DornerWorks EE Co-Op
Jonathan
Experience Information
Employer: DornerWorks
Job Title: Embedded Engineer Co-op
Major: Electrical Engineering
Received Credit: Yes
Paid: Yes
Abroad: No
Description of the Organization
DornerWorks is an embedded systems solutions company, specializing in FPGA, IoT, embedded software and hardware. Their clients range from fields such as medical, defense, aerospace, and consumer products. They are a small company with under 200 employees, comprised of mostly engineers.
Description of the Tasks/Projects Completed
I worked on a project at DornerWorks for Traeger Grills and was involved in many facets of the project including performance testing and data compilation of grill temperature and pellet level sensing. As a result performance enhancement I worked on were integrated into the grills firmware. I also worked on integration testing by developing a schematic and laying out a test simulation PCB. Part of the function of the test simulation board was to simulate a thermocouple for the integration tests to run grill cycles. I also gained experience setting up flashing of the on-board microcontroller and had opportunities for developing embedded software. - IT Creating scripts to help automate quarterly updates. These included creating a list of wiki pages without backlinks, creating a list of unused licenses, and creating websites to aid in cleaning up company repositories. Small tasks included help with NIST documentation, creating a widget to help track equipment on the IT Helpdesk website, and documenting my own work on the wiki.
Skills/Knowledge Gained Through The Experience
I learned many new coding languages such as Python, PHP, HTML, SQL, and Powershell. I also learned how to do surface mount soldering. I learned about version control and how to use Git and Subversion.
Favorite Part of the Experience
My favorite part was being able to experience both hardware and software aspects of electrical engineering, which was exactly why I chose to work at this company. I was able to develop coding skills as well as soldering and circuit design.
How the Experience Influenced Future Career Goals
Seeing different aspects of electrical engineering will help me determine what I want to specialize in and pursue a future in. It also exposed me to what it is like to work at a small company, which will impact on where I will continue to work in the future.