From theory to the fjord: A summer internship at Nortek

This summer, Nortek hosted two summer interns from NTNU (Norwegian University of Science and Technology). Astrid and Simen, both third-year students, joined Nortek’s Navigation team in Trondheim for the summer. Over the course of the summer, they moved between software development, hardware, simulation, research and testing, putting theory from their studies into practice while taking ownership of projects with real relevance to Nortek.

This summer, Astrid and Simen, both fourth-year students at NTNU, joined Nortek’s Navigation team in Trondheim for a summer internship. Over the course of the summer, they moved between software development, hardware, simulation, research and testing – putting theory from their studies into practice while taking ownership of projects with real relevance to Nortek.

Astrid studies Cybernetics and Robotics, specializing in autonomous systems. For her, the combination of a field closely connected to her studies and the opportunity to work independently on real technical challenges made Nortek particularly interesting.

“What made Nortek’s internship stand out to me was the focus on applying theory in practice and having the chance to independently develop something of value to Nortek,” she says.

Simen, who studies Cybernetics at NTNU, was especially drawn to the challenges of working with technology underwater.

“Marine technology offers unique challenges, and working underwater especially poses problems that I find incredibly interesting,” he says. “I had also spoken with a few people from the Trondheim team at a career fair at NTNU, and I honestly just found Nortek’s products really cool from a technology perspective.”

Learning by doing

There was no single definition of a typical day for the two interns. Their mornings usually began with a meeting with their mentors to discuss what they had been working on, ask questions and plan the next steps. From there, the days could take very different directions.

“The days were incredibly varied, but what they all had in common was the amount of freedom we received to structure them as we saw fit,” Simen explains. “Some days involved working in the lab at a hardware level, while other days we were at our desks programming the system we worked on.”

Astrid and Simen divided their work into different areas of responsibility and worked quite independently, while collaborating closely when their projects overlapped. Throughout the summer, they worked simultaneously on two main projects.

One focused on implementing a controller for an underwater vehicle used by Nortek for testing. The other explored how the position and angle of LED lights can affect the performance of camera-based underwater navigation.

That meant moving between several different disciplines and stages of development – from experimental and hardware design to software implementation, testing and analysis.

“My time at Nortek has given me the opportunity to work with a wide range of tasks,” Astrid says. “I have developed skills within project planning, collaboration and technical problem-solving.”

Taking a project from simulation to the fjord

For Simen, one of the highlights was developing a six-degrees-of-freedom (6-DOF) controller for an autonomous underwater vehicle in a simulated environment.

“I found it really interesting and fun to combine control theory with its actual implementation,” he says. “At the same time, I got to learn a new simulation tool.”

Astrid particularly enjoyed the research project looking at optimal light placement for camera-based navigation.

“What I enjoyed the most was having the opportunity to take an idea and develop it into a test setup,” she explains.

The project started with an initial design and hypothesis and gradually progressed towards real-world testing. Towards the end of the internship, the team took their setup out of the office and into the fjord to put their work to the test.

“We finished the summer with a day in the fjord where we tested our design and gathered the data we needed for the analysis,” Astrid says. “Working from the very beginning and then finishing our internship by presenting our results to the rest of the team was a valuable learning experience and gave me a strong sense of ownership of our work.”

Finding answers – including when things go wrong

For both interns, one of the biggest takeaways was not simply a particular technical skill, but the experience of learning continuously while working on unfamiliar problems.

“I learned something new every day, which was something I really enjoyed about this internship,” Astrid says. “Our projects required us to work across multiple disciplines, both in theory and in practice. We had to face challenges that were completely new to us.”

For Simen, the experience also helped clarify what he wants from his future career.

“I learned that when I complete my degree, I want to work somewhere that allows me to continuously learn new things and grow as a developer.”

And learning, as the two discovered, does not always mean getting everything right on the first attempt.

“The projects pushed me to think differently, plan and learn along the way,” Simen says. “At the same time, we had supportive coworkers who met every question – even the stupid ones – with the mindset of, ‘Let’s figure this out together.’”

That attitude became particularly valuable when experiments did not go according to plan.

“There were occasions where we focused on the wrong direction or even destroyed equipment,” Simen admits. “But those situations were met with a smile and the question: ‘How do we progress from this?’”

Advice for the next summer interns

After a summer of developing, testing, troubleshooting and learning, both Astrid and Simen would recommend the experience to students who enjoy solving problems and want to see how the theory they learn at university translates into real technology.

“I recommend this internship if you want a summer filled with problem-solving,” Astrid says. “At Nortek, you get to work independently and take real ownership of your projects. The tasks let you apply theory from your studies to a real product, while giving you the chance to develop something valuable that can be used after the internship has ended.”

Simen’s advice to future interns is simple: be open, experiment and do not be afraid of getting things wrong.

“The best way to learn is to make mistakes and learn from them,” he says.

For Astrid and Simen, the summer was ultimately about exactly that: taking what they had learned in the classroom, applying it to real underwater technology, and discovering just how much there is still to learn.

Interested in an internship at Nortek?

Want to spend your summer learning, solving real-world challenges and putting theory into practice? Keep an eye on our Careers page to learn more about working at Nortek and be among the first to see new internship opportunities for the upcoming season.