Working on the same concepts covered in courses, except on a bigger scale in production, was an extremely rewarding endeavor.
Name: Vinay Lanka
Major: Robotics
Company: Parsons Corporation
Location: Denver, CO
How did you find the internship/co-op? What was the interview process like? I found the internship as a job listing on LinkedIn. The interview process was 3 rounds with 1 technical round, and the whole process was extremely quick taking just 3 weeks from applying to getting an offer.
What have been the most interesting aspects of your internship? The internship was mainly technical development work where I'd worked on skills related to my profile like 3D reconstruction from UAV images, and a smart image annotation tool that is required for facility inspections of federal sites.
Apart from this, it was great to be involved with the engineering management and business side of the company. Creating pitch decks, presentations, and working directly with clients was really interesting. The internship also allowed me to travel to a survey site and I got to test my software out in the field.
I also enjoyed working with different teams on projects like the Geophysics team on setting up the Clearpath Husky robot.
How would you describe the company culture? What was the most helpful thing your supervisor did to make you feel comfortable at the organization? The company culture resembles that of a large company with different departments for every single aspect of the business.
My supervisor and manager were extremely valuable to me throughout the course of my internship. Any issues with the Hardware, Software or IT access, I could count on both of them to direct me to people to get it fixed as soon as possible. I was exposed to various aspects of the business and was given a lot of responsibility for different projects.
Was there diversity among your colleagues within the department and throughout your internship/co-op experience? Yes, the entire internship program had people from all over the US coming from different backgrounds. My team was lean with a few interns, but I got to work with a diverse workforce at the company.
Did the internship provide a solid education in professional ethics? If so, how? Yes, Parsons takes professional ethics and issues like corruption and digital security extremely seriously. There were multiple courses that I attended that covered these topics in an engaging manner.
Was there a formal program for all interns at the company? Was peer support available throughout the internship? Yes, interns were handled by a specific team and they were extremely active. The internship coordinators were extremely helpful and actually encouraged planning out and recording milestones throughout the internship, and they really focused on the growth of the students. There were also many intern events where were held online and in-person.
How have your career or academic goals changed as a result of this internship experience? My career plan of becoming a Robotics Engineer with competencies in Perception and Planning have only been reinforced after this internship. It unlocked new possibilities of computer vision algorithms in areas like automation of reports and 3D reconstruction. Working on the same concepts covered in courses, except on a bigger scale in production, was an extremely rewarding endeavor. Engineering management and working with clients was a really interesting experience and I'd love to explore that aspect in the future too.
What advice would you give other UMD engineering students seeking an internship or co-op position? Keep applying. I had 2 offers fall through after interviewing for weeks and lost valuable time, but at the end it works out if you don't stop applying.
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