Summary

Worked as a software engineering intern at Honeywell Aerospace on the ANTHEM team, focusing on developing an improved testing UI for an avionics audio subsystem using Python and C++. Networked across software and hardware, working with realtime and embedded systems.

Background

Over the summer of 2025, I had the opportunity to work with Honeywell Aerospace in Phoenix, Arizona, developing software tools for their avionics systems. I was working directly under the software team, focusing on the audio side of things.

My task was to create a new testing UI that would reduce command latency, with the goal of reducing time spent on tests in the lab. The desired end result was higher modularity, usability, and testing efficiency.

Details

My design focused on creating a new UI that would reduce command latency through a more efficient communication protocol, with a more intuitive user interface. The end solution used UDP for communication, which allowed for faster data transfer, along with a multithreaded Python UI to allow for real-time updates and interactions.

Challenges

The main challenges faced during this project were related to designing the communication protocol and optimizing the Python UI code to improve performance. In terms of the communication protocol, I had to ensure that all data was transmitted reliably, while being able to pack and unpack data efficiently. This required optimizing the data structures used, as well as implementing error handling to ensure data integrity. For the Python UI, one of the major optimizations was to only load the necessary UI components for each page, rather than loading unseen components in the background. This reduced memory usage and increased performance, which was significant for a Python based application.

Aside from the technical challenges related to the UI, I also faced challenges in terms of integrating with existing hardware and embedded software. This required close collaboration with more senior engineers on the team, as their experience with the system was invaluable in getting everything working together.

Outcomes

At the end of my internship, the new UI prototype was successfully implemented, resulting in an average command time of 125ms, down from 3 seconds previously. This was a significant improvement, and allowed for much faster testing in the lab. The new UI also provided a more intuitive user experience. The project was well received by the team.

Apart from the technical aspects, I also gained valuable experience in top-level design, embedded and realtime systems coding, collaborating with more senior engineers, networking protocols, multithreaded design, and working in a professional engineering environment. This internship provided me with invaluable insights into the aerospace industry as a whole, and I am grateful for the opportunity to work with such a talented team at Honeywell Aerospace.