Blair Academy welcomed back Shoshana Geller ’16 this fall for its Alumni Roundtable discussion series. Now a senior trading engineer in energy markets at Tesla, Shoshana spoke with students and faculty about her career path, her passion for the environment and how her Blair experience shaped the trajectory that led her to where she is today.

After graduating from Blair, Shoshana attended Dartmouth College, where she majored in computer science and minored in earth science and global health. Unsure at first which path to pursue, she gained hands-on experience through internships in medical technology and robotics, including a project focused on teaching American Sign Language through computer vision. “I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do right away,” she told students. “I figured that in any industry that I would end up in, they would need software engineers.”

Her interest in energy and the environment deepened during her Dartmouth years, especially after a study-abroad geology program across the western United States and Canada. That curiosity became conviction as Shoshana asked hard questions about the sustainability—and cost—of fossil fuels. “The transition to renewable energy often meets pushback because it’s expensive,” she explained. “But if we can make clean energy the most economically feasible option, then it becomes the obvious choice.”

Shoshana spent two years at a demand-response startup before joining Tesla’s Autobidder team, where she now develops algorithms to operate large-scale batteries on the grid. Batteries can store renewable energy and help balance demand when the sun sets or the wind dies down and are uniquely suited to handle other stressors on the grid. “Ideally, the energy transition should be a win-win for everyone,” she said. “What’s the best way to do that in balance, both that it helps the grid and that lights can stay on and energy costs go down for consumers?”

During the Q&A portion of the evening, a student asked how the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) and massive data centers is impacting her work. Shoshana said the effects are twofold: “On the grid side, the surge in AI data centers means far greater energy demand, and we’re seeing many big tech companies are now looking for ways to mitigate this stress on the grid, as well as the costs associated.” On the software side, AI is changing the way engineers code. “A lot of engineering is knowing how to code,” Shoshana explained, “although AI can do a lot of that for you now. What really sets engineers apart now with AI is knowing how to properly prompt it. If you can really sit down beforehand and think about, ‘What are the edge cases that I need and what exactly are the use cases?’ That will save you a lot of time later on. If you can craft the right prompts, AI can make you a thousand times faster.”

Shoshana’s visit left students inspired to think broadly about the intersection of technology, sustainability and problem-solving in the real world. Her journey—from Blair classrooms to cutting-edge work at Tesla—highlighted the value of curiosity, adaptability and taking initiative.