Recap: Viam’s first summer intern program | Viam

Recap: Viam’s first summer intern program

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In the summer of 2022, Viam launched our first official internship program! It was an exciting few months having our 9 interns work on novel robotics problems and integrate into our teams. Before they left, I had the chance to interview some of our interns about their time here this summer.

Meet the interns

Learn about the internship experience at Viam!

Since Viam is such a new company, how did you find out about our internship program?

Marco Nocito: I first heard about Viam through a Handshake posting on my college’s job board.

Martha Johnston: I just found the application online while searching for internships.

Shreya Kapoor: I heard about Viam through Marco, who is another intern at Viam.

And what was the interview process like?

Aidan Glickman: Interviewing at VIAM was super straightforward and not unnecessarily stressful. I heard back pretty quickly after submitting my resume and hopped on an informational call. After that, I had a preliminary technical round, then a final round interview that covered Algorithms, Systems Design, and a conceptual conversation.

What did you get to work on this summer?

Olivia Miller: I worked on the developer advocacy team making demo robots for user testing events! My favorite project was a robot that makes chocolate covered strawberries.

Evelyn Fu: I worked on the RTK GPS project for the Robotics Development Kit team, where I added the ability to use extra precise RTK GPS in the Robotics Development Kit. I also worked on writing a motion planner for Ackerman steering rovers.

Max Horowitz: This summer I worked on Viam’s Data team and was involved in designing Viam’s data upload & sync process between the robot and the cloud.

Aidan Glickman: I personally overhauled our systems related to point clouds while working on the computer vision team.

How was your mentorship during your internship?

Max Horowitz: Mentorship at Viam has been amazing, and it’s one of the main reasons I want to come back full time.

Martha Johnston: Great! My mentor and everyone on my team have been very supportive of my work.

Shreya Kapoor: The culture at Viam is built on having a passion for learning, exploring, and asking lots of questions.

What was your favorite social activity during your internship?

Olivia Miller: My favorite intern social activity this summer was the NYC pizza tour!

Aidan Glickman: My favorite social thing has been engineering show and tell.

How does this internship compare to others you have had?

Martha Johnston: I’ve had a lot more freedom to work on the things I want to do.

Aidan Glickman: My experience this summer struck the perfect balance between the different aspects of internships.

Shreya Kapoor: Personally, I enjoy working at smaller sized startups, so Viam has been a nice internship fit for me.

How has working at Viam changed how you think about the potential of robotics?

Max Horowitz: Historically, the robotics industry has been bogged down by high barriers to entry.

Shreya Kapoor: This was my first industry experience with robotics.

Evelyn Fu: I learned about the problems that could be solved using fleets of robots.

Interested in joining Viam’s Internship Program?

We have opened the Software Engineering intern role for the summer of 2023! Feel free to apply here.