Final year electronic and computer engineering student, Bryce Davies has just completed his six-month Industry Affiliates Program placement with the CSIRO at the Queensland Center for advanced technologies.
“This is a placement I found on my own. About six months before my placement, I was speaking to my control systems lecturer about what sort of industries were hiring people and what industries are relevant for what I wanted to do. He suggested CSIRO and gave me a contact. I didn’t get the summer position there I applied for, so asked if I could do my IAP with them instead and they loved the idea,” he said.
Bryce was assisting on a major project.
“I was working on developing a flight controller for drone technologies. Some of the work they are doing is trying to extend the flight time and the energy efficiency of drones. My role was to help design and implement an electronic flight controller for a new drone system that they created. I worked in a team to take it from the planning stage on a piece of paper to implementation with the mechatronics team.”
The placement was extremely rewarding.
“It was a great projects and intense. I was scrambling the whole time to get up to speed with the sheer depth of knowledge required for the project, but that was a very rewarding experience. I learnt a lot on the job and having to grasp working and negotiating effectively in a team, the nuisances of an office and how a large organisation works were all valuable experiences,” he said
The IAP program is compulsory for engineering students and a great way to bridge university and working life.
“I would encourage all students to chase external projects for the IAP. Just the sheer amount of contacts you make in a large office environment is invaluable. You really have to integrate yourself in to work, in a meaningful way, to make contacts and succeed,” he said.
Studying Griffith at engineering has been a positive experience.
“I’ve really enjoyed the electives on offer at Griffith. We have some really amazing lecturers onboard that do amazing things in their careers and they are teaching us material they themselves have contributed to which is just amazing. We get a lot more lab experience and support compared to the bigger universities,” he said.
To finish off his last semester, Bryce has enrolled in the Griffith Mentoring Program.
“I’ve been paired with an Information Technology Consultant and I am really excited to work with him. He has a varied entrepreneurial background, which I am really interested in. I would like to take the skills I’ve learnt from my Griffith Engineering degree and apply it in a broader business sense and launch my own venture next year.”
For more information on Electronic and Computer Engineering and the IAP program join Bryce at the Nathan Campus Open Day on Sunday, August 10.
