I’ve been working for Silicon Mechanics in Seattle, WA as a software engineer since the start of summer 2022. My tasks have been progressing steadily over the course of the internship, ranging from simple tasks such as working with the command line, to benchmarking and testing servers. While the company is primarily hardware focused, there is still a lot of software involved as both are frequently used throughout the company. Silicon Mechanics provides services to customers ranging from individuals to large corporations, with expertise in servers, storage, AI, HPC and more. They work closely with other corporations such as GIGABYTE, AMD, INTEL, NVIDIA, HP, SUPERMICRO and others to build and deploy server clusters and storage for enterprise use.
I have had the incredible opportunity to work directly with the engineers of the company, and work on various high-impact projects during my time here. The employee I worked closest with is the lead engineer Gary Keen, who did an amazing job teaching me what it’s like to be an engineer for Silicon Mechanics. I got to learn all about the different OS’s used for server boxes such as Rocky Linux, Ubuntu, CentOS, OpenSUSE, Microsoft Windows, Unix, etc. I installed and configured these OS’s on servers remotely by connecting via SSH. I also learned how to access the boxes through a Virtual Machine such as OracleVM. This was necessary as the server boxes are all hosted in a lab, and accessing them remotely is the only way to work with them. The fact that many of them also did not have a GUI (graphical user interface) meant I got a lot of experience working in the command line, and doing all the normal tasks such as moving files, downloading software and writing inside text files all through the command line. I never realized how a GUI was not actually necessary to use a computer until now, and in some ways working with the command line is faster. Though I struggled a lot at first, with the help of Gary and the rest of the team, I was able to learn all the basics on how to use a computer as an engineer.
As a rising senior, I feel as though this experience opened up a new path for me to pursue as a computer science major. I have always enjoyed working with computers in the past, and this experience showed me just how varied the computer science field really is. While the knowledge I obtained through the CS courses I took at Whitman helped, there was a lot I didn’t know before this internship. Not only did I gain a vast amount of knowledge related to hardware, but I was able to refine my software engineering skills by coding various things for the company. One fun project I had was to use a powerful A100 Nart Box that the company had, and get as many digits of PI I could using it. Needless to say, a $130,000 box can calculate a LOT of digits of PI very quickly.
Outside of just the hardware/software aspect, I also very much enjoyed the overall culture and work environment of the company. The team was very friendly and willing to help when I needed it, and they all seemed passionate in the work they were doing. While there were days where everyone seemed to be very busy, there were also times where people would talk and have a good time in the lobby. The experience really opened me up to a different type of work culture, and one I feel I would like to pursue in the future.
The Whitman Internship Grant is what allowed me to attend this internship in person, and had it not been for that I would not have gotten nearly as great of an experience. I feel I gained a lot of skills and experience that will help me in the future. I appreciate all the support given to me by the WIG, and hope students in the future can take advantage of it as well.
Experiences like Jasper’s are made possible by the Whitman Internship Grant, which provides funding for students to participate in unpaid internships at nonprofit, some for-profit, and government organizations. We are happy to be sharing blog posts from students who were supported by either a summer, fall, spring, or year-long grants at organizations, businesses, and research labs all around the world. To learn how you could secure a Whitman Internship Grant or host a Whitman intern at your organization, contact us at ccec_info@whitman.edu.