Featured Member - Roslynn Ricard Shoots For Tesla!
October 10, 2017
The ISA Edmonton Section is thrilled to feature Rosylnn Ricard, Controls Engineer at Tesla, as our latest featured member. Not only was she the recipient of the 2016/2017 ISA Edmonton Section President's Leadership Award, she has also landed a new job with a world–renowned technology company!
Are we surprised? Not one bit. In her first year volunteering on the ISA Edmonton Section board (2016/2017), Rosylnn made an impression... so much so that she was awarded the President's Leadership Award, presented to the ISA Edmonton Section member who demonstrated significant leadership over the year.
This past July, after being recruited by Tesla, Roslynn bid farewell to YEG and headed to Cali! The ISA Edmonton Section is very excited about Roslynn's big career move, but we do already miss her at our monthly ISA Edmonton Section events and board meetings already :(
We decided it was time to check-in with her and learn more about her career thus far, her new job with Tesla and how she's liking California!
What school and program did you graduate from?
I graduated in 2013 from the University of Alberta with a B.Sc. in Chemical Engineering.
Where did you work prior to Tesla?
I worked at a couple of different System Integration companies. Most recently I was with Addos Technologies as one of their Controls and Automation Specialists. In addition to acting as a resource for technical projects from clients, I also helped establish an R&D arm.
What made you consider the job offer with Tesla?
I wasn’t actually looking for a job but this was one that would have been hard to pass up. I perceived Tesla as this exciting place to be and I certainly haven’t been wrong so far!
How did the job opportunity at Tesla align with you career goals?
I didn’t initially start my career in industrial automation and it took me some time after I graduated to realize that it was a field that had a lot of potential. It changes often enough to offer constant challenges and the fact that it’s a very important piece of many different industries meant that I would never have to be tied to any single job. I only lasted for about 8 months in my first job in Calgary after I realized that it wasn’t a great fit. I landed a job with an Electrical and Controls Engineering firm up in Edmonton and have never looked back. Working with control systems is a wonderful way to be forced to really understand what needs to happen in a process. It’s hard to program something without knowing all the specifics and considering all the failure modes.
With regards to Tesla, I think I’m like most people in the sense that I want to do work that has a positive impact on society and is cutting edge. Tesla aligns with my career goals in the sense that it’s a high growth company doing things that no one else has done before and it’s a great way to develop a new skill set in a field where I have a genuine interest. I’m looking forward to the roller coaster of challenges of Model 3 launch and beyond!
Where in California are you living?
I’m technically living in Fremont (South East Bay Area between San Francisco and San Jose) but I have spent a large chunk of my time in Reno working out of the Gigafactory.
What’s do you love about California so far?
The most notable feature is the weather. However, it’s also considered an epi-center of innovation and I’ve always wanted to work in this type of environment. I’m hoping to grow my network as much as I can down here while I have the chance and take part in some of the meetups.
As a Controls Engineer at Tesla, what is your role?
I’m lucky to have landed a really cool job within the company. I’m on our internal Automation and Controls Engineering team – so we work on projects across the company and essentially handle everything that is necessary to control the machines from a manufacturing standpoint. This includes the lower level electrical, network and software architecture design as well as the actual programming. There are a lot of things that fit under that umbrella and no two days are the same.
What’s the coolest thing about working for Tesla thus far?
The coolest thing about working with Tesla is some combination of the mission (Accelerating the World’s Transition to Sustainable Energy) and the caliber of people that I get to interact with. It also doesn’t hurt that I get to be hands-on with some very complicated automation projects and robots (many teenagers' dream).
Describe one person at Tesla that you’ve met that’s inspired you…
The CTO – JB Straubel. Even though he’s a very high-ranking individual, he has come out to the plant floor and has been hands on with some of the toughest projects. Even the executives role up their sleeves!
A HUGE congratulations to Rosylnn Ricard on her exciting career move - the ISA Edmonton Section wishes her nothing but the very best!
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