GILAT BLOG
Employee Spotlight: Getting to know Ani Nedzhmedin
October 5, 2021
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Our latest Employee Spotlight blogpost features Ani Nedzhmedin, Junior Software Engineer in Gilat Satellite Networks’ R&D Center in Bulgaria.
Let’s start with a brief introduction
Hi. My name is Ani and I’m 24 years old. I have a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from Sofia University and I’m in the final phase of completing my Masters of Mechatronics and Robotics.
Robotics I understand. But what is Mechatronics?
Mechatronics, also called mechatronics engineering, is an interdisciplinary branch of engineering that focuses on the integration of mechanical, electronic and electrical engineering systems, and includes a combination of robotics, electronics, computer science, telecommunications, systems, control, and product engineering. In fact, mechatronics has been identified as a “high-priority” occupation with rapidly expanding job opportunities. With this specific background I have a much better understanding of how different systems operate and how to integrate them to achieve better efficiency across different engineering disciplines.
Let’s go back a bit. What made you decide to be an engineer?
That’s a very good question. From a very young age, I have always been interested in improving the world around me and making life easier. One way to do this is by making communications faster, better and possible everywhere. Of course, I am also very interested in working with cool technologies.
That said, engineering is all around me. Bulgaria has long been recognized for having a strong tech industry and during the past few years has become one of the top software development hubs. I recently read that the IT sector in Bulgaria consists of more than 65,000 full-time employees, most of whom are engineers.
And is it any different being a woman in a predominately male profession?
Here in Bulgaria it’s not an issue. I do know that across Europe women mostly remain underrepresented in technology, with ICT dominated by men. However, Bulgaria has the highest proportion of female ICT specialists, with over 32% according to Eurostat. I am very proud that Bulgaria ranks #1 in female ICT specialists among the EU countries.
For how long have you been working at Gilat?
I have been working in the R&D Center based in Bulgaria for about 8 months now. Before joining Gilat, I was 100% focused on my studies so this is my first job in the IT field. What’s great now is that I can work while finishing up my education. My mom is a very smart woman and she always tells me that “education is the key to self-improvement”.
Some of the things that I am working on involve next generation satellite technology which is evolving to multi-orbit constellations that include Non-Geostationary Orbit (NGSO) constellations, such as medium Earth orbits (MEO) and low Earth orbits (LEO), Very High Throughput Satellites (VHTS) as well as traditional Geosynchronous Earth Orbit (GEO) satellites.
What do you particularly like about working for Gilat?
There are a few reasons:
The first is the team. Everybody is happy to help, especially when you face a problem and are looking for guidance to get to the best possible decision. For example, one of the projects I worked on this week was unit testing one of the commands in the OpenAmip standard. When I wasn’t sure about something, I had no problem asking others for suggestions and recommendations. And these other people – they are some of the most talented professionals in the industry.
The second is that Gilat is a product company and not a project company. We work on products meant to be in the market for long periods of time and are continuously looking at ways to improve them to meet current and future needs. We can see the full picture of how our products are being used in the market and how they evolve, and not just how to make them fit into a specific customer’s needs. I think this is a huge advantage to working at Gilat and my skills as an engineer benefit from this.
The third reason I like working for Gilat is that it is a truly global company. We have R&D Centers and offices all over the world. We are always working across borders with different teams in order to harness the best knowledge we have. In other companies, engineers are very task-oriented; they don’t really know where their work fits into the larger objective. Not here at Gilat.
And finally is the fact that Gilat really cares about its employees and wants us to succeed. I feel that Gilat invests in me, with technical and business skills training programs, so that I can grow with the company and see my work develop over the long term.
Looking back on past projects, what was your favorite so far?
Definitely the Antenna Control Unit (ACU) Monitoring module. That was one of my first projects. When it was assigned to me, I really didn’t know a lot about the SNMP protocol. But once I got deeper into it, I found out that it’s quite interesting and very useful. The general functionality of this module is to maintain a list of monitoring objects that periodically are polled for their operational parameters and status.
What advice would you give to engineers just getting started in their careers?
Never give up! It might be hard for 2 days, 2 weeks, even 2 years. But I promise you it’s worth it. There is nothing better than shaping the world around you and improving it!
What do you do when you aren’t working?
It might sound a little bit boring, but I love learning about new things, so I spend most of my free time reading. Also, when the weather is good, I love taking my dog on long walks in the mountains. He really loves them.
What is something about you that might surprise us?
I love Quantum Physics! Where do I begin… I remember when I first got introduced to it by a professor at university. Since then, there has not been a day that I don’t appreciate him for opening the doors for me to this amazing theory. It’s important because it predicts very strange things about how matter works, and it reveals how things seem to work in the real world. Quantum particles can behave like particles, located in a single place, or they can act like waves, distributed all over space or in several places at once. I believe that it is an important step in formulating a ‘theory of everything’ that will contain all the laws of nature in one package.
How would you describe working at Gilat in one sentence?
Everything is possible!
WANT TO JOIN A WINNING TEAM HERE AT GILAT?
We are currently adding engineers to our R&D Division. Check out our careers page and apply today!
