Rose-Hulman Ventures Tackles Software Challenge

Viavi Solutions creates a wide range of technology involved in testing, assuring and securing communications networks. “We make a number of telecommunications test equipment offerings,” says Ben Stelle, hardware development manager.

“One is an antenna alignment device,” he continues. “We were asked to make a new version because it was missing some features customers had been asking about. We were tasked to come up with a new device to determine the direction it was pointed and the direction a given antenna was pointed.”

Such an ask would seem pretty straightforward in this age of widespread GPS usage, but this device needed to be able to work indoors, where GPS isn’t an option. “We had to do it using magnetometers—essentially make a fancy compass out of it, for lack of a better term,” Stelle says.

It needed to be not just a fancy compass, but a very precise compass, he emphasizes. “That is a challenging task. The level of precision and calibration needed to pull that trick off was challenging.”

Though the company has expertise on-staff, there wasn’t enough bandwidth to take on the project right away. Stelle was asked to explore who outside the company could lend a hand. He reached out to some consulting engineering firms, but also thought about his alma mater, Rose-Hulman. “I’m an alum from the last millennium, and I have a student there who is a sophomore.”

So Stelle reached out to Rose-Hulman Ventures. “Mostly the task was software-related. It was my hardware design, and they helped identify issues as we went along. But for the most part it was a software/firmware task, and some work on how to get it calibrated. I am a hardware guy and not a software guy.”

Stelle says the process of consulting with Rose-Hulman Ventures was smooth, fast out of the gate and ultimately successful, and has yielded the necessary code and hardware ready for further development. “I was able to start right away, and I definitely appreciated that. With some firms I was going to have to wait months to get started.”

Beyond the speed and ease of setting up the project, he was pleased with the energy that the Rose-Hulman Ventures team and student interns brought to the table. “For me it was refreshing. The students have a genuine hunger for doing this stuff,” Stelle says. “Every meeting they’d have questions, give feedback and explain why they couldn’t do something they were thinking of doing.”

That said, Stelle also notes that from a budgetary perspective, working with Rose-Hulman Ventures was a comparative bargain. “We were getting work done, but getting it at a significant discount compared to (more traditional) consulting firms. We got a good bargain, good energy and the give-and-take between us throughout the work was very good.”

The initiative also delivered the satisfaction of knowing that the student interns from his alma mater were receiving excellent real-world experience. “It was good to give back a little bit in that way,” he acknowledges. “But that said, it was not charity. Those guys earned every penny we gave them, and we’re better off for it.”