At IMC, pushing technological boundaries isn’t just a goal—it’s a necessity. In a recent article with Built In, Zack Kobza, a Data Engineer, shared his excitement for the year ahead, particularly in expanding research capabilities on a global scale.

Inspired by Zack’s insights, we spoke with Pierre Bashshour, a Software Engineer Lead, to hear about his perspective on the most exciting challenges in 2025.

Zack Kobza, Data Engineer

What project are you most excited to work on in 2025?

"The project I am most excited about in 2025 is expanding our research capabilities within IMC on a global scale." Zack explains. "We’re building a cutting-edge infrastructure that will allow research teams to experiment freely, iterate rapidly, and run workloads with confidence. By pushing the boundaries of technology, we aim to develop predictive models to solidify our competitive edge."

For Zack, this project is not only exciting for IMC, but also a personal growth opportunity. Coming from a developer background, he’s eager to dive into data center infrastructure and enhance his business skills—working with vendors, managing contracts, and contributing to cost estimations. He’s also looking forward to collaborating with new colleagues, a key opportunity as IMC expands globally.

What does the roadmap for this project look like? How do you envision overcoming those challenges?

“The roadmap for this project involves close collaboration across teams to meet researchers' immediate needs while developing a long-term strategy that anticipates future demands.”

Key milestones include:

• Expanding compute resources to support existing and emerging research needs.
• Creating a flexible research strategy that adapts to shifting priorities.
• Developing a cost model to better understand infrastructure usage patterns.
• Exploring emerging technologies to boost productivity across hardware and software.
• Simplifying how researchers interact with the infrastructure to ensure seamless access to performance-enhancing tools.
• Establishing a global operational support model to ensure reliability and scalability.

"Challenges like technological limitations, team coordination, and cost considerations are inevitable," Zack adds. "But by fostering continuous learning, hiring skilled talent, and maintaining open communication, we can drive success.”

What in your past projects, education, or work history best prepares you to tackle this project?

“My experience in data engineering has built a strong foundation in managing large-scale data systems and supporting analytical tools that transform raw data into meaningful insights. More recently, my work with research teams has also deepened my understanding of machine learning models and workflows.”

What do you hope to learn from this work to apply in the future?

Zack sees this project as an opportunity to sharpen his strategic thinking and high-level problem-solving skills. "I’m excited to dive deeper into data center infrastructure and apply my experience in data engineering to broader strategic challenges."

Pierre Bashshour, Software Engineer Lead

What project are you most excited to work on in 2025?

"I am most excited to see how we can scale our research infrastructure across the globe," Pierre shares. "Scaling means increasing the amount of data we store, ingest, and process, as well as expanding our compute power to keep up with growing demands."

The complexity of this challenge excites Pierre the most—it requires expertise across hardware procurement, networking, software tooling, and cloud infrastructure. Every piece must work together to ensure researchers have seamless access to cutting-edge technology.

What does the roadmap for this project look like?

Pierre's roadmap for scaling research infrastructure includes:

• Tracking an increasing number of jobs in real-time to ensure smooth execution.
• Designing the right levels of abstraction for data access while maintaining compliance with access rules.
• Enhancing global infrastructure to maximize efficiency and performance across different regions.

By leveraging his experience in both research and software engineering, he aims to refine the infrastructure to be both powerful and user-friendly.

What in your past projects, education, or work history best prepares you to tackle this project?

Pierre brings a unique perspective as both a builder and a past user of the research infrastructure he now works on. “Having spent years running research workloads and iterating on algorithms, I understand firsthand what researchers need to be successful.” His decade-long experience in software engineering and machine learning further strengthens his ability to design scalable solutions.

What do you hope to learn from this work to apply in the future?

Pierre is eager to stay at the forefront of technologies that enable large-scale research. “I hope to refine my ability to build infrastructure that scales seamlessly while remaining efficient and easy to use.” By continuously improving IMC’s research infrastructure, he aims to create tools that empower researchers to push boundaries faster than ever before.

Driving Innovation in 2025

At IMC, engineering isn’t just about solving technical challenges—it’s about creating infrastructure that fuels the future of research and innovation. Zack and Pierre’s projects are just two examples of how our engineers are pushing boundaries to ensure IMC remains at the cutting edge.