yuhang chen - internship report

EPR2: internship report

Yuhang Chen

UTS | Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology

TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION 4

SUMMARY OF INTERNSHIP EXPERIENCES 5

ABOUT MY FIRST INTERNSHIP 5ABOUT MY SECOND INTERNSHIP 5THEORETICAL KNOWLEDGE GAINED IN THE WORKSPACE 6

REFLECTION ON TRANSFERRABLE SKILLS 7

SECURING AN EMPLOYMENT 7WORKPLACE CULTURE AND ORGANISATIONAL BEHAVIOUR 7EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION AT WORKPLACE 8PRINCIPALS FOR DESIGN, MANAGEMENT AND LEADERSHIP IN THE WORKPLACE 8PLANNING, DESIGN AND MANAGEMENT 9WHAT QUALITIES LEAD TO GOOD LEADERSHIP AND FOLLOWERSHIP? 9EXERCISE LEADERSHIP AND FOLLOWERSHIP IN THE WORKPLACE 10ETHICAL BEHAVIOUR AND PERSONAL ETHICAL FRAMEWORK 11STRATEGIES FOR NEGOTIATING TENSIONS WHEN FACED WITH ETHICAL DILEMMA 12EXAMPLE 1: TREATING ALL PERSONS WITH DIGNITY 12EXAMPLE 2: PRACTISE COMPETENTLY AND RESPECT THE INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY AND CONTRIBUTIONS OF OTHERS 13EXAMPLE 3: COURAGE OF ADMITTING FAILURE AND WILLINGNESS OF READDRESSING THE ISSUE 13ENGINEERING PRACTICE THAT CONTRIBUTES TO SOCIAL WELL-BEING AND SUSTAINABILITY 14INSTANCE 1 15INSTANCE 2 15INSTANCE 3 16PRACTISE OF PROFESSIONAL ENGINEERING IN THE SOCIAL CONTEXT 16

REFLECTION ON TECHNICAL EXPERTISE AND LEARNING EXPERIENCE 18

LEARNING OBJECTIVES SET BEFORE THE INTERNSHIP ACCORDING TO EA’S NATIONAL COMPETENCY STANDARDS 18DEVELOPING COMPETENCIES 18DEVELOPING COMPETENCY 2: RESPONSIBILITY FOR ENGINEERING ACTIVITIES 18DEVELOPING COMPETENCY 3: DEVELOP SAFE AND SUSTAINABLE SOLUTIONS 19DEVELOPING COMPETENCY 4: MEET LEGAL AND REGULATORY REQUIREMENTS 19DEVELOPING COMPETENCY 5: PERFORMANCE 20DEVELOPING COMPETENCY 6: ADVANCED ENGINEERING KNOWLEDGE 21EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING WITH KOLB’S LEARNING CYCLE 21APPLICATION OF KOLB’S CYCLE, INSTANCE 1 21APPLICATION OF KOLB’S CYCLE, INSTANCE 2 22APPLICATION OF KOLB’S CYCLE, INSTANCE 3 23APPLICATION OF KOLB’S CYCLE, INSTANCE 4 24APPLICATION OF KOLB’S CYCLE, INSTANCE 5 25

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COLLABORATIVE AND LIFE-LONG LEARNING 27MENTORING AND PROMOTING TEAMWORK AT WORKPLACE 27REVIEW COLLEAGUE PRACTICES TO HELP IN THEIR DEVELOPMENT 28

CONCLUSION AND PLANS 30

COMPARISONS OF TWO INTERNSHIPS 30PROMOTING PERSONAL FULFILMENT IN THE WORKPLACE 30IDENTIFYING OPPORTUNITIES TO EXTEND ENGINEERING KNOWLEDGE 31

APPENDIX 32

APPENDIX I: ENGINEERING COMPETENCE CLAIMS (EA COMPETENCY STANDARDS, STAGE 2) 32FUNCTIONAL COMPETENCY 1: COMMUNICATION 32FUNCTIONAL COMPETENCY 2: PRACTISE COPETENTLY 33FUNCTIONAL COMPETENCY 3: PROBLEM ANALYSIS 35APPENDIX II: SUPPORTING EVIDENCE 37

REFERENCES 41

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INTRODUCTION

The purpose of this report is to reflect and conclude the experience of my two internships I carried out during my study period at UTS. This report informs the reader as to how I developed my engineering competencies, social responsibility, leadership capabilities and a foundation for ethical engineering practice during these two internships. My CV and some supporting evidence are also included in the appendix.

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SUMMARY OF INTERNSHIP EXPERIENCES

ABOUT MY FIRST INTERNSHIP

My first internship was carried out at Swisslog Australia. This company is a private company headquartered in Switzerland and provides integrated logistics solutions for warehouses, distribution centres and hospitals. The company has 45 employees in Australia and 2,500 employees across the globe. The Australian sub-brand consists of three major departments: marketing, engineering and software support. I worked as a trainee engineer in the engineering department and assisted the work of a system engineer during my first internship. The work of the engineering department focuses on the implementation of hardware such as automated retrieval and storage machines, barcode scanners, conveyors and its controlling PLCs (programmable logical controller). I was also involved in designing the layout and the deployment of wirings of warehouse’s automated storage system. One major work I successfully conducted during my internship was implementing a new type of barcode scanner for warehouse’s storage system. The challenge was to understand how the data is transferred between the scanner and the PLC using protocols specific to field operation and how the data-transferring process can be realised with a low-level programming language. At the later stage of my internship, I was also briefly involved in the development of voice-picking technology which aims at increasing workers’ productivity and reducing error rates. It can be concluded that my first internship is industrially-oriented and puts an emphasis on providing optimised engineering solutions for customers. My internship experience at Swisslog involved a lot of hands-on work, and substantial communication took place among employees.

ABOUT MY SECOND INTERNSHIP

My second internship is conducted at CAS (Centre for Autonomous Systems) at UTS. CAS is a research group of UTS with around 50 members that seeks to provide robotic solutions to real-world problems. One of the prominent work done recently by CAS was the development of an autonomous grid-blasting robot for steel bridge maintenance and rehabilitation. I was employed as an intern to work on a project that estimates the phenotype traits of animal carcasses based on their 3D models. My supervisor is both a university staff and a research fellow at CAS and leads several projects that have an active industrial liaison. My role as an intern at CAS was to create 3D models of animal carcasses with RGB-D cameras that can be used for trait analysis later on. This whole project has the potential to increase profitability for the red meat industry by feeding a quantitative grading method into the meat processing sector. The project employs many advanced 3D image processing technologies that are yet at its embryonic stage, which led me produced a significant amount of research work during my internship at CAS. The goal of my project was

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to estimate the displacement between 3D images at the times they are taken and generate a consistent 3D model by stitching these images together. This process is also called image registration, and the performance of the registered result is subject to various governing factors. I was also briefly involved in the configuration of a scanning frame. Carcasses travelling along the production lines are subject to a substantial amount of swinging motion as they are stopped at the scanning station for examination. This kind of movement will make the stitching process much more challenging. The frame is designed to minimising this motional impact. My internship at CAS involved coding, research and a limited amount of mechanical design & labour work.

THEORETICAL KNOWLEDGE GAINED IN THE WORKSPACE

At Swisslog, I was introduced to PCL programming, voice-enabled picking at a warehouse and some theoretical knowledge on warehouse management. It was a rewarding experience, and I had learned a lot. However, I will mainly discuss my learning during my second internship as it was closely related to my Capstone Project.

While conducting my second internship, I had the opportunity to gain theoretical knowledge in areas of robotics and programming, which were barely covered in my university studies. I studied the principles behind RGBD cameras, recognising image features in 2D and 3D, image registration techniques, RANSAC, optimisation of graph-based SLAM, C++, etc. Knowledge in these areas which I have gained during my internship forms the foundation of my Capstone Project, as my Capstone Project is an extensional work of my internship that attempts to build a 3D model of deformed objects while the camera is moving.

During my internship at CAS, I focused on creating a 3D model of objects that are static during scans. I had successfully constructed a 3D model with a satisfactory result by the end of my internship. The project was implemented in C++. My capstone project aims at optimising this result using non-linear least square optimisation and having a crack at building 3D models for objects that are subject to deformation or motion.

In fact, the theoretical knowledge I obtained during both of my internships is enormous and provides the kick-start I needed to become a professional engineer.

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REFLECTION ON TRANSFERRABLE SKILLS

SECURING AN EMPLOYMENT

Before my first internship, I had attempted to apply all the jobs available on I2MS that relating to my field of study. However, due to being an international student (i.e. employers concerned about me speaking English as a second language & the working conditions of my visa) and a lack of industry experiences, the job-hunt was not quite successful. I finally got my position at Swisslog via a friend that worked for the company, who gave me a referral to the job.

I gained employment at CAS through my application on Career Hub (which was previously known as I2MS). At the time of application, I shortlisted all the jobs advertised on Career Hub that I was interested in, and prepared a cover letter accordingly for one of the jobs I shortlisted based on the duties and requirements of the role. In the cover letter, I stated why I was interested in the job and why I was suitable for it. The cover letter had raised the advertiser’s attention, and I was called for an interview. At the interview, I showed my passion for the job by asking detailed questions regarded to the role. He was pleased with the way I dealt with engineering problems (i.e. “divide and conquer”) and regarded me highly with the practical skills I gained at Swisslog. I did not apply for any other jobs before this and found it relatively easy to secure my second internship.

Relevant industry experience is an indispensable necessity of successful job applications, and how well a person can demonstrate his value to a company is of vital importance to secure the position. In addition, showing passion for the job or the role is important, as candidates with willing devotion to the role are probably what most employers are looking for when hiring someone. In the future, I plan on improving my job seeking skills by expanding my social network (e.g. LinkedIn) and getting contact with job agencies. This would give me the greatest exposure to job opportunities that suit my interest.

WORKPLACE CULTURE AND ORGANISATIONAL BEHAVIOUR

I enjoyed the workplace culture at Swisslog. My supervisor was kind, and all the other staff workers in the company were friendly to me. I enjoyed the mentoring structure and candid discussions at the company. After attempting a problem on my own, I can usually get feedbacks from other senior staff. I was able to reflect on the situation and put their advice into experimentation. I felt motivated and worked diligently at Swisslog. Sometimes I even voluntarily stretched my office hours in order to accomplish a task designated by my supervisor. Nevertheless, I observed that many other employees in the company took a more natural approach towards their tasks without stretching themselves too much. This

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had helped me to understand the importance of lifestyle and work balance in spite of the passions one needs to maintain at workplaces.

In contrast, CAS offered a work environment with an enormous degree of autonomy. People are a lot more focused on their own work and most of the time I was left to my own devices. I received limited instructions from my supervisor and most of the time I worked as self-starters. I was required to manage the objectives by myself and was forced to develop skills of finding research information and determining my own tasks. One thing I liked working at CAS is each task does not have a strict deadline due to its nature being a research project, and I can explore each relevant problem to its fullest extent without worrying too much.

I enjoyed the learning experience and the pleasant work environment at both workplaces. I reckon that encouraging employees to take initiatives is an important aspect of a healthy workplace culture.

EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION AT WORKPLACE

Developing communication skills is of critical importance for engineers. In fact, communication affects every facet of our work and daily life and exists in various forms: verbal, written, graphical, intercultural, interdisciplinary, cross-gender, etc. Skills developed for these forms of communication can also be applied in the area of engineering practices. During both of my internships, I have established an understanding of how communication can have a significant impact on an engineer’s productivity and the deliverables.

I observed how my supervisors and other colleagues communicated with me during my internships. Communications can happen, for example, when I receive instructions, demonstrate to them about my work, or discuss an issue. I noticed the essential thing that happens during the communication process was the exchange of information between the sender and the recipient. Therefore, I had been focusing on improving the effectiveness of delivering messages during both of my internships. I would make sure the messages I deliver to the other person are logically organised, consistent, concise, clear and easy to follow. Loss of one or more of these attributes in a communication process could give rise to arguments, misinterpretation of messages, and a decrease in productivity. These consequences all contribute negatively to communication, resulting in poor engineering practices. My internships at Swisslog and CAS had helped me to develop my communication skills appropriate to both industrial and academic settings. I will make sure to use and continue to develop these skills in my future work and engineering practices.

PRINCIPALS FOR DESIGN, MANAGEMENT AND LEADERSHIP IN THE WORKPLACE

PLANNING, DESIGN AND MANAGEMENT8

I observed two different types of management styles through my two internships. Before working on a task, my supervisor at Swisslog would brief me on the task and give me suggestions on how to achieve the desired result. I felt comfortable to approach him and ask for feedbacks. At CAS, I had relatively less contact with my supervisor, and the instructions I received were usually short and general. This management style has forced me to work independently and figure out what I need to do. I appreciate the flexibility this management technique has to offer in devising the solution to the problem on my own. I believe the first type of management style is more appropriate for junior engineers who would usually feel emotionally isolated as new a newcomer in a workplace while the second one is more suitable for experienced engineers, as this will help to foster creativity and initiative in a work environment.

Concerning planning and design, both organisations I worked for emphasised on identifying stakeholders’ needs. I believe this is foremost important in any engineering tasks. The stakeholders should include anyone that has an interest in the project, although it mainly refers to clients in the context of planning and design. The desired process of planning and design would have involved firstly interpreting the client’s exact needs, and embedding their requirements in the design process. Additional research may be an option for identifying the potential needs of clients and influence the expectations of stakeholders. Failure of determining the needs of clients could delay the project and result in massive monetary losses.

WHAT QUALITIES LEAD TO GOOD LEADERSHIP AND FOLLOWERSHIP?

Working at junior positions during both my internships, I was given a limited opportunity to develop my leadership skills. However, observation of my supervisors has allowed me to examine on this topic and develop my understanding of good leadership and followership.

Good leadership builds its foundation on a solid understanding and acceptance of the missions of the organisation and how well the leader can communicate his or her visions and the company’s mission to their subordinates. As a result, a sense of resonance can be established between the leader and the followers, creating a positive organisational momentum that helps to drive the team forward.

Secondly, the leaders themselves must be role models of good followers for effective leadership. Leaders must demonstrate their commitments to the mission with deed and integrity. Some leaders are motivated solely by the desire of reaching the top of hierarchy, yet they act like an outsider of the team when it comes to carrying out mission-related tasks. They are quick at giving commands but slow at actioning.

Last but not least, leaders must treat their subordinates with trust, respect, and genuine politeness. They must be aware of what they say and what effects their words might have

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on their subordinates. Bad words destroy the leader’s credibility and could result in the loss of respect and trust of the subordinates. They will resist the leader’s instructions by behaving poorly in carrying out assignments or, worse, leaving the company. In conclusion, being a good leader is not being the most competent person in the team, but being the one who is most capable of inspire the team. (Morrison and Ericsson, 2003)

During both of my internships, I have devoted my efforts to be a good follower. The process has helped develop my characters and confidence in my work, preparing me to be a potential leader or continuing as a competent member of a team in the future.

EXERCISE LEADERSHIP AND FOLLOWERSHIP IN THE WORKPLACE

INSTANCE 1

Through my work at building a test rig for conveyor motors at Swisslog, I have developed a strong followership capacity during the process. I listened attentively to my supervisor’s instructions and made notes as I saw appropriate. I translated the supervisor’s requirements into design specifications, and I identified the most important design criteria of the rig with the first being have a robust central part and the second, with an adjustable length between the supports to suit different roller length of the conveyors. This would allow the testing of various models of conveyer roller without significant altering of the overall design. I looked for assembly components for fabrication on the Internet and spoke to my supervisor before asking for a quote. He appreciated my design and asked me to use it to complete the task. I showed my followership capacity by being responsive to my supervisor’s instructions and behave proactively at completing the task assigned to me. I acted as a mission-orientated engineer by building the rig on budget and to the required quality.

NSTANCE 2

Through my work at drawing layouts for the automatic storage and retrieval cranes at Swisslog, I once again developed my followership capacity. The task was to implement the drawings of the cranes, conveyors, and supporting components into existing floor plan designed by other contractors so that electrical and control system may be properly arranged and implemented. With an existing experience of using SolidWorks, I quickly adapted using AutoCAD and worked on the task. As I followed my supervisor’s task requirements and instructions carefully, and only minor changes to my drawings were made to improve the outcome. My followership capacity can be evinced through my dependability and consistency of delivering high-quality outcomes that meet the design requirement. I worked tirelessly on the task and was very focused on delivering the best outcome. Other

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areas that can show my followership capacity is through critically accepting my supervisor’s criticism and the ability to communicate my opinions with my supervisor openly.

INSTANCE 3

During my internship at CAS, I was required to design an electrical enclosure for the scanning frame. The enclosure was used for the storage of data transmitting ports and to prevent them from exposure to liquids (i.e. beef and sheep blood). Eight holes were needed to allow the pass-through of data cables. There was no prefabricated enclosure on the market that suits the exact need of our project, so my supervisor suggested me to buy a completely sealed enclosure with a suitable size and modify it to suit our project needs. The enclosure was bought and remodelled in SolidWorks to decide the drilling location for holes and the placement of an acrylic sheet to make the most use of the enclosure’s interior. I learned to use hole saws, grinders and laser cutters in the process of fabricating the final product. Once again, my effective followership capacity has been shown by being willing to be guided by my supervisor. Although he was not completely involved in the fabricating process of the enclosure, I was able to keep him updated on my progress. My supervisor had given me constructive feedback accordingly, and I was able to take the suggestions on board to improve the quality of the design.

ETHICAL BEHAVIOUR AND PERSONAL ETHICAL FRAMEWORK

Both Swisslog and UTS regard ethical principles and practices as important. I believe I practised ethically during both of my internships for the benefits of the community and others.

The question to ask is, are ethics and moral values relative and do different people regard ethical practices differently? I hardly think so. In a narrow sense, ethical misconduct occurs when one puts their self-interest or short-term benefits before the welfare of others and disregards the harm that could bring to another person, party or the general community. When facing ethical dilemmas, we must firstly be observant to our conscience as I believe our conscience itself bears a witness to ethical practices. We must then seek genuine advice from others and follow the ethical guidelines of the company or other professional bodies (such as Engineers Australia) to make a sober decision.

During both of my internships, I had been trying to make sure to comply with Engineers Australia’s Code of Ethics and ethical guidelines proposed by the organisation that applies to its specific field of practice.

In regards to establishing my ethical framework, I believe my experience of working in two different organisations have helped differently. My first internship promotes the importance of practise competently in the engineering workplace while the second internship

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emphasised a little more on respecting intellectual properties. I will make sure to practise ethically in my future work and comply with EA’s Code of Ethics, relevant rules, legislations and company guidelines in my engineering practices.

STRATEGIES FOR NEGOTIATING TENSIONS WHEN FACED WITH ETHICAL DILEMMA

My internship experience has helped me to establish strategies for negotiating tensions between my personal values, those of the company I work for, and values that are widely held by the society. Both Swisslog and UTS hold strong emphasis towards ethical practice and promote responsibility, integrity, fairness, and an obligation to do good for the society.

When faced with ethical dilemmas, I must carefully examine the situation first before I speak up, lest I wrongfully accuse an innocent person. When someone indeed does something unjust in the organisation, I shall go to the individual who is directly involved in the situation and boldly confront them with their behaviour. If indeed they have done something unethical, I would gently ask them to rectify their behaviour, lest they continue their mistakes. I shall not be afraid even if it means I could potentially lose my job. If, however, the person insists their ways and does not feel guilty of what they do, I will speak to their supervisors so that they will be punished according to the company’s rules or regulations. If the issue cannot be settled inside the company, I shall seek for other means such as legal advice bodies to address the issue.

I must also be watchful of my own behaviours. I must realise I have a duty of care for the health and safety of others, and I shall take actions whenever I feel harms are likely to occur. I must respect the intellectual property of others and be responsible for my failures and readdress them properly. I shall be willing to take these actions even if sometimes it means a loss of money, time or reputation for me. (Morrison and Ericsson, 2003)

The following section presents examples of how I addressed ethical dilemmas in my workplace.

EXAMPLE 1: TREATING ALL PERSONS WITH DIGNITY

My first internship was a joyful experience, but I felt I was not treated fairly by an administrative staff worker. The tension between us had been present since the early days of my employment. After a few days of being at work, she approached me: ‘why didn’t you tell us you are an international student during the interview? You could get the company into trouble for hiring international students who are not allowed to work in Australia full time!’ ‘In my resume, I said I can indeed work as a full time as an international student as the internship is a registered component of the university programme.’ I explained. Considering her title at Swisslog is HR generalist, it is odd that she failed to check my resume before the company hired me. Such things happened several times during my internship,

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and she was judgemental and harsh at me before knowing the actual situation. However, I saw her spoke to other people nicely in the company. I had a conversation with her and wanted to know why I was treated differently, but to no avail. I took this experience as a lesson and treated everyone equally during both of my internships. I believe everyone in the workplace deserves to be treated with dignity and without bias regardless of their gender, work experience, national origin, religion, age, or mental or physical handicaps. I have applied this principle during both of my internships, and I will make sure I will do the same in my future employments.

EXAMPLE 2: PRACTISE COMPETENTLY AND RESPECT THE INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY AND CONTRIBUTIONS OF OTHERS

I practised competently and distinguished the contributions of mine and those of others during both of my internships.

I continually seek opportunities to develop my skills and further my knowledge in order to preform competently on the tasks I were given. Throughout my two internships, I developed my skills in PCL, warehouse management, computer vision, Linux, etc. in order to complete my tasks to the required standard. I would not work on anything beyond my competency, and I’d usually ask for help in these situations. I worked tirelessly during my internships because I believe being committed to one’s work is also an instance of ethical practice in the workplace.

Working at Swisslog, I have developed an appreciation towards the importance of respect the contribution of each employee in the workplace. I observed that each document or PowerPoint slide created was labelled with the author’s name and a date. I decided to do the same for the drawings and programs I created. This practice not only helps recognise the contributions of different employees but also encourage them to take responsibility for their own work. This is another example of how I practised ethically in the workplace.

EXAMPLE 3: COURAGE OF ADMITTING FAILURE AND WILLINGNESS OF READDRESSING THE ISSUE

At a later stage of working at Swisslog, I was assigned with a task which was to understand the voice-enabled picking method and see how the company can implement the method in its existing warehouse management system. I was introduced to a company who provided voice picking solutions. With the approval of my supervisor, I started training on voice-enabled picking. The training was split into several modules, and trainees of this programme must complete the previous one before move on to the next. After completing the first module, I made a contact with the company provided the training via email and asked them to unlock the next training module for me. I received no response until several days later I got an email from a manager of another department questioning my contact with the

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company: “What is this?” The manager was replying to the representative of the company who had forwarded my previous email to him.

I realised I had done something seriously wrong. In this case, I should speak to the manager first or at least keep him notified before I proceeded to contact the other company. I approached the manager and explained my intention was just wanting to complete the whole training as soon as possible and push forward the process of the project. I apologised for my trespass of overstepping my authority. The manager heard my concerns and commented that I should get his approval first before approaching the other company. I nodded and said I would keep this in mind in the future. I wrote an email to the representative of the company provided the course on voice picking and apologised for the confusion I had caused.

Through this experience, I learned that ethical and responsible engineering practice in the workplace also means claiming my failure or wrongdoing and attempting to readdress the issue, although maybe I have already done my part of the job with a well-informed conscience.

ENGINEERING PRACTICE THAT CONTRIBUTES TO SOCIAL WELL-BEING AND SUSTAINABILITY

Engineering is about solving problems for the benefit of humanity and promote the dignity of human beings. Engineering companies must also be respectful of the Earth’s finite resources and consider the welfare of future generations when conducting engineering practices. (Guenther 1997)

Working as a junior engineer at Swisslog, I helped to implement automated logistic solutions for warehouses that rely heavily on manual operations. Industrial automation, I believe, contributes to the social wellbeing and employment conditions massively. Industrial automation frees employees from their boring, routine and sometimes dangerous work so that they can contribute themselves to more creative tasks that machines cannot do. As a member of the engineering team at Swisslog, my major task was involved in replacing the original barcode scanner with one that had a higher accuracy and shorter response time. I tested my PCL program over and over again to make sure it worked robustly. I had also documented technical details of my program including how to configure the barcode scanner in case the company might want to use my program in the future. This is a sustainable engineering practice as it means fewer manual corrections for software engineers and ensured the efficient use of company’s human resources.

Working at CAS, I used my knowledge in C++ programming to model the 3D shape of beef/sheep carcasses for my supervisor. The whole point of the entire project was to automate the process for estimating lean meat yielded from sheep and beef carcasses, based on a number of factors such as sectional fat, surface curvature, weight, etc. I worked

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tirelessly on my program to promote its reliability and expandability. This, I believe, is another example of sustainable engineering practice.

This is a summary of how my work during my internships contributed to social well-being and promoted sustainability. In the future, I will make sure I consider the environmental, social, and economic impacts of my design to come up with the best engineering solution.

The following three examples demonstrate how I personally take the initiative to contribute to socially responsible and sustainable engineering practice during my internships.

INSTANCE 1

Sustainability in the workspace not only means the recycling or reuse of physical resources but intellectual resources as well. Taking the creation of programmes as an example. When coding a programme in C++ for the carcass project at CAS, I had tried to promote the generality of my programme. For each function I created, I made sure it carries out one single task only. I grouped similar functions into a C++ class and optimised them accordingly. The code can be shared with others in the organisation and sometimes this will save them a lot of effort.

I believe this is a sustainable practice because it helps others to avoid the pitfall of “reinventing the wheel”. I had spent a great deal of effort to create and optimise the functions. Others need not duplicate this process; rather they can just feed the input to the programme and expect the desired output. This, I believe, utilised the reusability of the code and increased the productivity of the organisation as a whole.

INSTANCE 2

A similar sustainable practice was carried out by me at Swisslog, with an intention to ensure the efficient use of human resources of the company.

During my internship at Swisslog, I worked in the company’s engineering team which belonged to the realisation department. I developed a program for a scanner to identify the labels on the transport pallet. Each label has a barcode that consists the relevant information of the item for stock keeping, such as SKU (Stock Keeping Unit) code, expiry date, etc. As items move along the conveyors, their barcode is read by the barcode scanner and inputted into the controlling PCL. This information is then added to the centralised warehouse management system for the purpose of storage, redistribution, or shipment.

I prepared documents to specify how the new barcode is configured. I carefully prepared the document with an assumption that the audience has no previous PCL knowledge or experience of implementing a barcode scanner. I avoided the use of jargons as much as I can and added screenshots and a flowchart to help illustration. The programme was created

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with compliance to the company’s standards, and it was reusable, expandable and modifiable. I believe my actions helped standardise the process, which would lead to long-term benefits for the company when implementing barcode scanner to the company’s existing systems.

When I make a design choice or devise an engineering solution in the future, I will make sure to take into consideration of the economic, environmental, social and the interest of future generations into account and come up with the best solution.

INSTANCE 3

As part of my role as a trainee engineer at Swisslog, I was required to build a test stand for a conveyer roller. The conveyer roller weights quite heavily, and I realised the stand I build must be reliable and robust as it will be placed on top of the stand for testing. Taking safety as utmost importance, I came up with a design that also aims at using the least possible amount of materials. I sketched out the design on a piece of paper and discussed with my supervisor. He approved my design and commanded me to source required components for assembly. I calculated the exact amount of components I need and added a small extra amount to it as spares. After completing the assembly, I did not use up all the materials that were ordered. I could throw them away as they were not expensive stuff. However, I decided to put them into storage for future use. I believe I have taken the initiative to behave responsibly in completing this task, as I take the safety of others as the primary concern when designed the roller stand. I also took a sustainable approach to design the stand and did not waste any materials that were not used.

PRACTISE OF PROFESSIONAL ENGINEERING IN THE SOCIAL CONTEXT

Engineering is bound to social and human behaviour, and every engineering activity has the potential to change the society, and vice versus. With the assumption that engineering is to promote the general welfare and dignity of human beings, I must act responsibly as an engineer when I enter employment. Whether acting as an individual in my field or representing the engineering community at large, it is of my obligation to not only minimise harm but to do good. Engineering activities, therefore, must include developing safe and sustainable solutions, managing risks, complying with relevant regulations, and identifying its impacts on the community, economy, environment and future generations.

Professional engineering practice means to engage with different stakeholders and identify their interests and needs. Sometimes it means engineers work ethically and use their engineering expertise to influence stakeholder’s expectations and perceptions and negotiate an outcome for the best interest of the public, the environment, and our future generations. In my future employment, I should realise that stakeholders that could influence my engineering activity may include government, regulatory and legislation

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bodies, the community, future generations, shareholders, employers, colleagues, suppliers, contractors, subcontractors, clients, and end-users. As an engineer, I must be watchful for all stakeholders’ needs and interests and devise engineering solutions that are ethical, sustainable and meet stakeholders’ needs.

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REFLECTION ON TECHNICAL EXPERTISE AND LEARNING EXPERIENCE

LEARNING OBJECTIVES SET BEFORE THE INTERNSHIP ACCORDING TO EA’S NATIONAL COMPETENCY STANDARDS

In Engineering Practice Preview 2 (which is a subject conducted between the first and my second internship), I have set some learning objectives which I have wanted to develop during my second internship. With reference to my learning proposal, these are the areas that I wished I have developed my skills in:

1. Deal with ethical issues2. Problem analysis3. Creativity and innovation4. Advanced engineering knowledge

These learning objectives are set based on the Engineers Australia’s Competency Standards Stage 2(Experienced Professional Engineer), and the emphasis was to develop my technical competencies as they are the bread-and-butter skills engineers must have. The emphasis on technical skills, however, by no means indicate the insignificance of other competencies stated in the standard. They work together to contribute to professional engineering practices.

I committed myself to work during my second internship at CAS and had the opportunity to practise and reflect my engineering opportunities according to these learning objectives I have set. The researching nature of my second internship allowed me to improve continuously my technical competency, and the results are fairly satisfactory by the end of my second internship. In terms of the first learning objective, I have also developed this competence significantly during my internship which was discussed in the previous ethical section.

In the following section, six instances of elements of competency are addressed at a developing level. Three more instances that are addressed at a “functional” level are included in the appendix of this report in the form of “Engineering Competency Claims”.

DEVELOPING COMPETENCIES

DEVELOPING COMPETENCY 2: RESPONSIBILITY FOR ENGINEERING ACTIVITIES

Working as a junior engineer both at CAS and at Swisslog, I was constantly concerned about the quality of my work, and I felt it is of my responsibility to deliver a design or an

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engineering solution to its optimal quality. As a result, I have developed a habit of validating the results and seeking opportunities to improve my work after it is finished. One way of doing this is I ask for suggestions from my peers and my supervisors. I would run them through the process of how I worked on those tasks and inform them the difficulties I had encountered. They are generally happy to provide me feedback on my work (unless they are very busy) and give advice on the things I could improve on. I would analyse the viability their suggestions and took them on board as I see appropriate. I usually find the advice I received to be relevant and useful. I would then implement these suggestions in my previous work and discuss the outcome with my peers and my supervisor.

The practice of seeking advice from others has greatly helped my learning experience as a junior engineer in the workplace. It also helps me to appreciate the necessity of distinguishing my contributions with others and acknowledge the improvement of my work as a result of consultation and collaboration with other people.

DEVELOPING COMPETENCY 3: DEVELOP SAFE AND SUSTAINABLE SOLUTIONS

During my first internship, I was introduced to the automated warehouse management system and got an understanding of how different processes contribute to the flow of warehouse operation. When trucks dump items on conveyors, tens of the same products packed in cases will be formed into a pallet, and they are automatically transported to the designated location decided by the warehouse management system. However, it was not possible at that time for Swisslog’s system to pick a single case from a prepacked pallet, and the process had to be done manually. We were eager to find an efficient way of doing this.

There are several methods available for case picking, such as RF picking, paper picking, pick to light, etc. I was introduced to voice-enable picking eventually. My research on this picking methods indicated voice picking is a more favourable choice over other picking methods. Voice picking receives order instructions from the warehouse management system by synthesised voice, which would lead to a hands-free and eye-free operation. Voice picking eliminates distractions from looking at and handling paper lists, scanners, or terminals comparing to other picking methods used. Workers can concentrate more on their work which would lead to increased productivity and picking accuracy. Additionally, as they are more focused on their work and surroundings, their safety records tend to improve. Through this experience, I believe I demonstrated my ability to take consideration of economic impact and the well-being of others when designing a solution for an engineering problem.

DEVELOPING COMPETENCY 4: MEET LEGAL AND REGULATORY REQUIREMENTS

Regulatory bodies have enacted strict rulings to fight against piracy and protect the intellectual properties of their authors. Software, resources, academic works are being

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spread on the Internet and used illegally either intentionally or unintentionally. Working at Swisslog and CAS, I started to gradually appreciate the importance of respecting intellectual property at the workplace and strived to comply with the legal requirements that protect intellectual properties.

I used authorised copies of software such as AutoCAD and Simatic Step 7 (for PCL programming) during my internship at Swisslog, even if it means a significant cost for the company. At CAS, I used a less amount of proprietary software as a lot of developers are willing to share their source code with others for the purpose of collaboration, especially when the project I work on involves things that are still at its embryonic stage and needs contributions from a wider community. However, the names of original authors are always kept as I acknowledge the contributions of others in my work. Respecting the intellectual can lead to huge financial expenses for an individual or an organisation, and more often it brings inconvenience to one’s work. However, I believe it is more important we give credit to others’ work even if it means we have to sacrifice something when it comes to protecting intellectual properties. I will make sure to comply with legislations in terms of respecting intellectual properties of others and always give credit to those who helped me during my work.

DEVELOPING COMPETENCY 5: PERFORMANCE

During my internship at Swisslog, I always take an initiative to work on the tasks that were assigned to me. However, the result is not always as desired, even after discussions with more experienced engineers in the workplace. In this case, I had to consult people outside of the company in order to achieve the desired result.

One example among this is using the “reset” function provided by the barcode scanner to clear memories in the device’s receiving buffer. However, this function seems not only clear the data in the device’s receiving buffer, but also my preconfigured system parameters that define the how the scanner decodes the data. I was quite baffled. According to the device’s manual, the “reset” button should only clear the hardware’s working memory, but not the user memory that specifies system parameters. Since my supervisor also cannot identify the cause of this problem, and there is no apparent workaround to overcome this issue, he asked me to contact the scanner’s technical support in Australia for help. However, they also struggled to identify the reason why this problem happened. Later on, with the help of the scanner’s technical support team in Germany, we found out the reason was that the scanner I used was a sample and had an old firmware that did not support the “reset” function specified in the device’s manual. I implemented an update to the scanner using a software package provided by the Germany team and achieved desired results after the upgrade.

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This is an example of how I was able to build a relationship with the company’s suppliers and work together with them to achieve desired engineering outcomes for the benefits of the company.

DEVELOPING COMPETENCY 6: ADVANCED ENGINEERING KNOWLEDGE

The major project I involved at CAS was to match images with corresponding features, which means I need to find the transformation matrix between two corresponding images. However, due to sensor noise in the RGBD cameras, this initial estimation of the transformation matrix is prone to error. In addition, as more and more images are added to the map, the error gets build up. When the camera travelled to a previously visited place, features are likely to be misaligned and cause erroneous results. What we can do in this case is to apply a least square optimisation algorithm, so that errors are evenly distributed between each camera pose.

However, this method is again prone to error because each estimation does not have the same amount of measurement accuracy. Therefore, we need to give weight to each of these measurements before applying the optimisation algorithm. With the help of my supervisor, I found a paper in regards to point-to-plane ICP algorithm discussing build a covariance matrix from the target points’ surface normal, source points’ coordinates and the initially estimated transformation. I applied the methods proposed by the paper and built a covariance matrix indicating how confident the estimation is about the six transformation variables (translation along x, y, z, and Euler angles define a rotation in space) approximated. This covariance matrix was fed as an input to the optimisation programme, and I was able to get better alignment results than treating each estimation equally.

EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING WITH KOLB’S LEARNING CYCLE

APPLICATION OF KOLB’S CYCLE, INSTANCE 1

Concrete Experience

During the process of conducting my internship and working on my Capstone project (as previously explained, my Capstone Project and my internship are closely related), I had to use Bayesian filters to detect loop closure in an RGB-D image set characterised by feature signatures. I wasn't able to understand this theory well initially. I realised that engineering activities usually involve cross-discipline practices. Management, programming, system designs, mechanical practices.

Reflective observation

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It is a problem of probability and computer vision. Bayesian theory based loop closure detection in a 3D image dataset involves the understanding of geometry, probability theory, and 3D feature detection. I need to overcome this problem because SLAM-based carcass modelling needs loop-closure detection to optimise the outcome.

Abstract Conceptualisation

Regarding the issue of implementing loop-closure detection in my program, I plan to keep a positive attitude and extend my knowledge to understand the problem. I spoke to my supervisor and collected some materials from him. I also researched the SIFT/SURF feature detectors they use to help the understanding of the problem.

This experience has taught me that engineering activities are usually cross-disciplined. A real-world system usually involves the collaborative work among mechanical, electrical and software engineering activities, although some of these systems may emphasise on one particular engineering discipline over the other. One needs to have an attitude of embracing the unknowns and uncomfortable things. Sometimes what they face may not necessarily be in their field of engineering practice, but the attitude of willing to learn new things will help them understand better of the problem and find a way to solve it.

More importantly, engineers should draw inspirations from these learning activities to guide them in their future work as they go through the learning process.

Active Experimentation

I learned to use MatLab. I went through an online tutorial (MatLab scripting file) that simulates the process of iteratively improving the estimate of the location of a particle that is randomly placed on a map, according to the simulated observations. Bearing this knowledge in mind, I searched through several academic papers in the related field, and was able to understand the concept of loop closure detection better. I understood that a Bayesian filter uses a similar technique that keeps track of loop closure hypothesis by estimating the hypothesis that current image matches one of the already visited locations based on image signatures created by the RGB-D data.

Through this experience, I also learned using MatLab as a tool to visualise and verify important mathematical theories that relate to my internship practice. I have gained benefits from these experiences as all of them guide me to think and be quick about problem-solving.

As a mechatronics engineer, I may have to work with autonomous machines or robotics. In my future engineering practice, I will be open-minded to embrace new knowledge and continually improve my skills in different engineering disciplines to be a competent professional engineer.

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Concrete Experience

This example is regarding my employment process of my second internship. I initially saw the internship opportunity on UTS's website, and I applied for it as my second internship. There are three selection stages before the interviewer made his final decision (initial shortlisting of candidates, two quizzes that tests candidate's technical skills, and a formal interview), so this position offered by UTS is reasonably competitive. The process of the application is accompanied with stress.

Reflective Observation

It was very stressful at the time I applied for this application. Firstly, I had two final exams on the same day the quiz problem was due. Secondly, I was technically responsible for a project from one of my other core subject, and my other team members of the subject can only contribute to a limited amount. The stress comes from the unfamiliarity with the quiz problem (it was not like anything I did before), tightened schedule (I was given only one week to complete the quiz problems), and anxiety.


To broaden the context, this is something related to time management and coping with stress, and it is also about how I can approach a potential job position wisely. I know the first thing I should do is to calm down myself, and put more focus on the problem itself rather than keep on thinking how difficult it is. I also encouraged myself, that the result of the application is not something I can decide, so worrying or anxiety is useless. I negotiated with my potential employer to extend the due date of the quiz problems, and did the quiz problems and prepared my final exams at the same time.


I have learnt many things from this application process, which can guide me for future job application and coping with stress. If I was not interested in doing robotics and research work, I would not be able to fully devote myself to applying for the internship. Therefore, I believe seeking for an appropriate position is very important when applying for a job. Hasting to apply for a position without considering one's interest and career path will most likely to discourage themselves eventually, ending up with an unsuccessful interview or doing a job they do not like. For engineers there are times when we have to work under pressure and are required to deliver something to a required quality in a relatively short time interval. In this case, establishing a positive attitude is very important.


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Concrete experience

CAS offers a comfortable experience that helps me to conduct my internship ethically. Not so long ago, I was asked to sign a Student Intellectual property agreement to ensure the protection of intellectual property that arises from the project I was taken during my internship. I was commanded to record my progress in a bound lab notebook. It was a legal document and seemed to be hard to follow initially.


I have noticed two things in the documentation of the agreement. Firstly, the wordings in the documents are very precise and particular. The other thing is that the agreement requires the notebook that keeps recordings to be documented in a manner that is sequential and contemporaneous. This has helped me to understand the importance and seriousness of intellectual properties. According to the document, UTS has entered a Research Agreement with Meat and Livestock Australia that applies to the technology applicable to the project we are working on. The agreements among the industry partner, the University (which is represented by my supervisor), and I, have provided an ethical framework within which we perform our research activities.


For people who work in technological industries, often they face the challenge of how to using intellectual properties in a proper way. People tend to use resources for their own good (even unintentionally) illegally (such as using pirated software or improper claim of authorship). This is indeed convenient and frugal, but it is an offence to the people who developed the product. Another challenge is taking active responsibility for their work. They may cover up mistakes and fail to speak out the truth for fear of losing their reputation or of being punishment for what they have done. It requires faithfulness and loyalty to be victorious on these ethical challenges.

Active experimentation

I always remember one of the articles in the document I signed: I will always strive to use my best endeavour for the good of the company, given that the conducts comply with the articles specified in this document. This would require me of taking active responsibility for the work I do and behave ethically. Fortunately, those programming code I use to guide my work are usually under BSD licence (which are free to use for research or commercial purposes.) and are publicly available. But for codes that that are particular to MLA I shall keep them confidential, even when I work in another company or industry. I will also train myself to be a professional user on wordings, so that in my future career, I can choose the most precise words to use that are suitable in an engineering context.

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I need to install a dual-boot on my system so that my laptop can run Windows and Linux in parallel. I had allocated 12 GB of disk space for the system and it was successfully installed. 12 gigabytes of disk space, according to a technical document I read, is plenty for a Linux system to run with. However, as I attempted to install ROS, the system failed to complete the installation process and popped up an error saying "not enough disk space.”

Reflective Observation

The error means that the 12 gigabytes of disk space I just allocated for Linux OS has been used up! How is this possible? I used a system tool to inspect the disk usage. It turned out that half of the disk space was allocated as "swap" partition, which means that six out of twelve gigabytes of disk space allocated for the system have been used for memory exchange. In other words, when the system needs more memory resources, and the Random-access Memory(RAM) is full, inactive pages are relocated to the swap space to free up the RAM.


I pondered this problem, and it turned out there are two possible ways of dealing with this situation:

1. Reinstall the system afresh so that it runs with a larger disk capacity allocated for its filesystem2. Resize the partition, this saves time of reinstalling the system from USB but poses danger on existing Windows/Linux files of corrupting them

I decided to go with the second option. As modern computers are generally equipped with larger RAM capacities, it does not need a virtual memory as large as 6 gigabytes, especially for a light system like Linux. I checked my system resource usage, only 20% of the total memory is used when the system is loaded with normal tasks.

I used "apt-get" to install a software package called "fdisk" to increase the file system storage for Linux. Windows and Linux use different disk formatting methods. In order to complete the resize of the Linux system, I first need to convert part of the unused "swap" format into "ext" format, which is a disk format Linux uses to store files, and then I joined the converted "ext" disk space with the original 6 gigabytes of space, forming a continuous memory location for files to be stored upon.

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The process was completed, and I was able to continue the installation of the ROS system. This experience has helped me to understand the Linux system better, and I was able to perform debugs more confidently in Linux systems.


Concrete Experience:

Working at CAS, I need to understand the calculation of two relative camera poses. If two RGB-D cameras take photos of the same scene but from a different angle, then there exists a relative pose of these two cameras.

To align the photos taken by the cameras, it is a crucial practice to know the cameras' relative pose. Aligning photos taken at different camera locations is important for surface modelling of animal carcasses, which happens to be the capstone project I am working on.

In order to get started on my internship and my Capstone work, I need to get started by simulating a 2D SLAM problem on MatLab.


In a 2-D world (with one less dimension than the 3-D case, which leads to reduced complexity), a relative pose can be represented with three variables, namely, horizontal and vertical displacement and the orientation. This can be easily achieved using Cartesian coordinates and a single rotation angle with range [0, 2*pi). We can use the relative pose constraint to construct a pose graph to get an optimal pose configuration of the photos, and aligning photos using a common reference frame.

Abstract conceptualisation:

In the practice of modelling the surface of the carcasses, the camera feeds streams of RGB-D data to the central host as it takes photos of the carcass at different positions. This is the same in the 2D case. In order to group all the photos taken by the cameras into a global coordinate frame, I need to describe the relative pose of the camera as it takes photos at different locations.

I pondered over the problem and thought about how 2D concept derived above can be applied in the 3D cases. There are two positional properties for the relative pose of two independent objects in a three-dimensional space. Namely, translation and rotation, but this time the referenced object has 6 degrees of freedom, thus leads to 6 variables for the relative pose. Describing translation is easy, as we can just add a third parameter to the Cartesian coordinate to represent the displacement of the camera in its third dimension.

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However, describing the rotation in 3D is much more complicated than in a 2D environment. I researched this topic and found out that there are two major ways to describe a rotational motion. The first one is called rotational matrix, which is derived according to the Euler’s theorem. The rotation matrix represents a rotational pose which is the product of three simple-rotations (rotation around x, y and z-axis). Another way to describe a rotation is to imagine that the original object carries on a single rotation about some arbitrary axis with a particular angle. We can use the Eigen-properties of the rotation matrix to find this vector and the angle. This process leads to the quaternion way of representing rotations.

Active experimentation:

Understanding how a relative pose describes a unique relationship between two objects enabled me to solve the 2D SLAM problem. I used the relative pose to construct the constraints of consecutive nodes and manually added a loop-closure to establish a pose graph for the 3 node 2D SLAM problem. The least-square minimisation technique is used to optimise the nodes and eventually it gives an optimised pose graph. This same technique could be used to model carcasses when the nodes referred to here are images taken by a camera at different locations. In the end, I completed the 2D SLAM problem which has helped me get started on my capstone project. In the future, I will look further to find the loop-closure in the process so that least-square optimisation can be used to construct a better model of the carcass surface.

COLLABORATIVE AND LIFE-LONG LEARNING

Most engineering work is done in teams. During my internships, I worked as part of the project team that focuses on a particular section of the project. I believe that communication is the most important factor for a team to perform at its optimum. I employed communication skills when engaging in one to one discussions, giving and receiving feedbacks, and participating in group meetings. During my internships, my supervisor would give comments to me and suggest the things they like about my work and areas that I could improve on. I would then reflect on their suggestions and take the appropriate ones on board and implement them in my work. Through these feedbacks, I was able to identify my strength and weaknesses of my work, and share my work experience and knowledge with my supervisor and colleagues. There are also team meetings held regularly during my second internship. This has helped each member of the group to learn from others’ knowledge and experience.

In regards to life-long learning, I think it is about learning from the mistakes of others and myself and keeping learning new things to adapt to the ever-updating nature of technology. I shall develop a habit of writing reflections during my work and in engineering practices, and be open-minded and willing to adapt new technologies for my work. Another critical

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area of life-long learning is to speak to other engineers and listen carefully to their experience. I believe these techniques will help me to become a life-long learner.

MENTORING AND PROMOTING TEAMWORK AT WORKPLACE

As newcomers to a workplace, mentors were extremely helpful in helping me get familiar with the work environment and aiding me to complete my work. At CAS, I worked with my supervisor and a research fellow who previously was also an intern student from UTS. I had a pleasant experience working with them as both of them were very approachable and happy to mentor me. At Swisslog, I worked closely with my direct supervisor on the engineering team and the working experience was similarly pleasant.

I think the most important qualities of a mentor are patience, approachableness, and competence. When seeking out for a mentor, it is certainly not wise to go to someone who struggles a lot with their own work, or approach someone who is too busy to help me out. In my experience, young engineers who had already been mentored by senior engineers of the organisation are usually keen to help newcomers, as they see them are about to start a venture like theirs. In terms of securing a mentor in the workplace, I find it usually helpful to show interest in people’s work and ask questions about what they do. This will help me to get to know my colleagues and about their work. If the person’s work is related to mine, then I could approach them for support if I get stuck in my work. My direct supervisors would probably be the first one I go to when securing a mentor. By knowing everyone’s responsibilities in the workplace, I can relate each one to the tasks they are assigned, and promote teamwork through discussions and give feedbacks.

REVIEW COLLEAGUE PRACTICES TO HELP IN THEIR DEVELOPMENT

Working as junior engineers during both of my internships, I hardly had any chance to help my colleagues with their personal development. However, reflecting on my experience in how other people have helped me about my academic, professional and personal development during both of my internships, I can be more confident in helping other colleagues in their personal and professional development when I enter employment.

In order to help others and improve their performance in the workplace, the first thing I would do is to be observant about their behaviour and attentive when they speak. This procedure would help me know more about their personality, and the likely means they adapt to solve a problem. If the outcome of a task assigned to them is not desirable, I will sit down with them and try to find out what the causes are. I will ask them about their understanding of the task and how they implemented their solutions. This process would allow me to pinpoint the weaknesses in their work and devise a solution to readdress the issue for a better outcome.

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For their personal development, I will ask about their interest, and recommend reliable sources for them and even encourage them to pursue a higher qualification in university. I will help them with their reflections by using Kolb’s cycle, putting an emphasis on how something they learned from an experience can be extended to benefit their engineering practice in a wider context.

I also believe that Engineers Australia’s code of ethics have concluded well the values and principles that shape the decisions engineers make in their engineering practice. I will, therefore, go through each item in the code of ethics and explain to them with examples. I believe this would be a helpful guideline for their personal development in the future.

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CONCLUSION AND PLANS

COMPARISONS OF TWO INTERNSHIPS

The two internships provided two types work experience, and I gained different skills and knowledge through each internship. Comparing the two internships, I felt that I enjoyed a considerable degree of autonomy for my internship at CAS while the first internship is more like working under the supervision of my supervisor. The work at Swisslog requires the daily progress report to my supervisor, and the work is a little intense with designated deadlines. There are no specific deadlines for the research project, so working at CAS is a bit more relaxed. For most of the time, I can schedule my own work plan, and learn things progressively through experimenting and exploring things to their fullest extent. Both internships have helped me to appreciate the beauty of the process of problem-solving and I have developed a passion towards analysing and abstracting a complex task and seeking the optimal ways to resolve it.

In the future, I would like to work as research or development engineer for a company that encourages creativity and initiatives. Through my experience at Swisslog and CAS, I realised that I can become bored and less concentrated if I was required to do the same kind of routine tasks again and again with little variation. However, gaining new experiences, exposure to new challenges and exploring novel ways of doing things can usually keep me motivated and more productive. Additionally, organisational culture is also important. I would like to work with people that are approachable, who can help each other and are willing to grow together in knowledge and skills. Last but not least, the company I am seeking to work for should enforce ethical engineering practices and be responsive to social interest and general wellbeing of the community.

PROMOTING PERSONAL FULFILMENT IN THE WORKPLACE

During my internships, I had been able to recognise features of a company that would be fulfilling to me. The first one would be an amiable atmosphere among staff. This keeps the employees happy and more productive. The second feature I look for is if the company place an emphasis on delivering quality engineering solutions to customers (And if so, how?). This would help employees continually improve their skills through working on different projects to its best quality. The third thing I reckon is important is how the company values contribution to the society in their engineering practices. The company I desire to work for should not just be a money-making machine, but place an emphasis on the benefits of the general public and seeks the opportunity to do good for the community at large by sustainable and responsible engineering practices.

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Companies that offers training programs for their employees are considered worthy to work for. Companies that encourage employees to pursue a higher degree in coursework or research deserves even more respect. These procedures show that the firm cares about the employees and are willing to invest in their personal development. Employees that were given training or pursued a higher degree will be more confident in their work, and create increased values for the company.

Lastly, I find companies that have flexible working hours suit me the most. Sometimes early in the morning, I feel not as productive as other times. Allowing flexible working hours will allow me to cope with my tasks more efficiently.

Companies with features and organisational cultures as mentioned above seem to be appealing to me. They deliver quality engineering solutions for the benefits of mankind and are concerned about their employees’ personal development. I will find more about a company’s culture through its website and by asking questions during the employment interview. I hope to join a company with vision and passion and witness the company excel in their field. In the meantime, I hope I can learn a lot when working for that company, and excel in my field of engineering practice.

IDENTIFYING OPPORTUNITIES TO EXTEND ENGINEERING KNOWLEDGE

During my second internship, I had the opportunity to attend a weekly meeting, of which members are from the robotic research field of SLAM at CAS. Participants discuss new technologies in the SLAM field that relate to robotic applications and share their research outcomes. Being an internship student at CAS, I was invited too and found this a great opportunity to expand my knowledge in the field of image registration and back-end SLAM.

Once I enter employment, I plan on working for a duration of 1-2 years and acquire practical experience in the industry. I will then seek the opportunity to do part-time research studies and attempt to obtain a higher level of qualification, such as a Ph.D. The topic of the research study will preferably be something related to my field of engineering practice and solves a real-world problem. Upon completion of the study, I would have grown a lot in both the academic field and the practical field, which would allow me to contribute in a specialised engineering field in the workplace.

It is of my personality of being curious about new technologies and I usually like to keep myself updated with new things. I will be attentive to industry news and attend conferences in my field of practice when entering employment. If there are training or workshops available, I would also seek opportunities to participate. I may also acquire materials to study at my own pace, which would allow me to do studies more flexibly.

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APPENDIX

APPENDIX I: ENGINEERING COMPETENCE CLAIMS (EA COMPETENCY STANDARDS, STAGE 2)

FUNCTIONAL COMPETENCY 1: COMMUNICATION

The process of analysing the sample data begins as the scanning data of sheep and beef carcasses are being collected from the fields. This involves a collaborative work among my supervisor, my colleague and me. We need to generate 3D models using these raw scanning data. We used a ROS software package called RTAB-MAP (Real-Time-Appearance-Based Mapping) to conduct the modelling of the carcasses. However, the result was not desirable with our first attempt. We were able to get the models from the raw scanning data, but they all have stacked layers on top of the other. Images are not adequately merged, causing duplication of body parts in the point cloud data created. This hinders our process of getting useful information from the model, as curvatures and surface normal are counted multiple times when feeding the feature vectors to a machine learning algorithm for further analysis.

I reflected on the cause of this stacking phenomenon and made three assumptions:

the feature descriptors we used are not rotation-invariant, and camera pose inferred from corresponding feature descriptors was lost when running the package

lack of odometry information from external sensors gives a bad initial guess for the alignment process

the features extracted from the depth images are too few to align the images correctly

[B][C][D][E]

To solve this problem illustrated above, I realised immediately that a team-work based approach need to be employed. I need to communicate with my supervisor and my colleague to create a suitable model for analysis. I discussed with my supervisor to understand his needs and found out his primary concern is that there shall not be any repetitive features generated when analysing the model. The second thing my supervisor emphasised is the importance of extracting the hindquarters from the carcass, as they contain a lot of muscles which are the things the analysis is concerned about. The hindquarters haven’t been extracted from the datasets previously as visual odometry can be easily lost when playing back the video data. In the end, the three of us decided to obtain images from the raw data frame-by-frame and then stitch manually them together. A plan was created accordingly: Firstly, we use the RTAB-map to do the matching and extract the cloud just before misalignment happens. This is a similar approach of frame-by-frame alignment except that we are not extracting images directly from the raw scanning data but from the RTAB-map database. Secondly, we can then use MeshLab to manually stitch the images retrieved from RTAB-map to form a complete model of the carcass. By manually selecting four pairs of points as an initial guess, we can use the ICP (iterative closest points) approach to align each separately acquired images with overlaps together.

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[F][G]

During the actual implementation of the plan, I was able to extract separate parts of an animal body for each dataset we retrieved (including the hindquarters). By applying enough iterations to the stitching process, I was able to minimise the distances for each corresponding points and thus significantly avoid the "stacking effect", creating a better model for post-analysis. The team also shared a spreadsheet on the 'cloud' to record carcass-related data among the team, such as alignment accuracy (by records of the mean ICP error distance from MeshLab), the volume of the hindquarter, length of the model, etc.

In the end, we were able to feed feature vectors extracted from the model which has a significantly reduced "stacking effect" to a machine learning algorithm to conduct estimation of lean meat yielded from the carcass. I summary these aspects as important factors for leading a technical discussion and promoting teamwork in the future:

clarity when addressing the problem document things in a clear, concise way, so that others may be able to understand

me when verbal communication is not possible establish effective communication channels, such as emails, "cloud drive", sketches,

concept diagrams give supportive feedbacks to peers and be attentive to receive feedbacks. Also,

evaluate the consequences (good or bad) to further improve the deliverables

FUNCTIONAL COMPETENCY 2: PRACTISE COPETENTLY

[A] [D]

By revising my experience at CAS and Swisslog, I have realised that I need to learn new things all the time as a professional engineer. It can be discouraging at times when faced with various challenging technical tasks. Learning new topics in a particular engineering field, for example, the pinhole camera model and learning C++ programming can be challenging. I planned on finding a way to learning things effectively and quickly to maximise my performance in engineering practices.

It is expected that, as a professional engineer, one needs to keep on learning new things so that they can adapt the latest technology and devise better solutions for their products and improve clients’ experiences. Adapting new technology and integrating them into existing products or using them to develop new engineering solutions ensure that they maintain a competitive edge among competitors. However, learning new things can be challenging, and people tend to stay in their comfort zone to work with things they are familiar with. Adapting to new things could mean challenge, change, or even overturn of past experience. These are all the stumbling blocks to learn something new.

Therefore, it is important to form a systematic learning theology to help better adapt engineering activities. This theory should help me to cultivate a positive attitude when facing with new technologies so that I can be actively involved in learning new things and practise engineering activities competently.

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I have formed my own learning methodology according to my past learning experience at CAS and Swisslog. I categorise my learning experience into three stages:

Stage 1: do analysis on the topic to learn

1. Is it worth putting efforts into learning this new topic? What skills can I get after studying the new topic? How do the skills relate to my interest or current work?

2. Analyse priority. Is it something I need to understand immediately or does it benefits me in the long run? I would put a priority to it if learning topic requires immediate attention.

3. If learning the topic requires some prerequisite knowledge, I would make sure I know them too.

Stage 2: the learning process

1. Find suitable learning materials relating to the topic. Usually, I find the official documentation is a good starting point. I summarised two important characteristics for being a good learning material:

Be systematically well organised, and ideally should also cover background information that puts the learning topic in a broader context of knowledge.

The writings should be easy to read and follow (i.e. targeting a general group of audiences), to minimise distraction, boost motivation and increase learning efficiently.

2. Next step is to go through the learning material and understand the concepts introduced in the material

While studying the topic, it is imperative to keep focused in order to be most productive

If getting stuck on a particular section of the material, examine that particular section again, with a mindset of carefully following the writing’s progression

Seek for other complementary resources. A new, different resource concerning the same concept may look at it from a different angle and explains it differently. This sometimes can help the understanding of the concept in the original material.

Use concept diagrams to aid understanding where applicable

Stage 3: review the topic learned and put the new things into practice.

After going through the materials, refresh the memory by connecting key concepts in the material together, and use flowcharts and diagrams to review the concepts learned

Implement the knowledge of the topic immediately to an application, or even teach others about this knowledge. In the meantime, refer to the original

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material if necessary, and explore related or advanced materials of the topic if possible.

[B]

I was able to grasp new technologies effectively by using the learning methodology provided above. I am more confident than before when dealing with new things I am not familiar with. An example of which is when I studied multithreaded programming. Understanding threads, mutual exclusions, conditional threading are all examples of how I used the above-mentioned learning methodology to learn new things. Other areas I used the above method to guide my learning include: C++ programming, PCL library, OpenCV, G2O, relevant geometry knowledge in 3D, working with MatLab, etc.

FUNCTIONAL COMPETENCY 3: PROBLEM ANALYSIS

The underlying nature of science and technology means that working in this field can cause discouragement at times. I have experienced this kind of downheartedness during the time of doing my internship and my Capstone project. As an example, I was carefully following a wiki tutorial and trying to implement the technique introduced there (which is called the transformation library) into my own program, but the result was not as expected. I cannot identify the cause of failure anywhere.

The mistake could be anywhere in the process of coding the program. It could be caused by a typo, a skipped section in the document that was thought to be trivial, or misconception of the instruction. Occasionally it could be caused by extraneous factors (such as system compatibility issues, lack of external programming dependencies) which are usually hard to be identified.

[A][C][D][F]

Taking the above observation into consideration, I appreciated the importance of constructing a framework within which I can work to solve a general engineering problem. Through my experience at Swisslog and CAS, I was able to establish a problem-solving methodology as shown below.

1. I would firstly identify what the problem is. I will characterise the nature of the problem by analysing the following properties of the problem: Scale: how likely it is I can solve it independently or to what extent do I need to

cooperate with other people Background: what fields are the problem related to (computer engineering,

mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, pure mathematics, etc.)? Is it something that requires me to do extra research?

Urgency: does the problem need an immediate working solution or do I have the freedom to explore the problem in depth?

2. I would identify what caused the problem and do a research accordingly. I would discuss with other people in order to find more information of the issue.

3. I would brainstorm possible ways to handle the situation, based on past experiences, research outcomes, and insights from others.

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4. I would choose the most viable solution that best handles the problem that balances the cost and performance.

5. I would implement the solution with maximum focus, as I believe concentration of mental activity usually leads to the highest level of efficiency. I would take a break when I feeling tired of maintaining the highest level of focus.

6. I would repeat step 2-5 if things get stuck. 7. If the problem is complex, I would take a “divide and conquer” approach and

segment the big problem into smaller manageable one. I would attempt to find their interconnections and repeat each process from 1 to 6 until all segments of the problem are resolved. I would then review each individual solution and put things together to form a final solution to the problem.

[A] [C]

When an engineering problem occurs during my internships, I was able to adapt the problem-solving method summarised above and identify the cause of the problem and overcome them. Taking the issue mentioned in the beginning of claim as an example: the first thing was to identify the cause of it. I segmented the program into blocks of code and started debugging. In the end, it turned out that the API (Application Programming Interface) I use was from a different version of TF (Transformation Library). Although it was tempting to use the newer version of the library as it has a richer range of functions, I considered the stability of the program is of higher priority. So I chose the older version of the TF library in favour of the new one. In the end, I was able to comprehend the TF library fully and implement in a demo to track the relative pose of different 3D point clouds.

I have used this problem-solving methodology in many other cases throughout my internship and it has guided me through difficult issues encountered during my internship at CAS and Swisslog, especially in areas of programme debugging. In the future, I will keep on improving it, such as establishing some evaluation criteria with employers or customers to identify the optimal solution in the brainstorming stage.

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APPENDIX II: SUPPORTING EVIDENCE

Figure 1 Code snippet from my project for k-nearest neighbour search

Figure 2 Identifying feature correspondences using OpenCV

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Figure 3 Mechanical frame I helped assembled for scanning carcass

Figure 4 Carcass I created using OpenCV, C++, ROS, PCL in 3D

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Figure 5 Matlab code I studied to simulate Bayesian reasoning

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Figure 6 Designing electrical deployment of safety systems at Swisslog

Figure 7 Programming barcode scanner at Swisslog

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REFERENCES

References

Dowling, D., Carew, A. and Hadgraft, R. (2013). Engineering your future. Milton, Qld.: John Wiley and Sons Australia, pp.373-409.

Guther, C. (1997). Teaching Social Responsibility. IEEE Technology & Society Magazine, (Vol.16, no. 3), pp.15-21.

Morrison, R. and Ericsson, C. (2003). Developing effective engineering leadership. London: Institution of Electrical Engineers, pp.69-80.

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yuhang chen - internship report

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