Company Description
Backed by leading climate and American dynamism investors, Terranova builds intelligent robotic systems to terraform the Earth itself - lifting land, restoring wetlands, and protecting critical infrastructure from floods and sea-level rise.
Our mission is to preserve the built environment, create new habitats, and usher in an era of abundance. Our work supports climate resilience, disaster recovery, and defense across the United States and beyond.
We’re assembling a world-class team that wants to work on something real, physical, and civilization-scale. If you want your work to reshape the world (literally), this is the place to do it.
What to to Expect
We’re seeking a mechatronics and controls intern to develop algorithms that give our robotic systems adaptive, intelligent behavior. You’ll design and tune controllers, build dynamic models, and integrate them with perception and sensor data. This is a chance to bridge classical control with modern machine learning to shape how machines move through the Earth.
Key Responsibilities
Develop and tune controllers (PID, MPC, optimal/robust control) for dynamic, nonlinear systems.
Build and validate physical models for simulation, hardware-in-the-loop testing, and autonomy.
Train and deploy ML models for perception, planning, or adaptive control (supervised or RL).
Integrate algorithms with firmware and cloud teams, ensuring real-time safety and stability.
Profile, optimize, and verify performance under latency, jitter, and compute constraints
Comfortable with the pace and intensity of early-stage startup life
Working towards a bachelor’s degree or higher in Computer Science, Robotics or related field
U.S. permanent residency required
Preferred Skills and Experience
Lots of hobby/personal projects and evidence of being a maker
LiDAR integration and use
Python/C++ with PyTorch/JAX
MPC/OSQP/CasADi
EKF/UKF/factor graphs
System ID, RL (PPO/SAC) with safety shields
ROS2, ONNX/TensorRT
Latency and jitter profiling
PCB and embedded systems design skills are a huge bonus
Compensation and Timeline
$20-28/hr + relocation + company perks
Summer Internship from May-September depending on your school schedule
What We Do
Terranova is rewriting the adaptation playbook by reshaping terrain itself. We do this with robots the size of cars that inject a wood slurry deep underground. This terraforming process precisely lifts properties out of their flood zones with no surface disturbance. This elevation is permanent and provides proactive protection for all types of infrastructure, wetlands, and new development projects. Our three robot and one mothership system can lift an acre by a foot every day, enabling rapid post-flood recovery. Please contact us at [email protected] for a quote on your elevation project.
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