Over the past year, we were joined by Charlie Freestone who took up the post of Electronics Design Engineer Intern for the 2016-17 academic year. During his time at Cubik, Charlie was a welcome and vibrant addition to the team with his colourful attire and positive attitude. Before leaving to enjoy the last of his summer holidays, and his return to the University of Plymouth where he is studying for a degree in Robotics, we asked Charlie to reflect on his time with us.

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My time at Cubik

‍What you learn at university is your bread and butter foundation. But since working at Cubik, I’ve found that there is so much more to learn than what you pick up doing a degree. Getting hands on design experience along with understanding the entirety of the production process is something you must experience. When you do a placement you learn the correct procedures, how to carry out tasks and how to document it correctly in the ‘real-world’.

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How I feel about my internship

‍A lot of interns spend this time not being able to apply their knowledge to their year in industry. Not only was I pushed to apply what I have learnt on my course to the extreme, I was also challenged to learn new ways of applying that knowledge and even new theories. I found that there is a lot more to learn about the industry that isn’t taught at university including appreciating that the time taken to resolve an issue is more important than finding a fancy way of doing things; and that sometimes keeping it simple is a much better way to complete a project.

When working at Cubik the atmosphere makes it possible to do all these tasks every day. Whenever I had a problem, I was only 2 meters or 5 mins away from having an answer or learning a new perspective to apply to what I was doing. Everyone in the team could be doing different types of work, but they were always willing to help at the drop of a hat. Whether it’s demonstrating how to install the newest coding software or how to have a good night out.

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What I have learnt

‍When creating documents for customers you must always remember that you won’t always address an engineer. When you write a document, you should ensure that you fully explain every part of a system as not everyone knows the terminology.

Learning how to correctly prioritise projects and tasks becomes more pronounced while on a placement. At university, you’re given a few modules that you must learn while doing coursework which can take up to 6 months to complete. At Cubik, you could have between 1 and 10 tasks that must be completed at any given time. Some will need to be completed before others and some will require assistance from other engineers across different departments, which meant I learnt crucial timekeeping and prioritising skills.

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Going forward

‍The internship at Cubik has given me experience of the product development lifecycle – from design and development, through to manufacturing processes. I have witnessed and contributed to every part of this process during my year which has given me the ability to make a strong choice on where I want to be after I finish my course. I want to stay on track to become an engineer.