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Today we’re spotlighting one of our upcoming 2024-2025 PacTrans Graduate Fellows, Adam Schulze. Adam comes from a Software Engineering background and recently made the decision to pivot into Transportation Engineering. His decision stems from a desire to effect meaningful change in society, specifically our transit systems. Best of luck starting your Transportation Engineering Master\u2019s journey at the University of Washington this fall, thanks for sharing a little bit about yourself, and welcome to PacTrans!<\/p>\n
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Where are you currently located and what have you been up to? Why did you decided to pivot from Software Engineering to Transportation Engineering? I\u2019m also excited by the types of conceptual problems I\u2019ll be taking on in Transportation Engineering. I got to sit in on a lecture at UW on the Vehicle Routing Problem, which was exciting since I really enjoyed these types of optimization problems in undergrad. I\u2019m also looking forward to doing more data science and statistical modeling, which I haven\u2019t had the chance to fully dive into (I got to work adjacent to data scientists, but never really as a data scientist).\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n I think there may still be the lingering question of \u201cWhy not just work as a software engineer for an entity that works with transportation?\u201d I certainly had to grapple with this question as I was first considering this career pivot. While there certainly is some overlap\/similarity, the type of work will still be different in some ways (as I mentioned above, I\u2019ll get to work on data science\/modeling). That said, I think my primary reason for fully pivoting is to gain a more complete understanding of the field of transportation. I want to eventually be able to work at a higher level, where I can influence design and\/or policy. I think the best way to reach that level of understanding is to fully immerse myself in transportation engineering, rather than work adjacent to it.<\/em><\/p>\n What’s your favorite college memory? What’s your career path been like? What’s your greatest professional accomplishment? How has PacTrans benefitted you? Want to know more about Adam? Connect with him on LinkedIn<\/a>!<\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>I’m currently located in San Jose, CA. These past few months I\u2019ve just been working part time while taking classes, but I was formerly a software engineer at Wayfair (September 2019-June 2023).<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>My general motivation for pivoting is that I want my work to make a more significant, positive impact. Transportation affects everyone, and it\u2019s a field I\u2019m personally attached to. Growing up, I would go to Japan almost annually to visit family. There, I got to experience their excellent transit system, which was quite a contrast from the car-centric culture of San Jose. It made it clear to me that there\u2019s a lot of room for improvement for transportation here in the States.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>It\u2019s tough to choose, but I\u2019d say my favorite college memory is from my sophomore year. My track and field team was able to win both the men\u2019s and women\u2019s conference championships. The women\u2019s team crushed it (they had nearly a 90-point lead over the next team), but it was super close on the men\u2019s side (we only won by 1 point). It made for a super exciting meet and it felt amazing to see everyone\u2019s hard work pay off!<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>I come from a software\/machine learning engineering background, and I\u2019d like to apply my skills toward the improvement and expansion of public transit. As a graduate student, I\u2019m looking to gain a more thorough understanding of the transportation space, and see where and how I can apply my existing skills (or learn new ones) to transit projects. After graduation, I plan to pursue a consulting role to get hands-on experience with a wide variety of transit projects. Further down the line, I\u2019d be interested in working for a DoT to lead larger projects which create new transit systems or expand existing ones.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>I would say that my greatest professional accomplishment was a pilot project I led while working at Wayfair. I worked with our Machine Learning Platforms team to deploy an existing model with a new serving framework, and also worked with the original data scientists to optimize the model code. We were able to speed up the end-to-end model inference pipeline by 85%.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>I really appreciate that PacTrans provides the resources for me to excel in the transportation industry. One of the major pull factors for me when applying to the program was the internship component, as that will allow me to get hands-on experience that complements my studies. I\u2019m also very excited to work with the other PacTrans fellows, some of whom I got to meet during the UW prospective student\u2019s weekend. They\u2019ve already been super helpful with suggestions for potential research areas and career paths, so I look forward to working with them more closely when the school year starts!<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/pactrans\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/PacTrans_Personal_Photo-300x200.jpg\"){kind=spacer}
What are some hobbies or interests you have?
\n<\/strong>I enjoy trail running and playing volleyball. I\u2019m also a huge fan of the show <\/span>Taskmaster<\/span>!<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n
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