Round 2
Nicholas
Experience Information
Employer: Simms Electronics
Job Title: Computer/Electrical Engineer Co-Op
Major: Computer Engineering
Received Credit: Yes
Paid: Yes
Abroad: No
Description of the Organization
Simms Electronics is a Grand Rapids based firm specializing in electrical engineering and product development. For over 15 years, Simms has provided support in developing embedded systems projects ranging from air quality, to energy monitors, and even working heavily with an IoT platform for many of their customers. Simms is a partner with Microchip and much of the projects involve anything from working with processors and software to designing and modifying electrical hardware.
Description of the Tasks/Projects Completed
A couple of projects I worked on have included designing a Bluetooth mesh network for street lights as well as learning about and working with a WiFi and Bluetooth dual radio module in a separate project. I have worked a lot with the command line environment, setting up environments in command line, and working with the Bluetooth and WiFi API.
Skills/Knowledge Gained Through The Experience
Specific skills I have gained in my second rotation at Simms include the ability to work and develop in a command line environment. In our academic program, we have not gone over command line interfacing and commands yet. While it is not necessarily hard to get into command line, it can be very tricky to operate. So being able to freely work in that setting has taught me a lot about command line. I have also gained a greater grasp on the concepts of Bluetooth and WiFi as well as utilizing these concepts in a much broader scope.
Favorite Part of the Experience
My favorite part of this internship as my bosses giving me projects and allowing me greater autonomy in completing the projects. While they were always there to help me when I needed something, they also let me explore new challenges that not only needed to be done but also that I had little experience with. The best part was being able to make my own path, teach myself, and work for the amazing people that hired me on a year ago.
How the Experience Influenced Future Career Goals
Working at Simms has further cemented my future in embedded systems. I enjoy embedded systems and it is such a vast world in itself, being surrounded by it all day has simply enhanced and increased my love for the world of embedded systems.