A SUCCESSFUL 16-GAME WINNING STREAK on Jeopardy! isn’t an everyday claim to fame. For Rutgers mechanical engineering graduate Scott Riccardi, it was a worthwhile venture on a career that regularly runs on curiosity, problem-solving, and working through the unknown.

After years of watching the show, his own Jeopardy! run ended last July, but his legacy will live on. Riccardi exited the stage as one of Jeopardy!’s elite, ranking eighth for highest total winnings. He walked away with $455,000, a dedicated online fan base, and a great story to tell.

Back at his workplace, the game show references still drop in. “There’s a lot more of a tendency for people to gravitate toward me in terms of verifying random facts,” Riccardi said. “And a decent amount of people just phrasing things in the form of a question for fun.”

The connection between engineering and Jeopardy! may not seem obvious at first, but Riccardi sees an overlap in the way both demand precision.

“A very important skill that really overlaps with being an engineer and being on Jeopardy! is that it’s really important to have the absolute clearest information you possibly can. You really don’t want ambiguity for either,” Riccardi said. “With Jeopardy!, for a clue to be valid, it has to perfectly pin the answer, there can’t be multiple possible answers. And I think in engineering, the hardest problems are the ones where, for some reason or another, we’re just not getting all the information we need.”

Figuring out the solution has always been the fun part, Riccardi shared. His path to mechanical engineering, after all, started with a love for math and physics—and roller coasters. In researching which fields could connect to coaster design, the New Jersey native landed on mechanical engineering.

Actual roller coaster design did not end up becoming Riccardi’s 9 to 5. After college, his career path took a few turns through energy work before he realized he wanted something a bit more design-oriented. “3D CAD work was probably my favorite type of work to be doing, just making all sorts of models and things,” he said.

His search for the right workplace eventually led him to his current position at Minuteman Security & Life Safety. It wasn’t exactly what he predicted he’d be doing with a mechanical engineering degree: Security systems involve access control, cameras, and work that can lean more electrical than mechanical. “Once I got a sense of the company culture, I knew that I would be happy there, even if it meant I was teaching myself a lot of new things along the way,” he said.

Some days are drawing-oriented, which “scratches the 3D CAD itch,” he said. “It’s 2D, but it’s spatial, which I think is fun—to throw down a bunch of triangles and consider how the views might interact with walls and corners.” Other days involve field troubleshooting or design brainstorming, where he’s even seen his earlier energy experience come back through projects involving remote cameras powered by solar panels.

One project that he finds particularly exciting is an automated flame detection and suppression system. “These are for more industrial-type sites, where flames are detected with a combination of thermal cameras and gas detectors,” he shared. “It’s like a two-factor authentication where, once a flame has been positively identified, it aims and triggers a water cannon to put it out.”