Quicket Solutions—a Chicago startup led by two U of I graduates—is doing its part to bring the next generation of Illini engineering talent to the city.
Christiaan Burner and Akshay Singh founded Quicket Solutions in 2014, a year before graduating from the University of Illinois: Burner from the Gies College of Business and Singh from the Grainger College of Engineering. Quicket delivers cloud-based software for public sector clients like law enforcement agencies and motor vehicle departments who are looking to digitize their functions. The company currently employs over 35 people across three offices.
Grainger Engineering has had a key role in the company from the very beginning. All the early employees of Quicket were graduates of Grainger Engineering, and now many of them serve in senior roles throughout the company. When Engineering City Scholars program was promoted to Quicket’s leadership, the decision to join was easy.
“We believe this is a great initiative to expose the current technology market awareness to the students at UIUC and help them break the notion of only working in the Silicon Valley to be a successful engineer,” said Singh, who serves as President & CTO of Quicket.
Quicket has employed four City Scholars each semester since Fall 2019 and has made several former interns offers to come back for another full-time internship or permanent role.
“We’ve found that City Scholars interns have a variety of experience, through previous internships, research opportunities, and personal experimentation. These experiences demonstrate a natural curiosity and drive that we have found helpful, along with the practical skills these opportunities provide,” said Singh.
During their semester-long internships, the City Scholars have worked on several projects that brought immediate and impressive ROI to the company. Quicket will welcome its newest cohort of City Scholars in Fall 2020, and they plan to soon increase the number of interns hired each term.