About Me

My name is Adham Zaki – but my friends just call me Zaki

I’m studying Industrial Engineering with a specialty in Operations Research and Information Engineering at the University of Toronto. I’m also pursuing a Minor in Artificial Intelligence and a Certificate in Engineering Leadership.

I’ve previously interned at Procter & Gamble as a Web & Search Analyst and Software Engineer on their Digital Marketing Optimization team. In addition to working on the analytics side, I also developed new plugins for an open-source tool that is used at P&G.

Take a look at my Résumé if you're interested

Values

Curiosity: I love asking questions and always try to keep an open mind. ‘Why?’ is my favourite question. I ask is constantly, especially when the topic is new to me. This approach gives me a deeper understanding and appreciation of whatever I’m trying to learn learning because I'm starting at a more fundamental level, the Why behind things.

Efficiency: Be it an algorithm that could faster or a set of resources that could be better allocated, it pains me when things aren’t done efficiently. The idea that you can get more value out of something without needing to add anything (such as through doing existing things in a different order) is really appealing to me; it's the main reason I specialized in Operations Research, which is all about optimizing processes and decision making. This also ties in with my first value, because curiosity acts as the driving force to discover more efficient solutions.

Fun: I think having fun is a key element that a lot of people forget about. George Bernard Shaw famously said: We don’t stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing. Aside from the obvious benefits of stress reduction and improved interpersonal relationships, fun activities that introduce us to new ideas and concepts foster self-directed learning and higher information retention; both crucial for curiosity and efficiency.

Passion

Given my values, it shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise that I have a passion for teaching. In addition to educating and inspiring others, teaching is one of the best ways to reinforce and consolidate our own knowledge (learn more here).

If we are to teach something well, we often have to simplify complex ideas that are fully formed and self-evident in our minds, but that cannot be transferred directly to the minds of others without breaking them down into smaller, simpler chunks. This is an incredibly valuable activity.

My favourite teachers back in school injected fun into their classes to keep me curious, to ensure that I stay intrigued and came back for more. A big part of what I was able to achieve so far is thanks to amazing teachers I’ve had in the past and would like to pay that forward someday.

Hobbies & Background

My hobbies include gaming, swimming, doing escape rooms with my friends, and coding these little side-projects you can find around here. I’ve also recently picked up the guitar and have been practicing when I get the chance.

I’m fluent in English and German and able to hold a conversation in Arabic and (sometimes) French. I grew up in Dubai and I went to a German school where all four languages are taught.