Armin Mere: I Can Participate in Building a Competitive Solar Car
My name is Armin Mere and I'm a second year Bachelor's student in Computer Engineering. My interest in technology and engineering grew when I participated in the show „Rakett69“ while in secondary school. While competing in the show I realised, that engineering is just what I want to study and make a career out of.
The experience and interest I gained while in secondary school provided me with an opportunity for an internship at LHV bank, where I gained further confirmation, that while software does interest me, my passion lies in building something myself and working with hardware. Thanks to a recommendation from a friend, I discovered the curriculum of Computer Engineering, which combines software, electronics, and designing hardware. During my studies, I have learned to most appreciate the practical courses, like Robotics, Competitive Robotics, and Digital Signal Processing. These courses have all allowed me to implement my own ideas and learn through actually doing something with my own hands.
Of course, at University, you get a lot of friends with similar interests with whom to casually spend time with but also create teams to participate in different competitions, or to put together a project of your own. For example, along with my fellow students, I participated in Enginaator, which is a nation wide engineering competition, and thanks to the knowledge gained during our studies, we managed to make the top 3.
The biggest turning point for me was joining the Solaride team. The Solaride project started in 2020 on the initiative of two students of the University of Tartu to build the first solar car in the Baltics. Today this is an interdisciplinary education and cooperation project whose main focus is the development of future talents and the popularization of technology education. It tries to create an environment similar to actual technology companies, so as to provide young students the opportunity to experience a working environment. I have been able to apply in practice what I have learned while studying Computer Engineering and thus, contribute to building a solar car to compete with, which has been all around a very exciting and inspiring experience. One example of the application of theoretical knowledge is designing and producing printed circuits. At school I got to learn the basics of designing printed circuits, and in Solaride, I can use the knowledge to create necessary components for the car, and to then see how it all actually works as a whole. By today, I have managed to climb the ranks and become the Electronics team lead. Thanks to everything I have been studying at University, I can get express my opinion in all areas of the process of building a top tier solar car, and what is more, I can actually create the systems necessary for the car to work.
The curriculum of Computer Engineering at the University of Tartu is focused a lot on the practical aspects. Many courses are built around creating and seeing through your own project, for example building a robot, and app, or an electronic device. For example, one of my favourite courses was the aforementioned Competitive Robotics, where I got to build my own control board for our robot and then compete with it by playing basketball with robots. In addition, graduating from the Bachelor's curriculum of Computer Engineering allows you the opportunity to study further on the Master's level in the curriculum of Robotics and Computer Engineering. I personally feel, that all the knowledge I have gained gives me daily inspiration for problem solving and has provided me ample opportunities for building a career or even found my own company.
