Visualisation Intern Review

My role was to work on a form of hardware acceleration for Medical Rendering. To answer if it was possible to exploit this method in the context, see how much performance could be gained, and if so: to apply it if possible to a real medical rendering context. Daily this meant struggling agains brand new API's which were very low-level(C++/C/Assembly/CUDA) to see if they could be bent towardsunorthodox means of rendering. This also meant that a reasonable ammount of time was spent looking at modern papers to see if others had done similar, or the same. To see if that could be applied in my context. I would; attend daily stand up meetings, weekly team meetings where everyone would discuss their progress, and outside of that have pretty egular discussions with people in the team about where to go and what to do next, mainly with my line manager. I would also be shown much of the medical systems and more broad medical function that Canon performs: introductions and talks from clinicians, web-developers, AI specialists and general company staff.

I learned a massive amount during my time at Canon. The staff were excellent and extremely skilled in the domain, so even being able to ask questions on a daily basis is very valuable. I also got hands on professional experience with a new form of rendering that’s not common in the domain I was used to. Most importantly the technology and API’s I used to be very recent and in high demand, so my skill set is massively improved. My general skills also just improve daily, specifically with debugging low level instructions and build steps. It only served to confirm my avid love for rendering as a programming domain, and the visualisation team at Canon was a very nice place for that.

I was responsible entirely for my own work. It was obviously lateral to the daily on goings of much of the team, but I was extended far more trust than I would have expected an intern to get. This is a very big positive with the company in general, very little micromanagement, just getting things done under your own steam. Not to say you wouldn’t be helped, near enough everyone on the team would be willing to help on any topic. You are also an Intern, and a such should be expected to make mistakes and are allowed to do so. The work environment is great with regards to responsibility, no complaints.

I received more than adequate guidance when I was at the company. It was very hands off for the most part: my job was researching something very new, so I was the one who knew the most about it. But where the domains crossed into charted territory, I received valuable assistance at many intervals. The general first work experience soft guidance was also very good, which really boils down to the staff in the team were great.

General atmosphere was very relaxed, people would discuss any problems they had daily at stand-up meetings, and if there were any issues other team members would gladly volunteer assistance. This is a great experience for a newcomer as well, I saw members who have had experience in the industry for many years still run into similar issues that I have to overcome. This lends a very good sense of perspective, that even people who are far more skilled than yourself still deal with these issues. Canon as a far less invasive metric system for measurement that some other companies I am aware of, and this is conducive to a very productive atmosphere that’s not loaded with stress.

To what extent did I enjoy my placement is a comically easy answer: I enjoyed it the entire time, work and interest were nearly entirely aligned for myself, I was working on the same technology before I joined in university. The team added to this absolutely, the people there are very interested in the work they are doing, but also understand the general human element of a workplace. I had a great time during the Internship at Canon. It was not without some stress, but this was almost entirely self imposed, as you just want to be useful.

Yes

I would say, to others thinking of applying to Canon, especially if the work is what you want to do, the company in general is by-far one of the best I have seen. I don’t imagine myself as someone who gives praise to corporate structures at all, but Canon is a great company, it treats all its staff well, and is very accommodating. Strongly consider working here if it’s aligned with your interests.