Alumni portrait Aleksandar Rodzevski
In 2000, when Aleksandar Rodzevski was in his second year of studying computer and electrical engineering at Malmö University, the dot come bubble burst. The industry collapsed and several of his classmates dropped out. But Aleksandar stuck to his plan and today, over 20 years later, he works as a software manager for the Malmö company Radinn, which manufactures electric surfboards.
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“Although the second half of the nineties were good years and many people got jobs without higher education, I noticed that a university education was required to get the jobs that I really wanted. I applied to Malmö University's engineering programme with a focus on data and telecommunications; it was the most progressive education in that field at the time. The local mobile industry was booming, and I just wanted to finish my education as soon as possible – Malmö University was an obvious choice for me, and I started studying there not long after it was founded.”
Aleksandar describes himself as a super-motivated student who took on education as a full-time job and through a scholarship got the chance to do his thesis project in South Africa.
“During those six months in Cape Town, I had the chance to familiarise myself with Bluetooth technology, which at the time was a new technology that was starting to gather momentum.”
When Aleksandar graduated, the dot come bubble had burst and there was a hiring freeze in the industry. He was then offered another scholarship to continue delving into Bluetooth technology. This in turn led to a part time position at Malmö University to develop a laboratory platform for Bluetooth that was later used in courses for embedded systems.
In addition to teaching, Aleksandar had his own consulting company.
By 2004, Aleksandar was back in the technology industry, first at the consulting company Teleca and later working in product development and technology development for the mobile phone manufacturers Toshiba and Ericsson.
“I went around the world in search of new technology to implement in phones, but when the Swedish mobile industry later crashed, I started looking around for start-up companies in Malmö.”
After a few years at the Malmö company Anima, which manufactured smart watches, Aleksandar got an offer to work for the then newly started company Radinn. It now has approximately 50 employees and customers worldwide.
Aleksandar has stayed connected with Malmö University and in addition to teaching, he has helped develop courses in his role of advisor at the Faculty of Technology and Society. He has also managed to help an estimated 20 students with their thesis projects.
Last year, when he was invited to give an inspirational lecture for high school students who are thinking of studying technology at Malmö University, he jumped right in:
“The contact with teachers and students from my old university has been super valuable. Those relationships are definitely something I will continue to keep alive.”
