Summer internship with robotics at Schneider Electric

November 13, 2018

Shohei Hagane is one of the students from Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology who has completed his summer internship with Schneider Electric in last August. He worked with the team Solution Business Development, under Industry Business. He has described his internship experience as below.

Choosing the best place for summer internship

I found out about internships at Schneider Electric from my friend who met SE employee during one of events. There were 3 main reasons why I have chosen SE for internship.

First of all, Schneider Electric is a global specialist in energy management and automation. I was looking for a platform for me to learn on the world class standard solutions and work environment. It was also interesting to have a chance to discover how they use IoT-enabled solutions and discover EcoStruxure – the next generation of active energy management and automation architecture.

The second important thing was that Schneider Electric offered me a longer period of internship, unlike typical internships. I wished to gain real working experience and learn more on the job.

Then last but not least, I was interested in factory automation, particularly in robot arm. In fact, I was able to apply my knowledge about robotics practically and extensively through this internship.

Main challenges during the internship

I wanted to create a simple demonstration about the software and it turned out that some of the communication settings were too tricky for me and I was not sure how to proceed further. With the guidance from my mentor, exhaustive manuals and documentations, I’ve gained a better understanding of the topic and I was able to accomplish my assignments. I am very glad that my team members were very supportive and helpful whenever I have any questions or doubts.

The most important experience

If I think about the biggest take-away and learning from my internship, it was definitely amazing to use a ladder language for programming for the first time. It was really a good opportunity to view logical operations in a different perspective.

In addition, casual talk with co-workers during lunch was interesting as it helped me to understand life as an employee of global company. They say here that Great people make Schneider Electric a great company and I can confirm this.

Then another learning was to develop my presentation skills. At the end of my internship, I had to prepare a presentation on what I have learnt during this period and show my understandings about the products. It has helped to build my public speaking skill.

How to make the most of your internship?

I would give three advises to anyone starting an internship:

Be meticulous. Focus on details when reading documentations to ensure 100% accuracy and consistency.
Clarify and verify every piece of information. Answers can be found everywhere, from seniors or through internet.
Be bold to ask questions. Dare to disrupt. If you never share your thoughts, innovation may just end there.

Plans for the future

Through this internship, I realized that work environment and workplace culture are equally important as the work itself. It would be one of the criteria when I start my job hunting in the future. On top of that, I had real experience about factory automation and this has created my interest towards communication between robots and PC.

Overall, I find my internship with Schneider Electric very comfortable and interesting. Going to work every day excited me as I was learning different things every day.