Here, in our series on the latest EW BrightSparks of 2022, we highlight Sharon Kudenko, an MEng Electrical and Electronics Engineering student at the University of Bristol who has been working as a Photonics Engineering Intern at the CSA (Compound Semiconductor Applications) Catapult.
Achievement
Sharon, a UKESF Scholar, has shown extraordinary skills in mid-high-level software and has applied these techniques to automate photonics and RF testing at the CSA Catapult, her nominator told us.
For example, she collaborated with team members to introduce automation to experimental lab-work carried out and, after researching Python’s capabilities, contributed to slides which formed the foundation of the training materials developed by the team.
She then consolidated her knowledge in automating equipment using Python by creating code to automate power amplifier testing and record the large number of results.
This work was implemented successfully and allowed for the completion of a project in just several hours instead of a week’s time. The code has been adapted to add flexible parameters and will be used in future photonics and RF device testing.
Additionally, she further developed a LabView program to work in tandem with the code. This automates a set-up to record results in HDF5 file format to reduce file sizes and make them more accessible. This work enables easy and fast data sharing with customers in the long run.
Sharon proactively worked on graphical user interface (GUI) development for testing photonics and RF devices with electricity/TEC control, too. This work promotes easy and wide accessibility to high-standard testing setups for all engineers, her nominator told us.
She also helped finalise a set-up designed to measure laser linewidth, which has been identified as part of a core offering from the Photonics Team. She collated knowledge acquired from research papers to create a program to process and interpret the output signal. She then developed a GUI which allows engineers to control the set-up instruments remotely and displays the processed signal, highlighting the key information extracted from the data.
To allow for flexibility, the processing can be used with pre-saved datasets and live read-outs.
Finally, besides working on specific projects, Sharon is working with colleagues to create a webinar which will share their work with other engineers.
As part of this she set out to explain what GUIs are, where they can be used and why implementing them in testbeds is advantageous, as well as the pros and cons of different languages for common GUI applications. This will be shared across all the engineering teams internally and will help set out some standards for future GUI development within the company, also providing high standard services to the customers.
Community / STEM
Sharon has participated in a variety of STEM events within her time as an intern at the CSA Catapult. For example, she helped organise outreach projects to promote STEM, the judges learned.
She also developed an activity using an optical tweezers test-kit to help enrich students’ understanding of A-level physics and engage students in the field of optoelectronics. The activity helps expose students to the field of photonics at a deciding moment in their career paths and hopefully spark interest in pursuing this area further.
Sharon also took part in outreach work with the CSA Catapult at the Summer of Smiles Cardiff Science Festival, which is a Cardiff-community event to promote STEM, CSA and UKESF for children in key stages 1 and 2. This involved several weeks of planning and preparation where she worked on her individual contribution.
Specifically, she designed and built a spider robot made from easily accessible household items to demonstrate how engineering is all around us and to encourage the children to engage in their own hands-on experiments, and she showcased this alongside projects with interns from other departments.
Also at the Cardiff science festival, Sharon helped design and present CSA Catapult’s session, ‘Driving towards the Future’, her nominator told us.
This session aimed to explain why electric vehicles are becoming critical for the future, as well as some core principles of electric vehicles using analogies to make the session accessible to a range of abilities. It also introduced compound semiconductors and where they can be found in an electrical vehicle. This provided a perfect platform to also introduce the field of Photonics, which many of the attendees had never heard of prior to attending. Sharon spoke about her own path to engineering, and her experience with how inclusive and diverse the working environments have been, sharing her positive experiences to encourage the participants to explore engineering careers.
The second half of the session was dedicated to an interactive segment where attendees collaborated on a group project, developing their skills in team-work and public speaking. There was also a chance for questions allowing each participant to revisit topics of interest to an appropriate level of depth. This session was a great success, we heard, despite the limitations imposed by hosting it online, and it will be used in future online outreach sessions.
She is pictured above receiving her award from Isabella Mascarenhas (VP, Grass Roots & Shining Stars, RS Group), one of the EW BrightSparks judges, and Richard Watts (emap MD, publisher of Electronics Weekly). Congratulations to Sharon!
BrightSparks 2022 overview
EW BrightSparks Supporters
We are very grateful to the companies and organisations that help support the EW BrightSparks programme, and make it possible. Special thanks to: TE Connectivity and the UK Electronics Skills Foundation.
TE Connectivity
TE Connectivity is a global industrial technology leader creating a safer, sustainable, productive, and connected future. Our broad range of connectivity and sensor solutions, proven in the harshest environments, enable advancements in transportation, industrial applications, medical technology, energy, data communications, and the home. With more than 85,000 employees, including over 8,000 engineers, working alongside customers in approximately 140 countries, TE ensures that EVERY CONNECTION COUNTS. We are delighted to be involved in the Bright Sparks initiative which allows TE Connectivity to learn from and inspire the next generation of engineers. Learn more at www.te.com and on LinkedIn, Facebook, WeChat and Twitter.
UK Electronics Skills Foundation
The UKESF’s mission is to encourage more young people to study Electronics and to pursue careers in the sector. In the UK, the Electronics sector is big, valuable and growing; however, the demand for capable, employable graduates is currently outstripping supply. We are an educational charity, launched in 2010, with both public and private seed-corn funding. We operate collaboratively with major companies, leading universities and other organisations to tackle the skills shortage in the Electronics sector.
