Experience Matters - Grand Valley State University

Gentex - Computer Engineering Co-op III

Kendra
Major: Computer Engineering As a Test Engineer, I create tests that verify the software on the product to ensure it follows the customers' requirements for various features and functions. I focused on LIN Conformance testing, which consists of several different tests that determine if the mirror or part meets specified requirements. Iýve also worked on testing diagnostics and features that Gentex incorporated in most of their mirrors as well as customer-specified diagnostics.

Consumers Energy - LVD Planning - Metro

Ryan
Major: Electrical Engineering Working in Metro as a co-op, my main task was to help the other 5 system owners with any projects/designs they were working on. Metro is a bit special in the fact that we work out of the GR & Flint service centers, yet we cover Grand Rapids, Battle Creek, Kalamazoo, Flint, Saginaw, & Jackson. The main difference in Metro is that all of our electrical infrastructure is located through a network of vaults, manholes, and ductwork beneath the streets and sidewalks of the areas we service. My job included planning new civil work throughout these areas and then planning the electrical equipment that would be needed to serve customers wherever we had a request.

Quality Engineering Co-op at Flexco

Austin
Major: Mechanical Engineering There were a wide variety of tasks that I completed. I was able to complete multiple solidworks composer animations of product assemblies (they are used as a reference for the shop floor). I also spent time writing work instructions that explained how parts went together in assemblies. A considerable amount of my time at Flexco was spent inspecting, sorting, or salvaging parts.

Herman Miller Co-op 3

Chase
Major: Product Design and Manufacturing Engineering This rotation, I was placed into more of a quality engineer role in an area of the company that packages the tabletops that we manufacture. My largest project this semester was to make an impact in the quality issues we had in fiscal year 20. In order to do this, I was placed on a blitz team that added multiple quality verification steps to the operator's jobs on the packaging line. Designing these checks in a way that makes them efficient was one of the early tasks of mine. Through data collection, it was concluded that almost 20% of our quality issues came from a singular supplied hardware box that we pair with our tables and ship to the customer. On top of the checks implemented on the line, I've been designing a process to "poka-yoke," or "error-proof" the way we package and ship these boxes.

Regular Employee

Beau
Major: Mechanical Engineering Project engineering at TGW puts all of the puzzle pieces together and orders anything todo with mechanical install. After the project is sold and the preliminary design is done Project engineering takes the project and does more detail engineering for the entire project. Some of the major items that we handle are mezzanines, fencing, safety, stairs, racking, and large portions of conveyor like sorters or cranes.

EBW Electronics - Rotation III

Jacob
Major: Mechanical Engineering During my final co-op rotation, I was able to be much more independent by heading projects on my own. I contributed to many mechanical engineering designs and analyses associated with new product launches. I was also able to perform finite element analyses to determine thermal strains associated with heat generated from new LED assemblies.

Helix Steel Engineering Co-op

Andrew
Major: Mechanical Engineering This semester I was a machine operator at the plant. This meant doing routine tasks like quality checks, restringing machines, and preventative maintenance. It also included diagnosing machine and quality issues and learning about how to fix those issues in a time-efficient manner.

Engineering Co-op at Genesis Seating

Daniel
Major: Mechanical Engineering This was my third rotation, so many of the projects I worked on were larger than previous rotations. Last semester, I created a proposal for a portable lift which would be used to raise and lower sofas from an assembly table. This rotation my main project was creating this lift. However, it now needed a rotational function lift rotate and lower 200 lb table tops without damage. This was completed by modifying a portable pallet stacker to meet our needs. I designed every component of the lift in SOLIDWORKS and used this design to create the lift.

EGR490 Co-Op III

Malcolm
Major: Mechanical Engineering I often worked directly with customers to understand their needs and desires of the projects. I drafted project specifications and qualification protocols. I often had a hand in the manufacturing processes as well.

ODL A Great Place To Work!

Caroline
Major: Product Design and Manufacturing Engineering I worked on design feasibility and verification. I designed and performed experiments to identify and compare the robustness of potential design solutions. I also completed comparative analysisýs of design concepts. I learned how to document results to clearly compare the performance of multiple design concepts. And lastly, I dove deep into Design and Manufacturing Engineering documentation and gained technical skills. I had the opportunity to learn how to complete important design and manufacturing engineering documentation as well as understand the importance of each document.

Third Rotation Co-op at DornerWorks

Chad
Major: Electrical Engineering During this rotation, I worked on the experimental board design where I helped create and debug an experimental redundant current sense and safety circuit for a cauterizer. I also helped perform verification of a software and hardware revision of a ultrasonic based bone healing medical device. The third project that I have been working on is a Windows driver project related to the aerospace industry. For this project, I have been porting the driver to work with Windows 10. I also did schematic and PCB layout reviews on various projects.

Flexco - 2nd Co-Op Rotation - New Product Development Engineering

Trey
Major: Product Design and Manufacturing Engineering During my second rotation at Flexco in the New product development department I mostly helped with the manufacturing of a new product. I was given other tasks that involved designing a new mounting system for a new product. I was given other miscellaneous tasks throughout the semester that involved a lot of SolidWorks and mechanical design.

Third Semester - Altus Industries

David
Major: Biomedical Engineering As a third semester intern, I was given a fair amount of design work and assignments this semester. I was given a lot of responsible and hoping that it has lead my to a career with the company still.

Co-op III @ Gentex Corporation

Chadwick
Major: Mechanical Engineering While at Gentex, I was given the opportunity to work on some awesome projects with the aerospace group making auto dimming windows. I was able to work on process improvements for our Boeing 777X product, improve epoxy materials to protect the electro chemistry in the window, apply statistical analysis to the manufacturing process to identify high impact projects, and a multitude of other projects. I was able to be hands-on with the product and processes for much of my work.

Autumn experience

Hoan
Major: Electrical Engineering I was tasked with working on the HMI screens, configuring I/Os, writing plc logic for a few components and programs, troubleshooting programs, conveyors, and testing devices. These tasks are most often related. To design the HMI screens requires knowing tags that come from the plc. These tags provide information in different formats. My job was to find these tags, sometimes, organize them, and simply display them for the operators to interact with or if required send them to other software for further use. Knowing what tags mean, I can use them to my convenience, for example turning on/off an led, a motor, a solenoid, a scanner, and so on. Furthermore, by knowing these tags functionalities, I can decide what logic to write to bring box A in location 1 to a second location, location 2, and troubleshoot problems on the way faced by box A. The conveyor-controlling part is similar to how one would go about controlling the RoboSockey robot, by controlling different devices working together to accomplish an array of tasks. In the industry, companies just use more expensive parts.

Magna Mirrors Engineering Co-op 3

Jacob
Major: Product Design and Manufacturing Engineering This semester I worked along with product engineers in the door handle product development department. Throughout the semester I helped with the design and validation of various handle projects for numerous leading car manufacturers. Since the facility I worked at is an R&D facility, I spent a lot of time in the tool shop and validation lab modifying and testing handles for travel, effort, water ingress, and freeze testing. This semester I also started to work with designers to make changes to products I was working on. I was able to get FDM prototypes made and evaluate my designs. Along with testing, I was also tasked with filling out the DFMEA (Design failure mode and effect analysis) document for one of our new programs. This is a very important document for the beginning of a new program and it allowed me to learn a lot more about what is required and expected from engineers in industry.

Ottawa County CPS Internship

Baleigh
Major: Criminal Justice My tasks were to mostly observe and help out when needed. I shadowed all aspects of child welfare; from CPS both investigative and ongoing to foster care. I helped with parenting times, petitions, removals, investigations, family team meetings, and creating genograms to name a few things.

Software Associate Position

Jemima
Major: Computer Science I worked with another Associate (Intern) on some internal projects for Michigan Labs. We built new features for their Vue web application that they use to keep track of all the scheduling and hours and time tracking for employees. Some of the features I worked on included building slack notifications based off requirements and sending emails with specific reporting results. I worked mostly with python and the backend side of things.

Felt Like I belonged

Joseph
Major: Film & Video I was a video editor for this job. I did also have the chance to be on-set to help record a couple of episodes for a future project.

Writing & Publishing

LaTonia
Major: Writing This internship was remote, so, in a week, we reviewed three books within a week, submitted critiques on them, and if they fit Dzanc, what the audience was, and the book's potential. We also had weekly meetings discussing and asking questions about the publishing and writing world.

Editorial Intern

Spencer
Major: Writing Tasked with reading over submitted manuscripts and providing supplemental feedback to inform the larger decision made by the publishing house. Additionally, an intern may provide copy-editing and proof-reading work.

Government Relations Intern

Tanner
Major: Political Science I reported directly to the director of government relations and had the primary task of staying up to date on research for any legislative action at the federal and state levels for bills and regulations that could have an effect on the business of A2LA. In addition to that I was responsible for drafting letters to the legislative representatives and government agencies advocating for the beliefs of A2LA on the specific issue.

Loyola Ramblers Athletic Internship

Franchesca
Major: Sport Management My internship included learning more about what each position is responsible for within the athletic department, and completing various business administrative projects throughout the summer. My three largest projects were putting together the 2020-2021 athletic department calendar, creating a 'Wikipedia' of up-to-date athletic alumni information, and conducting a research summary for a new ticket sales system. My supervisor and other staff were always willing to help if I had any questions, and point me in the right direction to get things done efficiently. I appreciate that they trusted me to work independently and get things done on time with high quality work.

Political Campaign Internship

Haley
Major: Political Science Prior to my promotion, my responsibilities included but were not limited to; engaging in voter outreach via phone banking, conducting policy research, and drafting policy proposals. In the Winter 2020 Cohort, I invested about 100 hours into the internship. Since my promotion to Intern Supervisor, my responsibilities have expanded. I anticipate investing at least 15 hours a week into the campaign, but suspect this number will rise the closer we get to Election Day. Not only am I still working hard on reaching voters and galvanizing support, but I am also responsible for collecting intern availability/coordinating scheduling, delegating weekly assignments, and resolving issues, such as lack of involvement, questions, or technological issues. I also assist Cameron and Bill with other tasks, such as assisting the coordination of fundraisers, preparing mail, delivering donor gifts, and attending local school board meetings.

Nonprofit Internship with Healthcare Focus

Kayla
Major: Allied Health Sciences As the Administrative Intern, I was privileged enough to work on a variety of projects during my time at the Children's Healing Center. I wrote grants for the organization, managed social media accounts, coordinated a Giving Tuesday campaign, helped plan a fundraising event, curated marketing content, and organized staff's time tracking.