I wanted to experience how engineers worked and put what I had learnt in ACSE into practice.
Intek is a small research and development company consisting of around 30 technical specialists. However even though it is small, its expertise dominates the industry in Norway and they are at the forefront of international activity. They specialise in autonomous production with a robotics focus, their philosophy is “If you can dream it, you can do it”.
I decided to carry out the placement as I wanted to experience how engineers worked and put what I had learnt in ACSE into practice. Through my course I have gained a lot of experience both directly and indirectly which made my transition into the workplace easier than I expected. As well as this, it allowed me to connect with people in the industry in Norway as I don’t get much chance to do this whilst living in England.
By undertaking the placement, it has provided me with a better understanding of how engineers work, giving me a better perspective of what I’m actually learning at university. Including developing my programming skills and data processing abilities. I have also gained distance from the university lifestyle, which has given me ideas as to how I can perform better and have a more enjoyable time in my final year.
I would definitely recommend undertaking a placement to other students. It puts the entire degree into a whole new perspective and gives you the chance to find out if this is definitely something that you can see yourself doing in the future.
Fredrik Rentsch
Year in Industry with Intek Engineering in Raufoss, Norway
The highlight of my placement was finding out what I’m capable of and feeling as though I was genuinely useful and a key contributor to the company. I also got an exciting opportunity to be the lead on a project that was demonstrated to the Norwegian Prime Minister and Randi Zuckerberg (American Businesswoman and former director of market development and spokesperson for facebook). The project involved programming a Kuka Liwa robot and a communication system to a computer for a bin-picking demonstration using 3D vision. The biggest challenge I faced was working on a project where I had to learn things that no one at the company knew how to do either. This meant that there was no one I could ask for help. However, this was one of the projects that I developed and excelled in the most.
I would definitely recommend undertaking a placement to other students. It puts the entire degree into a whole new perspective and gives you the chance to find out if this is definitely something that you can see yourself doing in the future.