Melt Accelerator

THE MELT IEP INITIATIVE

The Melt accelerator has an ongoing commitment to development of Engineering capability in Australia. Each year we provide novel and interesting projects so that undergraduate engineers may gain their industrial experience requirements of their University Degree. The projects are tailored to suite the 12-week work experience timeframe and include electrical, electronic, process and mechanical as well as software engineering applications. The industrial experience is carried out as a self-paced project with the equivalent of approximately 12 weeks work experience to be completed within 9 months of commencement. The industry experience project may be nominated as requiring one (1) or more student positions.

There is two (2) key stakeholders in the IEP project, these are:

1. The Challenge Sponsor: This could be a Melt Accelerator start-up, or even a larger corporate partner, that proposes the technical challenge that the project aims at solving.
2. The Technical Mentor: This is your Melt Supervisor for the project and the person you report to for the duration of the project.

The project is very similar in scope to a typical engineering “Final Year Project” with some fundamental differences. These include:

• The project is outcome, rather than academically, orientated. We want you to learn by undertaking the project, but the focus of that learning is how to be effective. We will be exposing you to the realities of engineering in the commercial world. How to be resourceful, using ingenuity and collaboration. How to balance commercial imperatives with technical elegance without compromising your professional engineering responsibilities.
• The project is a practical engineering challenge. The project is a real-world engineering challenge with objective to achieve tangible results. It is not about testing and demonstrating your personal engineering capability, it is about you applying that capability and collaborating with the world community to achieve results. This project is a direct experience of real-world professional engineering practice.

We look forward to working with you. We know that you will have a great experience and learn many aspects to engineering that can’t be taught in a course, all the while we get to witness amazing new engineering talent launch their career.

THE PROJECT

Background
Progress in the maturity of the Internet of Things (IoT) technology platforms has been explosive over the last decade. There is no doubt that it has penetrated mainstream applications and is disrupting traditional telemetry thinking and paving the way for new business models and solutions.

Project Aim
Advancement is so prolific that adoption is now limited by the ability to keep abreast of the “state of the art” and identifying the most appropriate technology stack for the implementation of a specific solution or “use-case”. The Melt Accelerator has many IoT applications that need a considered architecture. This project aims to review, assess and demonstrate the current viable technology architectures and determine the various benefit trade-offs as a decision matrix to apply to different applications:

1. Communications Platform Alternatives
2. Edge computing (control and/or data acquisition)
3. Communication and Data protocols
4. SCADA
5. Full Stack Software Architecture
6. IaaS, PaaS, SaaS or XaaS solutions
7. UX/UI concepts
8. Security & Integrity

The landscape is broad and complex with many trade-offs that will affect performance for any specific application and these trade-offs need to be understood visualised.

PROJECT DETAILS

Stage 1: Investment
The first stage of the project is to investigate the “state of the art” in IoT technology Platforms and develop a good understanding of the following elements:

• Access Communications Options
• Technology Architecture Options
• Power Management Options
• Form Factor Considerations
• Target Applications
• Software Infrastructure
• Hardware Frameworks (from ground up to “off the shelf”)

This investigation will start with the assumption & following actions:

• Map the current available options for the following values:
  • The amount of systems integration engineering effort required to implement
  • The total cost of implementation and per/kpi cost
  • Data Resolution and Currency (bandwidth, latency)
  • Power Budget
  • Access and Coverage
• Adoption and Market share (for each layer in the stack)
• Target Application

The deliverable of this stage is:

• The technology stack decision matrix
• Proposal to demonstrate 1-3 alternative IoT tech stacks (eg, Satellite, NBIoT, LPWAN)

Stage 2: Demonstration (60%)
The objective of the demonstration is to implement:

• Two or more working “thin slice” IoT tech stack implementation to illustrate the decision matrix trade-offs for the “state of the art” in IoT

Stage 3: Final Report. (20%)
The final stage will be the final report to include all the learnings and outcomes of the demonstration. The student should also include any updated recommendations, options to cost down and an overall conclusion of the outcomes for the aim of the project.

WHAT DOES MELT ACCELERATOR LOOK LIKE?

At Melt Accelerator we strive to win by creating a work environment that helps everyone achieve their personal and professional goals by doing real meaningful work, constantly learning and having fun along the way.
The below are the core values that we need all team members to buy into and to set the tone of how we operate on a daily basis. These were created to best reflect who we are and who we aspire to be and are crafted very much with the founder’s core principles at their heart.

• Real Conversations – we say it like it is, we get to the point and we are always transparent.
• Exceed Expectations – to achieve excellence for ourselves and our partners we need to constantly exceed expectations. This is where the hard work is done.
• Outcomes Driven – all of our actions should be measurable, and all of our team should be accountable. We empower our team members to be ambitious and driven.
• Comfortable with Change – being a brand that is responsible for helping drive change, be aware that change and uncertainty is a daily occurrence. We embrace change, are resilient and persistent.

Key relationships (internal):

• Melt Technical Mentor: Your primary supervisor for the project;
• Melt IEP Program Coordinator; and
• Technical Engineering staff and subcontractors that may be assisting with specialist components of the program delivery.

Key relationships (external):

• Challenge Sponsor: The team providing the challenge project; and
• Day-to-day interaction with sponsor’s team.

THE UNDERGRADUATE ENGINEER IS RESPONSIBLE FOR:

• The student is responsible for their own safety and everything they do must be done safely and according to the rules and processes provided during induction day and Melt Accelerator and Ampcontrol Workplace Health and Safety (WHS) content as well as any further requirements from the Challenge Sponsor assigned to them.
• Frank and Frequent communication with all stakeholders in the project, particularly with the Technical Mentor. Do not suffer in silence and feel like that you have to do everything on your own. The purpose of the project is to learn how to leverage and work with others.
• You are required to keep a project journal diarising your work and effort. This along with your research and documentation are to be kept up to date in the project cloud drive.
• Obtain necessary approvals and documentations required for graduation.
• Preparation and delivery of your final project presentation to an audience of technical peers and mentors.
• Help prepare content and support and maintain Melt Accelerator’s social media accounts

TASKS (NOT LIMITED TO BUT INCLUDE):
This role includes:

• Research and documentation of technical requirements to undertake the project;
• Test and learn different technologies to achieve outcomes;
• Supporting the Challenge Sponsor with the technical development of their project;
• Weekly meetings on progress with both the Technical Mentor and representatives of Challenge Sponsor; and
• Support the technical team with the project development as required.
• Develop professional network with suppliers, engineers, domain experts, regulatory bodies and other relevant stakeholders.
• Record, diarise and photo journalise the project for final report and presentation