K-State Salina aviation students intern with Garmin International at Salina airport
For about a year, pilot students at Kansas State University – Salina were recruited as interns at Garmin International, Inc. to help with development and testing of new and existing aviation products.
Locally housed in Hangar H600 at the Salina Regional Airport, Garmin has recruited students from private pilot ranks up to flight instructors to help with navigation database teams.
More than an education
Students are able to use their existing pilot knowledge of instrument approach charts, among other expertise, to help Garmin build new products and improve on some existing products.
An aeronautical data team leader at Garmin, Andrew Lewis, said the internship has been beneficial to both students and the company.
“It’s been really good over the past year working with K-State,” Lewis said. “The faculty at K-State have been really helpful; the students have been great.”
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Interns are primarily looking at navigation products that Garmin is creating. They spend a lot of time using their aviation knowledge looking at and testing software, and looking at different FAA navigation products, Lewis said.
“We can use a lot of their pilot knowledge, and they can help make Garmin products better, but they can also help make FAA products better, which eventually go out to everyone flying in the national airspace system,” Lewis said.
Through the internship, Garmin brought on some students who are new to aviation or are early in their careers, and train them on some industry knowledge that not a lot of people get to learn, Lewis said.
These include proprietary software and products-in-the-making with access to ground-floor participation and insight.
“There’s a lot of products and features that are only available on Garmin avionics that are pretty industry-changing,” Lewis said.
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The company recently took a step to make the partnership with K-State a little more permanent. Headquartered in Olathe, Garmin recently renewed their lease with the Salina Regional Airport with options to renew up to five additional years.
Garmin and aviation
Garmin is known for specializing in GPS technology for automotive, aviation, marine, outdoor and sport activities. But not everyone is knowledgeable about the variety of products they offer, Lewis said.
“Everyone kind of thinks of Garmin as the GPS you put in your car,” Lewis said. “But we really have a lot of different business segments.”
In aviation, the company offers products like iPad apps for charting and navigation, instrument certified panel mount units for small general aviation airplanes up to larger business aviation airplanes, and a completely unique Autoland system.
Every summer, Garmin conducts a robust internship program on the Olathe campus, bringing in interns who experience Garmin as a temporary, full-time employee.
Interns get to explore everything Garmin has to offer and work on small projects they can accomplish throughout the duration of their internship. Several end up becoming full time Garmin associates, Lewis said.
For the upcoming year, Garmin is still looking to hire more K-State students for additional internship opportunities within the company.
“This is a growing program and we are continually looking for new interns,” Lewis said.
This article originally appeared on Salina Journal: K-State aviation students use expertise in Garmin internship
