.png)
.png?mask=1)
Life is defined by transitions.
There are the natural, expected transitions – our first day of school, high school graduation, our first job, marriage, and more.
Then there are the sudden transitions that come as a surprise. Sometimes they come out of heartbreak and loss. But sometimes they come out of an unexpected opportunity, when a door opens and we are whisked off on a new, uncharted adventure.
Noah Alexandroff has become familiar with those kinds of transitions. The valedictorian of the Steel Valley High School Class of 2016 returned to his alma mater as the guest speaker for the 55th annual commencement ceremony honoring the Class of 2026 on Thursday, May 28. During his speech, Alexandroff detailed how his life since graduating from Steel Valley and from Carnegie Mellon University has been marked by transitions.
“I didn't get into all the colleges that I applied for my senior year, but CMU ended up being the perfect place for me to learn and grow. I have two degrees in mechanical engineering, but I enjoy working as a data scientist far more than I ever enjoyed mechanical engineering,” he said. “I moved from a really secure job in a government lab to a fast-paced start-up and accelerated my career greatly because of it. These transitions all came with uncertainty, and I didn't really plan any of them. I worked through this uncertainty by controlling my effort and controlling my attitude, and as a result, it opened doors for me that I didn't know were possible.”
Alexandroff excelled in science and math while at Steel Valley. It was only natural he would gravitate towards a career in STEM, even if he didn’t have a specific idea of what he wanted to specialize in. He opted for mechanical engineering, which he earned a bachelor’s and master’s in at Carnegie Mellon University.
But it didn’t take long for his first major pivot to take place. After graduation from CMU, Alexandroff took a job as a data scientist at the Bettis Atomic Power Laboratory in West Mifflin, where he worked on applied artificial intelligence systems. He said while his major is different from his day-to-day work, the educational experience helped him become a better overall learner, giving him tools he applies on a regular basis.
“I think that education is really important about teaching you how to learn, and once you know how to do that, then you can kind of learn whatever you need to, depending upon your job,” he said.
His journey into software engineering and data science later took him to Seerist, a tech start-up focused on global risk intelligence. Last month, he moved to Govini in Austin, Texas. Alexandroff is a Senior Data Scientist on the company's Applied AI team, where he works on AI solutions to help the United States government make faster, data-informed decisions across national security programs.
“I primarily work on AI and machine learning systems, so using large quantities of data to really train a model to represent complex relationships, and then use that to make those decisions,” he said.
It’s a stark contrast from mechanical engineering, which has maintained a level of consistency even through technological innovations. In some ways, AI is the modern Wild West, with rapidly evolving technology and uses appearing on a regular basis.
“I didn't know that any of it existed. I think that, as far as the engineering branches go, mechanical engineering is pretty straightforward, which is part of the reason why I started there,” he said. “I didn't know what data science was, or I didn't really even understand what software engineering was, whenever I was graduating from high school, but I found my way there.”
His willingness to pivot, coupled with his early success, were just part of the reason why he was invited to speak to the Class of 2026. This year’s graduating class, as well as those in the future, will be entering a world in which adaptability has become a prized trait.
“Every single one of these shifts have come with a huge amount of uncertainty. There are a lot of moving parts in this world that you simply cannot control, and if you let the things that you can't control drive your actions, you will overthink, and you'll get stuck,” he told the graduates in his speech. “I've learned that the most practical way to get unstuck is by letting go the things that you can't change. I frequently find myself saying control what you can control, and that's really the best advice that I can give to this graduating class on how to navigate any transition.”
And no matter the field, no matter the circumstances, there is no substitute for putting your head down and going to work to help make that transition easier.
“I think the one thing about the Mon Valley generally, but Steel Valley specifically, is that a lot of people have a really good work ethic. It's a blue-collar town, right?” Alexandroff said. “That’s pretty clear how that translates to a really strong work ethic. I think that no matter what your career is, that brings you pretty far. I think that if Steel Valley taught me anything, it's how to work hard and how to not be afraid of a good challenge.”