This week, we're shining our Champion Spotlight on Tomasz Roszko! Tom is the CEO and CTO of Opentopic, Inc. and was kind enough to answer our questionnaire to help introduce him to the community. Keep reading to learn more about Tom and make sure to reach out to him and say “hi”!
How do you interact with IBM’s products on a daily basis?
I use IBM products daily at work. I’m the CTO and CEO of Opentopic Technologia. I’m using the products to create new features as well as make sure that existing functionalities work correctly. Currently focusing mostly on Conversation API for our Bot as well as Bluemix Infrastructure and Softlayer.
What do you like to do outside of work?
Spend time with my family - I have five kids and a lovely wife. All my free time is reserved for them, and that time always make me super happy. Doing tons of things with them as you can imagine; each young member of our family has special interests so I do my best to support them, show my interest and engage with their lives (soccer, chess, horse riding, swimming, fun in the garden, homework, dogs and many others).
What do you see as the hottest trends in technology today?
Well everything related to cognitive technologies: AI, natural language understanding, blockchain.
How can an organization stay relevant five years from now?
If your organization is not moving forward, it is going backward. Organizations have to evolve and understand how they can use new technologies to make their products better, to deliver bigger value to their clients, especially now days when tools like Bluemix and IBM Watson are five minutes from us through few clicks in a browser.
What do you consider most promising in the era of cognitive computing?
The most promising aspects are that it will help many people by improving healthcare, sports, education, and many others industries. Hundreds of ideas will significantly improve the quality of our lives.
What app couldn’t you live without?
I can’t even live without a phone or computer sometimes. Considering my daily activities, my life would be much more complicated without a collaboration app like IBM Workspace or Slack, as it simplifies how I interact with other members of the team who are sometimes located in opposite parts of the world.
What was the worst job you’ve ever had?
After some time and perspective, all of my jobs have given me some specific skills and expertise. Twelve years ago I was working as a roofer in Chicago during my vacations as a student. That was probably the hardest job, but on the other hand, every single day I was able to see a visible progress of work that was done which is not always the case in my current position :). Sometimes it would be even fun to work like that again (for a day or two max :D).
If you could meet any historical figure, who would you choose and why?
Jesus Christ - I’m Catholic so the choice is very easy in this case.
And lastly… If you woke up tomorrow as an animal, what animal would you choose to be and why?
My favorite programming language is Python - so maybe some kind of snake ? :)
Thanks for taking the time to share with us, Tomasz! We look forward to seeing more of you around the community!