Amidst this global pandemic and online classes, all of us were able to get the theoretical knowledge on the subjects. In addition to learning the core concepts, there was a need to have a professional exposure to understand the intricacies of the industrial workflow.
Such level of experience could be instilled by doing a hands-on experience on live projects which impacts the world around us.
My university provided us with the opportunity to work with Here Maps, a subsidiary unit of Here Technologies.
Overview of the company
HERE Technologies (doing business as HERE) is a firm established in the Netherlands that provides mapping and location data as well as associated services to individuals and businesses. A coalition of German automobile corporations (particularly Audi, BMW, and Daimler) and American semiconductor company Intel own the bulk of the company, with minority stakes held by other companies.
Its origins can be traced back to Navteq in the United States, which was acquired by Nokia in Finland in 2007. Currently, HERE is based in the Netherlands.
Getting Started: The Process
The applications to the summer internship program at Here had the resume shortlisting round. Post that we were selected for the Map Creator Community Engagement training.
There were some sessions on the introduction to the platform and the various functionalities of the same.
We were amazed to see how well the platform integrates with the real world projects by seamlessly merging the user data points, satellite captures to provide the clients with the most accurate real-time data.
Team Work Starts
Post the sessions we are asked to work in a group, this would enable us to build upon our leadership, communication and social skills.
We were given a daily metric and a weekly metric which needs to be met by the team as a whole. We were provided with personalized links to create an account on the map creator platform.
Mr. Abhiram Athavale used to keep a track of our weekly progress and mentored us when stuck.
Overview of the Internship Project
HERE records information about roads, buildings, parks, and traffic patterns. It then sells / licences the mapping content, as well as map navigation and location services, to companies including BMW, Oracle, Amazon etc. The firm’s principal business is third-party licencing. It also offers location services through its HERE applications, as well as for GIS and government clients and third-party providers including Bing, Facebook, and Yahoo! Maps.
With that being said, my project was to work on the Map Creater Platform to implement some key KPIs like Points of Interests, House Details etc.
All our data feeds were saved on the centralized cloud server, which post verification with the internal team, would get reflected in the production public server.
Dashboard Overview
The centralized tracking system allowed us to keep track of the number of edits made by us.
The statistics as shown in the screenshot on the left, shows the number of new places, roads and house numbers added.
Our team decided to divide the cities amongst ourselves, and started off with added important places like hospitals, food centers etc.
Amidst this pandemic, there is a dire need for hospital locations and food centers near locations having lockdowns since the covid positive patients did not have these resources readily available.
To outsource the information, we made use of property dealer websites, building construction and public data. This was a very important step as the data needs to be accurate.
At the end of 2 months, we had our final evaluation, post which we were awarded with the Project Completion certificates. It was an amazing team work, we used to have regular meetings and worked together.
Conclusion
For me this was the first time, working on the mapping software. Having used applications like Uber, Ola etc, it is very interesting to find the intricacies behind the working of such applications. Mapping Technologies provides us with the shortest travel times, which are adjusted dynamically. With more data flooding in, this would lead to an increase in reach to people in remote areas.
I have also learnt about the global interconnected mapping systems and how they operate at such huge scales, making use of sophisticated Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning Algorithms.
Since digitalization and internet connectivity, are growing at a fascinating rate, soon we would be able to connect remote areas of the world with each other.
External References
Cutting edge Global Mapping Solutions — https://www.here.com/
Mapping Solution Public Version — https://wego.here.com/
Here Technologies Platform — https://developer.here.com/products/platform
Here Maps Rendering — https://developer.here.com/products/maps
Student Community Developer Program — https://developer.here.com/
Map Creator Platform — https://mapcreator.here.com/
