Embedded Systems student scores with dream internship at Thyssenkrupp

The MORE project played a crucial role in Antonios’ development. He participated in multiple aspects of the project, including the pilot for the MORE minor, showcasing HAN’s flexible and innovative educational model. Throughout his studies, he not only excelled academically, but also mentored fellow students, and created a collaborative learning environment, with even HAN lecturers joining his lessons—an example of the student-driven approach that defines MORE.

Antonios’ experience gave him a strong foundation in automotive technology, ultimately leading to his internship at Thyssenkrupp. There, he developed a simulator for steer-by-wire technology, showcasing his expertise and dedication. Read his essay on this rewarding yet challenging experience:

"As part of my Embedded Systems Engineering program at HAN University of Applied Sciences, I interned and completed a graduation assignment at a company for two semesters. This article recounts my year-long experience living abroad in Liechtenstein, where I worked at Thyssenkrupp, a globally recognized company. I’ll share tips and tricks that helped me achieve a 10/10 in both my internship and graduation."

"Before doing my internship, I participated in the MOdular REsearch(MORE) project. MORE is a multi-disciplinary engineering project. MORE was created by Ad Oomen and Saskia Monsma. After a trip to Thyssenkrupp at Liechtenstein, they saw the Modular Research Platform(MRP), a vehicle designed for development of driving dynamics functions, such as alternate steering functions and vehicle motion control.

After Ad and Saskia saw the MRP, they knew they had to build one of their own for the HAN. This is how MORE was born. It started as a frame of metal tubes with basic steering and driveline, and has now become a vehicle where the latest automotive technologies are implemented and tested on.

For me personally working on the MORE gave me invaluable knowledge in vehicle communication protocols such as CAN, and autonomous driving. The multi-disciplinary aspect of MORE gave me experience in other engineering fields, mainly automotive and mechanical, where I didn’t know much about.

Thanks to the MORE project and Ad specifically, I heard about a possible internship position at Thyssenkrupp. At the time I was doing my minor at MORE with two of my friends, Nick and Mick (great names I know). Ad was really happy with us and our work, so he mentioned our names to the engineering team at Thyssenkrupp that work on the MRP, which MORE collaborates closely with.

I was skeptical at first, uncertain about leaving to another country after coming abroad to the Netherlands for my studies. But the possibility of me and my friends going to the Alps for 6 months sounded very enticing. After Mick pushing me a bit, I applied for the internship.
During my internship interview, I discovered that my assignment would involve developing a simulator. This simulator will replicate vehicle signals relevant to steer-by-wire, the cutting-edge steering technology that the department is actively developing. The simulator will be utilized in a hardware-in-the-loop test bench, integrating embedded hardware systems.

My embedded systems engineering background, together with the automotive experience I received from Ad and the MORE made me a perfect fit for this position, and together with Mick we got hired at Thyssenkrupp."

"The main goal of the simulator is to improve the testing capabilities of the team in-house. That way they would spend less time on test tracks with prototype vehicles for testing their new functions, which is very time-consuming and expensive. This meant that I closely collaborated with my colleagues to figure out what features are important to them. In a way it was similar to working at MORE, where I would often speak with Ad and the other project groups to figure out what it is they require out of the project I was working on.

At the end of my internship I delivered a fully functioning simulator. The simulator was capable of fully emulating the vehicle signals and a tester and a session was held where the whole department got to try the simulator and suggest improvements. From this feedback session we found out that while the simulator is already in a good state, there are many more features which can be added to make it a lot better. That is how my graduation assignment was created.

During my graduation I worked on making the simulator robust and easy to work with. I created an application to automate the simulator’s configuration, and made hardware architecture additions so more vehicles can be realistically simulated. This work was also important not only for testing within the department, but also for OEMs who are building their own simulators and need a way to communicate with the Thyssenkrupp steering systems.

Overall, my time at Thyssenkrupp gave me valuable experience in how world-leading automotive companies function, the latest automotive technology trends, and working on critical automotive systems where functional safety is priority."

"There were some important things to keep track of while working at an internship/graduation, especially abroad. First and most important is time. The assignment is personal, which means that you are responsible for managing your time to meet the deadlines. Personally I use Jira, an online tool for project management. I made a Gantt chart to schedule how long each part of my assignment will take, and divide it into smaller assignments which I could realize in a sprint, a period of two weeks. Every time a sprint would finish, I will have an update meeting with my HAN coach and company supervisor. This goes hand-in-hand with the second important thing to keep
track when doing a semester at a company, keeping communication with your supervisors.

Having a good communication system with the HAN supervisor and the company supervisor is critical. It is important to find a way that suits both the supervisors and you. This can be done by scheduling bi-weekly meetings, as was the case for me, but can also be weekly emails or anything else. Keeping your supervisor in the loop ensures that the work you are making is of good quality. Take the opportunity to mention any worries you might have about your project, and be realistic about what you will hand in. During my graduation I had to change my assignment a number of times to accommodate the needs of the company while keeping the project target within boundaries.

The third ingredient to a good result for your assignment is presentation. You examiners can only grade your work based on what you hand in. Thus, it is crucial to have a nicely structured report and presentation for this reason. Don’t be messy and try to avoid grammatical errors as much as possible. If your assignment didn’t go as planned, mention the reasons why clearly and be precise on why you made the choices you chose. It is more useful to know why something didn’t work, rather than it working without an explanation. On the more technical side, I struggle with the way Microsoft Word formats text and pictures, so I use LATEX. It is a tool used by researchers and professors in universities to write papers which will be published in academia. Normally it’s a lot of hassle to start working on your computer, but thanks to online tools like Overleaf, you can work on your report from any electronic device online. This will make your reports look a lot more professional, which can help your grade up.

Last but not least, don’t forget to have fun. Working at a company, especially abroad, exposes you to new people from different parts of the world, and is a great opportunity to make new friendships. Thanks to my colleagues I developed new interests such as rugby and padel.
So if you get the opportunity to have an internship or graduation abroad, go for it, you will not regret it! And if you are an engineering student interested in working in the automotive sector, or just going for vacation in Liechtenstein for six months, look closely for internship positions at Thyssenkrupp Presta. There are always interesting engineering problems to solve and every semester there are multiple interns from different countries for you to meet :)."