I attended San Francisco State University and graduated with a bachelor's in computer engineering. I chose computer engineering as my major since working with both software and hardware would be the best of both worlds! My first internship was at Cree, a semiconductor and lighting company. This is where I first found my love for renewable energy! I worked in IoT engineering and with the smart lighting department and contributed to a lot of projects that were similar to what we do here, working with gateways.
Soon after that, I graduated and then started working at NASA Ames Research Center as a federal contractor. After being there for a short time, I knew I wanted to find this space again and contribute towards a cleaner energy infrastructure and was introduced to Kitu! Outside of work, I enjoy playing board games, attending concerts, biking, and I'm getting back into roller skating!
2. What is your history with Kitu?
As of this month, I have worked at Kitu for three years! I started working as an engineering technician where I got to tinker and build gateways for our EV deployments for the SCE Charge Ready program. I was later promoted to becoming our Field Service lead and soon after, our first customer engineer! I provide all levels of support to our customers on our products to help triage, troubleshoot, and resolve issues. For both field and customer support, we have to ensure that communication with our customers and others involved is top notch.
When it comes to Field Service, our goal is to guarantee our field devices are up and running as expected. It is nice to be able to have a change of pace and occasionally work in the field - most parking lots, but that's okay! Being able to directly see how a project contributes to the world and how it impacts our customers helps drive my appreciation for Kitu and how we contribute to the current state of our energy infrastructure.
3. What has been the most fascinating or interesting project you have been a part of recently?
The Remote Secure Gateway is the most interesting project to me due to the impact that it has in working towards a more efficient and smarter grid. Being able to collaborate with utilities to ensure secure communication from the Remote Secure Gateway is a great learning experience - especially since I have been involved with this project since its inception. The Remote Secure Gateway ensures secure communication between any DER device on a site whether it is a PV, BESS, or EMS with a utility's headend server. Our team is constantly looking for ways to improve reliability and security to be at the forefront of industry standards. It is incredibly inspiring to see over the past two years how much it has grown and how hard the Spark team has worked on refining and enhancing the gateways.
4. How would you describe the company culture at Kitu?
I feel everyone at Kitu is heavy on teamwork and I'm really grateful to be surrounded by so many motivated and intelligent people. Everyone is always eager to lend a helping hand and educate one another on how we can improve. Also, everyone is always understanding and considerate of others - we never know what someone may be experiencing outside of work! Kitu makes mental and physical health a top priority.
5. Do you have any advice for new professionals looking to enter the industry of the "electric ecosystem?"
Don't be afraid to ask questions and utilize resources that are available to you such as industry standards. Some standards that are incredibly important to this specific industry would be IEEE 2030.5, IEEE 1547, UL 1741, and California's Rule 21. Additionally, I would heavily focus on researching more about smart inverters and DER gateways.
6. What are your goals for the future of Kitu?
My goal for the future of Kitu is for us to keep the momentum going! We have many opportunities in the mix that are allowing us to grow and improve in ways we could have never imagined. I hope that we can make a larger dent in the energy space for a healthier and cleaner way of life.
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