Building something new — Helsinki, Finland

Adam Rojík

Engineer · Microsoft · Robotics Researcher · HRI · AI Founder · Innovation · Global

From programming at 11 to building features at Microsoft, researching human‑robot interaction, and studying innovation management across 4 countries. Now channeling it all into building something meaningful.

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My Global Journey

5 countries, 4 universities, 1 mission — building skills and perspective to create something that matters.

Czech Republic Singapore Canada Finland France
🇨🇿
Czech Republic
B.Sc. & M.Sc. in Cybernetics & Robotics · M.S. Innovation Management · Microsoft
2016 — present (home base)
🇸🇬
Singapore
Exchange at Nanyang Technological University
Aug — Dec 2024
🇨🇦
Canada
Exchange & Research Professional at Université Laval
Jan — Aug 2025
🇫🇮
Finland
Exchange at Aalto University · Management of Innovation
Aug 2025 — now
🇫🇷
France
ATHENS Network courses at Télécom Paris & MINES ParisTech
2022 & 2023

Experience

From building e-commerce at 16 to engineering at Microsoft — always shipping.

Université Laval
Research Professional — Management Dept.
📍 Quebec City, Canada 📅 Feb — Aug 2025
  • Automatized extraction of complex information from 500+ SEC filings with AI
  • Analysis with Wharton Research Data Services
  • Drawing trend outlines from the analysis
Microsoft
Software Engineer — MS Teams
📍 Prague, Czech Republic 📅 Jul 2023 — Aug 2024
  • Led a two-person team to rapidly prototype a new feature for MS Teams, transforming a rough concept into a standard project
  • Delivered a functional prototype ahead of schedule — became the foundation for subsequent research
  • Collaborated with PMs to refine scope; feature landed on the official product roadmap
  • Implemented comprehensive E2E, unit, and screenshot testing strategies
Feramat Energies
Software Engineer
📍 Prague, Czech Republic 📅 Oct 2020 — Jun 2023
  • Developed advanced data analysis tools using Telegraf, Protocol Buffers, gRPC, InfluxDB & Grafana
  • Created a predictive model that optimized power station operations, increasing reliability and efficiency
Microsoft
Software Engineer Intern — MS Teams
📍 Prague, Czech Republic 📅 Jul — Sep 2022
  • Developed and implemented a security feature enhancing user privacy — automating camera & microphone shutdown during device lock
  • Identified and resolved critical bugs, improving platform stability
Czech Technical University
Undergraduate Research Fellow — Dept. of Cybernetics
📍 Prague, Czech Republic 📅 Jan 2018 — Oct 2019
  • Worked on human-robot interaction with Pepper & NAO robots — behavioral patterns in HRI communication
  • Co-designed & conducted 4 experiments, programming robots in Python with RGB-D camera data
  • Findings presented at international conferences (ICSR, CIRCE at RO-MAN)
  • Coordinated participation of 90+ subjects across experiments
  • Implemented the BarrettHand gripper in MuJoCo simulator — grasping rigid & deformable objects
Self-Employed
Web Developer
📍 Czech Republic 📅 2011 — 2018
  • Started programming at age 11
  • Built an e-commerce platform from scratch — database design to front-end (PHP, JS, jQuery)
  • Repurposed system as an online catalog for a local chandelier retailer, driving business growth

Skills & Technologies

A blend of deep engineering and broad business skills — shaped by research, industry, and global experience.

Engineering
Python TypeScript React C++ C PHP JavaScript SQL VHDL HTML5 Git
🤖
AI & Data
Machine Learning Deep Learning Computer Vision Data Analysis Grafana gRPC MATLAB
🚀
Business & Leadership
Project Management Strategic Planning Business Development Product Design Feature Definition International Business Prototyping
🌍
Soft Skills & Culture
Cross-cultural Teams Public Speaking People Management Coaching Communication Personal Branding Emotional Design
🇨🇿 Czech Native
🇬🇧 English Professional (C2)
🇩🇪 German Limited Working
🇫🇷 French Limited Working

Research & Publications

Peer-reviewed contributions to the field of human-robot interaction.

📄 Conference Paper

Should a small robot have a small personal space? Investigating personal spatial zones and proxemic behavior in HRI

CIRCE Workshop at IEEE RO-MAN 2020

Study with 40 participants exploring whether people scale social zones to a NAO robot's size. Found that average approach distance (48 cm) stayed within human-sized personal zone — people don't fully scale down. Introduced real-time perception of 25 body keypoints using RGB-D camera for distance estimation.

Read Paper →
📄 Conference Paper

Hey, Robot! An Investigation of Getting Robot's Attention Through Touch

ICSR 2022 · Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 13817, Springer

Studied touch-based interaction with NAO (26 participants) and Pepper (28 participants). Designed 4 reaction behaviors — found that preferred response was the robot hand moving back. Discovered correlation between anxiety traits and perception of passive vs. active robot reactions.

Read Paper →

Awards & Hackathons

🏆
Smart Mobility Hackathon
Winner 2× — smart station concept (2018) & Gulliver emotion-based route app (2019)
Prague · 2018 & 2019
🥇
UniT Challenge — 1st Place
ABRA Software category — intelligent inventory management app
Prague · 2022
🥈
UniT Challenge — 2nd Place
Showmax category
Prague · 2021
🥉
HackJakBrno
Third place — Team Moomins, medical kiosk healthcare challenge
Brno · Nov 2025
🌟
Business Analysis for Volvo Trucks
Led the winning team in an international semestral project
Dec 2025

What's Next

🚀

I've spent the last decade building — shipping code at Microsoft, publishing robotics research, and learning how innovation scales across Singapore, Canada, and Finland. Now I'm bringing it all together.

I'm building a company. The foundation is solid: deep technical skills, global perspective, relentless curiosity, and the drive to solve real problems. I believe the best companies are built by people who can bridge technology and human needs — and that's exactly what I've been training for.

I'm looking for people who want to build together:
🤝 Co-founders & Early Hires 💡 Advisors & Mentors 🏦 Investors & Partners 🌍 Collaborators
Let's Build Together

I have had the pleasure to work with Adam, in the context of the development of a software model. His insights and professionalism helped a lot with the definition of the framework of the model. He was able to define complex concepts in simple terms and brought more clarity to the thought process. I confidently recommend his services.

Sina Hamani Saliah
Secrétaire Général, MAZUMAWA National Gold Company

Let's Connect

Whether you're interested in collaborating, investing, or just want to chat — I'd love to hear from you.