#PeopleofSTEAM: Meet Zain

#PeopleofSTEAM: Meet Zain 

Zain, a member of the 2023 Inspire the Future: FIRST ^® Educators Recognition Program cohort, is a Graduate Design Engineer at SPORTENG where he designs sports fields around Australia and the United States. He uses AutoCAD to design every part of the fields from size, orientation and grade, all the way to designing stormwater drainage infrastructure underneath the field. Zain is also a FIRST^® LEGO^® League alum and a mentor for FIRST LEGO League and FIRST^® Tech Challenge. 

Read more below about how Zain makes an impact on his community through his work and mentorship. 

FIRST Staff: What is your favorite part of your current role as a Graduate Design Engineer at SPORTENG? 

Zain: My favorite part of my current role as a Graduate Design Engineer would be having the opportunity to make an impact on my community through local government projects. By working on sports fields that benefit local communities, I know those precincts will be used recreationally for exercise as well as competitively by youth teams for school and weekend competitions. As a result, I know that every project I work on will have a benefit to the community, and the satisfaction I receive from that is probably my favorite part of the role. 

FIRST Staff: What is the hardest part of your job?  

Zain: The hardest part of my job would probably be dealing with the extensive time between a solution being designed in the office, and the implementation of that solution on-site. Civil projects often take years to progress from design to construction. While it is enjoyable working to design a solution that meets the client's expectations, it requires a lot of patience to see the result of our work come to fruition.  

FIRST Staff: How do you use STEAM skills in your everyday work/life?  

Zain: The STEAM skill I most often use in my time at work or everyday life would be communication. No matter what circumstance I find myself in, I’m always using communication skills to better understand a task at hand or find a solution. As a high school student, I always struggled to initiate a conversation or ask a question as I feared what others may think of me. Through my time as a team member in FIRST LEGO League, I found myself opening up to team members and actively working with other students to solve problems, as opposed to purely relying on my own perspective. This skill of being able to communicate effectively with others progressed as I went through university. All my work now is done in collaboration with others, so I am constantly using the communication skills that I’ve developed over time.  

FIRST Staff: Can you share your thoughts on the impact of your personal/professional work in STEAM?  

Zain: While my work as a Design Engineer has an impact on local communities, it’s probably my role as a robotics coach that is most impactful on others. When I was in my final year of schooling, I was offered the opportunity to take on a coaching role of the FIRST LEGO League and FIRST Tech Challenge teams at my school, and I’ve been doing this for the past six years. Being able to foster a positive team culture between students and seeing the overall development of team members keeps me coming back to coaching. As a former student of the team myself, I know what the value of a mentor can be, so taking on that role is important to me. 

FIRST Staff: Who is a “Person of STEAM” who inspires you?  

Zain: A “Person of STEAM” who inspires me is my former robotics coach, who is a mechanical engineer and is now studying medicine. Going through high school was quite a turbulent period [for me], with a lot of change occurring in a short span of time. The one constant that kept me engaged with school was robotics and it’s my former coach I have to thank for that. I joined the robotics team on a whim and didn’t expect much from the experience as I didn’t believe I was inclined toward math or science and always enjoyed reading and writing more. However, my coach provided a pathway to help me develop a problem-solving and practical mindset. This allowed me to gain more confidence in math and science, and I actually significantly improved my grades in those subjects. It was his mentorship that made me believe I could perform in those subjects. If it wasn’t for his coaching, I wouldn’t have considered engineering as a field I could participate in. I hope I can do the same for others. 

FIRST Staff: If you could give one piece of advice to your younger self, what would it be?  

Zain: One piece of advice I would give to my younger self would be to not fear failure. As a teenager, I lacked self-confidence and was always worried about how my words or actions would affect the way others perceived me. I was always anxious, as anything I did had the chance of being wrong. Later toward the middle of high school I realized it was only through risk that I could improve myself, and as cliché as it sounds, I realized that failure isn’t a negative thing but rather just part of the process. I do still find myself fearing failure and it’s something I most likely will have to continually work on even as an adult.  

FIRST Staff: Do you have a message you want to share for students who are participating in FIRST today? 

Zain: My message for students participating in FIRST today would be to be proud of your work and to continue your participation in FIRST for as long as possible. Most students who participate in FIRST are positively affected by it in some way or another, and even those who don’t feel inclined towards STEAM subjects seem to thrive when participating in FIRST. Be proud of your participation, and don’t let it go, because it can change your life!