First Semester at SoundOff Signal
Grant
Experience Information
Employer: SoundOff Signal
Job Title: Electrical Engineering Intern
Major: Electrical Engineering
Received Credit: Yes
Paid: Yes
Abroad: No
Description of the Organization
Soundoff Signal is a global, leading producer and innovator in vehicle LED lighting, controls systems, and electronic warning products for government, emergency, police, fire, and civilian markets. Based out of Hudsonville, MI, SoundOff is an employee-owned company made up of 400-500 employees across two facilities.
Description of the Tasks/Projects Completed
Much of my role as a starting EE intern revolved around learning the company's process and products and assisting with tasks to alleviate some of the more time-intensive work from the product development teams. This involved assembling various prototype PCBs and harnesses, establishing and executing thermal tests to compare products with that of competitors, managing the electronics lab and its contents, and many other tasks to assist the EE team and Product Development team as a whole.
Skills/Knowledge Gained Through The Experience
Throughout this experience, I gained extensive hands-on experience in soldering/desoldering components onto PCBs, learned basics to Altium Designer and company-specific design standards, practiced professionalism in the workplace, and daily collaboration with EE team and individuals in the greater Product Development department.
Favorite Part of the Experience
My favorite part of this internship was populating PCB assemblies. Especially at higher quantities, this task often was very time consuming, but reinforced different soldering techniques and allowed me to familiarize myself with the company's products and the many different components utilized.
How the Experience Influenced Future Career Goals
I have had the opportunity to work in non-academic engineering internships in the past and my time working at SoundOff has reinforced my desire to pursuit the hardware side of electrical engineering, with potential emphasis on PCB and PCB design. I got to see much of this position firsthand as I worked to conduct quality/compliance inspections weekly with the PCB engineer, and look forward to exploring the different roles on the EE team in my future program rotations.
Internship Format
In Person