Interview with our Intern

We were delighted to have a couple of interns this summer to support our Firmware department. At the end of his time here, we spoke to Gavin, who is now back in Cambridge continuing his BSc.

Can you tell us a little about yourself and what attracted you to spend your summer internship at Active Silicon?

I am going into my third year as an engineering student at the University of Cambridge, hoping to specialise in Electronics and Information Engineering. As for hobbies, I’m always down to learn the rules to a new board game! I was drawn to Active Silicon due to their expertise in their area of machine vision, and the opportunity to learn more about FPGA engineering.

You worked with our FPGA team on a new I/O solution for the FireBird frame grabber range. What was the project, and why is it important for customers?

I worked on development for part of the new ActiveFlex-IO Image Control Engine. The aim of the project was to unlock the potential of FireBird’s triggering systems, by enabling programming and execution of arbitrary sequences of outputs and camera triggers. My main work was on peripheral components to allow the new system to communicate with Active Silicon’s existing register interface. I think this system will be very useful for customers, as it enables complex vision systems to be easily controlled directly by the frame grabber.

What was the most interesting or challenging technical problem you worked on during the internship, and how did you approach it?

I had a challenging technical problem when I was designing a Clock Domain Crossing (CDC) bridge for the AXI-Lite bus. To solve this, I first made sure I had a good understanding of the fundamentals of the AXI specification and the common pitfalls of CDC bridges. Then I iterated the design, getting feedback from senior engineers, to improve it further. I wrote a testbench in VHDL to validate the design which was integrated into Active Silicon’s automated regression testing system.

What surprised you most about working in a professional engineering team compared with studying at university?

The environment is quite different. Everyone is working together towards a common goal, so you really feel motivated and integral to the mission. There has been lots of excitement here with the launch of the FireBird 3 frame grabber. It helps that everyone is so friendly, and the team is small enough that you can get to know people well even though it’s growing quite fast. I quickly felt at home here at Active Silicon and will certainly miss it. I’ve had many, many questions, and my coworkers have been very generous with their time in explaining things to me.

Looking back over the last three months, what achievement are you most proud of, either personally or technically?

Rather than anything in particular, I am most proud of how much I learnt. At the beginning, despite having a little exposure to FPGAs, I was not confident enough to independently work through tasks. But as time has gone on, my confidence has improved and things have been smoother and faster.

Also looking back and improving on some of my earlier designs I have cemented this knowledge. Also, an honourable mention to the charity walk for Pancreatic Cancer UK that Active Silicon took part in (alongside Solid State Group). I think events like that really contribute to the sense of community that is so strong here.

What advice would you give to students who are interested in FPGA design, machine vision, or applying for an internship at Active Silicon?

FPGAs and their use in machine vision is fascinating, but it can seem like an intimidating field to break in to. I would recommend trying to get a FPGA development board if you can, they are a great way to play around with things while learning. Working through projects builds your knowledge, demonstrates enthusiasm, and can help you figure out if it is right for you.

As for applying to internships at Active Silicon, just reach out and give it a shot! I sent a speculative application by email and ended up having this amazing experience which I learnt so much from. You really never know how things will end up unless you try.

Take a closer look at the FireBird range which Gavin has been working on, and discover the innovative features for yourself.