F24 Startup Guide - Robert Tang

Owned by Kevin Li
Last updated: 2024-09-09
3 min read

Introduction

Hey Robert, we’re happy to have you on board as our new Electrical Engineering Co-op! To aid your first few days at WARG, we’ve developed a startup guide that you can refer to for important information regarding your internship.

About WARG

The University of Waterloo Aerial Robotics Group (WARG) is a student design team affiliated with the Sedra Student Design Centre (SDC) at the University of Waterloo.

The principal objectives of WARG are:

  • To enable students to learn about robotics and develop innovative new aerial robotic solutions through collaboration and non-classroom instruction.

  • To expose students to all aspects of project management, fundraising, marketing and exposure to various mechanical, electrical and controls challenges.

  • To provide an opportunity for students (of all backgrounds) and experts to work together in an effort to accomplish these goals.

This year, we are seeking to meet these objectives through attendance at the AEAC student competition. WARG is currently developing a quadcopter aircraft (Project Pegasus) and a fixed wing aircraft (unnamed) to compete in this year’s competition at the end of May.

image-20240423-135522.png
A photo of PROJECT PEGASUS

The Electrical subteam is responsible for architecting, designing, integrating, and validating off the shelf and custom electronics designs into our competition airframe, testing airframes, and associated ground station hardware.

For the Fall 2024 term, the team is focusing on integration for our fixed wing aircraft and beginning the design around our competition requirements which will be released toward the end of September. This co-op is intended to be developing projects longer term than just this competition cycle and will be decoupled from system level engineering in favor of electrical board (PCBA) level engineering.

Administrative Details

Key Contacts

Manager: @Kevin Li

  • Go-to for all administrative concerns regarding your internship here.

  • Your manager will be the person you interact with daily who guides you through your internship.

Team Directors: @Daniel Puratich @Georgia Vachon Westerlund @Nathan Green

  • The team directors are those who run the WARG organization as a whole. They are in charge of the overall operation of the team and can be reached at any time over Discord should the need arise.

Mentor: @Daniel Puratich

  • Go-to for anything you don’t want to bring up to your manager.

  • Present for engineering support.

WaterlooWorks Support: Mia Weston

  • For any WaterlooWorks and co-op credit related inquiries.

SDC Support: Graeme Adair (gadair@uwaterloo.ca) & Peter Teertstra (pmteerts@uwaterloo.ca)

  • Directors of all SDC teams at the University of Waterloo

  • If you aren’t comfortable talking to anyone at WARG about something with your co-op these contacts are available to you.

First Day Items

Introduction

The team uses discord to communicate!

https://www.uwarg.com/join and introduce yourself in #introductions a few days ahead of your start date
Coordinate with your manager to schedule an onboarding meeting for your first day

Safety Training

Please complete the following courses before starting any projects:

SO1001 Employee Safety Orientation
SO1081 Workplace Violence Awareness
WHMIS 2015
SO1010 Laboratory Safety
Engineering Machine Shop Training

You can access these courses by going to Learn, selecting “Self Registration,” and enrolling in these courses.

Some of these you may have already completed for other university courses and are required by the university to keep you safe in our bay!

Joining Management Softwares

We use Asana to manage tasks and timelines and Confluence to handle documentation. You should use your uwaterloo.ca email. If you do not have access to these services, ask your manager to provide you with an invite.

Sign into Asana (https://app.asana.com/)
Sign into Confluence (https://uwarg-docs.atlassian.net)

Meeting Cadence

You will have a 1:1 with your manager once daily. The time will be coordinated in our own google calendar.

Your subteam, Electrical, meets on a weekly basis (meeting times are scheduled at the start of the term). You’ll also be expected to attend general meetings, and other relevant meetings as needed. Our meeting schedule can be found in our google calendar in #info .

AEAC sync and leads meeting are optional meetings where we discuss system integration and admin for the team respectively. Flight tests occur sporadically, generally on weekends. You are welcome to join these, but are not required to.

First Week Items

Arrange 1:1 meeting times with your mentor
Complete the Electrical Bootcamp:

Next Steps

Project specifics will be discussed during the first week and tracked with tasks in Asana. Listed below is a starting timeline for anticipated projects/work.

  1. Bootcamp - LDO Project

  2. Buck Converter/Controller PCB

  3. TBA (Competition Related Project)

Appendix

Useful Links

  • What do all the acronyms mean? Check it out here: