Aerospace Sensor Technician | Agosh

Agosh interned as an aerospace sensor technician at Teledyne DALSA, a camera and sensor company in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada. Keep reading to learn more about how he got there, what his coops have been like, what courses have been helpful, and how you can set yourself apart in the job search!

How did you get to where you are today?

I think there has been a lot of luck when it comes to the opportunities that I have received. I was lucky that Professor Shirley Tang let me volunteer under her graduate students in first and second year. Being exposed to how research is done from my first semester really made me realize what I liked from pretty early on, and I was also able to gain experience before coop even started. In coop, I aimed to get as diverse a set of experience as possible. I have done coops where I learned patent writing, transdermal testing, computer assisted predictive chemistry, computer-aided design (CAD), signal/image processing, and now tissue engineering. They allowed me to understand exactly what I like, and more importantly, what I do not want to do in the future, as well as figure out the direction I want to head in for my career and develop the relevant skills for that. I believe that this diverse set of experience is a double-edged sword: while it allows me to set my career up for research and development, it also stops me from diving deep into sub-fields and receiving the benefits of being a master of one topic.

What are the main responsibilities of your job? What project(s) have you taken on?

I explored the Modulation Transfer Function as an Aerospace Sensor Technician Coop at Teledyne DALSA, a company that specializes in cameras and sensors. I had three projects:

1. I was involved with testing of sensors that were being developed.
2. I was also responsible for developing the user interface (UI) for the motor for an automated defect detection machine.
3. My main project was setting up a Hexapod and automating MTF testing of sensors. This project had multiple aspects to it. I was exposed to optics, image processing, and LabVIEW, as I worked with optical breadboard components and had to set up images for MTF characterization and get the machine to move to the focal point.

Overall, I believe I got very lucky as I was able to start a new project, and was given a lot of freedom from my supervisor to approach the problem however I liked.

What NE courses had an impact on your career goals? What NE courses, if any, are helpful in your job?

There are a bunch of courses that I believe have been quite impactful. The linear algebra course is something I have used quite a bit in my work. It is the basis of a lot of things in science. Having a good grasp of that course (with the help of the linear algebra series by 3Blue1Brown) helped me to understand algorithms I have had to search and implement. I also believe that the calculus and simulation courses have been great as well. The labs in those courses taught me how to translate math into code. As nanotechnology engineering students, we do not learn how to code in Python and C++; however, we are taught how to translate equations into code through our courses. A language can easily be learned on your own time, but the skill to translate math to code requires a lot of practice, which I have been able to lean into for my past coops. Lastly, the technical electives that I took have helped me quite a bit in my recent coops. I took surface chemistry, soft nanomaterials, and lithography techniques. These courses have a lot of technical knowledge packed into them, and they can be applied to a wide variety of fields. For example, I was used to replica molding through the lithography course, and I am currently applying that method to create molds for hydrogel printing at microscale during my coop at the University of Victoria.

Any tips for getting a similar position to yours or entering a similar field to yours?

I have only gotten one job through WaterlooWorks, my coop at Teledyne DALSA. All other jobs I have networked for. My first, third, and fourth coops were at Avro Life Science, my second coop was at Kenota Health, and lastly, my current coop is at the University of Victoria. All these coops I got through reaching out to people, and building connections. I believe talking to people is a skill that is often overlooked in engineering. However, this is the skill that helps you excel the most. I am no different from anyone else in our class: we all have the same skills, and all of us are equally qualified for the jobs we go for. Hence, leaning towards alternative skills is how I differentiate myself from others. So the biggest recommendation I can give is to lean into the skill that you are good at. If you are social, talk to people and build connections. If you like taking photos, try making a media lab for a professor. If you think you are funny, try a stand-up comedy open mic to get comfortable talking to large crowds. Leaning into what makes you unique will allow you to open opportunities that others will not have access to.

Check out Agosh’s Medium page here!