Experience Matters - Grand Valley State University

Second Co-op Rotation - L3Harris

Michael
Major: Electrical Engineering Working in test engineering, my main tasks involve making sure test stations stay up to date and fully functional, as well as updating any test software and making quality-of-life improvements to make the software better in some way. Besides doing run of the mill updates, I also worked on new test systems for future products, as well as big changes to how software is loaded onto the products that are made.

Factory Automation

Colton
Major: Electrical Engineering This semester I was working with the controls programming team. I started with looking at the electrical prints to determine the components that were going to be used in the machine then looked at the model with the project manager to understand the process of operations and motions necessary for the machine to perform. I then wrote the code to communicate with the PLC and components, control sequences, and interact with digital and analog inputs/outputs.

2nd Rotation at Herman Miller - Great!

Jesse
Major: Electrical Engineering I worked on several kinds of projects, but most involved updating or creating PLC (Programmable Logic Controller) code for industrial equipment, as well as creating documentation for them (Bill of Materials (BOM), CAD drawings, etc). I wasn't stuck at the desk all day, every day, as I would need to inspect the machines or lines I would be altering to make sure design would work in reality. I worked with people from several departments to complete projects, attending meetings and such.

2nd Co-Op Rotation

Cameron
Major: Electrical Engineering As an intern within a lighting production cell, I was given cell responsibilities to assist in production and process/machine improvements daily, with monthly obligations to manage cell safety and inventory. Half of each workday I aided in operation of an assembly line, and the other half was defined as project time. I have spent time analyzing and diagnosing scrap issues such as but not limited to electrical failures and process faults. Other projects consist of designing and implementing quality tool improvements, tracking component use, and implementing safety measures.

Co-op #3

Brittany
Major: Electrical Engineering Over my third co-op rotation, I was able to tie up loose ends on a website remodeling project that was started on my second rotation. In addition, I worked individually to complete a large portion of a campaign for a product. I was also given time to look into SAR research, an area of study I am interested in.

SAF-HOLLAND Electrical Co-Op Rotation 3

Alexander
Major: Electrical Engineering During my Co-Op experience I have completed new technology research, experimental analysis, and prototype development. In my experience I researched a variety of electrical technology applications, specifically in sensor technologies. A significant amount of my Co-Op experience involved experimental analysis of both electrical hardware and software applications, which included simulations, testing, and measurement using instruments such as oscilloscopes, DMMs, current probes, and other observational tools. The experimental analysis included hypothesis testing and validation, as well as documentation of testing and evaluation. I was fortunate to work on new product development projects which included making prototypes, exploratory models, and generating testing tools. Throughout the process I performed multiple types of documentation, presentations, and reports.

Phase 1 Engineering Co-op

Benjamin
Major: Electrical Engineering Wrote embedded code for wireless charger. Wrote testing interface for wireless charger. Wrote controller for an inductive stove. Wrote interface for inductive stove.

My Final Co-op at L3Harris

Josh
Major: Electrical Engineering I specifically worked within the test engineering department. As a result, most of my time was spent either setting up/designing parts for automated testing stations, troubleshooting issues with testing stations and conducting test procedures.

Co-op

Jacob
Major: Electrical Engineering Designing embedded systems. PCB design. Designed and programmed an embedded system to control an air compressor on a schedule set by the user. The schedule could be altered on a touch screen.

DornerWorks EE Co-Op

Jonathan
Major: Electrical Engineering I worked on a project at DornerWorks for Traeger Grills and was involved in many facets of the project including performance testing and data compilation of grill temperature and pellet level sensing. As a result performance enhancement I worked on were integrated into the grills firmware. I also worked on integration testing by developing a schematic and laying out a test simulation PCB. Part of the function of the test simulation board was to simulate a thermocouple for the integration tests to run grill cycles. I also gained experience setting up flashing of the on-board microcontroller and had opportunities for developing embedded software. - IT Creating scripts to help automate quarterly updates. These included creating a list of wiki pages without backlinks, creating a list of unused licenses, and creating websites to aid in cleaning up company repositories. Small tasks included help with NIST documentation, creating a widget to help track equipment on the IT Helpdesk website, and documenting my own work on the wiki.

Innotec Co-op

Cameron
Major: Electrical Engineering I was responsible for kicking-off tooling designs, testing and verifying tools, lean process organization, and many other projects. All summer I was assisting in 6 product and process launches where I recorded data, made tooling upgrades, machined tools and helped run production. I was Also part of an intern team that reduced the scrap in our division by 5% through analysis, determining root causes, and implementing process changes.

Controls Engineering Co-op I

Aleksandr
Major: Electrical Engineering I completed several small tasks which consisted of making device labels to go on controls devices and I also made a commissioning checklist for a project. Then I went to a customer site where I helped commission a line that was being added to a system. I was given a small project to do where I had to go through the entire process that a controls engineer would go through to complete a project. This consisted of creating an entire drawing set showing all the devices, networks, and power buses for a cabinet. I had to have technical reviews with a principle engineer to go over the drawings I created. I also had to write a Discription of Operations document and then I had to write the PLC program for the line.

JR Automation

Ethan
Major: Electrical Engineering For most of the semester I worked on one really big project. I was with it from pretty much start to end and got to see it go through all it's phases. I helped out with everything from debugging the code to making drawings.

Controls Engineering Co-Op

Katey
Major: Electrical Engineering This internship began with an assignment to use AutoCAD Electrical to design a practice print-package based on requirements from my supervisor. From there, I moved on to updating the companyýs AutoCAD Electrical title block and AutoCAD Electrical tutorials. I was then assigned the task of creating templates to increase the efficiency of the companyýs lock-out-tag-out documentation and bill of materials generation. These tasks formed the bulk of my semester. Furthermore, I was given the task of utilizing my templates on multiple customer jobs. Finally, I gained firsthand experience on the floor shadowing the companyýs electricians and familiarizing myself with the build stage of the engineering process.

Consumers Energy Co-op Experience

Ryan
Major: Electrical Engineering During this internship, my main task was service design for the metro systems. Metro systems are all underground in major cities (Jackson, Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo, Flint etc.) as opposed to overhead lines normally seen on poles. Using CAD software, I designed the existing and planned services for each of my jobs. I also did calculations in order to find the correct transformer and fuses for each of my jobs.

X-59 Operations Engineering Experience

Noah
Major: Electrical Engineering Performed a complete inventory on a T-38 canopy and crew escape system so it can be recycled for the X-59, performed a complete analysis of the oxygen flow for the life support system in multiple scenarios, and assisted with test set up for a full performance test of the life support system.

First Co-Op Rotation @ L3Harris

Michael
Major: Electrical Engineering This semester was my first co-op rotation of three with L3Harris. I worked on a few different programs that test different products before they are produced, like calibration tests and temperature tests. My goal for these programs was to make each program better than it was before, whether it be making it more efficient, adding new quality-of-life improvements, or reducing memory usage. I also helped fix hardware for these tests, like computers or proprietary hardware, to make sure that everything was functioning as desired.

Controls Engineering Co-op - 2nd Rotation

Jaret
Major: Electrical Engineering This semester I spent some time doing electrical design and programming on machines, as well as some wiring and machine commissioning. I also accompanied our engineers and builders to a customer site in town on one occasion.

EMC CO-OP 2

Brittany
Major: Electrical Engineering As a co-op student I was tasked with completing several tests for clients, analyzing and simulating signal integrity projects, and assisting in the development of the company website.

EMC Co-op

Nicklas
Major: Electrical Engineering Over the semester I worked on products for several companies from various industries testing and debugging their products. I also worked on internal lab infrastructure projects to make testing more efficient and accurate.

A Winter at Phase 1

Benjamin
Major: Electrical Engineering Tractor Downforce- Updated a pre existing system that controls the depth of planting wheels. Pizza Chiller- Updated a system that dispenses water at the correct temperature for making pizzas IOT Outlet - Measured the RF characteristics of printed antennas and changed part to balance them BLE beacon- Prototyped a Bluetooth beacon that will be used to track portable road segments BLE pressure sensor- Measured the connection quality of different BLE sensors.

SAF Holland Electrical Co-Op Rotation 2

Alexander
Major: Electrical Engineering The Electrical Engineering department performs work related to all aspects of product development and production. The tasks have been hands-on and provide great opportunities to work on the development and production of company products. Projects in this rotation included commercial vehicle electrical system network analysis, web server management, microcontroller evaluation, programming, and testing, and extensive research for product development.

LVDE Co-Op

Katie
Major: Electrical Engineering The company is broken into many departments that work together to provide hometown service to all of its customers. I work for the Low Voltage Distribution Engineering section and am assigned the same type of work as the full time employees. I am assigned new business jobs (adding service to houses that are being built or to locations at which no current service exists) and system improvement jobs (upgrading and replacing existing lines). For each job, field work is conducted and designs are completed before the work is sent to a different department for scheduling.

Electrical Engineering Co-op

Noe
Major: Electrical Engineering During my co-op, I was tasked with product testing, documentation, research, prototyping, equipment troubleshooting, and PCB layout projects, among other tasks.

EMC co-op

Joseph
Major: Electrical Engineering I typically ran emissions and immunity tests. I also helped generate reports based on the results of these tests