WIMTACH Student Profile: Munish Sharma

Munish Sharma is proud to be a Student Researcher at WIMTACH. A student in the Electronics Engineering and Technology program at Centennial College, when Sharma found out about a student developer role at WIMTACH, he excitedly applied for a position to gain real Canadian industry experience. He soon found his role transformative in helping him to learn practical engineering skills through a research approach. “I was so happy when I first got recruited at WIMTACH,” he said. “WIMTACH is a perfect platform to get a practical exposure while studying.”

Working under the leadership of Professor Robert G. Wickson, Sharma has been involved in the development of an applied research project with a personal care products development company and Noxware Ltd., and has learned something new at every turn. As a contributor to the research team for the first company, Sharma helped develop the electronics component of a project centered on automating the production process of personal care products. He was enabled to improve his time management skills, and project management skills while enhancing his ability to use STM32, a Microelectronics software development tool.

Importantly, Sharma has expanded upon his abilities to problem-solve. He attributes the unconstrained working environment at WIMTACH as being effective in encouraging students to think independently, and to arrive at their own solutions instead of depending on predetermined linear routes and answers. It’s particularly helped Sharma to approach tasks with an inventive and creative approach. “You have to use your brain to come up with a new idea to solve a problem,” he said. “Programming is not difficult … anyone can learn programming but the thing is that, how to think analytically and how to come up with new ideas, how to reduce the hardware; increase the software; these kinds of skills are more important.”

Sharma has gained a lot through his internship at WIMTACH, adding that the internship helped him to build long-lasting bonds with other students and the opportunity to learn from them. Students like Yash Rathod have been instrumental in his development. As a matter of fact, Sharma fondly remembers working with Rathod to install the hardware set up for the industrial environment for the automation project. “There I came to know a lot of things in just one day,” he said. “I came to know what challenges we can have … it was one of the most memorable moments for me.” Likewise, through his contributions to the Noxware project, a project focused on the development of flexible pressure sensors for sleep monitoring, he has learned about Printed Circuit board designs and the full development process for electronics software. The collaborative environment, set forth by Professor Wickson, also encouraged him to help other students as they were introduced to electronics development software. “It was a very good experience,” he said. “We have to collaborate in order to achieve the required task.”

Overall, he is pleased to know that his work will be implemented in the development of a product for Noxware Ltd., and he has found the work so rewarding, he is happy to continue on at WIMTACH as long as he can. Sharma has noted that exposure to the work of experts like Professor Wickson has been immensely helpful in helping him to have a model for how he would like his career to look like. As a result, he hopes to eventually get his project management certification to lead applied research electronic projects just like him. “This gave me a jump start,” he said. “It gave me an opportunity to show my skills so that I will be able to get a new job.” Sharma hopes other students will take on the chance to learn at WIMTACH. “In WIMTACH, you will face such challenges which you will never face in your job … and you can come up to be a better person when you face some difficulties,” he said.

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