As an NAE Grand Challenge Scholar, scholars are expected to venture out into entrepreneurship by looking for opportunities to contribute to their challenge in a non-research way.
During the summer of 2023, I worked as a controls engineering intern for Altec Industries, Inc., in Creedmoor, NC. Altec produces aerial vehicles such as bucket trucks which the Creedmoor location specializes in. The controls team works to create software that implements control logic that securely allows customers to operate bucket trucks safely. I also worked on implementing the software by building hardware that is directly mounted on vehicles.
Altec’s products directly contribute to urban infrastructure development, as the number one reason for bucket trucks is to maintain access to electricity. Altec Industries is the leading source of aerial vehicles maintained to keep power on throughout the United States and China. As an NAE engineer, I was able to contribute to this by developing my own software and hardware to be used on the trucks.
More specifically, I learned a multitude of new skills. In the first few weeks of my time at Altec, I learned how to build wire harnesses that route computer models to physical parts on a truck such as the upper boom and bucket. I then learned how to make my own hardware sketches and analyze current control models in SIMULINK.
As I progressed, I focused more on the software side of Altec controls. This involved a lot of work with MATLAB applications, complex SIMULINK models, and writing XML. All of these projects were held to a high safety standard, as these products would be securing people more than 100 feet in the air.
The internship lasted 12 weeks during the summer and exposed me to many different areas of infrastructure engineering including controls, product engineering, and manufacturing engineering.
Supervisor: David Mead
