When first offered the opportunity to do my 6-months Professional Internship in Phuket under the NTU Overseas Entrepreneurship Program, I pictured in my mind a tourist resort lined with sandy beaches and crystal-clear waters. I imagined myself comfortably reclined, sipping on an ice-cold Blue Lagoon under a beach umbrella, listening to the waves crash against the shore. Naturally, I thought to myself, this would be fun! In reality, I’d never actually been to Phuket before, and all I knew about it was that it was a popular tourist destination famous for scenic beaches and delicious seafood, hence my rather one-dimensional, idyllic vision. 

Despite the enticing prospect of embarking on an adventure in a new environment, I did feel some apprehension. Though I’d worked some odd jobs part-time in the past, this internship would be my first “real” job, at least my first job in my current undergraduate field of study, Aerospace Engineering. The company I would be working in, “Avilon ROBOTICS”, was a drone technology start-up and I would assist with developing hardware, business operations, and whatever else I could add value to. After three years of undergraduate education, I still found myself uncertain when it came to my technical engineering knowledge, having never had professional experience in applying engineering expertise. I was eager to test myself and see whether my theoretical knowledge and in-classroom training had prepared me for real industry work and whether my range of leadership, organizational, and academic experiences were representative of working life.

And so, after spending a precious week back at home after an exhausting yet exhilarating semester exchange in Texas, I touched down at Phuket International Airport on the 4th of January. My new colleagues had arranged dinner and a pick-up to welcome me, and I was eager to get to know them. By observing how they interacted with each other (and me), I quickly found them to be a friendly and closely bonded team, and I grew to appreciate them dearly in the months to come. Despite our cohesion, we were still hindered significantly by the Thai-English language barrier. Though most of them learned English in school growing up in Thailand, we still ran into occasional difficulties especially when discussing matters of greater complexity, like the description of a mechanical malfunction or the function of a regulatory body. And yet, as I slowly picked up more and more conversational Thai, I realized that as much as communication is conducted via words and language, our tones, pitch, cadence, and physical cues convey a wealth of intent and emotion as well. It certainly helped that Thailand and Singapore being both in Southeast Asia, our communication styles had numerous similarities such as Thai having an equivalent of “oi” in Singlish. Having a background in theatre, I found myself already sensitive to the varying forms of communication and utilized them quite heavily to make up for my lack of linguistic fluency.

My first assignment as a drone operator/technician took me to a classy villa resort, not unlike the one I had pictured before albeit without the beach. There, I familiarized myself with the delivery arm of our company’s drone operations assisting with the set-up, maintenance, and flying of our drones. Doubling up as a delivery courier, I found myself chatting with customers and clients, gathering insights into our customer’s needs to feedback to our marketing and business development staff. It was a valuable opportunity to brainstorm with the business arm of the company using insights I gleaned from my first-hand experiences on the ground to adapt our business model to better address this market. It was quite a dynamic experience, and each customer interaction was unique and memorable. My second and current assignment brought me to the company office, where I worked with the drone assembly and development team to design gimbal parts to reduce the vibrations that affected the drone camera quality. It was here that I utilized my engineering degree knowledge on hardware design, mechanical vibrations, and properties of materials. Working with my extremely knowledgeable and talented colleagues, I iterated four generations of designs and managed to achieve some success with my gimbal designs, though still with plenty of room for improvement. It was in the office that I found answers to my prior doubts coming into my internship. I found that self-directed learning combined with a willingness to approach others were critical to picking up necessary skills and that while theoretical knowledge forms the basis of engineering, the execution and operation of aforementioned knowledge is contingent on the wealth of experience accumulated and passed on from generation to generation of engineers. I was very privileged to pick up practical knowledge from the subject matter experts on 3D printing, electronics, software, signals, and even PowerPoint design.

When I return to Singapore, I’ll be bringing back a wealth of experiences and knowledge that I believe will shape my decisions in the near future. I also hope to bring some of the Thai culture I had experienced – the warmth and friendliness of my colleagues, an appreciation for their delectable cuisine, and a less transactional, more generous outlook on life.

Submission by: 

Tsoi Chee Chung, Year 4, Aerospace Engineering