In a spin

Using ‘Internet of Things’ (IoT) devices and radio communications to improve agricultural practices was at the heart of Southampton graduate Harold Hancock’s SPINternship.

Harold, who graduated from Southampton in 2022 with a BEng in Aerospace Electronic Engineering, secured a prestigious summer SPINternship (Space Placement in Industry internship) with the Satellite Applications Catapult Agri Living Lab. He was based at the Westcott Innovation Centre, Aylesbury, and at Harwell Science and Innovation Campus near Oxford.

The internship, funded by the UK Space Agency, saw Harold programme IoT (technologies that connect and exchange data over the internet) nodes to gather sensor data for agricultural applications such as soil monitoring for crop growth optimisation, gas monitoring to control the release of greenhouse gases from farms, and monitoring solar panel outputs to ensure they are optimally positioned. He also assisted on setting up a database and data visualisation tools for performance analysis.

Harold Hancock

Harold said: “The experience was very useful since I learned a lot in software development within a professional team, and it supported my career progression goals within the space and aerospace industries.”

Since the internship, Harold has joined Thales as a Graduate Systems Engineer in the company’s Avionics division.