ANB’s summer interns return to their schools with rich experience this summer. They worked out of the Houston office under the guidance of our President, Abhishek Balakrishnan. In addition to new technologies, the interns learned about workflow automation and document recognition solutions. They worked directly in the eTRACK+ ecosystem and contributed to the testing and development of new services and features.
Shreya G, a rising freshman at Indiana University, Bloomington, took the lead on market research for ANB’s new product, Document Recognition Marketplace. Ajay R, a rising freshman at Texas A&M University, worked extensively with Katalon Studio to develop UI automation tests. Akshay R, a rising sophomore at Temple University, implemented various document recognition prototypes using OpenCV and machine learning methodologies.
Jimmy X, a rising sophomore engineering student at Duke University, worked on developing a global search service that will be consumed by all of ANB’s next generation products. The following were Jimmy’s answers to the questions from ANBites about his internship experience:
What were the technologies you were exposed to, at ANB?
I was working at the back end, in the implementation of search service for the document explorer. I worked on the elastic search technology.
What was your favorite project during your time at ANB?
My favorite project during my time at ANB systems was also my main project, the design and implementation of a search service. I liked this because as the main person working on this project, I was in charge of the design specifications and got to get exposure to various projects around the company and their use cases for search. In addition, it allowed me to learn about things such as Elasticsearch, managing AWS, and Node.js.
Aside from developing the search API service and its consumers in NodeJS, what were some interesting things you got to do at ANB?
I got to design an algorithm that extracted readings from images of seven segment displays on electric power meters. I enjoyed this as I got to experiment with OpenCV and learn about various techniques to process images to make them understandable to an algorithm. In addition, I also had the opportunity to design a proof-of-concept application in Blazor, a new framework that compiles .NET applications into client-side webassembly. Because the concept was just a proof-of-concept, I had the freedom to choose this framework that was far from production ready. Doing this allowed me to explore some of the cutting-edge concepts and frameworks used in web development.
Has this internship inspired you to take any specific courses back at school or learn more about any topics in the future? If so, which ones?
This internship has inspired me to look into the economics, innovation and entrepreneurship programs at my school because I liked the client focused approach to problem solving and hope to be able to introduce my own solutions to various challenges down the line.
What is your favorite programming language?
I prefer C++, because I like to have a better feel for what the machine is actually doing and optimize around that. While I appreciate the convenience of abstracted high-level languages, I don’t like how I don’t really know what the code is actually doing.
Preferred OS?
I prefer Windows, because of the new UWP platform introduced in Windows 10, as well as WSL which allows you to run Linux applications without a VM in Windows natively.
What were some fun things you did outside of work in Houston?
I got to go to fun concerts, amazing restaurants, and see awesome things during my time in Houston. I appreciated the diversity the city offers in things to do and everything else, and am glad I got to enjoy the various events in the area. I also had the chance to explore surrounding areas such as Galveston, Austin, and San Antonio. Being in Houston was a great opportunity to experience life in a city that is many times the size I’m used to and allowed me to gain new perspectives.
What are the key takeaways from ANB?
This is my first experience working in a corporate environment, and one key aspect I’ve learned is the importance of teamwork. The entire Houston team was very helpful.
If you had to do it again, what would you do differently?
I would probably want to document my decision making and work better, because there were several instances where I was looking through work I had done earlier, and I couldn’t remember why a particular design decision was made.
ANB Systems, Inc. is looking for interns in its Chennai & Houston offices. Please send your resume to careers@anbsystems.com if you would like to pursue internships with us.