MEET THE TEAM: Sam Szotkowski – GIS Intern

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In our MEET THE TEAM series, we interview members of our team to help you get to know them personally and professionally. We continue the series with Sam Szotkowski.

• GIS Intern
• Based in the main office in Madison, WI
• Connect with Sam on LinkedIn

Education: BS Engineering Mechanics & Astronomy, UW Madison 2019

Experience: For the past 9-10 months, Sam has been learning the ins and outs of fiber optic network design and putting that knowledge to the test by creating maps and analyses for clients. He started with very little knowledge about networks themselves, but with a programming-heavy research background and solid engineering education, he was able to quickly grasp our workflows and the software we use to produce maps, schematics, and engineering permits.

Favorite Thing(s) To Do Professionally: Sam enjoys the cartographic aspect of his job, synthesizing data and designs into legible and visually appealing maps. Beyond that, he finds the most satisfaction developing tools in Python, Javascript, or whatever the task requires to simplify workflows and minimize the manual effort required of his teammates.

Favorite Thing(s) To Do Personally: Sam likes to head off to the woods, mountains, desert, or anywhere really to go backpacking with his friends. When there’s not a pandemic he also enjoys martial arts and playing tabletop games like Catan and Dominion.

Little Known Fact: Sam’s first introduction to combat sports was in high school, learning boxing from his friend’s dad in their garage.

Currently Working On: Sam is taking online classes to learn digital signal processing as well as Chinese.

Advice to someone entering this industry: We interact with many tangential industries like municipal engineering departments, aerial imagery companies, radio tower owners, network equipment manufacturers, software engineers, etc. There is a place in telecom for all sorts of backgrounds and interests.

Interested in reading other MEET THE TEAM posts? Click here to meet Luke Blose! You can also learn more about our Intern program by watching the video below.