Summer 2025 interns: Building the future at Viam

At Viam, we’re committed to making robotics more accessible, and that includes empowering the next generation of engineers. This summer, we welcomed a talented cohort of interns to our Engineering team, where they didn’t just observe but contributed directly to meaningful projects that advance our platform.

From adding variables to fragments to optimizing computer vision pipelines, these bright minds collaborated with our team to build real solutions for the physical world. As the summer wraps up, we sat down with some of our interns to hear about their experiences, favorite projects, and what they learned during their time at Viam.

‍

Ragalina Palaka

Fleet team intern

Rising Senior at UCSD

What was your favorite project or feature that you worked on this summer?

I worked on adding functionality to fragments, which are reusable configurations. They reduce the complexity of robot configurations, because you can reuse the same “template” across robots. 

My main project was adding variables to fragments, which allows fragments to be reused more efficiently. Before, each value (i.e. the motion path of a robotic arm) was fixed, so if you wanted, for example, two arms to do the exact same thing except at different angles, you’d have to duplicate their fragments. With fragment variables, you can reuse the same fragment and just pass in a variable for the angle!

How has your mentorship been during your internship?

My mentor has been incredibly helpful with answering my (many) questions and pairing with me when I get stuck! He pushes me to learn how to solve problems by myself but is also always there to help. 

The mentorship from the Women & Non-binary ERG at Viam was also great! My mentor was happy to talk about anything and everything, and she introduced me to employees around the company that I wouldn’t have met otherwise. Overall, everyone you meet is willing to talk and get to know you!

Favorite social activity this summer!

It’s a hard pick between Hamilton and the sunset river cruise! These two stuck out, but everything was a blast.

How does this internship compare to others you have had?

It’s definitely a lot faster! It’s really motivating to be able to see the impact of my changes so quickly, and I feel like I have more responsibility and ownership over my project.

‍

Adwait Ganguly

Computer vision team intern

Rising Senior at Northwestern

What was your favorite project or feature that you worked on this summer?

I really enjoyed working on a fix in the CV pipeline that drastically sped up how machine learning models do inference when hooked up to a webcam. I was able to work on challenging concurrency issues to get this improvement released to all robots that use a webcam.

‍

How has your mentorship been during your internship?

Amazing! My mentor has been there with me every step of the way, proactively checking in on me while also letting me come to solutions on my own. I am super grateful for his guidance, and it has definitely elevated my internship experience.

Favorite social activity this summer!

‍
Hamilton on Broadway!

How does this internship compare to others you have had?

I have had more autonomy here when compared to a larger tech company, and also faster iteration cycles which I enjoy. I also feel like I have stronger connections with the people here because of the smaller company size.

‍

Nandini Swami

Core team intern

Rising Senior at University of Pennsylvania

What was your favorite project or feature that you worked on this summer?

My favorite project this summer was improving error visibility for triggers. Triggers are a feature that let users automatically respond to certain events, like sending an email or webhook when a condition is met. But previously, if something went wrong behind the scenes — like the email failing to send — the user had no way of knowing. I worked on surfacing those errors in the UI so users could better understand and debug what happened. It was one of my favorite projects because it came from a real user need, touched multiple parts of the backend, and gave me the chance to collaborate with other teams. I also learned a lot about infrastructure, logging, and how even small changes can make a big difference in user experience.

How has your mentorship been during your internship?

Mentorship at Viam was great! I had a direct mentor on my team who guided my project and made sure my work aligned with my learning goals. He integrated me into the company and our team seamlessly, was always available for questions, and consistently supported my growth. I also had the chance to work across teams, which gave me exposure to different parts of the company and broadened my experience. Beyond that, everyone at Viam was open to connecting — I had several coffee chats with people from different departments who were happy to share advice. I was able to talk with people across the company and always felt supported. My team members were also incredibly helpful and willing to jump in whenever I needed guidance.

Favorite social activity this summer!

My favorite social activity this summer was Viam’s field day. We had a section of Central Park with games like volleyball, Spikeball, and giant Jenga, plus a picnic setup. The whole company came out, even dogs and some families, and it was such a fun way to meet people from all over Viam. I spent the afternoon playing volleyball and chatting with interns and coworkers, and it was a really fun and memorable day.

How does this internship compare to others you have had?

What stood out to me at Viam compared to other internships was the people. Everyone I met here was incredibly engaged and genuinely passionate about their work. It was inspiring to be surrounded by so many smart, thoughtful individuals from such diverse and unique backgrounds. On top of that, being at a smaller company gave me the chance to really make an impact — I had the space to be creative, contribute ideas, and see my work being used. 

‍

Bohdan Karavan

Netcode team intern

Rising Senior at Brown

What was your favorite project or feature that you worked on this summer?

My favorite project was my intern project: the job manager. It allows users to specify a “job” in their config file – a routine that they want to happen at a certain interval. For example, someone might want to get sensor readings every 10 minutes, or send an email with an announcement every Friday at 5pm. My goal was to make it happen, and it taught me a lot about code design and navigating a large code base. 

How has your mentorship been during your internship?

My mentor works remotely out of Cambridge, MA and still, I had an awesome time with my mentor! He was always ready to answer any questions online and hop on a call if we needed to discuss something. I have learned a ton, especially because my mentor did a great job at asking me leading questions and prompting me to think, rather than giving me an answer right away. We also had a very fun event where we went golfing with a couple of other Mentor-Intern pairs! 

Favorite social activity this summer!

My favorite social activity was going to Hamilton on Broadway. It’s an excellent show that everyone should watch! 

How does this internship compare to others you have had?

This was my first software engineering internship in the US, so I don’t have much to compare it to, but it was great! Everyone at Viam is extremely knowledgeable, and on top of that, happy to share their knowledge. I have learned a ton and definitely became a better engineer.