As a perception engineer, Erkan helps machines be aware of their surroundings and become a bit smarter. The real world is a messy place, and someone has to teach those poor wires-for-brains about noise and the edge cases that tidy theory never quite covers. Erkan clearly likes challenges.
Hard problems drew him to Digisalix, but the name reminded him of home, too. And by the way – he’s one of the very few who got the name.
A few weeks in, it’s time to introduce our newest member to the world. Let’s start with the classic:
Tell us a little about yourself
I’m Erkan Adali, a perception engineer. I studied Control Engineering in Istanbul and have worked in the automotive and mining industries so far.
My experience includes self-driving cars, advanced driver-assistance systems, and mobile robotics, with a particular focus on perception systems. I enjoy working on problems where software needs to understand the real world and make sense of complex environments.
I’m originally from Türkiye and moved to Finland five years ago. Outside of work, I like playing video games and watching movies. During Finnish winters, I have also been learning cross-country skiing, although I’m not very good at it yet 🙂
What originally pulled you towards perception engineering?
Messy real-world constraints, definitely. Clean theory is elegant, but real systems deal with sensors, noise, missing data, changing conditions, and unseen situations. A system has to understand what matters, ignore unpredictable details, and still act reliably when the world does something unexpected.
Which industry challenge would you love to tackle next or one day?
I would love to work on world modelling from real-world data. Cameras and sensors give us rich signals, but turning them into useful understanding is still a huge challenge, especially for self-driving cars, mobile robots, and other systems that need to reason, predict, and act safely.
Coffee, tea, or something else for debugging?
Turkish tea, definitely. It fits debugging well: small glass, strong color, slow refills, and enough ritual to make you pause before blaming the code. It is warm, steady, and slightly stubborn.
What made you curious about Digisalix?
What made me curious about Digisalix was first the mix of data, optimisation, and practical problem-solving. That is exactly the kind of work I enjoy: taking something complex and turning it into something useful.
And honestly, the name caught my attention too. Salix is the willow family, and willows are common in my hometown, so the name immediately felt familiar to me. I like the image behind that as well. Willows are flexible, fast-growing, and good at thriving in changing environments, especially around water. That feels like a nice metaphor for a digital company: adaptable, resilient, and rooted in real-world problems rather than just theory.
That’s a sharp perception — though what else to expect from a perception engineer. What has been the most interesting part of your first month?
The most interesting part has been the open discussions. I have enjoyed being around conversations where ideas are still forming, assumptions are questioned, and people think out loud. It makes the work feel alive because you get to see the reasoning and trade-offs behind the direction of a project.
I have also appreciated how easy and fast it is to get help from colleagues. People are approachable, and even a quick question can turn into a useful explanation or a good conversation. That has made the first month feel much easier to settle into.
We are happy to hear it, the feeling is mutual. Welcome to the team Erkan!
