A Summer with MassDOT

This internship has had many rewarding parts to it. I have met some remarkable people, and I have learned a countless number of things about the government, policy and how computing is essential in these fields. Some of the people I have met are the Secretary of Transportation, Stephanie Pallock and the Governor Charlie Baker.  Governor Baker remembered who I was when he saw me after the talk he gave to all the interns, and I was in disbelief that he even remembered who I was. All of these things have been very rewarding, but I believe the most rewarding part is seeing the progress of the work I have done with my boss on website audits, setting up a network shared drive for the Secretary’s office and working on Bills that need to be passed in the state. Working on such projects has truly allowed me to fully become immersed in my experience at the Department of Transportation. I have learned a lot about how working for the government really is, how long things take, and how someone with my technical skills can fit into this field. This has truly been a one-of-a-kind experience. The most challenging part I encountered was leaving my comfort zone and truly expanding my horizons to work. While I was able to work on computer related activities, I also worked with many different individuals from all departments within MassDOT on countless projects. I worked on collecting data on printers in the entire Commonwealth, I’ve worked on Autonomous vehicle legislation, and I’ve worked with taxi companies, uber, and lyft to try and regulate how we treat each entity. The challenge with all these different projects was keeping them all in check about what I was working on each time, which really helped me build my time management skills. Working with people to agree on what we should do also helped me learn how to compromise with coworkers. This internship was nothing but beneficial for me, and I truly am grateful for this opportunity.

Alexander Pinarreta
Computer Engineering