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BSc Vaclav Havlin, CTU Prague, ročník 5

Faculty Faculty of Electrical Engineering
Field of study Artificial Intelligence
Field of internship Computer and Information Sciences
Specialization of Internship- - - - - - - - - -
Internship period (from - to) 12.9.2015 - 31.7.2016
Internship duration (weeks) 46
Transport (means, price) Flight, 19000 CZK
Insurance/Insurance company AXA (prove of insurance for the whole year was required to apply for visa)
Visa/Work permit (yes/no) Student Internship visa was required
Price of Visa 40 USD and about 300 BRL fees for Federal police registration
City of Internship Zobrazit místo na mapě  Brazil, Campinas
Internship reference number BR-2015-0057SP

About the country

Location of the place

City Campinas, about one hour from the São Paulo.

City

The city has more than 1 million inhabitants but there is not much of a city center. Most important for local people are the shopping centers, from which one Dome Pedro is the biggest in Brazil, and one park. There is one of the best universities in South America UNICAMP and the campus is a city of its own and students usually stay there.

Surroundings (possible trips, ...)

There is not too much around, but São Paulo is one hour away, Rio de Janeiro 7 hours away and some nice nature not so far. I've made trip to northeast.

Employer

Employer

I worked for a company Controllar which develops and manufactures its own Homa Automation system for big houses and customized for each client. The company has currently about 20 employees which do R&D, production and installation at clients houses. The company develops both hardware and software. For the owner of the company, it is like his playground as he enjoys to improve the product as well as the production process. There were some new ideas and prototypes every week. It was very interesting being able to see the complete production.

Work description

I was the only company's software developer. Before they only used external contractors. My task was to repair an old Android application which stopped working with some system update and then develop new features. For that I needed to as well develop new server which was then installed to clients houses and new API for communication with the application. It was a new experience to work completely independently and be responsible for the whole remote control solution, including architecture and everything. I still had great support from other R&D members.

Salary (sufficient for local conditions?)

Salary was R$650 without any deduction. It is very low but at least I had free accommodation in the house of the owner of the company. First two weeks I had to stay at university where I had no salary and paid rent. I was prepared to finance my stay in Brazil from own resources.

Language requirements

Already during my Skype interview, which was supposed to be in Portuguese, I was told English is not enough as with exception of 2 engineers the employees don't speak English. As well my boss at which house I lived. So the first month or two were complicated and the rest of the internship I spoke only Portuguese at work.

Accommodation (price, who provided it)

First two weeks when I was supposed to stay at university in Guarantingueta I lived in a república, which is exactly like a fraternity in USA with 15-20 students living in one house. Place there was arranged for me by IAESTE. In Campinas where I worked I was able to stay at one room in the house of the owner of the company.

Social life

Meeting IAESTE members (pick-up at the airport, organized events...)

I was offered being picked-up at São Paulo but I declined as I will only stay one night there. IAESTE in Brazil organizes several trips to places like Rio de Janeiro but mostly during summer before I arrived so I didn't attend. Usually local IAESTE members provide free accommodation.

Meeting other foreign students

In the first two weeks at the university there were several other IAESTE interns, in the same fraternity lived as well one student from Germany and one from Mexico.
And I was able to meet with two foreign students which I met during their IAESTE internship in Prague, one actually is from the same city where I did internship and other who's from Hunguary got coincidentally a work assignment in São Paulo so we went for a weekend trip.

Sport and culture

Nearby was a gym and place to run.

Food, local specialties

Every Brazilian meal has rice and brown or black beans and breadcrumbs on top of it. More special things are cassava root which is very common and prepared in various forms from which the best is tapioca, the starch heated until forms flat bread. Other very popular thing in Brazil is açaí which they eat frozen instead of icecream. Typical dish is feijoada which is black beans cooked with lots of pork meat.

Other information

Possibilites to communicate with the Czech Republic

It's 2016 so there this thing called internet. But, playing it old-school, I've send some post cards as well.

Recommendations for students who will go to the same place

I totally recommend living in república (fraternity). That's so much fun. Even though everybody in my república spoke English, the other students who visited usually did not so it is useful to learn it. In November the students of the biggest São Paulo state university UNESP organize big 3 day party in one of the cities where it has campus, InterUNESP, and that's an event the students look for the whole year to go. Rio de Janeiro is definitely worth visiting.

What not to forget with you

You can buy anything you need there so better bring some czech gifts.

Benefits of the internship

I've learned new language, met cool people, had lots of fun, visited Rio de Janeiro and learned a lot in the company as well.

Cooperation with IAESTE in the foreign country

They were to provide the right documents required for visa and arranged my accommodation in republica.

Overall experience with IAESTE

I have the best experience. They will not do everything, things are not always going by the plan and are not always easy. That would be boring anyway. Instead IAESTE gives great opportunities and than it is up to you. Challenging and fun.

Student's website

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Employer's webiste

http://controllar.com/

Other useful links

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Other comments

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