Experience Matters
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Engineering Co-Op
Major: Product Design and Manufacturing Engineering I worked primarily with the manufacturing and production of our products. My work mostly involved troubleshooting industrial machinery, improving and upgrading processes, and analyzing data.
Co-Op Rotation 3
Major: Mechanical Engineering The tasks and projects that I completed ranged from troubleshooting machines, to recording data, and managing processes. I spent a majority of my time working with prototype parts, helping the process and ultimately ensuring that the parts are of the highest quality.
Experiencing the full spectrum of electronic design
Major: Electrical Engineering -Designed and built a tester printed circuit board. -Redesign and built a commercial product (football stadium lighting) with appropriate supervisions and -Assisted in designing a buck converter for automotive application. -Assisted in the research and development project with EMI shield. -Assisted process engineers in validating testers.
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Gill Industries
Major: Product Design and Manufacturing Engineering Over the course of the semester, I spent time assisting the Manufacturing Engineering, Product Engineering, and Estimating departments. Most of the work consisted of critical tasks that other employees did not have time to do themselves. I spent the majority of the semester conducting a dimensional study on a new program and participating in brainstorming meetings to develop plans to solve any problems. I was able to develop and display my design skills as well by designing and 3D printing smaller scale projects such as display fixtures and remote cradles for our test lab. the co-op involved updating and reviewing spreadsheets as well, which exposed me to the organization and communication of data. Most of the assignments were performed individually, but I was able to collaborate with other co-ops, occasionally.
Engineering Co-op Internship
Major: Computer Engineering My principle projects consisted of software development. My primary project being to develop and launch a cross platform mobile application that allows users to manage productivity and inventory from their smart devices and perform operations that previously would have required a dedicated barcode scanner. Other projects involved testing and developing other soft and hard ware processes.
Dematic Co-op III
Major: Electrical Engineering I worked on some PCB layouts for various internal projects in our Research and Development department. I performed testing, validation, and design of several internal products.
Test Engineering Co-op 3
Major: Electrical Engineering I worked in test engineering so I helped support and automate the test engineering processes. Much of the work went towards software support specifically. Writing code to fix errors in old software or creating new programs for new testing procedures.
3rd Co-op Rotation Experience Summary
Major: Mechanical Engineering In my third rotation the tasks I completed include the following: prototype design, that includes CAD, FEA, and hands on fabrication; FEA for various products; visits to suppliers; and physical testing of new ideas and product designs.
Process Engineering Intern - Large Area Coating
Major: Product Design and Manufacturing Engineering This semester I worked on projects that involved mechanical design, troubleshooting quality issues, developing testing methods used in production, and process support.
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Second Co-op Rotation at Herman Miller
Major: Product Design and Manufacturing Engineering - Designed a 200 ft. steel cord guard for factory floor - Created a specialized actuator tool for Smart Desk assembly machine - Re-designed arm pad assembly station for Aeron chair - Designed and tested pneumatic hold down machine for screens assembly area, to reduce occupational overuse injuries - Designed 8' x 8' extending pack table - Designed a safety guard for lubrication area within Smart Desk work station - Developed and designed new brand specific asset tags for all Herman Miller machines - 3D modeled existing vacuum lifts for re-release
The Final Co-op
Major: Electrical Engineering Designed PLC and HMI programs for two projects, one project consisted of modifications to 3 air handling units and the other was the design of two new air handling units. I also went on a few commissioning trips (Indiana and Virginia) to aid in the commissioning and installation process for these projects.
Embedded Software Co-op at Gentex Corporation
Major: Computer Engineering This semester, I worked on a new full display mirror (FDM) for an automotive customer. My typical tasks included discussing and implementing requirements for the mirror. Specifically, I focused on the graphical user interface (GUI) and HomeLink features. The FDM is a very complex system with several modes - each of which must display its own set of graphics to the user. Some of the GUI features I implemented include pan/roll/tilt/zoom adjustment menus, HomeLink training instructions, and HomeLink activity graphics. I also focused on other implementation details of the FDM including power modes (battery support) and peripheral management.
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Software and Hardware Development
Major: Electrical Engineering This semester I got to dive a bit into hardware development. I helped design and prototype a dongle that will be used by Amway. This dongle communicates with existing water and air filters, and technicians will use it to debug issues for customers whom own these devices. In addition, I worked on software development in Python and C for a missile systems project. I also began to gain more FPGA experience through other tasks I was assigned.
Innovation
Major: Product Design and Manufacturing Engineering As an advanced product design intern I work mostly on benchmarking and assisting other engineers. Benchmarking consists of taking competitors mirrors and creating a document that breaks down competitors mirrors performance and parts. Another huge part of working in the Advanced Product Development group is our quarterly innovation meetings. Each quarter we are tasks with prototyping a new feature or product that has never been done before and presenting it to the team.
Co-op 3
Major: Product Design and Manufacturing Engineering My job during this internship was to play the role of a test and measurement mechanical engineer. This role involved designing fixtures, custom parts, and machines in CAD to improve the efficiency of test and measurement stations on specific assembly lines in all departments around the company. After a design solution was generated, it was also my job to send out the fabricated parts and purchase the necessary purchased parts. This involved the creation of a professional Bill of Materials as well as budget planning to justify certain solutions. Once that project was fully fabricated, it was also my job to assemble and wire the solution. This allowed me to spot mistakes and learn better ways to design machines and fixtures in the future.
Holland BPW
Major: Computer Engineering This semester, aside from my day to day maintenance and duties, I had two big projects. One project was an enterprise wide wi-fi upgrade. The other project was a proof of concept software defined network where I worked with an external company.
Cybersecurity Co-Op
Major: Computer Engineering I performed a large variety of project during my co-op but they all boiled down to one goal, evaluate the overall security posture for an organization. This included performing technical reviews such as penetration tests for a company's internal and external presence as well as policy and procedure reviews. These tasks included a lot of travel due to performing most of these assessments from the client's location. I was able to travel across the U.S. but many people from the firm travel all around the world.
Header and Hanger
Major: Mechanical Engineering This semester I was assigned with a senior engineer on a specific project. He put me in charge of designing a header and hanger system. This system supports conveyor by suspending them from the ceiling. This allows for additional conveyor to run underneath. The goal was to design components that will safely hold the conveyor with the maximum conveyed load. Part drawings were made and sent to fabricators to make the necessary components. Installation drawings were made with labels for the correct parts and dimensions to tell mechanical installers where to put the components in the building. Finally, assembly drawings were made to show the installers how to put the components together.
Ele's Place Internship
Major: Health Communication I completed media releases, social media calendar, designed invitations and save the dates, collected donations and helped organize a festival, created an updated media contact list and designed new handouts and newsletters.
Co-op #3 The Final Twist
Major: Electrical Engineering In my previous semesters, I had the ability to work on numerous projects for different West Michigan companies where I learned a lot of valuable skills. However, this semester I had a very narrow focus on a single vision system project. This project included camera evaluation and testing, data set development, and transfer learning algorithms. I was able to utilize a variety of tools in order to complete this project including MATLAB, python-based scripts, TensorFlow and Google's machine learning engine.
Farming Girl
Major: Advertising & Public Relations I worked on the farm in all aspects including day to day work, Tuesday Harvests, and Wednesday Markets. I also worked on creating content for Instagram and day to day posts. I also worked on a special project that posted every Thursday. This project was a recipe a week. I used the veggies and some fruits in a way that some people may not have thought about. In a bonus there were many times that the veggies were grown on the SAP farm.
Controls Engineering Co-op at
Major: Electrical Engineering My day-to-day tasks consisted of hardware and software design for various machines. Projects that I was involved with included a laser marking machine, a pin-stamping poka-yoke machine, robot end-of-arm-tooling configuration, and a rod crimping machine to name a few. I worked on PLC programs, electrical schematic drawings, and also completed standard documentation for all of the machines along with research and development for upcoming projects.
JR Automation - 3rd Rotation
Major: Electrical Engineering In my third rotation, I was given a lot of individual responsibility. I got the opportunity to write programs as well as teach routes and points for material handling robots. This is what moves parts through the cell to get the automation moving. I also got to create HMI (Human Machine Interface) screens so that operators can interact with the cell. On top of that I got to write logic for the actual operation of the machine and assist with design decisions to best suit the customer's needs.
Controls Programming At Koops
Major: Mechanical Engineering The projects I was given were PLC based, which is programming via ladder logic. A task given to me was to offline code machines; this is creating the general structure of the machine and how it processes inputs and outputs. Another task of a controls engineer at Koops is to debug machines, which required working with the PLC and the hardware of a machine to create create an operational PLC.
Open doors to a Bright future
Major: Mechanical Engineering In my time at Axis, I wanted to be part of the different department along with my three co-op rotations. My first semester with them I was mainly working on the factory floor with the workers and reporting directly to one of the project managers. On my second rotation, y was part of the Design department, this is where I wanted to stay the most time since the work was more interesting and the relation between the designers, factory floor workers, project managers, and customers was interconnected. Basically, I was able to know what was going on everywhere and suggest changes to anything. This is where I found the most interest inside the company other from the project manager position that I wanted to be part of, but this was not possible since a project on the automation industry could take more than 1 constant year of work and I was just there 1 semester at a time making this opportunity almost impossible.
All opinions, conclusions or recommendations expressed are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of GVSU.