ICS Undergrad Adarsh Pachori Co-Founds AI-Driven Recruiting App
Growing up in the San Francisco Bay Area, Adarsh Pachori was surrounded by technology, but it wasn’t until an unlikely experience with a sudoku puzzle that he realized his passion for programming. Today, the second-year computer science major is working diligently as a student at UCI’s Donald Bren School of ICS and as a co-founder of Enrole, an exciting new app designed to streamline the hiring process for the next-generation workforce. His fellow co-founders include childhood friends Neel Griddalur, Aishwarva Suresh and Aarti Vellimedu.
Can you remember the moment that you first realized you would major in computer science?
I realized that I wanted to major in computer science after I created a sudoku solver program for my dad. He always enjoyed solving the local newspaper’s sudoku puzzles, but he often got frustrated when he was stuck on a difficult puzzle. So, I created a program to take a sudoku puzzle and offer hints to solve the puzzle. My dad used my program whenever he got stuck and was filled with joy that he could finish his sudoku puzzles after receiving a couple of hints. This experience made me realize that even a small program that I built had a positive impact on my dad’s life. I then began to see the impact that my programs actually could have and that I could potentially create programs to better the lives of many. I then knew that I wanted to pursue a major in computer science because I realized that I could harness computer science technologies to create something that can positively impact my family, my friends and the rest of the world.
How long have you known your fellow co-founders, and how did the topic of starting Enrole come up?
I have known my co-founders for around five years now, and the topic of starting Enrole came up when we went through the current recruiting process ourselves and found it to be unnecessarily complicated and incomplete. We wanted recruiting to be simple, where a job applicant could easily find the right job opportunities and where recruiters wouldn’t need to sort through thousands of applications at a time. We knew there had to be a better way to recruit. So, we created Enrole, an algorithmic and AI-driven matchmaking platform that accurately matches recruiters with job-seekers.
Can you describe Enrole in one sentence?
Enrole is a platform that introduces personality as an important recruiting factor and streamlines the recruiting process through AI-driven recommendations.
How will Enrole change the hiring game?
Enrole will change the hiring game simply because of its ease in finding jobs for job-seekers and applicants for recruiters. Not only is using Enrole very intuitive, but it also includes personality as a recruiting factor (a factor that is currently neglected until the interview stage, but is highly valued by many recruiters).
How is beta testing coming along, and when do you suspect Enrole will be available in the app store for job seekers?
Beta testing went very well. We received lots of helpful feedback, and we are currently implementing the necessary changes to our mobile app. We expect the app to be available in the app store by the end of 2020.
Enrole will be handling a lot of sensitive information. How are you managing the cybersecurity aspect of the app?
We have implemented two-factor authentication for our application code as a layer of security to prevent potential attackers from impersonating an Enrole developer. Our database is also protected by its own set of read-and-write access rules, so any unauthorized calls to read from or write to the database are denied. The code itself will be obfuscated completely on the production scale, so that the code can’t be reverse-engineered. Lastly, our API will have the traditional security measures and will require authentication to process requests.
What has it been like launching a company, and do you have any words of advice for other entrepreneurs just starting down this path?
Starting my own company has definitely been an exciting experience for me. Completing the trademark and patent application was a tedious process; however, the protection of our intellectual property is crucial and is definitely worth it. I would definitely recommend everyone who is going down this path to protect their intellectual property with patents, trademarks and copyrights, or to ensure that their property is kept very secure.
How have you been keeping positive during the COVID-19 shutdown? And how have you handled being away from campus and your peers?
In this lockdown period, building this company and the mobile app have kept me busy and excited. I learn more about technology every day, and I’m constantly meeting new people. Being away from my peers wasn’t too tough, solely because I always had lots of things to do every day for Enrole, and I regularly called my friends to catch up with them.
What do you look forward to the most for the fall 2020 semester?
I look forward to diving deeper into the realm of computer science and continuing to work on the Enrole mobile app. I’m also excited to meet other passionate computer science students and potentially have them join the development team at Enrole.
Do you have any words of wisdom for our incoming freshmen?
My advice to incoming freshmen is to learn and absorb as much knowledge (both inside and outside of school), and then to try and think of ways to apply your learning to create something that can create a positive impact. Before you know it, you’ll be running your own business.
– Katherine Li Smith