Four UWindsor students were able to gain experience in co-operative education from their bedrooms, thanks to a software company that uses vehicle sensors to diagnose potential problems and prescribe maintenance.

Built by Windsor native Ken Sills, Preteckt specializes in detecting issues before they arise. Using its machine learning algorithms and validation processes, clients are able to improve driver experience and generate cost savings.

Over the summer, mechanical engineering student Leah Flynn and computer science majors Charles Corro, Alicia Leslie, and Ikenna Uduh worked as data analyst interns, learning both soft skills and advanced technical skills. The company was able to hire student talent with the support of funding from the federal Student Work Placement Program.

Corro says the projects helped him to develop expertise: “I was able to learn a wide variety of skills and applications such as data aggregation and various statistical algorithms to validate such data and draw preliminary conclusions.”

The company operates from locations in Hamilton and Memphis, Tennessee, requiring the students to employ technologies to communicate and collaborate.

“Despite working from home, I was able to make meaningful connections with team members and colleagues across Canada and the United States,” says Leslie. “I worked closely with the software engineering team based in Memphis to design portable dashboards to visualize database metrics.”

She has continued to work with Preteckt, applying her learning toward her fourth-year project.