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There’s nothing wrong with asking for a helping hand – whether you’re a student or industry professional.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Spark! facilitates that valuable relationship between mentors and mentees through our Engineer in Residence<\/a> (EIR) program. An Engineer in Residence is an industry expert and\/or instructor who has the opportunity to support students along their technical journeys. In exchange, the EIR receives assistance from computer science students to further their own projects.<\/span><\/p>\n ENGINEERS IN RESIDENCE & STUDENTS TAKE PROJECTS TO NEW HEIGHTS\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n \u201cIf students weren’t on my project, it would still have been in phase one and we would still be gathering requirements,\u201d said EIR Bandan Das<\/a>, referring to his Cleanflight Project.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n It\u2019s \u201cflight controller software on the x86 architecture running Linux. While conventionally, flight controller software runs as a small Operating System, the approach we are pursuing is to design a software stack in user space that can use the various interfaces that are exposed by Linux,\u201d added Das.<\/span><\/p>\n Students helped the longtime Red Hat Software Engineer decide what x86 hardware platform to use and set up the software in user space that talks to the Linux kernel.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Last semester was vital for Das\u2019 project. “We were able to implement a Software in the Loop (SITL) setup that pushed sensor data from kernel space to user space. This simulation helps us to understand the tweaks and changes required when we use these sensors (such as gyroscope, accelerometer) in a real drone,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n READY TO BECOME AN ENGINEER IN RESIDENCE?<\/b><\/p>\n