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VoltSafe Blog Team – July 24, 2023
Most of us remember our first computer. For a certain generation, getting that box that held your favourite games and programs with the black screen and green font is burned in our memory. Adrian Scillato, VoltSafe’s Embedded Software Engineer, remembers the time when his father brought home the family’s first home computer. Adrian wanted to know everything he could about this new machine and read the manual inside out to figure out how it worked. Now for those of you who were born after the generation of DOS and BASIC, you’re used to bringing home a computer or laptop and having an OS wizard walk you through the setup process. But for those who still remember floppy disks, if you wanted to get more out of your computer, the option to download an app or program didn’t exist. You actually had to create the program yourself. Since there were no courses for kids Adrian’s age, he learned what he could from reading magazines dedicated to computing. He would go through them quickly and would wait patiently for the next month to arrive so he could receive the next issue. When he was 10 years old, his parents enrolled him in a programming course for kids.
He enjoyed playing games on his computer with his little brother. There is a 6 year age difference between them and since his brother was too young to read, Adrian created a program with a menu for the games based on a numbering system. The idea was to allow his little brother to click on a numbered menu item that started a game. When the game ended it returned to the menu. Not bad for 11 year old Adrian. While most kids his age earn money by selling lemonade or doing household chores, Adrian offered to compress files for his dad’s workplace for a fee after hearing that his dad’s company kept running out of hard drive space when trying to manage their database. His first programming job. And what did he do with his paycheck? Invested it in IBM. Kidding, he purchased The Secret of Monkey Island. It had seven discs chock full of intense gaming.
At age 13, Adrian discovered 3D engines and wanted to learn more about creating them. He had read in his favourite computer magazine that trigonometry was the key to building 3D engines. He studied trigonometry to build an object and rotate it. The magazine had CDs with 3D files that allowed him to practice what he had learned. He was also enrolled in a technical school which allowed him to gain hands-on trigonometric skills.
We’re glad that it was VoltSafe that attracted his talents instead of Apple, especially after spending time in his youth working on an apple farm. They also grew pears. He considers Red Delicious his apple of choice and when it comes to pears he prefers the Packham.
So we are sure it’s not the Gala apples sitting in the fridge that keep him coming back into work. Instead, it’s the social and environmental impact behind Voltsafe’s products.
He believes that VoltSafe technology’s safety aspect sets it’s connectors apart from other smart plugs. He’s incredibly proud to contribute to a product that will provide safety for users along with the energy savings and remote control functions.
He also enjoys his interactions with his coworkers and finds his colleagues and engineering team easygoing and friendly. There is a fluidity and flow to their engagement and communication. The combined efforts of his team towards a common goal appeal to him. Also seeing each person’s effort come to fruition is fulfilling along with knowing that everything he works on at VoltSafe matters.
Including VoltSafe Marine. Adrian’s work on the firmware has pushed our tech lightspeeds ahead. If you are a Marina and would like to test VoltSafe Marine on your docks, sign up on this page. If you would like to see what VoltSafe’s engineering team’s combined efforts have produced, simply go to voltsafe.com to have a look.
About VoltSafe Inc.
VoltSafe Inc. is changing the way people connect to power. Headquartered in Vancouver, BC, the Canadian tech startup has reinvented the electrical plug by eliminating prongs, adding magnets and an “electrical fingerprint”. Using patented technology, VoltSafe has created the world’s safest, simplest, and smartest plug design since electricity came into homes more than 140 years ago. The company’s product pipeline includes magnetic plug replacement solutions for household, commercial, industrial, marine, electric and autonomous vehicles, emergency services, data centres and more.