Experience Matters - Grand Valley State University

Herman Miller Healthcare

Leighton
Major: Mechanical Engineering I was primarily involved in cost savings engineering during this semester. This involved lots of brainstorming, problem solving, and testing in order to validate new ideas. The testing was not only performed in Herman Miller's laboratories but I was asked to perform Finite Element Analysis on CAD models prior to the physical tests.

My Third Co-op Semester

Matthew
Major: Mechanical Engineering This semester I worked on a launch machine (a brand new automated machine in the building phase getting it ready to start running). I tackled multiple projects throughout the semester, designing and fabricating many components for the launch machine. I was also appointed as a Methods and Motions Divisional Leader for my division, which came with many responsibilities.

Envirotronics Test Chambers

Jeff
Major: Mechanical Engineering Produced CAD drawings, modified prints, created parts in Pro Engineer. I also ended up doing more and more work on chambers and was assigned my own chamber as well. I also worked with other engineers to design their chambers.

Design and Innovation Internship

Robert
Major: Mechanical Engineering I was first assigned to benchmark existing mirror assemblies. This included extensive testing on the mirror as well as a breakdown of the mirror to it's constituents. Then I was given other tasks including failure analysis, extensive testing for future products, design for concept products, etc.

Research Project Assistant

Joshua
Major: Mechanical Engineering I was charged with preliminary design, refinement, and documentation of a prototype mobile site for depositing goods. The task involved heavy amounts of documentation and research.

Second time around

Nick
Major: Mechanical Engineering I started the semester working in quality and returns. I tracked incoming and outgoing returns and would look at the failure mode. I had a spreadsheet that kept track of every return ever filed in our new system and could check back and find out how many times a certain model was returned and look for patterns in the failure mode. Finding these patterns eventually helped us create standards and procedures to eliminated these failure modes. The second half of the semester I was working on floor changes. These could be anywhere from adding a part to the BOM or adding a dimension to a drawing to creating a new part or modifying an existing part.

3rd Co op at Disher

Zachary
Major: Mechanical Engineering I built a parade float for a non-profit organization known as Ready For School. It is pictured as my title photo. I designed the entire float by myself. I was able to then build the float with the help of another co op student. I built a battery cart to transfer Chevy Volt batteries that are defective and exploding. The cart had to contain the vapors and gases being released from the battery. The cart had to withstand extreme heat and chemical exposure. I learned a lot about designing the cart in CAD as well as dealing with supplies to have it made. I also worked on a lot of internal projects around the office. Many projects i worked on I would provide support to an engineer for a small part of the main project. It was nice because i got to get my hands on many different projects of many different fields. i worked on some office furniture projects as well as some automotive.

Mechanical Engineering Co-op at Dematic

Jared
Major: Mechanical Engineering Mechanical Engineering in the Applications department of Dematic corp. deals mainly with engineering, ordering, installing, checking, and supporting the logistics system within a customers warehouse. In the first term of my co-op, I have experienced the first 3 of these to some regard. I have helped arrange conveyor and other systems within an AutoCAD environment, I have helped order conveyor along with its components and accessories and I have been to a customer site to help aid installation.

Engineering Co-op With Koops inc.

Michael
Major: Mechanical Engineering I worked as a full time mechanical engineer. That means I spent the majority of my time on SolidWorks designing machines. The customer will come with some task they want the machine to perform and how fast and it was my job to design a machine to complete that task.

Process Engineering at Shape Corp

Stephen
Major: Mechanical Engineering I worked with a group of process engineers that focus on improving the roll form process. Specifically, this means increasing utilization by decreasing downtime. I worked on the "cutoff" part of the process where the bumper beam is cut to a specific length. I learned this process is a lot more complicated than it sounds. I did a time study that analyzed downtime due to blade changes. I installed new technology which made blade changes 7.4 times faster. I did a controlled study which analyzed two blade cutting technologies: Laser-cut and EDM machined blades. I looked at the performance of each blade type as it relates to blade wear and part quality. I worked on other continuous improvement projects focused on the cutoff process. The main project I worked on was to install a piece of equipment on every necessary roll form mill globally (approximately 30 total). I wrote the technical user's manual which explains how to order, install, operate, troubleshoot, and maintain this piece of equipment. This equipment is currently being purchased and soon to be installed on mills in Mexico and Grand Haven.

Engineering co-op

Erik
Major: Mechanical Engineering Since being new at the company I received a full walk through of the manufacturing process at the company. That took a few weeks to understand and learn the complexity of manufacturing in that high scale that they do. My assignment was to spend a few days each at the different machines to learn to understand how they work and then to analyze them and look for possible improvements. The machines that I got to analyze was the printing machine, the creasing tool, the laminating machine and the cutting machines. If an improvement was made the solution was drawn up on CAD and sent to the developers and improvement engineers so they can go through with the improvement.

Shape CAE Intern

Christopher
Major: Mechanical Engineering In the CAE department I primarily ran static and dynamic tests on the beams to simulate how the beams would perform under different load cases. The results of these tests were primarily used to try to win new business, as well as internal research.

Taylor's 2nd Co-Op at UCC

Taylor
Major: Mechanical Engineering I managed projects, some my own, and some management was filling in for absent engineers. I also was responsible for drafting plant layouts and parts. I frequently attended team meetings and organized a few of my own meetings. Worked closely with engineers, maintenance techs, leadership, and other employees to design solutions for projects.

Shape Corp Co-op III

Mitchell
Major: Mechanical Engineering As a co-op my tasks range from being assigned several design projects as they come up. Also I spend the majority of the time performing vehicle and component level car crash testing. Major projects include the CAD modeling of a fixture or part that is of your own concept that, once approved, you will also be responsible for building through the utilization of the full prototype shop located in the same building.

Mechanical Engineering Intern

Cory
Major: Mechanical Engineering During this co-op experience working as a process technician I have had countless tasks and projects projects to work on. A majority of these tasks are spontaneous issues which arise when manufacturing equipment is not functioning correctly. These issues can be mechanical, computer, software, electrical, or simply due to machine operator errors.

Interning in the Automotive Industry

Zachary
Major: Mechanical Engineering Projects that I had a hand in ranged from working with engineering drawings, design changes, prototyping, bill of materials, test reports, testing parts, setting up test parts, and constructing products such as shifters.

Real World Work in Mechanical Engineering

Caleb
Major: Mechanical Engineering I was able to take full the full responsibility of designing work stations that costumer agreed to have built by the company. I was in charge of communicating between the project manager as well as the customer, to ensure that the machine met their expectations.

Engineering Co-op

Patrick
Major: Mechanical Engineering I spent a fair portion of my time examining new customer CAD and prints or customer changes to existing products. I then took the necessary steps to prepare this information for production. This included creating routings/bills of materials, additional prints, flat blank development, inspection sheets, work instructions and many of the programs for the lasers, press brakes and CNC mills. I also designed fixtures for the CNC mills and the welders when standard clamps and vices were insufficient. In cases where a part required fixtures or an unusual sequence of processes, I communicated with the sales department and the customers to determine a course of action that was acceptable. My responsibilities this semester were further expanded when I received training in quoting. This required me to communicate with our vendors and customers. Finally, I was tasked with various company improvement projects. These ranged from investigating variance reports to determine why a product cost more than what was on record, to increasing the efficiency of the engineering department.

Engineering Co-op II

Ryan
Major: Mechanical Engineering I supervised lab maintenance and testing of small steel samples taken from large master coils. I reviewed sample tests and compared results to determine if they were satisfactory for the type of steel. I filled out customer orders with coils that matched results, dimension, and weight requirements. I dealt with defective coils and handled them accordingly to minimize loss of company profit.

Floatin' High

Zachary
Major: Mechanical Engineering I spent most of my term working on an office chair project. The chair had started as a concept and we were in the phases of prototyping new ideas to make it a marketable chair. I created many of my own prototypes to fix some of the issues with the chair. When I was not working on the chair, I was brainstorming, designing, and building a parade float for a local company in Holland. I was assigned to the project by myself and I had an opportunity to really let myself shine.

Third Semester Engineering Coop at Disher

Sean
Major: Mechanical Engineering This semester I have worked on a root cause analysis study at a Disher customer. I have done research on possible causes, reviewed past studies on the issue, supported temporary countermeasures, and have planned and conducted a root cause experiment to determine the contributing factors. I have also supported customers with CAD work and building prototypes and custom end products.

Second Co-op Rotation

Reid
Major: Mechanical Engineering I was a part of many projects over the course of the semester. During this rotation I worked as a part of the controls department. I wrote code for numerous machines as well as created new subroutines to be used in the future. I also did some smaller projects designing machine concepts that could be used to improve manufacturing efficiency for our customers.

Autocam Excellence

Jake
Major: Mechanical Engineering At my time at Autocam I worked as a Manufacturing Quality Engineer, so I was responsible for both the production and quality of the parts made on my product line. I got to help develop and implement vision systems, new machining ops as well as be a valued member of and engineering group.

Engineering Co-op at Disher Design and Development

Sean
Major: Mechanical Engineering I mostly worked on supporting projects that were lead by an engineer. Specific tasks included prototyping concepts for function and appearance, CAD modeling, idea generation, design reviews, quality/failure analysis studies, and even assembling small batch end products. This included the use of 3D printers.

Engineering Co-op (3rd Semester)

Vince
Major: Mechanical Engineering This co-op semester, I played a role in the Mechanical Design Team. Some of the noteworthy tasks/projects that I have completed or am currently working on involved me being the main designer for relatively smaller jobs. I am working on my second "full" project. This involves going to meetings to discuss concepts, using CAD to implement design, and releasing the job. The machine is then built and controlled (upon specification).