LOOK BEYOND THE BOUNDARIES OF YOUR OWN PLAYING FIELD
Jakub Pavlák, R&D Manager
AN ECONOMIST WITH IT SKILLS
Try out new things and always go the extra mile. That, in a nutshell, is how I would sum up my entire career to date. I joined Y Soft straight after finishing university, though I hadn’t studied IT. My area of study had been economics but I had always had a passion for IT and computers were my hobby.
Y Soft’s HQ back then was practically next door to my faculty and, in addition, my girlfriend worked there, so I knew what Y Soft was all about. When the position of QA engineer came up, a position where I could apply my passion for IT and fulfill the urge to learn something new, I didn’t hesitate.
THE FIRST SMALL STEPS TOWARDS AUTOMATION
People close to me thought that I wouldn’t enjoy my work and that I wouldn’t stick with it for long. Thankfully, they were wrong! I did begin to grow tired of the repetitiveness of manual testing after about a year, but I was always searching for ways to do things differently.
I like to look beyond the boundaries of my own playing field. With this in mind, my new colleague and I began to take the first small steps towards testing automation. At that time, there started to be a dramatic increase in the number of new employees and students in the R&D department.
The students stopped being purely manual testers and began writing their bachelor’s and master’s theses at Y Soft. Helping with research topics, I soon became their coordinator, later a team-lead and then Development Teams R&D manager.
THE ONSET OF ROBOTICS
I have had to learn an awful lot along the way and I have completed a whole host of certified courses, particularly in the area of Quality Assurance. My focus has been on embedded terminals on printers, where testing automation was generally an issue. Since I consider testing automation to be my ultimate calling, I helped find a way to achieve that on embedded terminals too. My aim was to do away with manual testing, which no one enjoys doing and which doesn’t really provide any added value.
In short, to do research and testing fit for the 21st century. Roughly six years ago, the Robota – Robotic Quality Assurance (RQA) project was born, focused on the research and development of robots for testing embedded terminals. We devised, designed, and built a smart robot from scratch, and designed advanced software to control it. The entire solution is protected by several patents.
Through the development of RQA, we are transforming the world of testing, automation, HW, and SW development. We are benefitting from increased technical knowledge at Y Soft around AI, Machine Learning, Computer Vision, and robotics.
BUILDING OUR OWN GLOBAL COMPANY
What I like about Y Soft is that it is originally a Czech company that has global impact. As its employees, we have the opportunity to participate in this success. Only Y Softers and the owners can buy shares in the company, letting us build our own global company. Seeing firsthand all of the many changes in the last ten years, I like the way in which we are able to advance and grow so quickly. I value the fact that at Y Soft I can bring my ideas to fruition, as generally I am of the opinion that whilst coming with ideas is a good thing, being able to turn them into reality and seeing them through to the end is what really counts.
ALL KINDS OF SPORT
If I weren’t a YSofter and could choose a different life, I would like to be a professional footballer in the Premier League 😊. I love sport in general, whether it’s football, tennis, golf, cycling, snowboarding, skiing, or cross country skiing. Besides my family and traveling, I devote most of my free time to sport.
