Work Term Report

Ecoation (June 2021 - December 2021)

Abstract

In The past two co-op terms (June-December) I worked at Ecoation remotely as a Software Developer on their research and development robotics team. Here I'll discuss the employer, what I did, and the goals that I set for myself during these 8 months.

Employer

Ecoation is an agricultural tech company based out of North Vancouver specializing in creating products used in commercial greenhouses utilizing AI, robotics, and machine learning to increase operational visibility, assist growers and enhance their decisions. Founded in 2010, Ecoation has grown internationally and has received many awards over the years trying to shape the future of greenhouse production.

Summer Goals

Gain Collaboration Skills

Before this co-op, I've only ever worked on projects individually so I was excited to have the opportunity to collaborate on a project with others. Looking back, I felt that most of what I was working on I completed on my own but I did learn quite a bit about the non-technical side of it. Bouncing ideas off each other and not always having full control over what I was working on.

Improve Communication

Working online is a challenge. For me, it can be difficult to communicate issues that I'm having with someone hours away and not within shouting distance. My goal was to improve these skills and by the end, I felt more confident communicating issues across and ways to make communicating online easier.

Learn New Technical Skills

A new job comes with a new tech stack required to work on the companies projects. My goal was to expand my skill set to include skills such as ROS, Vue, and Django REST Framework. I now have a good understanding of each of these skills and was able to use them effectively on company projects.

Fall Goals

Improve Docker Skills

Docker was an essential part of the development process at Ecoation. In the second term, one of my goals was to improve my docker skills to be able to work on docker projects more effectively. At the end of the term, I was a lot better at using docker and docker-compose.

Intercompany Communication

Near the latter half of the work term, we reached out to another company to help us with some difficulties we were having with some of the software we were using. Being able to communicate problems with people that know a lot less about the project that we are working on was the goal and by the end, I feel that I accomplished that.

Industry Insight

I wanted to take note of different things that my supervisor said so have a little insight into the industry. This included job application tips, things I can do to stand out, etc. By the end, I learned a few things that I can take advantage of to improve my future career prospects.

Job Description

As a software developer on the R&D robotics team, my job ranged from designing a UI for a new robot prototype to creating a database along with an API to access it. Further duties included improving backend systems in ROS as well as setting up github workflows for automated testing.

Working at Ecoation presented me with the challenge of learning new technologies such as Vue, ROS, Docker, and InfluxDB. The job well prepared me for this as I was given a good portion of time at the beginning of the term to familiarize myself with the tools I needed before diving straight into the project.

Another significant component of the job was researching different potential development tools to use. I was given the task to come up with a list of pros and cons for potential tools and had to present them to the team and collectively decide what the best tool for the job would be going forward. One of the different tools my fellow co-op student and I had to test was photo annotation platforms used to build machine learning models. We spent a lot of time working with different websites that provided a variety of features and had to come up with the one that we felt was best.

Conclusion

Overall, I am very grateful for the time I spent at Ecoation. This being my very first job in the industry taught me a lot about the kind of challenges that this field presents and how to overcome them going forward. I had the pleasure to be there for 7 months which was nice because it gave me the time to put the skills that I gained to good use. I loved getting to work with a small group of talented people who really helped me push through any issues I was facing. Working at Ecoation was a great experience and I'm excited to see what comes next.

Acknowledgements

Special thanks to the people at Ecoation for having me as their co-op student. Specifically Patrick Wspanialy, director of R&D, for being a great supervisor and mentor as well as Dhruv Lakhiani, fellow co-op student, who helped make the co-op term a more enjoyable experience by always having someone in the same situation to lean on.

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