Interview with Tech Lead, Wajdi Khattel


Wajdi Khattel is Tech Lead in the Research & Development Department at CELUS. His superpower is Machine Learning and he ideally wants machines to do everything he doesn’t like doing. Wajdi is very focused and has a strict daily routine.

 Hi Wajdi! Most of us never met you in person, but we are so happy that you are part of the CELUS Team. How is the collaboration going with the team?

Yes, I met some of the team, but Covid-19 deprived me from meeting the rest of you. For me, remote work, it’s a bit hard and makes me miss spontaneous office moments, but we still make it work through good communication and regular video calls.

 Can you show us a picture of your working place and tell us about your daily routine?

Wajdi in front of his desk
Wajdi in front of his desk

My daily routine is:

  1. Wake up at 6 am.
  2. Go to the gym or swim at the beach. Then shower and eat something.
  3. Join the daily Stand Up and then Start working, lunch break, working.
  4. Spontaneous evening stuff…

 Where do you live and how did you come to CELUS?

I live in a calm city called Borj cedria in Tunisia (near the capital Tunis), where we have an amazing combination of nature: mountains, forests, and beaches. Here’s a picture of it:

Wajdis hometown
Wajdis hometown

I came to CELUS in a partnership with another company and I’m very happy to be part of the team ever since.

 As you work as a Machine Learning expert, what fascinates you the most about this field?

Well, the fact that you can make the machine think as human and mimic the human brain is just amazing. Also, you can let the machine deal with things that we as humans are lazy to do, or even unable to solve.

 What is the best advice that has ever been given to you in your life?

“Travel as much as you can, and don’t sleep a lot”

Especially for the sleeping part, I always think that sleeping is a waste of time (don’t hate me for that :D), just sleep enough that your body rests and that’s all. After that, you can achieve a lot of things during your day!

 You mentioned you like to disassemble computers and phone in your free time. What is the most complex device you disassembled and what do you like about that?

Well, that would be my first desktop computer back in 2008 which was a very old computer with many useless big components. That was the most complex thing for me, because it was my first disassembly and I was only 14 years old back then. Also, I had only little information on the internet.

But since I haven’t had a phone back then to take picture of it, here’s a picture of latest computer I fixed, it had a burn up graphic card, but I still managed to have it working again.

Wajdis latest project: reparing this computer
Wajdis latest project: reparing this computer

Wajdis latest project: He fixed the computer
Wajdis latest project: He fixed the computer

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