Łukasz Bartoszcze (2020), the founder of the startup ControlAI, credits the MA program for exposing him to rigorous mathematical and quantitative training.
“The abstract math I learned was better and more advanced than math from just a data science or machine learning background,” the Warsaw native explains.
Why Columbia
Before Columbia, Łukasz attended the University of Warwick, majoring in Economics. There, he took courses with professors who had previously worked at top US institutions, “which incentivized me to do an MA in the United States.”
He targeted Columbia for graduate school because he wanted to acquire a more technical background and explore various methods of working with and analyzing data.
“While picking up my life was challenging, admittedly, as it was my first time in the US, I knew that I wanted the opportunity to study in NYC at one of the top institutions in the world.”
Łukasz adds that he was initially “shocked at how education works in the US, how I was allowed to add to my experience by taking engineering, computer science, and advanced mathematics courses.”
“Having the rigorous quantitative training from the Econ MA program allowed me to excel in my machine learning courses at Columbia and gave me a strong conceptual foundation for further independent research.”
While the pace of coursework at Columbia was very rigorous, he enjoyed that the MA focused more on theorems, game theory, and linear algebra, in contrast to his undergraduate studies, which were more writing-focused.
Łukasz pinning some tunes during a study break!
Łukasz enjoyed all of the opportunities to dive deep into the material, so much so that he enrolled in additional microeconomics, macroeconomics, and econometrics modules.
“I enjoyed them all,” says Łukasz, adding that he fondly remembers Professor Alonso’s macroeconomics courses, which gave him a solid foundation for understanding more advanced coursework.
Regarding research opportunities, Łukasz wrote a paper on game theory with Professor Bernard Salanié, who was “very kind and helpful,” he says.
For his thesis, the MA program allowed him to work with Dr. Andrew Gelman, a professor in the Statistics department, and write his research paper on applying Bayesian Statistics to big data. This aligned with his fondness for statistics: he was elected head of the Columbia Statistics Club, whose members met to build simple software together.
After Columbia
Following graduation, Łukasz worked at several consulting firms, driven by his desire to build a resume rich with diverse experiences worldwide.
He worked first in Europe and then in Singapore, crediting his friendships with students from Asian countries for exposing him to diverse cultures in the MA program.
However, Łukasz knew that he eventually wanted to start his own company.
“I wanted to work on something I find meaningful, and as an independent person, I knew that developing a startup would allow me to accomplish this.”
“Working at a startup means that the pace is faster, making me rely on my intuition while working with different investors and allowing me to wear many different hats.”
Łukasz conceived the idea for his startup, ControlAI, after noticing how prevalent AI privacy risks were.
“Building a working AI solution is a hard challenge for most companies, so there often is no willingness to go through testing and security. This leads to problems later, as data leaks and hallucinations can shut down the entire project. We provide cheap and affordable solutions to safeguard your models so that this does not happen.”
Łukasz is currently working with investors for his company, believing that the MA degree “opened many doors” in the startup world.
For current and prospective students, Łukasz tells everyone to try to “carve your own path; there are plenty more opportunities than just consulting or investment banking.”
Thanks for chatting with us, Łukasz! You can learn more about his startup work here: controlai.org
