Launch Engineering Co-op - 1st Rotation
Walker
Experience Information
Employer: Koops Inc
Job Title: Launch Engineer Intern
Major: Interdisciplinary Engineering
Received Credit: Yes
Paid: Yes
Abroad: No
Description of the Organization
Koops designs and constructs machines for factory automation, ranging from manual to fully automated machines. Koops' main headquarters is in Holland but also has locations in South Carolina and Mexico. Koops has around 280 employees and is employee owned and operated. They do a lot of projects for the automotive industry, however they are also involved in many other areas such as medical, aerospace, renewable energy, and construction.
Description of the Tasks/Projects Completed
Day-to-day tasks included running and testing machines, debugging machines,continuous improvement of machines, and vision programming. The main job of a launch engineer is to debug machines and make adjustments to them so that they work as designed.
Skills/Knowledge Gained Through The Experience
Over the course of the semester the main knowledge that I have a acquired is how to properly debug and adjust a large machine. I learned how to watch a machine and be able to pick out issues while it was running and know how to make the proper adjustments in order to fix the issues. I also learned how to program vision for a few different cameras. Additionally, I learned how to install machines into client's factories and how to pre-ship machines so that they are ready to go to the clients.
Favorite Part of the Experience
My favorite part of this co-op experience was the amount of hands-on experience I received. From the first day on the job I was adjusting components on machines. It was difficult at first to be able to watch a machine and pick out where it wasn't running perfect but over the course of the semester I learned how to successfully do this.
How the Experience Influenced Future Career Goals
This co-op experience has influenced my future career goals by showing me that I do not want to just sit at a desk all day, I want to be able to work with my hands on the projects that I am given. I also learned how important the culture of a company is and how good it is to enjoy coming to work every day.