After a relaxing weekend, I started my internship with HP on Monday. When I arrived, the person in charge of my internship, Antonio, met me and gave me an overview of HP as a company, which was very interesting. Given I’ve known of the company since I was maybe 5 when my family got our first desktop computer, I actually knew very little about HP’s history. It turns out, they actually used to make a lot of medical devices/instrumentation back in the day, but eventually sold off that part of the company. Around two years ago, the company split into HP Inc. and Hewlett-Packard, which I didn’t know until I began looking into the companies at TECNOPUC and noticed they were listed separately. HP Inc., which I am interning with, does the printers and computers that the average person is aware of, as well as a 3D printing sector. Hewlett-Packard does the more cloud computing type things (and actually employs a lot more people than HP).
After my HP introduction, I met my project boss Franco and some of the other people I would be working with. The undergraduate student that works at the desk next to me, Guiseppe, was super welcoming and even invited me to go to lunch with him and his friends, which I really appreciated. From this first day, I learned that I would be involved in prototyping a module for the HP Elite Slice (which HP’s website describes as “The soul of a powerful PC inside a beautiful modular body”). The idea of the Slice is that it has the main PC body, and then other modules that snap into place in a stacking fashion (see picture below). The module I am working on will house the smart conference room software that other members of the team are working on and incorporate LED feedback for said software.
HP Elite Slice Modules
As I still wasn’t 100% sure what exactly I was supposed to be making, I spent the next few days researching various topics related to what I had learned about the project thus far, including USBs (the Wikipedia page was very informative), Raspberry Pi, Python, Google Home, Amazon Echo and more. After the research, I began to feel I had a better working knowledge to be able to discuss project ideas with my coworkers, even if I understand very little about the software and the electronic components.
Since a big part of my work building the module was intended to be prototyping the physical case for it, my next big step was obtaining CAD software to design it. Unfortunately, getting software from large company licenses for temporary interns is rather complicated. Once I finally got SolidWorks, the CAD software I am most comfortable with, I realized that I was unable to import the files I had been given from one of the American HP offices that designed Slice, since they had been made with Creo Parametric, a different CAD software. I figured the easiest way to work with my situation would be to get Creo and learn it. Most CAD softwares are pretty similar, so I figured it wouldn’t take me too long to pick it up, and I welcomed the opportunity to become comfortable on another software.
Even with Creo installed, I still had some difficulties copying the shape of the edge of Slice into a new file to work with, but once I finally figured it out (I don’t even remember what ultimately worked), I was off to the races! To start, I tried to make a copy of the shell of the Slice speaker module to get the general geometry right. This is where Freezone, mentioned in my previous post, came in handy. As a well equipped maker space, Freezone has three 3D printers available for use by companies in TECNOPUC, as well as two very helpful technicians, both named Eduardo. After finalizing my first try at the top of the Slice module case, I 3D printed it to test with the real Slice. It was so close, but not quite right, so I made some modifications and printed again. If only the prints didn’t take 17 hours each…
My 3D Printed Module (left) vs. The Real Slice Module (right)
Despite feeling very overwhelmed after being first introduced to the smart conference room project last week, I now felt comfortable in my internship. My CAD progress made me feel useful, and everyone I work with was encouraging and very open to helping me if needed. From my boss, Antonio, inviting me to lunch with his college student daughter on Tuesday, to the travel suggestions from Franco, and the lunch invites from Guiseppe, everyone made me feel so welcomed 🙂