From an interest in electronics to firmware development: Tomasz on his internship at EmbeddedSystems.do

Tomasz is a student of Electronics and Telecommunications at Gdańsk University of Technology. He develops his engineering interests primarily in programming STM32 and ESP32 microcontrollers and in VHDL for FPGA platforms. He also gained valuable academic experience and a broader perspective during an Erasmus exchange at the University of Coimbra in Portugal.

Outside university and work, he combines his technical interests with entertainment: as a hobby, he repairs handheld game consoles, and in his free time he enjoys trying out new PC games. When he wants to switch off completely from hardware and code, he turns to films, animation, complex TV series and music.

During his internship at EmbeddedSystems.do, he had the opportunity to put these interests into practice. In the interview, he talks about working on the firmware for a sensor designed for cold storage facilities, learning to work with new microcontrollers, the atmosphere in the team, and why the internship confirmed that embedded systems are the direction he wants to pursue professionally.

What are you studying? Why did you choose this field?

I study Electronics and Telecommunications at Gdańsk University of Technology. I chose this field mainly because I was genuinely interested in it. I already liked physics in high school, and I was also fascinated by the fact that with electronics and microcontrollers you can create practically anything you need. That is what convinced me most to choose this field.

What interests you most in this industry? What would you like to do in the future?

I am most interested in embedded systems and microcontrollers, which is exactly what I am working on during my internship. This is also the area I most strongly see myself working in professionally in the future.

What was your first day at the company like? What were your first impressions?

My first impression was very good. The office is clean and pleasant, and the people are friendly. Right at the beginning, we went out for breakfast together, which was really nice. My internship supervisors turned out to be very kind, so overall I cannot complain.

What tasks were you given during the internship? What projects did you work on?

I worked on a sensor designed for cold storage facilities, which is intended to measure various parameters, such as humidity, temperature and the presence of certain gases in the air. I was responsible for the software side of the project, namely the firmware.

Did the theoretical knowledge from university help you with the practical tasks during the internship?

Yes, the theoretical knowledge from university was useful, but the practical knowledge I had previously gained on my own outside my studies was even more helpful.

Did you learn anything new during the internship?

Yes. In this project, I worked with different microcontrollers than I had used before, so I had the opportunity to learn about new solutions and broaden my experience in embedded systems programming.

What was the atmosphere at work like? Did you feel welcomed by the team?

I felt very welcome. The atmosphere at work is very friendly, pleasant and relaxed. I do not feel stressed or under pressure, as if someone were constantly standing over me and checking my work. In that respect, I rate the internship very positively.

Was there any moment that particularly stayed with you? What was your favourite part of the internship?

The moment I remember most was when, after about twelve hours of struggling with the program, I finally managed to get it running. That was a big success for me. Interestingly, to this day I still do not know exactly where the error was, but the most important thing is that I managed to solve it.

Did the internship influence your career plans?

I really like the approach to work at this company. As for my career path, I was already interested in microcontrollers and embedded systems before the internship, and this experience has rather confirmed that this is the direction I want to follow. I do not plan to move away from it.

Would you recommend an internship at our company to other students? Why?

Yes, I would recommend this internship to other students. The atmosphere is pleasant, the supervisors and people on the team are very knowledgeable, and you can always count on their help. Above all, you can learn a lot here and gain practical experience. At university, there is a lot of theory, while here there is a lot of practice.