Due to security reasons, I cannot release many photos of my Internship experience. Shown below are photos that I have been approved for release.
My Internship project is to explore Raspberry Pi and Arduino projects and develop fun projects that high school students can work on in a computer camp next summer. Arduino and Raspberry Pi are both mini computers that you can use to program various stuff like stage lights, games, soundboards, etc. I felt that this project was important because working on Arduino and Raspberry Pi projects can help students be interested in studying computer programming. One of the things that I had to do was to fill out project activity logs as part of my final product. The process that I went through to finish my project was whenever I completed a programming project, I had to fill out an activity log listing details like sources that I got the projects, all of the hardware that I used, other observations, etc. Over the course of my Internship, I have completed a total of 16 Arduino projects and Raspberry Pi projects. Shown below are my Activity Logs and my POL presentation. Shown above is my photo essay. I still can't do a photo essay because of privacy issues, but I will still write about my final experiences at SPAWAR.
Overall, I really enjoyed working at SPAWAR! It was great to explore computer programming and also understanding an independent working environment. At first, I thought my work was going to be a lot harder! But once I got myself situated, the wasn't really too bad! It actually became really fun and easy! One of the things I learned from working at SPAWAR is that the workplace is usually pretty relaxed. I thought since I had to work on a lot of projects, I expected to work all day with no breaks. I later found out that my schedule was pretty relaxed. This internship was pretty independent because you have to keep track a lot things on your own. For example, what you have completed, what your work schedule is, and also when you can take breaks. You have to start making your own decisions in your work environment in order to show that you want to learn something. One skill that I applied to working at SPAWAR was setting goals for myself. Even though my job wads pretty straightforward, I wanted to keep myself busy for most of the time. By writing self goals in my notebooks, I was able to prioritize my work and stay on track with my daily assignments. One skill that I have learned from working at SPAWAR is to develop connections with my co-workers. I did not really know a lot of people at SPAWAR other than my brother and two of my friends. Once I started working, some of my co-workers helped me out with some of my projects and I got to know them a lot! Getting to know your co-workers is useful because they may have some experiences with the stuff you are working on. For example, one of my co-workers knew how to use Python and she helped me understand Python more. I am glad that I got to do my Internship at SPAWAR. I hope that I will be able to be am intern at SPAWAR during my senior tear. 1. What qualities or characteristics did you see in the people around you that you want to develop in yourself? Why?
Most of the people at SPAWAR were pretty relaxed about getting their work done and having free time during the day. I can get my work done, but I sometimes feel like I don’t have time to relax during work. I would also get really worried that I won't have enough time to complete my tasks before I go home. However, as I was working, I would complete most of my work right before lunch time or even earlier! I think that there will always be an opportunity to have some free time during work. 2. How did your view of life beyond high school change or develop during your time as an intern? My views on life outside beyond high school changed throughout my time as an intern through working with my mentor and my co-workers. I thought that life beyond high school was just all work and no breaks in between. However, as I did my Internship, I realized working outside of high school is similar to being a workplace! You just work on you own assignments and take breaks in between. You also balance out how much you time spend on working and playing based on your work schedule. I learned that working in a work place is similar to a high school learning environment! The way that I measured how much success I made during this Internship was to fill out Activity Log sheets. Whenever I completed a project, I fill out an activity log with the project, where I found it, difficulty and interest levels, hardware used, and any observations I made during the project. I also kept track of any important links to my projects. For example, instructions for building the Maker Shield and descriptions of any parts of the Raspberry Pi and Arduino controllers.
One of the things I learned during my Internship is that keeping track of your progress does show how much you completed over time. I felt that I made a meaningful contribution to SPAWAR by giving feedback to my mentor and completing lots of Arduino and Raspberry Pi projects. My feedback and activity logs will be useful for my mentor to use in the upcoming programming camp because she will be able to use those things as references. My Internship experiences at SPAWAR made me consider my college path by giving me an insight on computer programming. For example, the various codes, circuitry, hardware controllers, and soldering circuitry. I think I would pursue computer programming as my career in the future because it is interesting to program various things like soundboards, LED lights, and even things like lamps! It is also interesting that I have to use a lot of logic to figure out various bugs. All of these things are interesting to explore because it gives you a variety of options that you can design with programming. I learned how to use Arduino and Raspberry Pi throughout my Internship, which I never learned how to do beforehand. I had to work with my mentor with designing projects that students can work on in a summer programming camp. I also experienced how programmers troubleshoot problems that comes up from time to time. During one of my projects, I had a lot of trouble figuring out bugs within programming codes. From talking with my mentor and my co-workers, I learned that you should be fairly used to programming things like Python when you go into computer programming. Also, being in programming-related clubs like a robotics club can help out too because you can gain some programming experience. One of my co-workers used to be in a robotics club during college and she did some Python programming.
Unfortunately, I won't be posting any more photos due my Internship's photo restrictions. Throughout this week, I have been doing a lot of troubleshooting with Raspberry Pi. Recently, I got started on Raspberry Pi and I encountered a lot of bugs while I was working on the Raspberry Pi projects for the programming camp. For example, syntax errors, input errors, and coding errors are some of the bugs that I encountered so far. This was my first experience with troubleshooting and it definitely gave me an insight on the problems that come up during programming. I also noticed that Raspberry Pi has a lot more coding involved. One of my projects requires the circuitry to have a lot of coding for button inputs during a reaction game. The coding is also not as easy to program as Arduino. I think that Raspberry Pi projects can be featured at a camp once students are used to basic programming skills.
During my Internship, I use Self-Advocacy whenever I am having trouble understanding my programming work. For example, I would ask my colleagues and my mentor for help with troubleshooting various problems I encounter along the way. One time, I had some trouble with troubleshooting some Raspberry Pi bugs. I tried to figure it out on my own, but later I asked my mentor for some advice on what ideas I can try to fix the bugs. Her advice helped me out a lot and I eventually fixed the bug. I also follow all of the advice on Dr. Patton's "How to be an Intern everyone remembers" page. I always dress professionally, take notes, introduce myself to new people early, show up on time, and find various tasks to do everyday. One of the tips that I had trouble with early on was finding people that can help me with my projects. Most of the Arduino projects requires a part to be fully assembled before I start working on those projects. Unfortunately, I didn't have the part assembled right away and my projects were very limited. I didn't really know many people to ask for help at first, but later I made a great connection with one of my mentor's colleagues and she helped me assemble the part early on! I learned that making connections with my mentor's colleagues can really help out later on!
My Internship project is to explore Arduino and Raspberry Pi and find projects that students can enjoy working on in a programming camp next summer. Some of the skills you will need for this project include some programming knowledge, knowing how to solder, and also hooking up circuitry. I will have support from my mentors because they are giving me feedback on the projects that are going to be featured in the programming camp.
So far, I am enjoying SPAWAR! I want to tell a lot about this company, but I can't tell a lot due to classified information. On the first day, I was a little nervous with what I was going to do for my mentor. Once I started working, I was assigned to mess around with Arduino and Raspberry Pi in order to develop fun projects people can work on. It actually made me quite interested in researching Arduino and Raspberry Pi from developing projects. I already learned new skills from working at SPAWAR. For example, I learned how to solder circuitry and I learned the basics of Arduino controllers. I already learned how to use Javascript from doing the Programming Intersession. So, that made me a little familiar with computer programming. I find Arduino and Raspberry Pi interesting to work with because there are many things you can make the controllers do. For example, making musical tones, lighting up LED lights, and even make text appear on LCD screens. Overall, I really enjoy working at SPAWAR because of the various things you can work on with Arduino and Raspberry Pi.
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