Project interns
Final year engineering and engineering technology students from tertiary institutions across New Zealand work with Robinson to complete a practical project.
Project intern profiles
Project interns come to Paihau—Robinson Research Institute from Weltec, Massey University, CPIT, the University of Canterbury, AUT and Victoria University of Wellington, to complete final year projects for a Bachelor of Engineering or a Bachelor of Engineering Technology degree.
Hear about their experiences working on practical projects at the Institute.
Lachlan Clelland
A project intern in 2011, Lachlan Clelland developed a new production unit for GCS Ltd to manufacture superconducting Roebel cable.
Avinash Rao
Based at Rocket Lab in Auckland, Avinash works as a guidance, navigation and control engineer for the Electron project.
Projects
Each project is designed to extend a student’s knowledge and practical skills and offer interaction with industry as well as contributing to Robinson’s ongoing research programmes.
Previous projects have included designing and building a splicing machine for high temperature superconducting strands and a Roebel cable winding machine.
Selection process
Before starting an internship, we encourage all prospective project interns to spend a summer working at the Institute before their final year of study. This enables us to check there is a good match of skills between student and staff and that the project will run smoothly.
Interested students should therefore apply for a summer scholarship with the Robinson Research Institute before their final year of study.
Project intern comment
I was impressed by the staff's approach as they had plenty of time for the students and put a lot of effort into helping us succeed with our study.