Employee Spotlight: Chris

by Blu Wireless

In the last five years, Chris has transitioned from being a part-time team member and Master’s student to a successful full-time Senior Engineer, playing a vital role in improving Blu Wireless’s technology.

We spoke to him about his role and journey here:

  1. Describe a typical day in your role: What are your core responsibilities?

Chris: I’m a MAC Firmware Engineer within the Software team at Blu Wireless, responsible for the RX receive side of the MAC as well as the integration with the driver and upper layers and radio integration. I’m also starting to work on PHY firmware to develop my skillset.

  1. What is it about your role that you enjoy the most?

Chris: My favourite part is the problem solving and figuring out the best solutions for us, while being able to design all of the exciting things we’re working on from scratch. Some weeks, I get stuck into the big projects and on others I’m more reactive, fixing any challenges that might crop up.

  1. How has your career progressed at Blu Wireless? Have you experienced any changes of role or taken on responsibility for any significant projects?

Chris: My career at Blu Wireless began when I was doing part-time work with the company as part of my Master’s project in PHY hardware, at the end of 2013. I then started full-time in 2014, initially working on debugging tools and then transitioning into product development and our Linux distribution. I sometimes worked out in the field testing and fixing issues.

My main focus now is working in embedded software with the MAC team. I still help people in the different disciplines when I’m needed, which is always interesting. Recently, I’ve been working within radio integration which involved both working with our own developers and our RF partners.

  1. What has been your favourite project to work on at Blu Wireless and what was your role within that?

Chris: Designing the MAC, definitely. I had an entire processer to myself – there were four of us working the system and each one of us had a different processer. We all had to work independently and coherently to make sure everything worked properly. It was very rewarding to take on a substantial amount of responsibility.

  1. What do you like about working with the rest of the Blu Wireless team?

Chris: The best part is there are a lot of experienced members of the team that are really great to learn from. There’s so much passion in the office – I’m talking about people who have been working in this industry for 30-40 years. There’s a lot of very clever people and everyone tends to be very happy to share their knowledge and work with you when you don’t understand things.

  1. What perks do employees at Blu Wireless benefit from?

Chris: My favourites have to be no dress code and flexible hours; I like the casual and friendly environment in the office.

  1. What would you say to anyone who was considering applying to Blu Wireless?

Chris: It’s been a great company to work for and throughout the years I’ve experienced a lot of great things. From when we made the first chip, to all our huge milestones, there’s been so much learning and improvement at a very fast pace.