Breaky breaky!
There we go, start of my graduation internship at DAF Trucks N.V.
For those that don't know, DAF is the biggest truck manufacturer of Europe. Everything is made in-house, from engine to cabin. Most parts are manufactured in Eindhoven, where I am working, the other location is Westerlo in Belgium, here they create the axels and cabins.
DAF is part of PACCAR inc. one of the biggest truck conglomerates in the world with several truck brands under their name.
Furthermore DAF is always looking to improve current trucks, and to see how they can serve the truckers in the best way possible by improving the environment of the trucker.
After 8 years in primary school, 7 in high school and 3,5 in college it's finally time to start graduation. This time getting a glimpse of the real world (as opposed to my previous internship, where I was working with other students, pretty much seperated from the rest of the company). Time to see how big a company can be and what comes with it.
The assignment I have is quite interesting as well! On board of most trucks is a CB Radio (27-MC radio or "Bakkie" in dutch) which is used to converse with other nearby truckers while on the road about speed traps or accidents blocking the road. And of course a lot of it is just random conversation to pass time.
My assignment is to research the CB radio, and see how the radio, or it's form, can be used by truckers to post on social media, sounds quite challenging to me, which is awesome!
Week 1
I started out the monday of Carnaval here. Which is visible from the photo on my company pass, I'm clearly not as awake as I felt that day. Nontheless, after getting a startup talk and getting my pass, it's off to G15, the building I work in. together with another intern also working at the same location.
It's the small lonely building all the way on the right side of the campus. In it you can mainly find ITD and Finances. Two departments that are clearly not as interesting, as they are put away :P
When arriving where we had to work we got a tour around that floor, and learned a lot of names that both of us, obviously, forgot. After that we mainly made sure we were set up with the pc's that were set up for us, as they weren't working at the best of their capacities.
The rest of the week was spent working on my PID. And trying to get my co-intern, Rick, to speak up a bit, as he is pretty quiet (I'm succeeding).
I love the way the hour registration works! It's a flex-hour system, meaning I have to make an average of 7,5 hours a day, so I can work more one day, and work less the next for example. I have to be in before 10, and can't leave before 3. I'm usually there between 8:30 and 8:45, a good time to start in my opinion.
And after lunch quite a few people go for a short (15-30 min) walk around the building to get some fresh air and fresh motivation, quite a nice thing to do if you ask me!
Week 2
Week 2 notes the start of my research, this week I started researching the CB Radio, and I started looking in to a portable way to use voice recognition, the most obvious way to control social media using a microphone.
Tuesday afternoon I had a tour around the DAF facility. This includes seeing the different factories and assembly lines, sadly I wasn't allowed to take pictures, as some of the things I saw were pretty cool. If I'm ever at the main building however, I can take a few pictures of engines or trucks displayed there, it's quite impressive to see! After the tour we had safety instructions. Your basic safety ABC, look out, be aware of your environment, etc. Only thing new was the alarm number I had to call, as it is an on-site number, so the guards know where to point the auxiliary services.
The rest of this week I met a few interesting people that could help me later on in the project, like a person that leads the project where they design the new dashboards.
I'm starting to get to know my other colleagues as well, and they are really nice (and a few of them are absolutely nuts, which always ensures a laugh).
Well, that's pretty much it for the first 2 weeks, if you want to know more, just hit me up! :)
