Experience Matters - Grand Valley State University

Twisthink Co-op Round 1

Audrey
Major: Electrical Engineering I did a lot of research on machine learning algorithms for various applications Twisthink is working on, and also wrote some MATLAB functions. I also worked on a detection project, which included determining the optimal sensor for the project's application by researching and then testing. In addition to those projects, I did some temperature testing on several resistors by creating a circuit that simulated what would be happening in the product, and used an IR camera and an oscilloscope to capture the temperature at different time intervals.

Summer 2015 Engineering Co-op #1

Drew
Major: Electrical Engineering electrical drawing changes, setting up PCs, setting up and wiring CNCs, backing up PCs, printing manuals, and assembling vendor manuals to name a few.

A Grand Experience, at Johnson Controls

Omar
Major: Electrical Engineering I learned the specifications for two products that are being released in a future model of a major car brand, and applied that to the testing that was conducted on the software. I automated the testing on certain features to save time on current/future testing on this product and future products similar to it.

Welding Robot

Corey
Major: Electrical Engineering I was assigned to the headrest launch division where we assemble machines that bend and put notches in the metal headrest tubes. My major task for the summer was to help assemble, program the PLC and program the HMI for a Weld Cell that used a robot arm to weld up to six different stations around a 7 sided structure.

DornerWorks EE Internship Rotation 1

Josh
Major: Electrical Engineering I was placed as a Custom Logic Intern at day one. I had to quickly pick up the basics of Python and C++, as well as become loosely proficient in VHDL, 3 languages of which I'd never done any work in. Some of the main tasks I've completed were writing test cases for a Single Port RAM, and adapting a VHDL Pseudo-Random Number Generator to our libraries and adding functionality to it.

Third Engineering Co-op at Johnson Controls

Xu
Major: Electrical Engineering I worked on software detail design documentation for software architecture design. I also participated in updating a database and project management documentation maintenance activities.

Future Gadgets

Omar
Major: Electrical Engineering I worked on a product that will be released in a future model car, that I cannot disclose.

Project Coordinator

Sam
Major: Electrical Engineering Coordinated an industrial automation upgrade project, to include researching available options, coordinating vendor meetings, creating and submitting request for quote (RFQ) documents, evaluating potential solutions. Future work to be performed includes negotiating terms of purchase, generating statement of work (SOW) documents, installing and testing hardware and software, developing a high-level user interface, and providing long-term support for the finished product. Purchased components for, assembled, programmed and installed a large-format ambient temperature and humidity monitoring system for a controlled environment testing laboratory.

Industrial Eye Opener

Nathan
Major: Electrical Engineering The picture attached is a picture of the biggest project i had this semester. It controlled a pneumatic cylinder that cycled in and out on a predetermined duty cycle and kept track of the # of cycles. It was implemented to test the durability of a new wire wheel system to de-burr the sharp parts.

EE - Controls

Ben
Major: Electrical Engineering *Designed electrical, pneumatic and hydraulic prints for machines. *Standard electrical codes and practices *Wrote machine PLC logic and programmed HMI screens *Some robot programming *Camera/Vision work (part defect/presence) *In general figured out how hardware worked and how to use it.

The JCI Experience

Timothy
Major: Electrical Engineering Test development in support of Homelink and related testing procedures.

Embedded Systems Engineering Co-Op II

Kurtis
Major: Electrical Engineering I was assigned to the custom logic team for this particular semester. Thus, I became familiar with writing professional VHDL code and I wrote VHDL modules for commonly used modules intended to be used for future SoC designs. Furthermore, I completed simulations to ensure VHDL module behavioral functionality. I also wrote Python and C code for an internally developed custom logic software tool that enabled engineers to conveniently compile VHDL cores. Lastly, I worked on integrating an Aptina camera board with a daughter card and a Stratix IV FPGA. The daughter card and the camera module weren't designed to directly interface with one another; thus, careful board bring-up and testing procedures were performed. PCB modifications were performed as well. I also helped configure the video processing SOPC modules. Moreover, I wrote C code for the embedded NIOSII on the Stratix IV in order to configure the SOPC video modules. SignalTap was used to obtain empirical samples of the internal signals within the video pipeline for debugging purposes.

Cleanroom Chronicles III

Willy
Major: Electrical Engineering I was assigned a couple of tasks as the semester went on. The main task was to design and manufacture (using in-house machines) a structural extension to an automated arm in order to fit the constraints of the environment it is operated in: a wet bench used in the College of Engineering's cleanroom.

Test Engineer

Jared
Major: Electrical Engineering I was tasked with maintaining and developing functional testers in the final assembly department. This included streamlining testing to increase throughput, modifying test-methods to reduce scrap, and developing new tests to improve quality. In addition, I was involved with launching new products, which required performing capabilities studies and setting specification limits based on customer specifications. These are just two of many areas that required my attention.

My Time As a Controls Engineer

Christian
Major: Electrical Engineering While on Co-op with Granco Clark I was placed in charge of 2 primary projects. The most significant of the two has actually gained myself and the company global recognition within our industry. I was tasked with and successful in testing, prototyping, and integrating wireless Bluetooth technology into our machines to allow for completely wireless I/O and communication between machines and the central processor. This made Granco Clark the first industrial automation manufacturer in the world to have integrated such technology into the automated metal extrusion process. It also resulted in a featured article by Light Metals Magazine that highlighted Granco's decision for its integration of wireless communication technology into the field of aluminum/metal extrusion.

Product Developement At Magnum

Jesse
Major: Electrical Engineering I had quite a few different projects. One was refurbishing a solder paste printer machine from the mid to late 80s. This included figuring out what was wrong with it, how to connect to it, and how ladder logic works. I had to design a board to interface with it and use a DOS emulator to communicate with it. Among other projects I also designed and tested three DC-DC power converters.

R&D with Gill Electronics

Luke
Major: Electrical Engineering I did lots of LTspice simulation and Eagle schematic layouts. I researched and developed human presence detection for the wireless charger as well as researching boost converters and battery charging.

Fun with Controls

Corey
Major: Electrical Engineering I was assigned to the headrest launch division where we assemble machines that bend and put notches in the metal headrest tubes. My major task for the winter included: Leading the controls portion of a machine, develop a PLC program for checking motor coasting conditions, take the leading role for a project which GVSU built the control panel and programmed the PLC. Saved the company money, by arranging meetings with salesmen and developed testing procedures for the different products they offered in order to find cheaper products that will produce good results.

Co-op Student

Troy
Major: Electrical Engineering My first couple of weeks were learning how to read and use AutoCad Electrical schematics as well as a few internal programs to navigate the projects and drawings at Progressive Surface. After I learned the basics I did extensive AutoCad work setting up the core drawing sets for several machines, one of which I was able to follow from conception to construction. After the first month and a half I began setting up CNC's for controlling the robots in the machines. I also was in charge of setting up the PC's for each of the machines and producing the manuals. During my last month I was given a project to find out how to wire a new motor, drive, and power supply together to meet the specs given to me. This included learning to use the supplied software to meet the RPM requirements given certain analog inputs, and the physical wiring itself.

Co-op at DornerWorks

Alec
Major: Electrical Engineering I worked on design, testing, debug, and fixing both the hardware and software of several projects ranging from biomedical to R&D fields.

Engineering Co-Op First Rotation

Carl
Major: Electrical Engineering During my first weeks I was in charge of doing a good deal of work on the floor helping the electricians. This involved wiring robotics, sensors, lasers, cutting wire way, and numerous other tasks. I was then given a computer and completed many red lines, which are corrections to the electrical and pneumatic drawings used for the creation of the machines. Some other tasks I completed included, creating valve stack tags, designing simple pneumatic drawings, operating some of the machinery, training operators, debugging hardware, debugging software, and implementing/writing some code using PLC software. I was placed on all types of jobs big and small. Each had its challenges and headaches but all were highly educational for controls engineering.

Vision Inspection Systems

Mike
Major: Electrical Engineering I developed software for the user interface in C# using the .NET Framework in order to visualize the inspected defects to the operator in a meaningful way. I also developed some of the image processing software using C++.

RFID Engineering in the coming

Caleb
Major: Electrical Engineering I applied and was hired on in the beginning of the summer of 2012, after my first year of college. This was highly beneficial being that I was able to get my foot-in-the-door. Most of my time here I have spent testing RFID tags and how specific inlays which we bought from Avery Dennison, UPM (SMARTRAC), Invengo and Alien. In addition I have worked to determine how the performance changes when encapsulated in different materials, which I simulate by sandwiching the inlays between different materials. This past summer, I have continued that testing and have worked towards actually figuring out some of the science behind RFID tags. In addition I have worked on helping Cascade Engineering decide what inlays to use for specific applications, and design, and build an automated testing unit to increase the repeatability and decrease the time my testing takes. I also worked on a number of other projects all in the RFID world and can say I have learned a lot.

Progressive Surface: Round 3

Calvin
Major: Electrical Engineering This being my last semester at Progressive Surface, I continued where I left off; creating manuals, setting up computers, and creating layouts and schematics. I had a lot more responsibility this last time and was challenged with more intensive projects. I worked with another engineer on a stand alone rotary lance project and looked into the different upgrades we could make for it and how it would affect our cost of the finished project when we went through with the changes.

Nerf Guns and Board Routing

Jaime
Major: Electrical Engineering In contrast with last semester when I worked on software projects, this semester I worked on hardware projects. My two main projects were: 1. A board that connects with a Microchip Explorer 16 Dev Kit and allows for expansion or connections to other circuits, via Phoenix-style connectors. 2. A board that connects with an Altera Stratix IV Dev Kit via its HSMC slot, and processes video signals from 8 camera inputs (via RJ45 ports). For both of these projects, I did the schematic and layout work (board routing), as well as tag/releasing of data packages.