Published: August 21, 2020

After completing the most unusual student term to date, we’re saying goodbye to our amazing CENGN interns of Summer 2020. Despite this peculiar term, CENGN hit a milestone by welcoming the largest number of students ever in a single semester!

These incredible students stem from Carleton University, Algonquin College, Willis College, Lambton College, Seneca College, University of Victoria, and the University of Ottawa.

By working completely remotely from home, students supported CENGN’s operations and projects while accomplishing stunning feats.

Infrastructure

Some familiar faces in Engineering from the previous term like Kian Jones, Chibuike Onuigwe, and Joshua Brawdy remained with us in the Summer and got the opportunity to work on new projects. Chibuike worked on implementing a JumpCloud solution to serve all the CENGN business needs.

“I would describe my one year at CENGN as a mixture of learning, and fun. What stood out most for me were the big dreams of the leadership team, and the quality of staff, training and projects carried out at CENGN” – Chibuike Onuigwe

Josh expanded and improved CENGN’s Skylite internal OpenStack platform that handles essential internal processes and documentation. He also improved CENGN Academy’s Python Bootcamp that plays an essential role in CENGN’s CCSS certification.

“CENGN provided me with the opportunity to build my confidence in being able to meaningfully contribute to an organization.” – Joshua Brawdy

Kian spent his time designing a cloud system capable of handling all internal logs to improve CENGN’s infrastructure services.

New Engineering students such as Mark Mckessock, Tommy Xu, and Adam Coyte also made meaningful contributions towards CENGN’s infrastructure. Some of Mark’s work involved the deployment of Magma components to Kubernetes in efforts to enhance CENGN’s existing offerings while providing wireless connectivity for Smart and IoT devices.

“I really enjoyed my time working at CENGN. I learned more than I ever thought I would and grew both personally and professionally. Thank you to CENGN and everyone who contributed to making this opportunity possible.” – Mark Mckessock

Tommy Xu improved the automation of various internal systems that impact the tracking, gathering, and analysis of CENGN’s data and information.

“CENGN’s CCSS certification really prepared me well for my work term tasks. I was able to quickly begin my work and build on top of what I learned to explore new projects and technologies.” – Tommy Xu

Adam Coyte focused on streamlining and automating various CENGN supporting services while improving the quality of internal documentation and reporting.

“I had a great time during my work term… through COVID-19 and working from home, everyone was very nice and extremely helpful. I’m super grateful for the experience to work alongside the engineering team and gain industry skills that’ll help me in my school year and future career.” – Adam Coyte

This term was also unique as it marked the first student collaboration with a CENGN Member. Jaspal Singh worked on bringing up Wind River’s top-level Edge Computing Project StarlingX, on CENGN’s industrial-grade cloud infrastructure. Jaspal highlighted the following about his experience:

“It was an enthralling learning experience by working closely with industry veterans and the Open Source community. Self-learning, time management, technical documentation, and organizing incoming emails from an Open Source community are some of the additional things that I inculcated during the internship. I am very thankful to the entire CENGN team for providing an inclusive growth opportunity and not dismantling the internship program due to COVID-19” – Jaspal Singh

CSE

Over on the CSE Team, Varsh Thacker, Sahil Rahi, David Toth, and Sharusshan Sinnadurai, contributed to CENGN’s mission by supporting SME projects and providing professional expertise during their commercialization process.

“Working at CENGN is one of the best experiences I have had. CENGN adapts its project space for each of its clients. So, I get to work on different technologies. The amount of knowledge & experience I got here in four months far exceeds my expectations.”  – Varsh Thaker

Marketing

On the Marketing Team, Maxim-Emanuelle Dubois concentrated her efforts on improving CENGN’s brand image on all platforms and designing graphics for CENGN.

“As a Marketing Specialist Student, I had the opportunity to create and design CENGN’s Annual Report, to take part in graphic content making, to do website upkeep, and to take charge of social media accounts. I have thoroughly enjoyed my time at CENGN, the work environment my team created allowed for creativity and learning. CENGN gives its students the chance to greatly contribute to the organization’s success, which is extremely rewarding and motivating.” – Maxim-Emanuelle Dubois

Training

Matthew Tung and Bashier Kaddoura worked alongside the Training team to improve and scale CENGN Academy’s course offerings. This Summer, CENGN Academy provided Ontario students with a free online course that certified them on the basics of Docker and Kubernetes.

Human Resources

Coming back as the HR Specialist Student, I (Jose Badillo Zidan) was excited to continue supporting CENGN’s amazing student program while also venturing into new Marketing opportunities. This term I was able to contribute towards CENGN’s content creation. The past 8 months have truly been a learning roller coaster with the support from everyone at CENGN and the guidance of the HR and Marketing team.

Accounting

Henriette Simo assisted the Finance team by supporting accounting functions that support the entire organization.

“There’s a lot I learned while at CENGN, but one memory made me realize the truth on this statement – the small mistakes you make gives you the opportunity to learn how to create even better employee experience.” – Henriette Simo

We’re extremely proud of our students and we would like to thank them for their accomplishments. They’re leaving CENGN with newly developed and refined skills coupled with real industry experience – setting them up for a bright future!

Are you a student and want to join the CENGN team?

Check out our Open Positions

About the Author

Jose Badillo is the HR Specialist student at CENGN (Summer 2020) and a Commerce student at Carleton University concentrating in Management. His passion is collaborating with people and leading high performing teams with authentic leadership. In his spare time, Jose enjoys playing sports and creating Hockey media content.

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