I am a master student in Automation Engineering. During my master study I was looking for an opportunity for an internship abroad and got that in the right time but it was a volunteer internship in Toulouse, France. I choose France because I never went before there and also I like to adopt a different culture in Europe.
As I am studying on industrial automation I have attention to the industrial workplace that how employer manages their worker’s safety in the industrial workplace. The receiving organization where I ‘ve done my internship, they’re working for industrials workers safety. So when I have seen the opportunity of an internship in France, its grab my attention and I took the opportunity to learn how to improve the industrial worker safety by artificial intelligence.
Thus, my concern was to analysis the industrial worker ’s accident and improve the worker’s safety with trending technology(e.g. IoT, AI). After completing the internship, my goal was to gain core knowledge about IoT devices, machine learning, artificial intelligence, and practical implement for the industrial worker.
Get ready to go out
However, the internship is a volunteer internship when I got the chance to do the internship I don’t want to miss this opportunity. As a volunteer internship, I need financial support to stay abroad and manage the daily life and living stuff there. Obviously, this was a matter of thinking, but the support of the Uni-Bremen Erasmus+ gave me more inspired and made me tension free to do the volunteer internship in France.
Although the internship was not part of my master study, after all, I decided to do it my own interest. In the meantime, I have made ready all the necessary documentation as the requirements of the procedure. I feel lucky that my supervisor of the organization always tried to do immediate response while I had communicated by email. He helps me a lot. Whatever it is study or internship the main problem is managing the accommodation there. From the receiving organization, they helped me out to manage the accommodation.
As I have Schengen visa, I don’t have to worried about to apply for a visa to go inside the Schengen area. France is already in the list of Schengen countries so for me it’s easy to move there. As the duration of my internship was more than six months so I have to think about the health issues that if any reason I will get sick then how do I get the medical support there. So, I have talked with a health insurance provider where my health insurance already has registered before. They make sure that around the Schengen countries they will support to me if I get sick anyway.
Almost everything has done to documentation formalities, before heading towards France some days was really too busy to getting everything to prepare. I bought somethings for my personal purpose to initially start abroad life over there.
Host Organization and Internship
I have completed my internship in a company named WearHealth at Toulouse, France. The company is working on IoT devices and artificial intelligence to improve worker safety in the industrial workplace. Firstly they are concerned about the European industrial workplace where the worker may have some safety problem. But the in case of the industry it is confidential information about worker’s accidents during their works that no employer wants to disclose their safety problem. However, according to several incidental injured of worker helps to make an idea to improve the worker health safety.
On the first day, I got a warm welcome from my supervisor and some colleagues. I was really nervous at all, but everybody is really friendly. My supervisor showed me everything how to use necessary and technical stuff.
During the first week, I had a meeting with my supervisor to make a proper plan for the internship. My task was both theoretical and practical. Every task has to be by the plan. If I need some more days to do finish the task, in that case, my supervisor always compromised for that. At first, I have to do a research study on how IoT devices work and how machine learning works so far. In the meantime, I received a smart shirt from my supervisor, the task of the internship was on it. In this smart shirt has a tech-unit which contains an accelerometer sensor and ECG sensor. With these sensors of smart shirt developed a human-fall detection system that can recognize the accidental fall of a worker in the industrial workplace. So additionally I have done some study on accelerometer sensor that how does it work so far.
Every two weeks break I had a meeting with my supervisor and where I have explained my task-updates, difficulties, and problems. I have to collect the human-fall data and normal activities data. After then preprocessed the raw data and analysis the data that difference between the normal activities and accidental fall. So I have to learn how to preprocess the raw data for the machine learning aspect. Finally, I am able to implement the machine learning algorithm with the collected data. But It was a challenging task to achieve high accuracy to detect accidental fall. I never give up and so for that, I have to spend huge effort but my supervisor helps me lot. I learned that how does a problem can be stronger than a solution if I don’t find the root of the problems too.
During my internship, I am able to make a good relationship with colleagues. Most of the day we had lunch together. Sometimes we arranged a small get together in the evening.
Life in Toulouse
Every day I try to wake up early in the morning and take my breakfast with ready-made foods. The foods in the restaurant of the city are a bit expensive, so most of the time I cooked by myself as much as possible that I stored in the freezer. In the evening while I leave from the internship place I tried to roam around the city to observe the night landscape of the city. Although in the evening the city looks like little crowdy, I like that. The weather of Toulouse in winter is the same as Germany. But I don’t like cold outside, that’s why I like summer. In summer the day is long enough, so after finish the work at an internship I can explore the Toulouse and the surrounding area.
In the weekend I spend my time by cooking, reading books, watching a movie and exploring the city. Toulouse city on the banks of the river Garonne. Sometimes I was sat down there, the view of the Garonne really beautiful. In the super shop whenever I went to buy something I faced some language problem because totally I can’t speak French, but they were very helpful like somebody speak English to answer my question. The Toulouse is one of the largest metropolitan areas. I feel the public transportation of the city is awesome, the bus and tram is frequently available. The life of French people seems to be same as Deutsche people. Peoples are busy with their professionals and own business. Every day in the morning and in the evening the public transport becomes very busy. I would say the life in Toulouse is dynamic.
End of journey
The duration of the internship for me it was a journey of learning. I feel lucky that I am able to finish this journey with success and achievements. I don’t say that I just learn only about the technological side, beside this I learn how to adapt with a new culture and environment. The people of Toulouse are very friendly too. It was a hard time to stay alone without any familiar persons or friends. During my internship made up a friendship with other students. Sometimes we hang out in the evening. Really I enjoyed the life of Toulouse. Everyday life in Toulouse was really nice. But always I missed my family and dears.
In the internship, every task was a challenge that I feel every moment. Understanding the problem is the main things to finding the solutions. When a new idea comes into mind it’s not easy to execute as anybody wants. So for any difficulties to execute an idea, have to know how to handle this problem and overcome the difficulties so far. But everything will go with good if anybody will get a very friendly supervisor or instructor that I was so much lucky too. Because of my supervisor, I can manage the task to finish in time.
Internship abroad is not only about to study, but it also helps to make a strong mind to never give up. The taste of the reality of life can teach us how to make things easy. I would recommend if anybody got an opportunity to do an internship abroad must go for it. An internship can teach you a cultural, social and technical lesson that you might not get this in your own place.
Neueste Kommentare