What he thought would be an opportunity to get real world experience in engineering and programming has now turned into an internship working toward one of his biggest goals.

Hunter Pellerin joined Gorham High School’s (GHS) Workplace Learning Experience hoping to get hands-on experience and connect with a mentor with similar interests. In November, he was able to connect with Generac Clean Energy, and after a series of interviews, Pellerin was offered an internship as a firmware engineer for the company.

“I’m working on [a project similar to] a battery backup solution, [where the battery] translates solar energy and stores it at home, and then the battery is useful in the event of a power outage because you can power your home for multiple days.”

Now, as part of the team, Pellerin is developing code for this project. He is “writing tests to make sure all codes are working correctly as [Generac computer engineers] make changes”.

Pellerin has been part of the GHS Robotics Team (FIRST Team 172) since his freshman year. When asked about it he said, “There are a lot of parts that make up the team: there’s the marketing side, the sponsors, there’s the spirit side of it and there’s, obviously, the mechanical, programming, electrical and actually building the robot. So [by joining the team] I wanted to get my feet wet in all those areas.”

Pellerin joined the Robotics Competition Team “The Northern Force” with minimal programming experience. Jay Crosby, a mentor for the Robotics programming team said, “In the last 3 years [Pellerin] has increased his skill level dramatically, largely through his own efforts and study.”

As a result of those efforts, Pellerin is now the lead programmer for one of the robotic platforms as well as the AI (Artificial Intelligence) expert for the team. Crosby shared that Pellerin has “researched and implemented newer algorithms on his own, trained the AI, and then proved that it works”.

Looking into the future, Pellerin is considering multiple colleges. He has been accepted at Rochester Institute of Technology, University of Maine and Worcester Polytechnic Institute. He hopes to pursue a career in computer and electrical engineering. Pellerin plans to continue working in the sustainable energy field. He aims to “make a difference: big or small.”