I have spent 4 weeks in u‑blox Italia. In this period I have learned to program on a real project.

Challenges
During my internship I had to improve the testing and control program of u‑blox with a new tool, the plot. This tool allows the operator to see the audio signal in real time and to see the RMS (root mean square).
During the implementation of the program I found out an error in the saving of the audio file in the e‑Call tool and with the help of some colleagues I had the opportunity to fix it.
I have always had a great support from my colleagues, they have always been very kind and ready to answer all my questions.

Conclusion
I’m enthusiastic of this opportunity which has been given to me, since it has cleared up some doubts I’ve recently had about my future study, at the university, moreover working to u‑blox had given me the opportunity to leave something useful for everybody in the company, which is more than what I had expected. This internship has really fulfilled all my wishes and my expectations. I had a very great time at u‑blox and I hope to have other work opportunities similar to this one in the future.

As part of our studies in computer science, we performed our MSc thesis at the u‑blox office in Malmö. For our thesis, we investigated how a Bluetooth Automation IO service could be used in u‑blox products. This work included an investigation of what use cases there could be for such a profile, how to best integrate it in the existing firmware, as well as how it would interact with the remaining functionality of the module. Our work was concluded with a fully functional prototype solution.

Challenges
Working with a previously unknown technology, on a vast existing code‑base could be a daunting task. Our first challenge was to get to know the existing system, and fortunately for us we had plenty of great colleagues, always happy to help when they could. This allowed us to quickly get up to speed with the current firmware and how Bluetooth LE worked, and begin work with our prototype solution.

During our time at u‑blox we were given a lot of responsibilities and were allowed to plan and work independently with our project. With that said we were always welcome to come to our colleagues for help or to simply discuss our project. For instance, when trying to figure out how to evaluate our prototype, we were able to get input from the application engineers, software developers, and our mentor.

Conclusion
Our work at u‑blox was a great experience, and both of us are very happy we chose to work with u‑blox for our master’s thesis. Our work resulted in a prototype that could soon be part of the standard connectivity software of u‑blox’ Bluetooth LE modules, which we find very exciting.

We would both highly recommend any student interested in embedded systems that is planning to perform their master's thesis to get in touch with u‑blox Malmö!

From January 2013 to December 2015 I worked at the University of Trieste towards my PhD in Information Engineering. The research project was undertaken in close collaboration with u‑blox, who financed the PhD scholarship and reviewed the signal processing of downlink LTE signals for positioning purposes.

A fascinating challenge
The topic of the PhD was agreed together with the R&D heads of the u‑blox cellular positioning group. At that time, u‑blox was interested in developing precise positioning solutions that exploited the signals of the terrestrial cellular networks. They asked me to join their research on the signal processing techniques needed to exploit all the properties of the LTE OFDM signals that could be exploited for time measurements in a localization system. This was a quite un‑explored topic, both in the industry and in academia, and I loved to work on such a leading edge aspect of positioning, with several challenges to face.

Research in a company
Industry and academia are often seen as two opposite poles, but in these three years with u‑blox I understood how powerful can be their interaction. Thanks to u‑blox, I met a large network of people spread in different countries and working on different aspects of the same problem I was facing for my PhD project. This network included u‑blox employees, and external collaborators, such as the ICOM team of the Hochschule für Technik Rapperswil. Thanks to this, I had the chance to travel a lot and to visit some different offices of u‑blox in UK and Switzerland. Being in contact and working with all these people made me learn a lot, from both the technical and human point of view. Finally, the thing I liked most is the chance I had to see the results of my research becoming something tangible and concrete, which is something that does not happen often if you work exclusively in academia.

The results
The research project on which I worked together with u‑blox gave exciting results. Together with all the people involved, we published several papers on what we achieved, and we also filed a patent application. This permitted to me to pursue successfully the PhD title. Nowadays, I am a u‑blox employee in Sgonico, Italy, where I am continuing to work as an engineer on cellular positioning topics. Here I have the chance to continue contributing to the growth of the project I’ve been part of and to face every day new fascinating challenges.

Towards the end of my BSc studies of Information engineering at the University of Trieste, I decided to spend some time working on a project at u‑blox Italia S.p.a. The issues I addressed during these 3 months of internship also gave me the arguments on which I could develop my bachelor’s thesis.

I have been working with the protocol stack team as well as following some tests and trace analysis performed by the tests and measurement sector. I learned a lot in this period, as I upgraded the basic knowledge of CS and PS solutions I gained at the University with practical examples of it.

Team
Despite the autonomy that was given to me, the u‑blox team has always been available for clearing doubts up, for cooperation, for solving some problems together. The arguments that I was dealing with were very recent, some u‑blox products implementing these features in the process of development, so I was given the opportunity to see the progress in the work really day by day. Being part of a team where everybody has different qualities and finding a way to cooperate in such a way to resolve big projects is really motivating.

Conclusion
The most gratifying feeling during this work was the awareness that even if a problem instance was completely new to me, previous work and studies of different arguments turned out to suggest which approach to choose and how to solve it. This is why I am most thankful to the u‑blox team, for showing me the way in which this company works, for giving me a lot of new knowledge, for helping me to develop a critical and useful attitude in solving real problems. Therefore I would suggest it to all the students that have the willing and the possibility to spend some time on any similar project. I am sure this experience will make my further work more rewarding and will help me to see the topics I will face during further studies from a different and more focused point of view.

As part of our studies in computer science, we performed our MSc thesis at the u‑blox office in Malmö. For our thesis, we investigated how a Bluetooth Automation IO service could be used in u‑blox products. This work included an investigation of what use cases there could be for such a profile, how to best integrate it in the existing firmware, as well as how it would interact with the remaining functionality of the module. Our work was concluded with a fully functional prototype solution.

Challenges
Working with a previously unknown technology, on a vast existing code‑base could be a daunting task. Our first challenge was to get to know the existing system, and fortunately for us we had plenty of great colleagues, always happy to help when they could. This allowed us to quickly get up to speed with the current firmware and how Bluetooth LE worked, and begin work with our prototype solution.

During our time at u‑blox we were given a lot of responsibilities and were allowed to plan and work independently with our project. With that said we were always welcome to come to our colleagues for help or to simply discuss our project. For instance, when trying to figure out how to evaluate our prototype, we were able to get input from the application engineers, software developers, and our mentor.

Conclusion
Our work at u‑blox was a great experience, and both of us are very happy we chose to work with u‑blox for our master’s thesis. Our work resulted in a prototype that could soon be part of the standard connectivity software of u‑blox’ Bluetooth LE modules, which we find very exciting.

We would both highly recommend any student interested in embedded systems that is planning to perform their master's thesis to get in touch with u‑blox Malmö!

Introduction:

During my last year of high school (Alessandro Volta of Trieste), I decided to work for three weeks at u‑blox to complete my "School‑work alternation" project.
In the Test and Measurement team I increased my knowledge of different programming languages, computer and problem solving skills.
I've been working with 3 different types of modules during this period and my goal was to find, trace and to monitor some of these module's issues so I could later report the problem.

Challenges:
The main challenge was to learn all new information that has been given to me for the use of the main programs, like some of the AT commands and the module flashing procedure.
Other challenges were given by the fact that I have not much competence of computer science and electronics, but nevertheless I managed to learn a lot and do the basic tasks that were given to me.

Team:
Despite the fact that I was new and even a bit out of place in the sector, u‑blox team was always available to help me, assist me and solve my doubts.
Thanks to them I archived the base knowledge to work here and I was able to resolve some issues I had been working on.

Conclusion:
In the end the work experience I have been doing not only gave me the opportunity to see and understand the meaning of working as an engineer, but it also gave me experience and knowledge in the cellular environment.
The work space is very nice and hospitable, working here at u‑Blox is surely something I would recommend to anyone that have the passion for electronics and computer science and the passion to learn new things every day.

As part of my studies in computer science, I successfully completed an internship at the u‑blox office in Berlin. I decided to increase the duration by choice from a minimum of eight weeks to a total of five month. The reason was simple – a period of only two month would not have been enough to finish a serious task of any kind. Additionally, I wanted to learn and experience as much as possible. In retrospect, I am very glad for this decision.

Challenges
I received the chance to work on three very different projects and had to face technologies and tools I did not know before. My main task was the creation of a testbed for host based wireless modules, then I was requested by the hardware team to assist in automating measurements and last but not least I implemented a firmware update procedure for one of the host platforms. The main challenge for me was to adapt quickly to new requirements. Fortunately, I was able to use a lot of the methods and knowledge I gained at my time at the university but still I had to get used to reading technical specifications, the general workflow in the team and the regular status meetings.

Conclusion
I experienced a warm welcome in Berlin and soon felt like a part of the team, not least because all colleagues were very collaborative and professional. Because many different disciplines come together in Berlin, I gained valuable insights regarding the Linux kernel and radio drivers as well as hardware design and measurement equipment. Overall, the time at u‑blox was more valuable and rewarding than I could have wished for.

Challenges
Understanding the whole structure of the program I was assigned to work on new coding techniques I was not familiar with. It turned out to be quite challenging but thanks to the mentors assisting me were patient and always available to assist me in case I needed some help. Thanks to their explanations and hints, I was able to implement and test the features I was assigned: to add to the m‑Center application.
I was also given the chance to be creative, to experiment and to come up with new ideas. I was amazed by the fact that I could openly discuss with my mentors.

Conclusion
My stage at u‑blox was a very nice experience and I am really happy that my teachers chose u‑blox as a company for my stage. The fact I developed a small set of tools that turned out to be useful to all the people involved in the development of the m‑Center application pleased me and excites me a lot.

I would highly recommend any student who’s studying IT, programming or software engineering to ask his/her teacher to contact u‑blox and take advantage of a possible highly formative and nice experience like the one I had.

An internship in industry is a compulsory part of my Master’s degree. My experience with u‑blox took place during winter semester 2016. I was part of the tools drivers and sample code group. The topic of my project was to create a video recording system for a satellite navigation test vehicle. After 6 months of working in an exciting environment I successfully completed the task. Together with the recording software I delivered a video replay and visualization feature for an existing evaluation software.

Challenges
The challenges and difficult tasks I faced during this internship offered me a great opportunity to improve my engineering skills. The recording application had to establish communication with a GNSS receiver and to save metadata information for each frame of the recorded video. I could learn how to write reliable software communicating with several devices and saving the data in real time. I had to test the system’s behavior with different types of cameras, conduct performance measurements, and verify correctness of the system during road tests. The last task of my internship was to assemble several video recording devices, which are now used at multiple u‑blox sites around the globe.

With the help of my mentor and teammates I was able solve all the given tasks, some of them in unexpected ways. For example for the extrinsic calibration of the cameras I used a UAV with a GNSS receiver attached to it. This method was not only accurate but also fun! The video replaying program has several interesting features implemented, such as the possibility to overlay satellites on video frames. Using this feature it’s possible to see which satellites are occluded by buildings and which have clear line of sight.

Conclusion
Working with u‑blox was an amazing experience and hopefully a great opening of future career opportunities in R&D. My project resulted in a very convenient and useful product which helps the developers understanding signal propagation effects.

During the internship at u‑blox Italia for my MSc degree, I worked on the characterization and optimization of an M2M application with the point of view of current consumption. The study involved gaining knowledge on how UMTS and LTE cellular technologies work, especially the protocol stack, and how to use instruments such as system simulators, power supplies and multimeters.

Challenges
The topics I was going to investigate were completely new to me. The first challenge had been to gain knowledge of UMTS and LTE cellular technologies, in order to understand which network parameters can affect the cellular module’s current consumption. In order to do so, I was in contact with people from the protocol stack team; moreover, I spent a lot of time reading books and articles on previous works. Then, with the help of the hardware team I was able to set up the measurement test system, which was used to characterize the current consumption of a u‑blox cellular module in UMTS and LTE. In the final part of my work, I had to suggest techniques to minimize the current consumption of an M2M application running on a u‑blox cellular module. I think that this part was the most challenging, but discussing it with colleagues helped me to go through it and achieve the goals.

Conclusion
All in all, I enjoyed working on my thesis at u‑blox Italia because my colleagues were always very collaborative and I was in a position that has let me use my theoretical knowledge in real‑world scenarios.