At Pimoroni, we're passionate about inspiring the next generation of makers, engineers, and creative thinkers. For many years, we have welcomed work experience students to spend time with our team, learn about what we do, and get hands-on with real projects. Each year we get a plethora of work experience requests from students eager to learn more about the work that we do. This week, we had Nirvaan working across all departments at Pimoroni.
Nirvaan is no stranger to the Raspberry Pi community. He has featured in many issues of The Official Raspberry Pi Magazine (formerly The MagPi) with a myriad of Raspberry Pi Pico and Raspberry Pi projects. Nirvaan's other projects focus on robotics, home automation and apps to help reduce food waste in schools.
At the end of his placement, we sat down with Nirvaan to chat about his time at Pimoroni, what surprised him the most, and the skills and experiences he took away from his time with us.
What were your expectations on your first day at Pimoroni? How did the reality compare with what you imagined?
At first, I imagined Pimoroni to have a traditional organizational structure with everyone doing one job the whole day! I soon realized Pimoroni is an incredible all-in-one workplace. Everyone can take on a variety of roles, including product development, production line, quality testing and programming in the same day. I also did not expect the full production line to be in-house, and was amazed by the scale and precision of the machinery!
Nirvaan working with Steve on our pick and place machines.
What new skill did you learn during your time here that you didn't know before?
I learned many new skills thanks to the helpful team! Chris taught me advanced skills in Fusion 360, while Tom and Jon taught me a lot about object-oriented programming and game design. Hodgy showed me a quick and efficient alternative to soldering using paste, and Angie explained the full assembly process, and we got to produce and test some time-of-flight sensors!
Was there a moment when something didn't work as expected? How did you go about solving the problem, and what did you learn from the experience?
When designing a 3D print for a robot body, the original design did not fit the servo motors correctly. I adjusted the tolerances and calibrated them throughout different iterations, adding an alternative mounting method in case that wouldn’t work.
Additionally, when working with Jon on a Flappy Bird demo, the bird would often not move as intended, so we methodically debugged the code and traced down the issue until it worked!
Nirvaan learning how to check PCBs, and working with the 3D printers in our R&D department.
During your placement, you've worked alongside our engineers and developers. What surprised you most about how Pimoroni products are designed and built?
I was most surprised at the product ideation process - engineers could just come up with ideas, pitch them to Jon, and if he gave the green light they could develop them into products! Luckily I was be able to develop a robot chassis which could be used as a demo for a new board, as well as suggesting other product ideas. I loved the freedom and chance to explore new ideas while working!
If another student was thinking about doing work experience at Pimoroni, what advice would you give them, and what would you tell them to look forward to?
Try everything you can! A lot happens at Pimoroni and it’s a unique experience to be able to work on such a wide variety of projects and fields! I would tell them to look forward to the friendly and helpful colleagues, creative environment, and the opportunity to build your dream projects and products! You will learn a lot!
We asked Dr Chris Parrott our Senior Product Engineer and Nirvaan's supervisor during his work experience, to talk about Nirvaan's time at Pimoroni.
It has been a pleasure having Nirvaan on the development team this week. During his time he explored how we develop our products, became directly involved in writing software and 3D modelling parts for future products. Nirvaan also shadow our production teams as they assembled and tested some of the many boards that we make. Throughout his placement, Nirvaan has been eager to learn, has been able to work independently, seeking assistance when faced with challenges, and has actively made contributions to the team. I can see him becoming a great engineer in the future.
We'd like to thank Nirvaan for all of the knowledge, hard work, and enthusiasm that he brought to his work placement.
Pimoroni individually reviews all work experience applications that we receive. Sadly, we can only accommodate a small number of placements each year.