High-tech internships: HCC, PISCES launch credit-based program

Two Hawaii Community College students are getting an unusual internship experience this fall semester — they will work on ways to allow a 700-pound robot named Helelani to drive itself.

Andrew Hasegawa and Jack Andersen, HCC electronic technology majors, are the first interns for a new credit-based internship program launched through HCC and the Pacific International Space Center for Exploration Systems.

The internship will give students hour-for-hour classroom credit toward their degree. It aims to provide hands-on experience in computer programming and robotics work to help prepare them for a workforce shifting toward “high-tech industry positions,” according to a PISCES news release.

In addition to designing and developing an autonomy navigation system for Helelani, which is a PISCES planetary rover, Hasegawa and Andersen will develop a delivery system for an unmanned aerial vehicle to mitigate little fire ant populations in tree canopies — a PISCES project in partnership with the Hawaii Ant Lab, the release said.

Hasegawa and Andersen also were interns at PISCES this summer.

Officials say they want to make the new internship program ongoing.