Nate Farris

Material Science Engineering Major

Internship Location: Megaforce – New Taipei City, Taiwan

I entered the Megaforce internship with no real expectations of what I would be doing. This seems odd to me now because the internship is the primary reason Biztech appealed to me, especially after just graduating. Upon moving from Taichung to Taipei, the secondary “culture” shock of the trip set in. I was living by myself in a small 8×10 room and once again questioned what I was doing in Taiwan; however, it was easy enough to meet up with friends after work and on the weekends. My first week at Megaforce was the longest because I was traveling between their two offices (Tucheng and Zhonghe) and bouncing between meetings and introductions for which I was underprepared. Most of the meetings were spoken in Chinese and had minimal translation. By the end of the second week I had already taken part in an observatory, low risk, role for several projects, giving me insight into the engineering and business roles in play at Megaforce. Projects then began tapering off and I focused on my market research for the company and after several meetings with Dr. Chen, finalized deliverables that were valuable to the progression of the company. My takeaways from the internship at Megaforce are rooted in gratitude and growth. My supervisors and Dr. Chen frequently discussed my options for careers coming out of college with an engineering degree and answered many of the questions I had for myself through their behavior and conversation. I am extremely grateful that Megaforce has created the opportunity for me to work for them part time in Boise in order to work towards a full time job. The Asia Biztech program exceeded my expectations.