From an intern to a robotics engineer, he aspires to pioneer the future. “I will create a new market in the US!”

Hello, my name is Jason and I am from Singapore.
As a child, I was particularly fascinated when I first saw Japanese and American robots on the TV (the Japanese robot was Honda's ASIMO).
 I dreamed to work in Japan and US ever since.


Outline of my history: Mechatronic diploma in a technical high school (3 years), then I enlisted into the military service as a 3rd Sergeant Combat engineer in Singapore (2 years). Upon completion, I joined a Singapore startup to work on automated guided vehicles as an associate software engineer (1 year), before going on to obtain my Electrical Engineer Degree in Singapore University of Technology and Design (3 years). While in university, I came to Japan as an intern at CR for 4 months in 2018, in which, I installed the world first Takoyaki robot system at Huis Ten Bosch in Nagasaki! 

After graduation, I rejoined CR as a Robotics Software Engineer to work on Soba project. 

It is my dream to work in the US and build the future with world class robot system!
My next step with CR is  to create new markets in the world by 2024, starting from US!

Q.Why did you join CR?
From CR's vision, "We want to create a new industry of food automation using robots.”, it speaks to me of a future that I can actually build with my own hands. Indeed, during my internship at CR, I was given many opportunities to build actual solutions for customers directly.

Q.What is the most interesting point of CR work?
I think in the line of work in CR, what’s interesting is that we are always tackling problems that do not have existing solutions. Problems that are so complicated, in which priorities kept changing every week. We constantly struggle to strike a balance in engineering responsible solutions that are both profitable and sustainable. There is no manual that exists today that could guide us, so you can be almost sure what you created is of exceptional value to our customer and probably first in the world.

Q.Which point do you like the best about CR?
I think what I like best about CR are the people I get to work closely with and the close relationships that was formed from it. There are plenty tough times in our line of work, navigating uncertainties with constraints, and I am proud that we have relied and trust upon each other to come through the brief years I have been in CR.

Q.How would you describe about CR?
I would describe CR as “future-proof” organization.
A company of great people that consistently innovates better product and deliver incremental value to our customer in a sustainable and responsible manner.
 
Q.CR requires a Trial & Error attitude. What kind of experiences have you had？
I am unsure if this fits under the definition of Try and Error, but it is also my current longest running task, which is to evaluate Robots for the company. The basic idea was to find a “better robot” that could build a better business model for the company, but I did not imagine how deep the rabbit hole was until I actually get my feet wet and “play” with each of these robots. It started with a simple performance and price comparison of various robots(easily obtained from Robot catalogs), until I have worked up more than 30 criteria, followed by designing various enduring testcases, and developing tools required to execute them. I have learnt the hard way that its naïve to think I can actually grasp the entire task and specific steps involved from the get-go. It’s valuable to plan and review, but more important to learn how to iterate consistently and being agile among uncertain situations.

Q.What do you think are the characteristics and strengths of CR?
I think the strengths of CR lies with the people given the opportunity to be heard and grow. In a world that change is constant, organization must consistently grow its people to keep up with the new age and overcome the adversity it entails.
To achieve that, management of CR has experimented various new practices and programs for employees to voice feedback, and consistently trying to build a safe environment for the employees to grow comfortably. CR supports employee by subsidizing their further education like graduate studies, language schools or online technical/business courses. 
To give a recent personal example of the opportunity to be heard and grow… As a software engineer in the company, I have put in rather ridiculous request to my direct superior that I want to work in a totally different disciplinary and department, the corporate strategy planning department. However only after 1 week, and 2 casual interviews, I am now working on a market research task, vastly different from my previous engineering responsibilities, and I am definitely enjoying it. 

Q.What’s your core value of working?
“Purposeful and Sustainable growth”
I believe my work should be purposeful that requires creativity to create value in peoples’ lives. Purposeful work I think should be carried out progressively in a sustainable manner.
 
Q.Let us know if you have any preferences for the kind of person you would like to work with.
My favorite kind of person is someone who possess empathy for others, capable of thinking logically, and finally able to communicate both ideas and feelings with others effectively. 

Q.What are your hobbies?
I have always been interested in various sports, particularly water related and adventurous ones. I was into cycling and wakeboarding back in Singapore. While in Japan, I enjoy surfing, bouldering, fishing, snowboarding, recently into bike riding and mixed martial arts! Pst~! I am also very interested in eating too!