Experience Matters - Grand Valley State University

Getting Embedded in Holland

Billy
Major: Computer Engineering As a third semester co-op, I was given a chance to take part in tasks and experiences with other full time engineers. I found myself working on embedded software alongside others, at times forgetting that I was still a college student. I had exposure to customer interaction by assisting with support calls, but most importantly I refined my skills of developing software on a team.

Mechanical Design Engineer

Caitlyn
Major: Mechanical Engineering While working with Patient and Caregiver Safety Team, I was able to have three main projects. I was able to design and build a voice of customer light fixture, a head adjustment system for the surgical helmets, and researched and built prototypes of several designs for the disposable product line.

Mechanical Engineering Coop at Gentex

Derek
Major: Mechanical Engineering My primary task at Gentex this semester was to support production lines as issues arose. I worked mostly on technical and mechanical malfunctions of the machines. Not only did I support the lines to keep them running, I worked at increasing quality, safety, and productivity in my projects.

Mechanical Engineer Co-op 3

Michael
Major: Mechanical Engineering Designed and built multiple displays, designed lab test equipment, designed and built prototypes of potential products.

New Product Development

Leif
Major: Mechanical Engineering I have worked more on the new product development side of Genesis Seating during this rotation. This means that I've been involved in the construction of prototype models for testing and also been involved in enhancing old designs. In creation of new products we, as a manufacturer, need work instructions and control plans on these products, so I've been involved in the creation of those. I've sat in on multiple meetings with customers in discussion on the progress of changes made to existing chairs. I've also been involved in the design and fabrication of work fixtures.

Co-Op at Magna

Alexander
Major: Electrical Engineering This semester I participated in a variety of EMC, Spot meter, Illuminance Reduction, Current Draw, Extreme Environmental Resistance, and Light Consistency Tests. I also assisted with various design alterations and testing concerning a prototype rearview camera design and several prototype light indicator module designs.

Manufacturing Engineer Co-op at Bosch Emission Systems in Germany

Chris
Major: Mechanical Engineering I worked as a planner in the MOE1 department (Manufacturing Operations and Engineering). I helped plan the equipment, working sequence, layout, documentation, and helped solve daily problems within the various manufacturing areas on the floor. I worked on making the manufacturing line more lean using lean line design tools and implementation.

NASA Internship with Systems Integration and Test Branch

Amanda
Major: Product Design and Manufacturing Engineering While working at Langley I was expected to complete a major project. This project focused on collecting information related to the design, assembly/integration, and launching of a small satellite. The goal eventually resulting in an accessible webpage that can be easily updates with new information. This was just the beginning of this project and there is still a lot that needs to be done. I also had the opportunity to witness and participate in a scientific balloon launch. I helped with document organization, hardware and ground support equipment packing before the launch. Once at the launch site I participated in launch day activities and data collection. The last responsibility that I had was to support the Thermal Vacuum Lab within the Systems Integration and Test Branch. This required me to write and run a Thermal Vacuum Test for space bound hardware, construct operational procedures for hardware, and help out where ever I could.

Trans-Matic Experience

Reid
Major: Mechanical Engineering Working as an intern for the engineering department I completed a wide range of tasks. I managed engineering drawings for a new product launch. I developed a new tool to aid in tool setup which allows the toolmakers to use a comparator (measurement device) to establish tolerance profiles of the part after each stamping process. I used SolidWorks FEA to analyze a prototype side piece assembly post. I also completed Engineering Change Requests of gauges and part prints. I updated tooling drawings and models based on toolmaker feedback. I redesigned stamping stations to include things like ejector pins, spring sleeves, and higher tonnage chucks. I aided in the design of a geared assembly and recommended design changes to customers for ease of manufacture and measurement while keeping design intent. These recommendations were implemented by them.

Electrical Engineering in the Architecture/Engineering Industry

Greg
Major: Electrical Engineering I aided in the layout and design of lighting systems in new construction buildings as well as historical renovations. I also provided design assistance in the layout of power distribution systems within these buildings according to local, state and national electric codes. I provided assistance on a variety of different building projects for K-12 education, higher education (including projects for Grand Valley State University), historical building renovations, healthcare facilities, and large scale airport renovations.

Test Software Engineer Intern

John
Major: Electrical Engineering During the time spent here, I was able to be involved in many different areas. Anywhere from fixing problems that arouse in the production line (both hardware and software), to developing software and hardware used to test new units going through qualification testing. The task that I was able to spend the most time on was writing/updating code for stations that were being upgraded from Windows XP machines to Windows 7. Much of the hardware used in Windows XP is not supported in Windows 7, therefore the code had to be altered to communicate with a new pieces of hardware. This gave me the opportunity to learn how many different communication protocols work, and how to interface with many different components.

Innotec Mechanical Engineering Experience

Zachary
Major: Mechanical Engineering During this semester I ran production, worked on machine improvement projects, and repaired machines. One of the machine improvement projects I lead was an improvement of an automatic nail machine by adding an encoder, and designing/building a chute that can redirect too short or too long nails down a separate scrap chute to reduce the risk of non-conforming parts being sent to the customer.

BISSELL Mech. Engineering Co-op

Tony
Major: Mechanical Engineering I was on the Product Attributes team (sort of R&D), so I wasn't tied down to working on any specific product. For example, this term I designed a test/test fixture for analyzing torsional stiffness of deep cleaner handles. I also wrote an excel macro to automatically summarize data for one of our tests. I also created a calculator tool in excel to solve a FBD system for the drive wheel suspension in our robot vac.

TowerPinkster

Alec
Major: Mechanical Engineering I designed the mechanical systems for buildings ranging in multiple market sectors (including healthcare, commercial, governmental, K-12, and higher education). This included designing HVAC and plumbing systems, 3D building modeling in the AutoDesk Revit software, and producing building documents for use in construction.

Co-op at DornerWorks

David
Major: Computer Engineering I worked on a variety of tasks, including testing, software development, and PR materials.

Co-op at JR Automation

Kevin
Major: Electrical Engineering Projects and tasks included writing a PLC program to control and monitor equipment (heat gun) via interfacing Allen Bradley ControlLogix systems with hardware by generated tags (timer and control). Also, it included creating a Macro to assist in importing and generating data for use in software. It also included human machine interface design and implementation on machines to interface between machine and operator and also included data transfer via machine to databases.

Assistant Trainer

Matthew
Major: Sport Management My job was to assist Andrea Martin with her clients. With this I had to create meal plans, workouts, and clean up after sessions.

Semester 3

Eric
Major: Mechanical Engineering 3D design of new patterns, replacement patterns, reverse engineering of old tool. Daily pattern inspection, clean-up, storage. Sample Traveler Program, Weight Traveler Program. Gauge Design and Procurement. Wafer Core Project Design and Procurement.

Internship/PED 490

Raphael
Major: Sport Management Tasks included scheduling, set-up/tear down, admissions, game manager, student-athlete eligibility, official and game contracts, communications with parents, coaches and other ADs', etc. Worked closely on projects like new strategic plan for the District Athletic Code and Coaching Handbook.

Presidential Politics

Jakob
Major: Political Science While at Strategic National, on my first project I was put on a team of employees working both in Grand Rapids and Washington D.C. We reached out to students all over the state through multiple forms of communication in hopes of getting attendees for the Michigan Republican Leadership Conference that was held on Mackinac Island in late September. After a successful weekend on the Island, I was moved to a new project dealing with campaign finance. Soon after third quarter fundraising ended I began collecting mass amounts of data of individual campaign contributors to each one of the Republican presidential candidates. I spent weeks scrolling through FEC.gov to put together a excel spreadsheet to be run in our analysis software to better understand the demographics of specific types of campaign donors and contributors. After this analysis was run, we gained an insight to American voters, thus giving us a leg up on competition.

Honduras

Brittany
Major: International Relations My internship was focused around a trip to Honduras. While I was there, I co-taught a finance class in Spanish to the people of Comayagua and La Canada. Before the trip I created lesson plans, learned the material, and decided how to develop new leaders for the class next time.

The Co-op is the best part of Engineering at GV

James
Major: Computer Engineering Most of my time here has been spent designing an end of line testing circuit for some of the handles we manufacture. This PCB reads the voltages in the handle and converts them into a byte. This data contains information on different states of the handle, such as lock/unlock and an open handle, as well as an error message.

Cost and Concept Development Co-Op at JR Automation Technologies LLC

Jonathan
Major: Mechanical Engineering I was a Concept and Cost Development Intern for the summer in which I worked with several engineers of various knowledge bases to design concepts with CAD and cost the concept accordingly. The job not only entails critical thought and thinking outside the box in literally every situation but also developed my thought for legal business practice. Writing a quotation is extremely difficult and demands covering all of ones bases so that when something comes up down the road, the company isn't out thousands of dollars. Not only was I required to write these quotes, but also act as a salesman of the product I was designing a concept for as well. No one will buy what you are designing, if you can't stand behind it and back up what you were thinking. On several occasions I held and led meetings with department heads, business unit managers, VP of sales, and even the CEO at one point.

Computer Engineering Co-op at Performance

Jacob
Major: Computer Engineering I worked on the automated verification and validation team for GE's aircraft health monitoring system. We used an agile software development strategy with daily meetings called scrums. I was responsible for developing JUnit tests that send requests to the system and verify the responses. Test cases and test procedures were written that utilized the unit tests to cover high level software requirements.

Co-op I: Innotec Group

Lauren
Major: Electrical Engineering I helped wire machines, build machines, create and update schematics, use CAD to design solutions, and helped move a launch product into production. I also was able to learn how to use different electrical equipment and conduct studies directly for our customer.