My seed is extraordinary
Perseverance

Baba Yuki

New graduate hire IT Engineer (CPS Solutions) Innovation Strategy Business Headquarters
Digital Industry Division
CBM Solutions Department

A turning point in Baba's career came in his second year at the company. He decided to change jobs to become an AI engineer working on AI solutions. After acquiring a vast amount of knowledge and overcoming the challenges of practice, he saw the world of "professionals."

Q1: What is your current job and what is rewarding about it?

I want to be involved in AI solutions!
Challenges in my second year at the company

The deciding factor for me to join Macnica was the "refreshing" nature of the people I met during the selection process. I had the same impression of the other employees I met when I actually visited the office, so I remember feeling that it was a company with a good culture.
When I first joined the company, I worked as a field application engineer (FAE) providing technical support for semiconductor products of a supplier manufacturer headquartered in the U.S. I found the work of an FAE, which provided technical support for Macnica 's core semiconductor business, very rewarding, but in my second year at the company, the Innovation Strategy Business Division was established within the company to handle new businesses centered on AI.
Until then, I had been in charge of semiconductor products related to AI, but I wanted to be involved in a business that was deeply connected to AI solutions, not just hardware support, so I volunteered to move to this department. I am currently working as an engineer on anomaly detection AI for the manufacturing industry.

Downtime (the time when equipment is stopped or interrupted) caused by sudden equipment failures or malfunctions has long been a problem in the manufacturing industry. Prolonged downtime leads to reduced production efficiency and results in lost profits that could have been earned by the company. This can amount to hundreds of millions of yen. This demands rapid and accurate equipment restoration. However, Japan's declining birthrate and aging population have led to a decrease in the number of maintenance workers, and the increasing personalization of work that relies on the know-how of individual workers, making it difficult to consistently provide high-quality maintenance. In light of this situation, we are working every day to change the way maintenance is performed in the manufacturing industry and further increase factory productivity.

Daily Schedule

8:45

Start of Work

Review the work done up until the previous day and roughly plan the actions for the day
9:00

data analysis

Analysis of customer data - Testing inference AI
12:00

Lunch

I often buy lunch from a bento shop that comes to our head office.

13:00

Data analysis continues

The experiment report to be submitted is also prepared at the same time.
17:45

Leave work
19:00

Free time

I like to copy the music of my favorite artists using guitar and a DAW.

Q2: An episode in which you grew

Demonstrating extraordinary perseverance, he became a full-fledged professional in just two years

After being transferred to the Innovation Strategy Business Division, I had a tough time. I was literally a beginner AI engineer, and at the time there were very few people in the company who were knowledgeable in the field of AI, and there was no extensive training available.
However, these issues have absolutely no bearing on the customer, so we worked tirelessly to provide support that would satisfy our customers.

My first goal was to obtain an AI qualification administered by the Japan Deep Learning Association (JDLA). This exam is extremely difficult, so I studied thoroughly, mornings and nights on weekdays, and even on weekends. As a result, I was able to obtain the "E qualification," which is one level more difficult than the qualifications that many people obtain.
However, simply acquiring knowledge is not enough to become an engineer. You need to actually get your hands dirty in the field, creating AI that is the core of business, and providing useful services to customers.
So I used Macnica devices to sense various data and program the AI, repeatedly carrying out verification work. The process of creating AI is not easy. In order for the AI to properly learn from the sensed data, we engineers have to preprocess a huge amount of data and we also have to be creative in our programming methods. These tasks require extraordinary perseverance, but I continued to work on them without getting discouraged, and I accumulated the necessary skills and know-how.

Thanks to these experiences, I was able to grow to a level where I can proudly say I'm a fully-fledged AI engineer within two years of being transferred. What customers want is a "professional" who can provide the best service. I will continue to grow every day, never satisfied with my current situation, so that I can continue to be a "professional" who can provide high-quality service and support.

MY VISIONFuture goals and aspirations

Introducing AI solutions requires personnel with specialized knowledge of AI and statistics, as well as app development and industry-specific knowledge. Furthermore, even after implementation, repeated testing is required to "nurture" the best possible AI. By combining the expertise of Macnica 's professionals and our AI research organization, ARIH, we aim to tackle each of the challenges our manufacturing customers face, leading the way in creating and implementing never-before-seen AI solutions and driving innovation in society.

Personally, I also aim to become an engineer with even greater expertise in AI. I will continue to grow by absorbing the knowledge of Macnica 's excellent AI engineers, so that I can become a specialist with a thorough understanding of the deep and complex nature of AI.

Message

At first glance, it may seem like we're living in a world where AI can easily provide the right answers, but that's not the case at all. Working to make real people, who have bodies and live in the real world, happy can't be that easy. That's the kind of work you'll be doing from now on.
I look forward to meeting engineers who don't just come up with ideas on the spot, but who dive in with the right attitude towards technology and people, and who can make the customers in front of them, the people beyond them, the people around them, and themselves happy.