Meet Vakhtang Latsuzbaya | Development & Research Engineer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Vakhtang Latsuzbaya and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Vakhtang, how do you think about risk?
When I’m thinking about taking risks, the quote “No risk, no fun” always pops up in my head. If we want to have interesting lives, we obviously have to take risks. Actually we do it all the time, every day. We don’t even think about it, because it belongs to our lives. Even cooking something new for dinner is a risk. Of course, there are small and high risks. When we are thinking about high risks, it always relates to fear or changes in our comfort zones. But actually it’s only in the beginning because we don’t have enough information or experience about it. During the achievement of the goal, the fear or discomfort goes away.

I work in research area in aviation industry. We work with innovations every day. We try new materials, new processes. We test new products. It means we take risks all the time. From thousands ideas only few could be realized. Don’t be afraid of doing something wrong. Even bad results are results, which you can use for you further decisions or actions. Without taking risks you cannot go forward.
But before taking high risks, it’s better to analyze the consequences. I usually create the list with with the consequences in my head or write them on a paper.

I choose the best and worst consequences. If I understand that I can go with the worst one, I take a risk. In reality we get something in a range between worst and best consequences. I would say it’s 50% up to you in which direction you are going and 50% in dependency of society and surrounding environment. Therefore during achievement of our goals we have to be flexible and to be able to adapt ourselves to some aspects, which come during this process. Sometimes even our goals can be changed or updated over the time.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
I work as an engineer in aviation industry since 2012. I started with small projects and after some years I worked with several big projects at the same time. But even if the project was small, it was something new and always interesting for me. There are always challenges on my work, but it would be boring for me to work without them. I always love to learn something new. That’s why I started to write a PhD thesis in 2019 parallel to my daily work. Here we come back to the question about taking risks. I knew what it means to do a PhD at the same time with the daily work, but I analyzed all pros and contras and decided to do it. In the beginning it was very hard. It took so much time and energy, but it was worth it. Right now I’m on the last steps of PhD and still have a lot of work to do, but I can tell that I will never regret about my decision. It gave me so many opportunities to work with interesting topics and of course with people. I’ve learned so much from my supervisors, colleagues and students.

I admire them a lot! I would like to take this opportunity to make a small advertising for jobs in technical areas for young people. If you like technical subjects, innovation, research and engineering, welcome to our world! So many smart, interesting and great people work here. This world can give you a lot of opportunities, you couldn’t even dream of. It’s really fun! Sometimes you need to work hard and give a lot of time and energy, but you will get more! I promise!

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
My twin brother Temo and me went to San Diego for a scientific conference in March. By the way my brother works at the same company and he is also writing a PhD 🙂 So we have friends there and they took us to Chicano Park, which was created 52 years ago by local community in Barrio Logan. The stories of the murals represent this powerful movement and struggles of this community. My brother and I love to learn about different cultures. If we have possibility, we go to the different countries to see it live. I love Latino culture. That’s why I was so happy to visit Chicano Park. I would highly recommend it to all person’s who is going to San Diego.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
I would like to thank my family, my friends and also my co-workers, who always support me with my daily job and with my PhD thesis. And of course, my supervisor at the University of Stuttgart.

Instagram: @vakho_

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vakhtang-latsuzbaya-25bb015b

Image Credits
@vakho_