A self-taught engineer

Some people follow a clearly defined path. Ralph Rooding prefers to find his own. From teaching himself programming as a hobby to becoming an Embedded Software Engineer, his career has been shaped by curiosity, experimentation and an almost instinctive ability to learn new things. Give him a technology he does not know, and he will most likely figure it out himself. That mindset has taken him from web development into the world of embedded software and is exactly what makes him such a good fit for Nobleo Technology.

Learning from scratch

Ralph’s fascination with software started early on. After getting his first computer as a young boy, he began exploring programming simply because he liked it. There was no formal training behind it. He taught everything himself, using whatever information he could find. “That’s really how I’ve always learned things,” Ralph says. “If I want to understand how something works, I start looking into it. I’ll find tutorials, how-to’s and any additional documentation and just experiment until I get the hang of it.”

That approach has remained remarkably consistent throughout his career. It helped him make the transition from IT infrastructure into software development, where he gradually moved on to increasingly complex software architecture. “But after so many years, I felt I had explored that world as far as I wanted to. I was ready for a new challenge. Something that would take me out of my comfort zone. That would allow me to keep learning, take on new challenges and solve different kinds of problems.”

The pull towards embedded

That is where embedded software came in. “I have always been interested in what happens at the intersection of software and hardware,” he explains. “Robotics, microprocessors, even the mechanical side of things. I just find it interesting to understand how all those pieces work together.” That move to embedded software was a significant step, however. Ralph did have plenty of software experience, but not the specific embedded background Nobleo was actually looking for. He didn’t see that as a problem though, but rather as an opportunity to demonstrate how fast his learning ability was.

“During the recruitment process they told me about this operating system they work with, Zephyr. I had never used it before and I thought, instead of telling them how fast I pick up new things, I just show them.  I used the system to build a working application within roughly 1.5 weeks, in time for the second job interview.” And the experiment worked. Nobleo saw Ralph’s potential and offered him the job.

Trusted with a prototype

Since joining Nobleo, Ralph has worked on a variety of embedded software projects and broadened his knowledge across different layers of the software stack; from application development and system design to firmware and real-time operating systems. One of the projects that stood out involved developing software for a prototype used in the agricultural industry.

“It was exactly the kind of project I hoped for when starting at Nobleo,” he says. “I had to understand the hardware, work out how everything operated and then build the software around it. Nobleo gave me the responsibility and trusted me to get it done.” That trust matters to Ralph. “They basically said: go ahead, get started, and we’ll see how it goes,” he recalls. The fact that Nobleo was willing to give him that responsibility, despite his limited prior experience in embedded software, says as much about the company as it does about Ralph.

Freedom to explore

That freedom to investigate and experiment is one of the things Ralph appreciates most about Nobleo. Having worked in different types of organisations, both large and small, he knows which kind of environment brings out the best in him. “I’m not a big fan of bureaucracy,” he admits.

“What I like about Nobleo is that they give you a lot of responsibility from the start. You are given the freedom to work things out for yourself, but you’re not left to your own devices. Everyone here has their own expertise and there is always someone close at hand who can help you out when you get stuck.”

Curiosity at the core

Ralph’s need to understand and learn new things is not limited to his work. At home, he has spent years renovating his house, learning along the way how to tackle everything from insulation and flooring to electronics, air conditioning and paving. He has built furniture and even constructed his own CNC milling machine. “Not because I necessarily needed one, but I just wanted to know if I could,” he laughs.

Ralph approaches his other hobbies with the same enthusiasm. He frequently plays guitar and spends plenty of time walking, often together with his two Pyrenean Shepherds. During the COVID lockdowns, those walks turned into a challenge of their own. “I started walking more and more and then thought: why not try to walk every street of Eindhoven?” he recalls. “It took me about 1.5 years to cover the entire municipality using an app that tracked the streets I had already walked. From there I moved to the surrounding towns and even further afield. But the project is on hold now, as finding the time for it is currently the biggest challenge.”

Making the impossible possible

When asked what the future holds in store, Ralph genuinely doesn’t know. “I don’t want to look too far ahead,” he says. “What matters to me is that the work stays challenging and innovative, and that I keep that freedom to figure things out. In that respect I am exactly where I should be right now, with all the challenging projects that I am currently working on. At Nobleo, the first question is rarely whether something can be done. It’s more about exploring the possibilities and finding a way to make it work. And that’s exactly the kind of environment I enjoy being in.”

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