CSA and Vision Engineering Team Leader
While Averna is dedicated to help global customers produce market-leading high-tech products, this could not be achieved without their talented team of employees. Averna understands that each group and department are linked, and every individual is required to make the company a success. In this series, Averna will chat with one of these individuals and understand their point of view on their contribution.
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Jan Šíma has seen everything there is to see in the world of test and measurement. By combining his passion for knowledge and curiosity of how things work, he is responsible for some of the most effective innovations in power quality analysis. His curiosities extend far beyond the lab and into the world of music, space and the sea with an impressive range of hobbies. As the leader of Averna Czechia’s CSA group and Vision team, Jan’s ability to find creative solutions has been a great asset and we are excited to introduce him to you.
Q: Where were you before Averna and how did you get here?
A: After graduating in 1992 I started my career as a university teacher at the university I attended – Technical university in Ostrava, CZ. I was teaching courses related to test and measurement and also worked on projects related to instrument driver development in C and LabVIEW.
After several years, a new ELCOM (now Averna) office was established in my city by some of my colleagues from university. I started working there as a leader of the instrument drives development team, in addition to teaching at the university. I worked part time at the school and part time at ELCOM. Over time, I realized that I am more interested in real industry projects where the results of my work run 24/7 so I started to work at the company full time in early 2000s.
Q: What attracted you to Test Engineering & Vision?
A: Since I was a kid, I was always trying to understand how things work. At the university, my main field of study was frequency inverters. My desire to understand how they work led me to taking measurements and analyzing their input and output signals. I found more joy in this than in the actual designing and programming of the inverters.
Further down the road when machine vision digital cameras became available, I realized that I could use my optical and image processing knowledge from my astronomy and photography hobbies. I was able to build imaging and vision-based test systems.
Also, since my teenage years I have been playing and composing music on guitar and piano, and I was very interested in how synthesizers work. I was very happy to realize that I could use my understanding of how tones and chords are created in solution designs for sound and vibration measurement and analysis.
Q: What is your favorite aspect of your current role?
A: Coming from a team located in one country, having most of its customers in the same country, I am now really enjoying working with international teams across several continents. I was always very interested in the lives of people in other countries and different cultures. Now I am speaking with colleagues from several different countries every day, with some of them in their native languages (English, Polish).
Q: Is test engineering a more challenging field for an engineer with the range of technologies that must be mastered?
A: Yes, it is a sort of meta-engineering, where you have to take into account many different engineering domains to be able to design and implement complex test and measurement systems. I strongly believe that many technical inventions come from people with strong multi-disciplinary backgrounds.
Q: Have you had any key mentors or people who deeply influenced who you are, what you believe in and what you’re committed to in your work and life? Tell me about them.
A: My grandfather taught me photography, including the chemical process, so to this day I can immediately recognize a black & white film developer from fixer by smell. My father amazed me by his ability to explain many concepts of physics and math. I have kept his sketches from when he explained the Pythagorean theorem or logarithms to me. One of my uncles had a hobby of repairing old TV sets at home and as a kid I watched him measure voltages, currents and frequencies at the back of the TV to find out why it wouldn’t work. I watched him do this countless times and it was a revelation to me that based on these measurements he was able to determine the problem and replace the faulty part. Lastly, my colleague Daniel Kaminsky who 30+ years ago introduced me to physics- and math-based test and measurement. This is our common professional passion I think.
Q: Do you feel you achieve a good work/life balance?
A: No - I have 3 kids, so I wish I could spend more time at work 😉
But seriously, I appreciate (and need) that I can influence when my long and short days are.
Q: What are you most proud of?
A: In the field of technical achievements, it is probably the phasor measurement unit firmware. This is an advanced signal processing chain that runs on instruments installed in most of the very high-voltage transmission substations in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. They provide vital data about grid stability to the grid operators.
In general, I find it unique that in my very niche professional field of advanced test and measurement I can work on very interesting projects for big international companies without having to move to a big city or another country like many others to pursue their dreams.
Q: What have you learned from Averna that will be a takeaway for the rest of your life?
A: That sales and business strategy can be a well-managed process and serious professional discipline executed by highly knowledgeable and responsible people.