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Queen’s intern abroad designs award-winning fire fighters’ helmet

Imagine you’re a firefighter entering a burning building. The room is so thick with smoke that you can’t see. How do you know which way to turn? This was the challenge set for Queen’s Electrical and Electronic Engineering graduate Sean Hackett before he helped design an award-winning fire fighters’ helmet that tells the wearer which way to turn with a simple buzz to the left or right of the head.  

As an IAESTE (International Association for the Exchange of Students for Technical Experience intern), Sean is enjoying a year placement as an intern at the Visual Intelligence Studio in Carnegie Mellon University in the USA, where he is part of a research team exploring a safer communication tool for firefighters. 

Under Senior Systems Scientist Dr. Yang Cai, the ‘Haptic Helmet’ prototype conceived by Sean’s team won the award for “most commercially viable” at the NIST Haptic Interface for Public Safety Challenge. The contest assessed the use of virtual reality environments as a development tool for creating safety technologies. 

As part of the project, Sean and the team travelled to Denver, Colorado for live demos in a fire fighting training facility. This practical experience allowed them to understand how firefighters navigate unfamiliar paths through burned buildings filled with smoke and noise.

Sean said: “The experience of interacting with real-life firefighters and working independently on solutions has been very interesting for me.”

The prototype helmet

Dr Yang said: “We encourage engineers to find simple solutions that work in the real world. “Although I give them instructions to guide and get them started, I also encourage them to use their own knowledge and experiment because in the real world there is no textbook that tells you what to do and engineers have to work on a lot of problem-solving”.

Along with Dr Yang, Sean and the team worked to develop technology that successfully improves firefighter’s safety and efficiency of in the most challenging and hazardous environments.

Sean with fellow intern Florian Alber

During his internship, Sean has also been helping edit a research paper for presentation on “Indo-Navigation and Fire Fighters Activity Recognition”. 

Dr Yang commented: “Students and participants from western Europe have a brilliant work ethic. Together, they produce research papers and work on innovative solutions, adding value to the lab. Some European interns have great writing style in addition to other talents and that is monumental when it comes to writing and editing research papers for conferences, which is great additional help.”

Sean works on drone projects for public safety alongside a fellow researcher

According to Sean, it wasn’t hard settling into the new environment thanks to the immense support offered at the lab. “Of course, it’s challenging to be away from friends, family, and home. It takes a little while for the initial adjustment of the processes and procedures but once that is done, it’s pretty smooth sailing.”

Sean and Florian check out the Grand Canyon

The year stateside has also given Sean the opportunity to experience American culture and interact with people from diverse backgrounds, participate in social activities and enjoy American adventure and sports.

To find out more about IAESTE internships, visit https://iaeste.org/open_internships

More about Sean’s research

To discover more work and study abroad programmes, visit our Global Opportunities page

Categories
internship placement work experience

Where to find a graduate internship

Graduate internships are short-term paid opportunities for graduates to gain work experience within a company or organisation. The below directory can help you find the right opportunity for you.Graduate internships are short-term paid opportunities for graduates to gain work experience within a company or organisation. The below directory can help you find the right opportunity for you.

Career Boost 

The Career Boost Programme connects Science, Engineering and Technology graduates with real jobs in innovative SMEs. 

Assured Skills

The Assured Skills Training Programme is run by the Department for the Economy. They offer a useful stepping stone into a particular area of work. 

Graduate Talent Pool

Internship opportunities for graduates across the UK

Knowledge Transfer Partnerships

UK-wide programme with projects involving a partnership between a graduate, organisation and university or research organisation

Discover KTP at Queen’s

Step

Internship opportunities for students and graduates in the UK. 

Rate my Placement

Access paid placements and internships in the UK.

Targetjobs Internships

Find your perfect internship or placement.

Prospects

Filter your search by ‘work experience’ to access internships, placements and more.

Gradcracker

Placement, internships and graduate jobs in science and engineering.

Inside Careers

Graduate jobs and work experience opportunities in the finance sector.

Student Circus

Accessible via MyFuture, this site has information tailored to international students in the UK.

Inside Sherpa

Access free virtual short-term internships in a variety of sectors

Work abroad

Access placement, internships and work experience overseas via Global Opportunities.

For up to date information on placement and internships, visit MyFuture

Categories
graduate training schemes

All You Need to Know About Graduate Training Schemes

If you want to break into a big organisation, receive expert training and get well paid in the process, a graduate training scheme could be for you.

1. They are offered by big organisations

Graduates schemes are typically offered by big organisations such as the Civil Service, PwC and the NHS.

2. They are fixed term

Training schemes are typically offered to graduates for a fixed term of between 18 months and two years.

3. They are competitive

Graduate schemes are a great opportunity to work and train in a real job. As they are well-paid, they are competitive and many require a degree classification of 2:1 or above. 

5. You need to apply early

Don’t wait until graduation to suss out a scheme – applications will be open from the autumn of final year and typically close by Christmas. Check out MyFuture for details of graduate schemes relevant to you.

6. You can find them online

With a bit of desktop research, you can find details of graduate schemes across the UK and Ireland. Here are five sites to check:

Prospects 

Search graduate training opportunities with huge organisations including Google, Amazon and BBC. 

TargetJobs

From the Royal Navy to Bloomberg, search for graduate training opportunities.

Milkround

Search graduate jobs, schemes and internships.

Gradireland

Search graduate jobs, schemes and internships across Ireland.

Gradcracker

Search graduate opportunities in Engineering and Technology.