Reuben Peter-Paul (BCS’05, MCS’08) didn’t arrive at UNB with a clear destination in mind. “I just knew I wanted to go to university. I didn’t really know what I wanted to do.” That uncertainty will sound familiar to generations of UNB alumni. What made his experience different wasn’t certainty, but what met him along the way were conversations that nudged him and moments when life arrived all at once and demanded clarity. Looking back on his career, including his current work building software for a startup in the clean energy space, Reuben sees UNB not as a straight line, but as a place where judgment was slowly built. “I didn’t take my undergrad as seriously as I should have.”
Two students, one campus
When Reuben left his hometown of Oinpegitjoig First Nation to attend UNB in the early 2000s, he wasn’t the only new student in his family. “My mom actually started university around the same time I did.”
After spending years as a stay-at-home mom, Reuben’s mother, Rose-Marie Wright (BA’02, BEd’04, MEd’13), returned to school to become a teacher. “So, I’d see her in the halls,” he says, laughing at the memory. “‘Oh, hey, mom.’” At the time, it felt unusual. Years later, it feels instructive. “She made a life choice decision to go back to school, and she became a teacher, and now she’s retired.” Watching his mother return to education, balancing coursework
with age differences and competing responsibilities, reinforced the idea that learning wasn’t confined to a specific stage of life. Education, he learned, could be a turning point rather than a finish line.
The conversation that changed everything
Reuben’s own turning point came early, and it came casually. He began university in the bachelor of business administration program, not because it was a calling, but because it felt practical. What he didn’t feel was settled. That changed after a conversation
with Dr. Francisco Arcelus, a business professor well-known by students for his warmth and curiosity. Dr. Arcelus has since passed away, but his influence remains unmistakable. They met at A&W on Prospect St., talking less about career ladders and more about interests. Dr. Arcelus listened and offered a suggestion that would reshape Reuben’s life.
“He convinced me to go into computer science. I didn’t even know I could switch degrees.” It’s the kind of moment alumni recognize instantly: informal and profound. “Here I am. 25 years later.”
Learning the craft
Computer science fit. Reuben entered the program at a time when writing software required patience and precision. There were no shortcuts. Systems had to be understood step by step. “If you think of what we do as programmers as a craft. It’s not a science. You take pride in it.” That sense of craft was reinforced by people like Rick Wightman, whose steady presence helped generations of students learn not just how to code, but how to think like programmers.
That mindset deepened through UNB’s co op program, which placed him in roles that exposed him to real systems and production environments — some more instructive than glamorous.
“Even if you’re just building a website, it’s still something. It’s something
to talk about in interviews.” The emphasis on experiential learning, on seeing how systems function in the real world, became foundational.
The moment everything converged
After finishing his bachelor’s degree, Reuben worked briefly before returning to UNB for a master’s in computer science. Around the same time, his personal life accelerated. “I got married during my master’s,” he says simply. Not long after, he and his wife learned they were expecting their first child. He completed his thesis in May. Their daughter was born in June. “I defended with my baby at the defence,” he says, smiling. “That was a good memory.”
The mentors who tell you no
During his master’s degree, Reuben’s supervisor became Dr. Weichang Du, stepping in after his original advisor retired. At the time, Reuben was considering continuing to a PhD. “He talked me out of it,” Reuben says without hesitation. “And that was probably one of the best decisions I made early on.”
It was an important lesson: sometimes the most valuable mentorship is the courage to say no on someone else’s behalf.
Staying, while the world expands
Reuben’s career carried him through research, startups, multinational firms and eventually into work closely tied to Silicon Valley. Yet he never left Fredericton. “I haven’t had to move. I just haven’t had a compelling enough reason to uproot my family.”
Remote work transformed that choice into an advantage. “Being in Atlantic Canada is being between Europe and the West Coast. It’s been an interesting advantage. You can meet people during their actual day instead of asking someone to log on at four in the morning.” It’s a point of pride — one shared by many UNB alumni building global careers from familiar places.
Judgment in the age of AI
Today, Reuben is a founding software engineer at Bidirectional Energy, a startup building bidirectional electric vehicle charging systems. The idea is simple, but technically complex: electric vehicles can both draw energy from the grid and send energy back when needed, helping stabilize energy demand.
Artificial intelligence
AI shows up in Reuben’s day-to-day, not as a decision-maker but as a tool for efficiency, scale, and speed — particularly when dealing with the repetitive, time-intensive parts of startup life. “We didn’t use AI to make decisions on behalf of our customers or any of the services we provide. We leaned into how we can use AI as a team of four to work as if we were a team of 20.” That includes using AI tools to streamline routine work, make sense of complex security and audit requests, speed up development and documentation and free the team to focus on higher-level problem-solving. “A lot of times, you have no idea what they’re asking for. But it’s not a new ask. They’ve been asking these questions for years.”
Large language models such as ChatGPT and Claude, trained on years of similar documentation, help bridge that gap and speed up response time. “You can ask your chatbot to reframe its explanation, and it just makes it so much easier to understand what’s being asked of you and to respond with clarity.” Over time, that practical use has shifted his relationship with the tools themselves. “I’m at a point now where I can trust the code that is being generated. That’s a major leap from 2023.”
What remains
In the end, what stands out to Reuben is not a single achievement, but the accumulation of small, human interventions. A conversation over lunch. A supervisor who offered honest guidance. A campus that made it possible to change direction without starting over.
“UNB gave me people who cared enough to redirect me. And a foundation I still rely on.” That foundation, built over time, continues to shape how he works, decides and moves forward.
This fall, the story widens again. Reuben’s daughter, Leyla, will begin concurrent bachelor of arts and bachelor of science studies at UNB, with hopes of becoming a teacher. It’s a full-circle moment, and a reminder that trust, tools and staying grounded can carry a story further than any straight line ever could.
