Shaping skills with the Spyrosoft Croatia internship experience

We loved the energy our interns brought to our Zagreb office in 2023, so we couldn’t wait to welcome a new group to both our Zagreb and Osijek offices in 2024!
But in order to have interns, we had to make sure someone could look after them and answer all their questions. 

The faces behind the mentoring program

Being able to share knowledge is one of the things our IT experts from the entire Spyrosoft Group are more than happy to do. So, it was not hard to get the mentor group together:

• Ivan Zupan and Milan Vicentijevic – Model Based Development Software Engineers,
• Filip Kulic – Senior Embedded Software Engineer,
• Ivan Juresa – Lead Autosar Solution Architect. 

I really enjoyed providing insights into the entire process and everything that goes into the work of software engineers. That was what I valued the most at the beginning of my career, so I’m always willing to share my knowledge. In the end, it’s really rewarding to see them applying what they’ve learned, especially when two students collaborate on a project, combining their skills to create something meaningful.

Filip Kulic, Osijek

Thanks to them, six students had the opportunity to pick from many interesting topics like ASPICE development, embedded systems and IoT programming, using Raspberry Pi to create smart remote controlling, and others. 

From an intern’s perspective – projects, choices & expectations

Let’s see what our interns had to say about their projects and what their expectations are once they enter labour market. 

Martina Majdis is senior year student and from a young age, she enjoyed working with computers and exploring how technology works. She chose Spyrosoft because there weren’t many internships that offered such a direct connection to her studies, so it felt like a perfect fit.

Martina: I really enjoyed the Model-Based Development assignment in ASPICE. Working with a MATLAB vehicle model, I implemented control and monitoring of key components, generated code and wrote tests. My tasks included developing a PI controller to monitor the vehicle’s current, ensuring that the supercapacitor’s voltage stayed within a certain range during driving, and monitoring its temperature with status signals for different ranges. The most interesting part was monitoring the supercapacitor, which combined voltage and temperature control. The biggest challenge was fine-tuning the PI controller to meet the performance requirements.

Josip Saric just finished undergraduate studies of electrical engineering. He wanted to use his free time in the summer to find out what embedded really offers on the market. 

Josip: I enjoyed my assignment because of its thoroughness. From the beginning every step of the project made sense. Firstly, we had to draw a picture of the project on a non-abstract level and then later we picked up coding. Connecting modules on a picture and defining their mutual dependencies made it clearer what had to be done. Coding standard MISRA C and complying with it was a little bit confusing to me. The idea of the project was to gain control of stepper motors using joysticks. When we got that we connected 3D-printed parts with motors and created a robot.

Filip Vladovic is a fourth-year electrical engineering student with a long-standing interest in mathematics and physics. He felt a sense of relief when he started his studies, as the field perfectly matched his passions. Although electrical engineering can be abstract at first, Filip finds the process of understanding its complex concepts very rewarding.

Filip: In my assignment during the internship, which was to create a program for controlling a robotic arm with a focus on embedded systems, we would use joysticks to control the rotation of stepper motors. All of this, while voltage and current sensors would be used in error handling in case of high current or voltage. Each component that was used would be programmed as its own module and can be used with many different components of the same type by just changing a small number of parameters in the code. The most interesting part was creating separate code for each module and then combining all the code into the main program with ease. I also liked learning about different concepts in embedded systems, as well as learning about the components.

Matej Babic is a mechatronics student at TVZ, attracted to the field because it offers a balance between electronics and mechanics. He is passionate about creating moving electronics rather than specialising in one area. He chose Spyrosoft for his internship after hearing positive feedback from fellow students who had rewarding experiences there.

Matej: I really enjoyed the assignment, especially since I never worked much with Raspberry Pi. It was an interesting experience. My assignment was to create a smart remote control which could copy and transmit IR signals from any other remote control, and control devices from anywhere with its android app or web server.
These comments just make us warm at heart knowing our interns learned a lot and had great support from mentors. 

Mentoring Matej was both joyful and challenging. Finding a balance in setting the goals not too high but high enough wasn’t easy. Since this was my first experience as a mentor I had to be mindful about providing enough information that would point the student in the right direction to solve a certain problem, without telling him explicitly how to do it. I was amazed how quickly Matej overcame all the challenges. We even had time to implement functionalities that weren’t planned originally.

Milan Vicentijevic, Zagreb

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The same thing happened in Osijek

Juraj Marincic is currently in the 2nd year of his master’s degree in software engineering. Programming was one of the few things he liked in high school, and he has been spending a lot of time on his computer since a young age. Upon reviewing the Spyrosoft company website he decided that it was a suitable choice for him. He was honest and open in what he knew and did not know because he was here to learn. 

Juraj: I found the assignment enjoyable because it gave us an insight into ‘real world’ projects, and it was more complex than the projects we had to do at our faculty. The assignment was to create an application that would read and display data from an ECG sensor. I can’t think of one specific thing that caused me the most trouble because I had a very shallow knowledge of embedded systems and IoT programming at the beginning of the placement, so I had to do a lot of research and read a lot of documentation to fix even minor errors.

We loved how he spoke of his expectations for his employers once it comes to that.

Juraj: From my employers I expect fair compensation and a positive/relaxed workplace, also I expect the employers to be sensible and reasonable human beings so we can establish a good work relationship and mutual respect. I don’t have any specific ideas for projects that I would like to work on because I’m still young and open to exploring different areas and technologies.

Valentina Jelavic is already a software engineer with a bachelor’s degree, also emphasises open communication, a supportive culture that encourages growth and values work-life balance. She chose Spyrosoft for her internship because of our focus on embedded programming.

Valentina: There are not many companies in Osijek that offer the opportunity to learn by doing in this field. Spyrosoft stood out as a company where I could grow and deepen my knowledge of embedded systems. The task I was given was to visually display an ECG on a mobile application, where we had to receive data via UART, parse it and then send it to the application via Bluetooth. The most challenging part of my role was scheduling, as the processes for managing connections and receiving data had to run simultaneously.

Explore Spyrosoft’s work experience programmes

These stories are a testament to the valuable experience and mentorship our interns receive. At Spyrosoft, we are committed to fostering an environment where young talent can grow, learn and contribute to real-world projects.

Don’t forget to take a look at offers from Croatia because this year we will be opening 2 internships in Osijek and 6 internships in Zagreb offices.