The Experience To Be The First Batch Of V-AgriTech Trainees
Internship Story Telling #1 @ ViTrox
In the last summer, Vitrox successfully recruited 4 students to be the first batch trainees for V-AgriTech. They are Leong Jun Xian, Wong Li Han, Law Ying Hui and Ng Wen Da from Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) and Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM).
V-AgriTech is one of the Vitrox newly created subsidiaries aiming to revolutionize the agriculture sector in Malaysia by incorporating the smart farming technologies to solve some pressing challenges such as high labour dependencies, unreliable yields due to weather and excessive pesticide.
The following are some of the words from the trainees.
What did they do during their internship in V-AgriTech?
According to Li Han, he said that all the trainees in V-AgriTech including him had to design and build a real-scale prototype in a group of two within ten weeks. At the end of his internship, the prototype successfully proved that the mechanisms designed by him and another teammate were actually working. The prototype will be a cornerstone for the next version.
Ying Hui applauded that her mentors were providing her with full trust in completing her real-scale prototype during the internal hackathon. It was a high time for her to practise her theoretical and practical skills in the actual career world.
I managed to gain a lot of industrial knowledge and practical experiences from the tasks assigned by Vincent and Dr Bugs. With all the supports and guidance, I was able to win the Most Innovative Design Award and Dedicated Award in the internal hackathon. — Ying Hui
Besides the internal hackathon, they had also completed some voluntary works in Vitrox such as food serving and vegetables cutting at the veggie saloon.
Sometimes, they got the opportunities to work in the big “playground” as shown in the figures below.
With full guidance, the trainees voiced out that their efforts and hard work paid off. They agreed that the internship life in V-AgriTech is a fascinating, unique, and exciting experience that they maybe never experienced in other technology companies.
Roses all the way?
It is definitely not. The journey of the trainees to complete their internship training was not smooth at all.
To complete the tasks assigned by their mentors, all the trainees had to plan for effective time management. They learned how to come out with the project schedule for keeping track of their progress on their project development. The well-planned project schedule allowed them to complete multiple tasks on time.
According to Ying Hui, she said that all the trainees did plenty of the research and scrutinized all the aspects before they really decided to proceed or finalize the design. Due to the time constraints, they always sought assistance from experts or even vendors for suggestions. By doing this, they could solve the problems in more efficient approaches especially when it came to the crux of the matters during their internship training.
While talking to Jun Xian, he shared about how he has learned to apply the procurement skill in finding suitable vendors who can provide items for V-AgriTech. Communication skill was improved when he was dealing with vendors and colleagues. To reduce the internal frictions between parts of machines, he suggested to change the design and replaced the problematic parts of machines with other materials.
He tried multiple ways to break the stereotype and grab the chance to prove that he also can be a true professional in the engineering field. To verify his design, he had to build a prototype, select the correct material, do a study on soil, perform the temperature control, automate the pressure control and carry out the risk control. At the end of his internship, he succeeded in presenting his new design during the demonstration in front of the manager of V-AgriTech.
Referring to Li Han, besides technical skills, he strongly believes that project management knowledge has shaped him successfully into a better team player. The project management knowledge that he has applied throughout his internship project includes:
- Project Charter
- Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)
- Scheduling
- Procurement
- Risk Management
There were a few times when Wen Da surrounded by challenges like task management or issues regarding machine vision and mechanical design, he looked for the assistance personally from internal consultants who are the leaders and experts in the workspace.
I.A.C.T.G
I.A.C.T.G stands for Integrity, Accountability, Courage, Trust and Respect, Gratitude and Care. They are ViTrox core values and the employees have been practising these for years.
According to Wen Da, he said that this culture inspired him in continuously spreading kindness and positive energy to society in future.
Final Words
ViTrox is an ideal and trustful organization, and you will never get bored when you join ViTrox as a trainee or permanent employee. I am grateful that I was one of the trainees in ViTrox. — Ying Hui
Aside from technical skills, it was worth to know about I.A.C.T.G, which can bring me further in my life. — Li Han
ViTrox is a leading company in Malaysia that can provide the best platform for me to disclose my talent. Stay curious about new things and dare to ask. — Wen Da
Vitrox is a perfect place for me to improve my knowledge, technical skills, and soft skills. Try to be proactive and hardworking in doing your work. You will learn a lot only when you put in a lot of effort into your work. — Jun Xian
