“Engineering wasn’t something I stumbled into. It’s where my curiosity has always felt most at home.”

For Abiodun Adewuyi, Systems Engineer at Anterix, curiosity began long before degrees or job titles. Growing up in Lagos, Nigeria, power outages were part of daily life. But what could have remained a frustration became something else entirely: a question. Why do systems fail? And, more importantly, what does it take to build systems that don’t?

That question set the foundation for everything that followed.

Abi has always been drawn to systems, “how things connect, how signals move, and how infrastructure holds together under pressure,” an interest that led him to study electrical engineering with a focus on power systems.

But over time, his attention shifted. He wasn’t just interested in how energy flows. He wanted to understand how information flows. From communication protocols to network architecture, Abi began to see the elegance in systems where information moves cleanly, reliably, and without friction. That realization reshaped his path.

In 2016, Abi moved to the United States to deepen that exploration, earning a master’s degree in telecommunications engineering from the University of Maryland, College Park, followed by an MBA in strategic management from St. John’s University. The combination was intentional: “I wanted to operate at a deep technical level and also contribute to strategic conversations.” That dual lens still defines how he works today: one eye on the details, the other on the broader system.

What ultimately drew Abi into the grid telecommunications space was impact. “Wireless isn’t just about convenience. It’s about consequence.” In most industries, a dropped connection is an inconvenience. For utilities, it can affect reliability, safety, and the communities that depend on it. That level of responsibility is what made the work meaningful.

And it’s why Abi gravitates toward the hardest problems.

As a systems engineer, he’s often deep in the layers others don’t see, tracking down subtle issues buried within complex systems.

“There’s something really satisfying about what doesn’t immediately reveal itself.” Because the reality is, the problem is rarely where you expect it to be. That’s where discipline comes in: the patience to stay with the problem, the precision to isolate it, and the judgment to solve it the right way.

Today, Abi’s work is hands-on, building and validating #900 MHz wireless broadband networks, testing advanced utility use cases, and navigating systems where small misalignments can have outsized consequences.

It’s work that sits at the center of a much bigger shift. The grid is evolving, becoming more distributed, more dynamic, and more dependent on real-time communication. And that changes everything. “The grid isn’t getting simpler, it’s getting smarter. And that intelligence must be supported by a communication layer that doesn’t introduce new failure points.”

In this new environment, speed alone isn’t enough. What matters is certainty- predictable, consistent performance that utilities can depend on.

There’s a quote Abi returns to often, from computer scientist Alan Kay: “Simple things should be simple, complex things should be possible.” It’s an idea that mirrors the challenge of modern infrastructure, especially in utilities, where systems must handle immense complexity behind the scenes while remaining reliable in practice. In today’s energy landscape, “anyone can build something. But building something that’s both powerful andcoherent, that takes a different kind of discipline.”

For Abi, the most interesting problems aren’t purely technical, they exist at the intersection of systems, people, and trust. Whether it’s integrating legacy technologies with modern networks, or aligning teams across disciplines, the work is rarely linear. “It’s layered. It’s cross-functional. And it’s constantly evolving.”

Looking ahead, Abi describes an exciting trend, not an exciting technology. The grid is beginning to understand itself. It’s becoming more autonomous, more responsive, capable of sensing its own state and reacting in real time. And behind that evolution is a communications layer designed with the same rigor as the infrastructure it supports.

At his core, the principles that guide Abi haven’t changed since his childhood in Lagos:  

1 – Start with curiosity.
2 – Stay with the problem.
3 – Don’t rush to the answer.

“Clarity before speed,” he says. “I’ve seen more time wasted chasing the wrong problem quickly than taking the time to make sure you’re solving the right one.” It’s simple advice, but like most things in life, simplicity takes discipline. And for Abi, that’s the point: Because the problems worth solving, the ones that truly matter, are rarely easy.  They are complex. They are consequential. And for Abi, they are a privilege.