Cultivating identity, developing expertise, and showcasing leadership: Brahma Tech has always been about empowering the next generation to enter STEM fields and building professional skills that are in demand by industry leaders. This summer, Brahma Tech seniors engaged in a 150-hour internship, many of which were at Boeing.

At Boeing, interns were challenged to create projects that showcased their proficiency in problem-solving and challenged to apply the skills they learned over high school to real-world situations. Through his internship at Boeing, Brahma Tech senior Donson Xie tackled the growing problem that drones could play in damaging critical infrastructure and large civilian groups by collaborating with Boeing engineers, setting realistic goals, and developing prototypes. 

“At Boeing, I worked on a ground system that detects, classifies, and tracks rogue hostile drones,” Xie said. “Our prototype was a massive success, and in addition, our Integrated Product Team (IPT) ranked first place as well.”

Xie’s project also emphasized hands-on work, allowing him to hone his leadership skills and gain real-world work experience. He programmed control codes to allow robots to track drones using a camera and assembled 3D-printed parts for the ground station. Supported by his mentor, Donson’s team of engineers and visionaries utilized their skills and dedication to engineer functioning prototypes.

“Our mentor was very open-minded, and allowed me to lead the project in any direction I wanted,” said Xie. “Nevertheless, his constant support and his systems engineering expertise helped elevate our project greatly.”

The biggest surprise that Xie experienced during his time at Boeing was how socially-centric the work culture was. Although everyone had individual projects to do, much of the internship involved networking and getting to know each other. Donson attended beach bondings and hangouts during his time there as well. This unexpected focus on soft skills made the experience even more valuable to him.

“One thing I didn’t expect interning at the company was how friendly everyone was,” said Xie. “No matter where I went, the [engineers and scientists] were almost always super open to helping me out and talking about their projects.”

Although Xie mastered numerous management and engineering techniques over his 150 hours at Boeing, Xie firmly believes that the soft skills he learned throughout this experience were the most impactful. Spending time with other Diamond Bar students on the way to Huntington Beach and sharpening his communication skills by talking with Boeing engineers was what made this experience truly priceless to him.

“From the leadership skills and experiences I had managing my teams,” said Xie, “to literally how to plan a banquet, the soft skills I learned from this internship will definitely stick with me throughout my career and life.”