2223T2 Silicon Valley/Participant Information/Wang Zhijie
Contents
About Zhijie
SMU email: zhijie.wang.2020@scis.smu.edu.sg
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jack-wang-zhijie/
Academic Year: Year 3 (2020)
Degree: BSc Information Systems (Major in Digitalisation and Cloud Solutions and Artificial Intelligence)
Why Virtual TSM?
- What motivates you to join TSM?
Throughout my 5 semesters of studying tech in SMU, participating in hackathons and embarking on internships, I have been given many opportunities to bring certain ideas to fruition through projects, pitch decks, and solutions, which I am very grateful for. However as someone who is always observing their surroundings and reflecting on cause and effect, I have many more pieces of side thoughts and ideas accumulated at the back of my mind, waiting to materialize one day. I therefore started to take an interest in finding ways I could potentially use IT to tackle real world problems, drawing inspiration from documentaries such as Age of A.I., learning about what makes a promising start-up on Shark Tank, and participating in a pitch competition (NES Ground Zero) to experience the more entrepreneurial side of solution formulation. I believe travelling to Silicon Valley where some of the first ever tech firms were incubated, would allow me to discover insights that could widen my horizons regarding what it means to be a technopreneur. Whether it would confirm my beliefs or change my perspectives, I would be equally thankful for the experience.
- Where would you like to visit?
Silicon Valley: Google, Microsoft, IBM, Stripe, Impossible Foods
Pittsburgh: Duolingo
Starting a business
- What types of business interest you?
Businesses that involve automation and A.I. in the food and agriculture industry. My current internship stint at Grab has prompted me to think of ways to make food more accessible and abundant, especially with the recent soaring of food prices exacerbated by the Russian-Ukraine war. As the population grows, we need to find ways to cope with the increasing demand of food and many scientists are already hard at work, for example trying to use A.I. to speed up the crop-cultivation process and re-engineer meat-based products with plant ingredients. Many who are contributing to the field of renewable energy production are also indirectly contributing to the food shortage problem in the greatest way, as limitless green energy would greatly increase the output of crops with the same amount of resources that we have. However whether we can last until that point in time is a concern, and I believe for the time being, we need to make the best use of our limited resources to feed the world, through practical means such as optimizing the harvesting and food production processes.
- What plans do you have in starting a business?
I wish to do my part to alleviate food shortage, thus hope to one day start a fully autonomous F&B business. It would leverage on A.I. and robotics to ideally revolutionize the way people order food and have meals, all while being eco-friendly at the same time.
Past Experiences
Internships:
- Grab - Software Engineer Intern: August 2022 - Present
- Lexly Health - Software Engineer Intern: January 2022 - April 2022
Competitions:
- Facebook Singapore Hack 2021 - 8th out of 18 teams
- Ellipsis-Goldman Sachs Hackathon - Top 10
- Ground Zero 2022 (NUS Entrepreneurship Society)
- Code# '22 - 4th in cohort, 10th overall out of 280 participants
CCA:
- SMU .Hack/Google Developer Student Club (DSC) - Technology Director/DSC Co-lead: August 2022 - Present
- SMU Metamorphosis Camp - Finance Executive: March 2022 - September 2022
Project Experience:
- Go Ukrajina: A career portal to help Ukrainian refugees displaced by the Russo-Ukrainian war with their job search.
- Food Waste Recycling: A delivery app for riders to collect food waste rather than actual food, to be sent to a food waste repurposing facility.
- Sotong Game: Series of web games inspired by popular Netflix series Squid Game.
Academia:
- Teaching Assistant for Computational Thinking - August 2021 - November 2021
What keeps you ticking?
My purpose in this world. Whenever I am lost, thinking about it gets me back on track again.
