The “We” in WeRobotics: Celebrating Gilles and Uyangaa

One of the best things about WeRobotics is our people: what we call our small but mighty team. Ours is a unique sort of workplace, pulsing with generosity of spirit, of time, and of knowledge and expertise. Diversity finds its home here. And we celebrate everyday the very values of sharing and collaboration that guide our work as well as that of the Flying Labs Network.

So it is with a bittersweet ache that we find ourselves at a moment of farewell. Because when one of us leaves, their absence is felt heavily. Part of the joy of connection and collaboration in a team is the familiar laughter on calls and the satisfaction of instinctively knowing how a colleague thinks. We will miss the laughter and the thinking of Gilles Fischer and Uyangaa Munkhbat.

Gilles and Uyangaa joined WeRobotics in 2019. They were the very first interns we ever welcomed into our fold. But from the start, they were more than that. They laid the groundwork for what would become the Flying Labs Network coordination team. They built systems, nurtured relationships, created clarity out of chaos. And just as importantly, they helped shape the soul of our work culture, where good work is done with good hearts.

Six years on, they are no longer interns. Now they are called to grant their gifts to the world in other ways and in other places. Yes, we are sad, but mostly, we are grateful. We are grateful for the ways they have enriched us, individually and as a team.

As we send them off into the world beyond WeRobotics, we have reflected together on their time with us. And now, we share some of their reflections. To honour a journey is also to make space for its story to live on, even as it moves beyond our everyday. Here, we honour Gilles’ and Uyangaa’s journeys. 

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Looking back at your time with us, how do you think you have changed since you first joined WeRobotics?

Gilles: When I first joined WeRobotics in 2019, I was excited about the idea of working simultaneously with various countries across the globe as the number of Flying Labs grew steadily. How did this change me? It provided unmatched cultural exposure, allowing me to share a piece of life with Flying Labs on a daily basis — both on a professional and personal level. My work was mostly remote through messaging, WhatsApp, and video calls, and I think that this requires even more cultural awareness and management of expectations. You have to find an understanding of what you cannot directly see and experience, and sometimes, of what doesn’t get voiced! I was also grateful to be able to meet most Flying Labs leaders during various work projects, retreats, and travels in the Pacific, in Asia, in Africa, and in Europe. 

Working as a Community Coordinator also shed a light on local opportunities as well as the barriers to opportunities that Flying Labs face. This changed my perspective of the world. I was also fascinated by the creative and unique approach that each Flying Labs would take on a similar goal, project, or challenge even where you would assume one solution or idea fits all. 

Another change I can see in myself is my growth in empathy and compassion, guided by the working style of the core WeRobotics team. We always took a positive outlook on things, which was refreshing. 

Finally, the role also took me out of my comfort zone, out of my somewhat introverted shell, through the many international interactions, both in person and virtually. 

Uyangaa: It was May 2018 when I first met Sonja during the WSIS Forum organized by the International Telecommunication Union in Geneva, Switzerland. She was one of the high-level track speakers at the Forum and I was an intern within the organizing team. When one of my colleagues told me about WeRobotics, I was truly inspired by their vision and reached out to Sonja with my CV and a letter of motivation. However,  she told me that there was no open position at WeRobotics at the time and that she would get back to me if there was such an opportunity in the future. While I thought that was just a polite way of saying, “We are not interested in your profile”, to my greatest surprise, she did get back to me six months later, sharing a job opening as a Flying Labs Community Coordinator. This is how my journey with WeRobotics and the Flying Labs Network began.

It has now been over six years since I started working with this fabulous team. I learned and grew more than I could ever imagine. Not only did I discover a new passion for development evaluation as a professional but I also came to believe even more in my competence to achieve my highest ambitions and dreams. I was a fresh undergraduate back then, and WeRobotics always gave me the freedom, encouragement, and support to create, experiment, lead, and collaborate. 

Just to give an example, just after joining the team, I was immediately given an opportunity to design and lead various processes for the Network coordination, such as facilitating regional calls, co-organizing webinars for knowledge sharing, collaborating with external stakeholders for M&E framework design, and creating new tools and resources for capacity strengthening. This was just the beginning of a great number of responsibilities and initiatives that I led as well as contributed to over the years.

What parts of your role have been the most enjoyable? 

Gilles: Definitely the fun and stimulating task of enabling people from 35+ countries in various continents — all with different expertise, interests, goals, cultures, working styles, communication styles, languages and personalities — to collaborate on concrete projects and outcomes. And sometimes this was years before we would all get the chance to meet in person (though every opportunity is taken for in-person meet-ups between Flying Labs from the same continent). The work of community coordination is truly unique and requires building good relationships, collecting and processing feedback, applying great information management, thinking about how information is consumed on the other side — and, adding to this, a good dose of creativity and a touch of fun to keep people engaged.

In addition to the tasks of community coordination, I enjoyed the diversity of my role, which also involved program management and grant management on various topics — from entrepreneurship programs to medical drone deliveries and youth training programs. Throw in also a bit of research, event management when planning global and regional retreats, and setting up internal tools for our coordination team and Flying Labs. 

In short, what I loved most about the role was the diversity of it — the six years flew by quickly, and it kept me on my toes! It also provided the opportunity to fully appreciate the evolution of seed ideas into fully fledged projects across the years, seeing teams expand and Flying Labs individuals join the Network and grow into very successful entrepreneurs. This has been rewarding to witness.

Uyangaa: Working with people from all around the world who share common aspirations and values, and having the opportunity to learn from them has been the most blessing part of my job at WeRobotics. I got to connect and meet with people from countries I had never heard of or been to before. The most memorable time was when I had the chance to travel to Nairobi, Kenya for our Global Retreat in 2022, where I could meet not only my WeRobotics colleagues but also Flying Labs members in person. We had so much fun and so many heartfelt moments coming together to share our common goals as well as challenges. 

As I worked for more than six years at WeRobotics, being able to witness and be part of the growth and evolution of WeRobotics and the Flying Labs Network has been another part that I truly valued. I have watched Flying Labs that I onboarded to the Network as a community coordinator grow into strong and sustainable local knowledge hubs. I have also had to say goodbye to Flying Labs members as they went on to new adventures thanks to their experience in the Network. I have enjoyed talking with my colleagues who obtained a higher educational degree, got married and had children, all while working at WeRobotics and Flying Labs. It has been heartwarming and fulfilling. 

Since 2023, I have worked as the monitoring and evaluation lead at WeRobotics, providing support to the team in evaluating the outcomes and impact of their work. I fully enjoyed my new role as an M&E person as I was able to initiate, co-design, and implement innovative ways to assess and analyze various kinds of changes and outcomes that WeRobotics and Flying Labs have been creating in their local contexts. It was fascinating to work and learn on this side because I strongly believe that it is essential to conceive and implement M&E tools that are rooted in local contexts and led by local experts. 

What do you carry with you as you venture out into new territory?

Gilles: Great memories, connections, and unconventional work methodologies. 

Also, the special recipe on how to work efficiently as a large team or network operating remotely — something many professional contacts and friends have regularly asked me about over the years.

And obviously, a great grasp on technology for social good projects and social entrepreneurship towards the 17 Sustainable Development Goals. 

Uyangaa: I will, of course, carry all the professional skills that I developed from working with WeRobotics and Flying Labs, starting from effectively communicating and collaborating within culturally diverse contexts, using various platforms and tools for resource creation and knowledge sharing sessions, and designing M&E frameworks and methods. 

Most importantly, I will keep the core values of WeRobotics and the Flying Labs Network close to my heart at all times as it is all about valuing local knowledge and expertise as well as embracing the spirit of collaboration, solidarity, connection, support, patience, and kindness towards one another, given our differences. I believe that these are essential values and principles to keep in today’s world, where global issues such as climate change, inequity, isolation, and racism are on the rise. 

What excites you most about your next chapter?

Gilles: I am taking a sabbatical before jumping back into work, so I am most excited that my next steps could be in any direction.

Uyangaa: I am most excited about being able to work and contribute to the evaluation community and development efforts in general in my country, Mongolia. I studied and lived in Europe for about a decade and recently moved back home. Now with the knowledge, skills, and experiences gained over the years, I would love to contribute to building a better society in my local context in any way I can, connecting with fellow Mongolians, learning from them, and growing together with them. 

I recently took part in a third summer evaluation bootcamp initiated by the Mongolian Evaluation Association three years ago, hosted by the Lanzhou University and co-organized with UNICEF China this year. This one-week bootcamp gathered not only seasoned professional evaluators from academia, international organizations, and development banks but also young and emerging evaluators like myself from over 20 countries. Participating in this bootcamp marked a milestone for me as I embark on a new journey as a co-lead of EvalYouth Mongolia. I was truly inspired to witness that countries like Mongolia now are taking the lead in the evaluation community, creating space for the younger generation and bringing together diverse stakeholders for collaboration.  

If you could leave one message for the WeRobotics team and the Flying Labs Network, what would it be?

Gilles: Thank you for this unforgettable journey, and may our paths cross again in many places, as professionals and as friends. Memories of our global and regional retreats will last forever. 

Uyangaa: Please keep on shining, inspiring, and bringing changes through your shared wisdom, values, principles, and your work! While the emerging technologies such as drones and drone data have great potential to help us tackle some of the most urgent challenges, at the end of the day, it is about people. It is about who gets to decide how, where, and when these technologies are applied. It is you who will build bridges to close the existing gaps between such technologies and local communities. I will always root for you, and I am confident that we will cross paths again. Thank you very much for all the shared laughter, fun coffee chats, brainstorming sessions, and learnings we made together. My heartfelt gratitude goes to Sonja, who has been such an amazing and inspiring mentor, and who has also become my life-long friend. I will miss working with you all!