Pros
I interned at Vilota about a year ago under the SG Innovate programme and I would say that my internship at Vilota was a significantly positive learning experience. I had the opportunity to work on hands-on and real-life robotics engineering problems at an early-stage startup.
The cofounders were experienced in both their business and tech domains, and my internship was an excellent opportunity to learn from them. I worked on robotics perception related software engineering and visual odometry problems, and the internship was a great opportunity to accelerate my learning. It was also satisfying to deploy my work on hardware. Apart from perception, I also had the opportunity to work on C++, Rust, and messaging protocols.
The interview process includes a technical assessment that tests computer vision and robotics concepts. As part of my internship, I also had the opportunity to present my work to customers. Would highly recommend Vilota to anyone reading if they’re considering a valuable internship experience!
Cons
While my internship work requirements was clearly scoped out, there were times when things overall at the startup were a bit nonlinear (but this is to be expected given the stage of the company). This was not particularly a con for me, but it could be for others who are looking for very structured internships like those in larger companies.
My internship period was 3 months (due to personal circumstances), but I would recommend a 6 month internship here if possible. This would have given me more time to work on more algorithmic problems in addition to software engineering problems.