People @ Proxiad: Svetlin Ivanov
Meet Svetlin Ivanov, Validation & Verification Engineer at Proxiad SEE! Svetlin joined our team a year ago and came with an extensive background in both hardware and software quality assurance. But he has a creative side to him as well – his first poetry book came out in 2021 and he’s already working on the next one. Learn more about him in the latest People @ Proxiad article:
Tell me a bit more about your professional background. How did you start your career?
I’ve had a keen interest in electronics and radio technology from a very young age. After I completed my undergraduate degree, I started maintaining and repairing all kinds of telecommunication and computer devices, while also continuing my education in this sphere. It was around that time that I realized I wanted to work in information technology.
So after having worked in hardware maintenance, you made a turn towards software quality assurance. What made you change career paths?
It’s a funny story, actually. I was working as a support engineer for flying simulators. The job was not a good fit for me due to its working hours, since I often had to work at night which meant I had less time for my family during the day. I started thinking about my career development and future in the sphere and concluded I wanted to do something that offered more growth. Soon, I stumbled upon a job offer that required the candidates to be able to read and decipher an XML file in order to apply through a link in the code. Though I had never worked in that field, it ended up being an easy task for me so I decided to give it a shot. I was able to impress the interviewer and they gave me a chance. And here I am now – 10 years later, happy that I work in Validation & Verification at Proxiad.
Could you tell me more about what you do as a Validation & Verification Engineer?
Together with my team, I am responsible for the quality of the medical drivers that the company we work for produces. We analyze the requirements that clients (hospitals, medical centers, etc.) have and prepare a test strategy and plan. The strategy is then shared with the whole team so that everyone knows what we will be testing and how.
After that, we perform manual and automatic tests on real devices. We simulate different states of patients’ health and inform the team if there are any issues with the device’s performance. We report bugs and provide detailed documentation so the developers can weed them out.
Would you say that your knowledge of how hardware works helps you in what you do now and how?
Absolutely. It is a major advantage. It gives me a more thorough overview of a device as a whole. Its output does not depend solely on its software but on its hardware capabilities as well. Understanding software and hardware gives me an edge in testing and discovering malfunctions.
The client you work for is in the healthcare industry. Could you describe what your role is in the project?
To put it simply, my role is to discover and analyze software issues. The client I work for – part of the Philips family – develops ICT solutions, hardware and software that allow communication between medical devices (ventilators, infusion pumps, patient monitors, anesthesia machines, incubators etc.) and the hospital’s centralized informational system. This makes it possible for medical personnel to track and control vital indicators of the patients in the facility.
I test the drivers that link the medical devices and the server that allows for the transfer of vital information and its processing. This information helps medical staff make decisions during diagnostics or in case of emergency.
These devices are an incredible example of how technology can help people. Is this a driving force for you in your work?
Yes, this is a huge part of my motivation. Knowing that there is someone out there who benefitted from my work makes it worthwhile.
Now let’s talk about another side of you that isn’t so usual for tech people. Not only do you write poetry but your debut book recently came out. Could you share a bit more about that?
I’ve been writing since I was a child. But it all started as a joke. My brother had just formed a band with some friends and they needed someone to write lyrics for their songs. I started doing that and found a way to express myself – my emotions and thoughts, my happy and sad moments. That was my way of communicating with the world. I created art in the form of words.
The band didn’t last but I kept writing. Some years later… well, quite a bit later, I decided to publish my first poetry book which featured the most important poems I have written during the years. The book came out at the end of 2021, and here I am, already thinking about the next book.
How do your technical and poetic sides mesh? Do they complement each other or do they clash?
To me, they complement each other in a fascinating way. In poetry, as well as in music, there is always a structure. A beginning, a middle and an end… and let’s not forget a great headline. The writing itself must have substance, something to make you think. That’s very similar to well-written code, isn’t it?
