Aaliya Manji is a Forward Deployed Engineer at Foresight Data Machines, applying data and AI to solve real-world challenges. Since graduating from UCL EEE, she has built a career spanning engineering, product and leadership roles at organisations including Wise and Coleap. Alongside her work in tech, she founded the UK AI Olympiad, inspiring young people to explore artificial intelligence through creative competition.
What year did you graduate?
I graduated from UCL in 2021 with a BEng in Electrical and Electronic Engineering. I began my degree in 2016 and took two gap years between my second and third year to serve as Chief of Staff at Aula, a VC-backed edtech startup.
What initially attracted you to study Electrical and Electronic Engineering at UCL?
I’d always loved maths and physics at A level, and during my Year 12 summer I did a week-long work experience placement in Professor Agapi Emmanouilidou’s physics lab at UCL. It was my first real exposure to research: I toured different labs, saw experiments in progress, and even helped a PhD student prepare a poster for a conference. That week gave me a glimpse of the breadth of science and engineering at UCL, and convinced me I wanted to study EEE. I also sat in a lecture by Professor Sally Day, whose work fascinated me and reinforced my decision to apply.
How did your undergraduate experience at UCL shape your career direction and interests?
My time at UCL was hugely multidisciplinary. Alongside the core Electrical Engineering curriculum, the Integrated Engineering Programme (IEP) let me take a minor in Intelligent Systems, which introduced me to AI and coding. At the same time, joining the Economics & Finance Society committee gave me exposure to industries like banking and consulting, and I even did spring weeks at JPMorgan and Deloitte. Ultimately I chose to focus on startups, but that breadth meant I never felt boxed into a single path. Instead, I could combine different interests and build a unique skill set that has shaped my career ever since.
Looking back, what were some of the most valuable technical or transferable skills you developed during your degree?
Technically, the biggest foundations I took from UCL were in programming and robotics/AI. The programming fundamentals I learned, from C to Python, underpinned my later roles in software engineering. Robotics and AI projects, meanwhile, sparked a lasting interest that eventually led me to launch the UK AI Olympiad, which I now run alongside my day job. On the transferable side, UCL taught me adaptability and problem framing: being able to break complex problems into solvable steps, as well as communication and ownership. Those skills have been just as important in startups and leadership roles as in engineering.
Can you share a project or academic highlight that had a lasting impact on your career path or way of thinking?
My final-year project was about making STEM creative and accessible for children, especially girls. Instead of the usual robotics demos where humans choreograph robots, I flipped the idea: children could build simple robots that choreograph dancers. I designed a series of workshops where they would use 3D-printed cams and Python scripts to create mechanical automata, linking technology with art and performance. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic I couldn’t deliver the workshops in person, but I focused on the design, integrating educational principles, prototyping with 3D printing, and even considering how it would work in a theatre with low lighting. The project, supervised by Prof Sally Day and run in collaboration with Sadler’s Wells, showed me how engineering can be playful, creative and inspiring for young people.
You’ve held roles ranging from software engineer to product manager and head of people. What motivated your transitions between these areas?
For me the transitions were about both learning and necessity. I love being broad, and each role gave me a chance to see a different side of how organisations and products work. In startups you often have to wear many hats, and I embraced that because it helped me build a more holistic and interdisciplinary view of the world. I know I want to build businesses, so getting to understand engineering, product, and people operations up close has only strengthened me as a builder and leader.
What advice would you give to current students looking to gain industry experience during or after their degree?
My main advice is to keep trying to own and build things, whether that’s a project, a society, or collaborating with others. Just like your academic skills, these experiences take time and practice, but they’re what make you stand out. Employers are drawn to people who are both interesting and competent, and that comes from following your interests and actually doing things. Be helpful, get involved, and treat every experience as a chance to learn and contribute.
What challenges have you faced navigating the tech world so far, and how did your time at UCL prepare you to meet them?
One of the biggest challenges has been navigating transitions, moving between engineering, product, and people roles, each of which required me to ramp up quickly and adapt to a new way of working. Alongside that, working in startups means constant ambiguity: limited resources, shifting priorities, and needing to wear many hats. My time at UCL prepared me for both. The degree was broad by design: one day I’d be in a circuits lab, the next tackling AI coursework or an IEP project, so I became comfortable learning new disciplines and breaking messy problems into smaller, solvable steps. That adaptability has been crucial in the tech world.
Are there any particular EEE lecturers, mentors, or peers who made a lasting impression on your academic or professional journey?
Two people who stand out are Prof Sally Day, who supervised my final-year project and was an inspiration from the very first lecture I attended at UCL, and Dr Martyn Fice, who generously signed off my two gap years to work at a startup, an experience that shaped my career and which he didn’t have to say yes to twice! I also really valued (now retired) Professor Arni McKinley’s renewable energy module. It was notoriously demanding, with an essay and a problem set every week, but he taught me that even in technical work, writing should be engaging and let your curiosity show. Beyond staff, my closest peers from the course have been just as important. We’ve all gone on to very different careers, from banking to startups to patent law and family businesses, but almost ten years on, we’re still close friends who share the same values and experiences.
Earlier you mentioned the UK AI Olympiad. Can you tell us more about the initiative and its impact so far?
I first brought it up when talking about the skills I gained at UCL, because robotics and AI have stayed with me well beyond my degree. This year I co-founded the UK AI Olympiad from scratch, leading a small volunteer team alongside my day job. We wanted to give school students the chance to explore AI in a rigorous but creative way, much like existing maths or informatics olympiads. In our first year we took a team to compete in China, where the UK won medals. I’ve also spoken at a roundtable at Number 10 about the initiative. For me, it’s about making AI education more accessible and inspiring the next generation of talent.
How has the UCL and London community influenced your journey?
One of the best things about UCL is being in London. Beyond the course itself, I built a network that has been invaluable, friends from my degree who are still close to me almost a decade later, as well as connections across other universities and in industry. Being in London meant I could spend time meeting people from different backgrounds and disciplines, and that exposure really shaped my perspective and opened doors. The community I built at UCL and in London has continued to support me throughout my career.
How has working across both technical and leadership roles shaped your perspective on the kind of impact you want to have in your career?
Working across technical and leadership roles has shaped my vision for impact. I want to leave things better than when I found them, whether at the macro level, like contributing to education through initiatives such as the UK AI Olympiad, or at the micro level, like building healthy teams. On the systems side, working in fintech taught me the value of safety, clarity and ethics. On the People side, I care about creating environments where engineers can do their best work and where users, especially newcomers, can succeed. Balancing those two perspectives is the kind of impact I want to keep having.
You’ve worked in both engineering and product roles - how has your technical background from UCL helped you navigate these transitions and thrive in different teams?
My technical background from UCL has been invaluable for credibility and vision. It means I can sit with engineers and understand the details, but also step back to see what’s feasible and what’s not. That grounding helps me earn trust, make better product decisions, and set realistic roadmaps. It’s less about being the one who codes everything now (although I have done that job too!), and more about knowing enough to ask the right questions and bridge between technical depth and broader strategy.
