also 3D printed some of these shapes.
Any other side projects that you’re currently working on?
Like the Fourier Transform model project, I like building things from scratch. I’ve built my own toolset called FNNT (soon to launch on GitHub), which easily implements the normalization of stock and crypto data, hyper-parameter tuning, and my forecasting models. Something I have in mind for the future is to build a robot that passes a Turing test — like something out of Detroit: Become Human.
Who would you choose if you could meet with one person for dinner?
Jasmin Moghbeli will be one of the first female astronauts on the moon as a part of the Artemis project. I look up to her as she sets a lofty goal for herself and goes full-on. I want to meet someone with that level of dedication, and I would love to pick her brain over a nice meal.
Will we ever see you in space? — representing Terra, of course…
Haha, one of my goals is actually to become a pilot. I have a whole VR setup at home integrated with HOTAS that simulates flying. I’ve flown the DarkStar Jet up to 10 Machs …
Wait… Is that the jet that Maverick flew in the Top Gun movie?
Yes, exactly! I simulated flying across the US — it only took about 45 minutes.
Lastly, what has been one of the highlights of your Terra journey so far?
Being a part of IC Hack 23 was an awesome experience. It was really fun to be a part of the UK’s largest student-led hackathon with Terra as a gold sponsor and to assist incredibly talented hackers at Imperial College London throughout the event.
