Meet Our Fori Team: The Interns Edition - Q&A with Kerolless Nasseef
The summer season is coming to a close and with it the end of summer break. Soon we will be saying farewell to our interns as they head back to school. Kerolless Nasseef joined the Fori team on June, 7 as an engineering intern. He is a current senior at Wayne State University in Detroit, pursuing a bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering. We sat down with him to learn more about his experience working at Fori and his future career plans.
Hey Kerollees, thanks for taking some time to meet. Let’s start at the beginning.
Q: What motivated you to apply to the internship position with Fori?
Well, a lot of my colleagues in school recommended applying to an internship. I wasn’t sure of the specific field that I wanted, I was looking for controls and embedded systems with programming, those were kind of my interests. I applied to a couple internships and Fori responded right away. It’s close to my house so that helps too.
Q: Did you receive training and support during your internship?
When I started everything was well documented, as far as the processes for doing the job. A lot of it was learning the processes from the information provided and troubleshooting the systems. It was good because it forces you to understand things in a deeper way. And if I needed help with something I was able to ask one of the supervisors that are around to help us out.
Q: Can you explain what you did during your internship?
I was working on the AGVs, the smaller AGVs. Our role was to commission them. There are steps to configure the (AGV) networking to the software and the hardware configuration and then tuning the drives using separate software. There are a couple different software systems that we learned to use, to configure the scanners and magnetic sensors, since they are magnetic guided carts. Then we would take them on the track and test them. For example, we would run them for an hour make sure everything was working correctly then we would add heavy weight. I was surprised those small AGV carts can carry like a ton and a half. Once the weights were added using a crane, we run the carts for 20 hours to make sure everything works. I also got some exposure to the VMS (Vehicle Management System) which is the systems or the brains behind the AGV. I got a lot of exposure to the networking aspect of the system, which is how each piece of the system communicates with another. We also worked with WABs, which are the wireless access points. We would commission those as well. So, those are set up around the AGVs to communicate with all of them. We were given a router and we had to connect those systems to the power and ethernet cable, then connect those to a computer, then follow steps to configure the networking part of it. From there we had to set the specific IP address which allows the AGVs to communicate with the VMS. Through the VMS you can control the AGVs. We would upload ACE tables and those ACE tables are what gives the AGV commands based off a track. The track is designed then given an ACE table that can follow the magnetic sensor and then uploaded to the VMS and the VMS communicates that info to the AGVs. I got to work with a Fori employee and design a track and help create an ACE table which was cool.
Thanks for explaining that so clearly, it sounds like you learned a ton. Let’s change gears and talk about the culture within Fori.
Q: How would you describe our company culture?
I was surprised because I didn’t know what to expect. I thought I was going to be working in a much more managed environment and everyone I worked with was easy to get along with. They explained the processes and let you know what you needed to do to get the work done but no one is breathing down your neck about anything. There was a lot of hands-on experience, and I learned a lot. It was good to see what opportunities there are in this field. It helps too, to know what I should be working toward as far as what software types and what background and experience companies want.
Q: If you went through the internship process with Fori again is there anything you would change or like to learn more about?
I would like more experience with the VMS system, it seemed interesting and there weren’t a lot of opportunities to get involved with it. I think understanding the full system would have benefited me especially now after working on the AGVs in detail and the communication part of it.
Q: Do you think what you did here during your internship will translate to your coursework?
I do think what I learned will help with future coursework. I had to look at prints for the entire AGV, and you know in school you get all this work, but you don’t get to apply it to real world experience. So, seeing it in person helps with making the connection to the schoolwork. Getting exposed to the automation industry was really interesting to me. Some of the courses I have taken have been basic assembly code and I don’t think many companies program in that low level language, so it was nice to learn about the systems that are actually being used. In school they don’t really tell us what is being used in the industry, so it was good to learn. I’m interested in computer science, and it was great because the internship with Fori offered me some interaction with the CL programming language using the Siemens PLCs on the AGV systems. For controls engineers I learned I should know some programming too so that was good. I feel like programming is something that is really intriguing. I’m still trying to figure out what specific field I want to go into, but Fori gave me great exposure to what I can do with my skillset and degree in the future.
Fori provides internship opportunities for students to work in various departments and gain experience in all aspects of automation manufacturing. If you’re interested in our internship opportunities, contact employment@foriauto.com
