Employee Spotlight – Negin Lashkari
2019-08-15
Meet Negin Lashkari, a Controls Development Engineer in Advanced Vehicle Prognostics, as a part of the Autonomous Driving and Active Safety team, based out of our Canadian Technical Centre Markham campus.
1) How long have you been at GM and what is your current role?
I have been at GM since November 2018, so that’ going on 10 months. I’m a Controls Development Engineer in Advanced Vehicle Prognostics which is a part of Autonomous Driving and Active Safety (ADAS) team. In my role, I design algorithms to diagnose vehicle faults before they get worse. I also design algorithms to validate Autonomous Vehicle (AV) sensors and test them at the end of line production.
2) What brought you to GM?
My passion for self-driving cars and contributing to this new technology encouraged me to apply for GM. Hearing about GM Canada activities in the AV and ADAS areas made me believe that I don’t need to be in Silicon Valley to pursue my dream of working on self-driving cars. Fortunately, the skills that I learnt around controls and autonomous navigation during my graduate made me a qualified candidate to be a part of the growing GM family.
3) What is the best part about your job?
The best part of my job is helping to address self-driving car challenges. In addition, I get to work with people around the world – from California to Michigan and all the way to Israel. It is a great way to meet people with different cultures, backgrounds and skills and to learn from them.
4) How has GM helped you grow?
GM has taught me soft skills that I couldn’t learn at school such as strategic perspective, autonomy and taking initiatives. Additionally, working at GM has taught me the real challenges of vehicle production that I would have never thought of. GM has given me the opportunity to participate in various trainings, online courses and to collaborate across teams to expand my knowledge and learn the tools required to do my job.
5) What is the coolest thing that you’ve accomplished since being at GM?
There are so many cool things that I’ve accomplished during such a short period of time! From setting up and assembling an AV bench to testing sensors under severe conditions and much more… I can’t really get into it though, due to confidentiality rules.
6) What’s your favourite GM vehicle?
My favorite vehicle is Sierra Denali. This truck makes me feel I’m the queen of the road, and when driving this car, there is no way that I cannot be noticed! I have tried this vehicle multiple times through different programs we have in GM (e.g., Take a spin, Ambassador) and I absolutely love it.
7) If you could drive to one place where would it be?
I don’t like long drives. But, if I could use the Super Cruise feature, I would take a road trip all the way to Vancouver, BC.
8) What do you do on your free time?
I love to participate in group fitness classes, read, practice programming and hang out with my friends.
9) What’s one thing most people don’t know about you?
I wake up one hour earlier every morning to read books. This helps me to be more focus throughout the day and think straight.
10) If you didn’t have to sleep, what would you do with the extra time?
I’d invent a very fast transportation machine that enables me to go visit my family – who lives 10,000 km away – more often.
11) Are you more of a hunter or a gatherer?
A hunter, most of the times especially when there are tasks required to be done quickly or decisions that need to be made in a short period of time.