Experiences from Summer of 2013
| So far my summer internship with Scripps Institution of Oceanography has been absolutely phenomenal. Primarily, I have learned and become comfortable with a program called GRASS (Geographic Resources Analysis Support System) which I use to digitize maps of algae and other species found in the tide pools in the La Jolla region. So far I have completed digitizing the final site of the Bird Rock Tidepools, and have moved on to the first site of the Devil’s Slide Tidepools. It has been extremely interesting to see how the species change throughout the seasons, and to be able to discuss it with the people here. They are welcoming, extremely helpful, and create a great environment to work in! Also, my mentor plans to take me snorkeling to see Leopard Sharks and through La Jolla Cove as soon as the sharks are in season, which I am very excited about, as I would love to further familiarize myself with the San Diego coast. I would like to thank you for this wonderful opportunity! I learn more and more every day, and I am having so much fun while doing so. I am looking forward to the remaining weeks of my internship. Again, thank you! Teodora Vozdolska |
| Everything is going well at Fugro Pelagos! Everyone here is friendly and helpful. The first few days were spent learning ArcGIS, a mapping software. Afterward, I was given the opportunity to work various tasks. My first task was bug-testing an extension to ArcGIS that was under development in-house. My next task was to speed-test some computers. Then, I used RIEGL, a software that can process lidar data, learning it as I moved along. And today, I got to experience the actual data-collection process on a small survey boat. All-in-all this internship has been a great experience and I thank MTS and FPI for the opportunity. Isaac Garcia |
| This week is my 5th week at Sontek, and everything has been wonderful. The company employees, along with their expertise, are kind, encouraging, and welcoming. The MTS summer internship has not only provided me an insight into the science of marine technology but also exposed me to the working environment in a company. Thus, as I work five days per week, my summer is filled with new knowledge, enthusiasm, and productivity. So far, I have spent my past weeks working on an individual software project. In the first week, my mentor toured me through the assembly line, explaining how each product is assembled, stored, and tested with great care and concentration. Although such products appear small and compact, their functions, including pressure sensing and river surveying, are tremendous and fascinating. I was also assigned homework for the first few weeks of my internship. Since I had no experience with software programming, my mentor lent me a guidebook to LabVIEW, the programming software that the company uses, and I was to read the book at home. My mentor also sent me links to LabVIEW tutorials, so my first task was to explore and familiarize myself with the program. Before writing the program, I was instructed to use OCR to convert scanned files to text documents, and I spent a few days trying out different OCR softwares to ensure accuracy for the converted texts. Then, I began writing a LabVIEW virtual instrument that would separate the calibration coefficients from the file and reformat them into organized columns. My first experience with programming was exciting and engaging as moments of realization alternated with moments of frustration. After several unsuccessful attempts, my program was finally approved. Hence, I’m spending my last days at the company documenting my work and savoring every moment of my summer internship. Nhi Nguyen |
| At SeeScan, everyone is extremely friendly and helpful. There is always someone who can thoroughly answer my questions and make me feel a part of the SeeScan work place. My first two weeks I designed a part that will cover a hole in which a light will be placed into the ground. The part is designed to protect the electrical components of the light. I have four more weeks at SeeScan starting Monday and I look forward to my new projects! Yasmine Schmied |
| Working at SeaBotix has been an absolute blast everyday is exciting and fun. It seems to go by so fast. I have been working in the repairs and service department working hands on with all most every Seabotix product. I have repaired motor controllers, reworked some of the control consoles, and even test one of the robots in the water. Trevor Palmer |
| My time at SeeScan has been fun; learning about the business process and product development is awesome. I have to redesign a picnic table for the company’s newly renovated outside area. Having taken woodworking and having the craft in my blood, I thought it’d be a cinch. However, working with bent metal tubing has made joinery an interesting problem. All of this is in the 3D software, SolidWorks. As I get to know SolidWorks better, my models become more and more detailed, so much so that I’ve even 3D printed a scale model. Overall, it’s been an awesome experience that has allowed me to appreciate mechanical engineering. Sam Wisotzki |
| Everything is going great (SeeScan). I am working on, in layman’s terms, a connector between a wire that entails two copper wires and a HyMu rod. It’s a great project and I’ve learned a lot from 3-D printing, to pole-testing, to brain storming, and everything in between. My project has had many bumps in the road and I am put in a situation where I have to solve actual professional problems. I would like to add that never has any employee at SeeScan ever told me a way to do something or denied an idea. I have had the opportunity to face all parts of my task with help from anyone I asked. A special thanks to Justin Taylor who has mentored me every step of the way. Drew Summy |
| Everything is going well at SeeScan. The people at the company are very helpful and friendly. My project is to design and make a paper towel roll holder that will attach to the SeeSnake, a plumbers’ snake with a camera head used to inspect pipes. Plumbers use paper towels to clean off a liquid film that accumulates on the snake from being in pipes, and so prevent liquid from gathering in the drum where the snake is stored. I’ve sketched many holders, designed 3 models with the SolidWorks software, and created the first plastic prototype with a 3-D printer. Next, I will optimize how the holder attaches to the handle of the SeeSnake. Elizabeth Tainer |
| My internship at Teledyne Impulse has been amazing! My introduction into the company mirrored that of a real engineer. After a tour of the facilities, my mentor Saum set me up working at all of the different manufacturing stations. This is typical company procedure for new engineers; they view the entire company day by day, working at a different station each day in order to understand the whole process of engineering an undersea cable. I learned how to do the majority of the jobs on the floor, including inspection of incoming materials, sodding cables, molding the three different types of materials for the cables (neoprene, epoxy, and polyurithane), trimming any excess material on the molds, preparing the materials for molding, and finally, quality control. Going through all of the stations helped me learn and understand in an interactive, hands-on way how to take something from a drawing, an order form, or an idea, and convert it into an actual product. The company is incredibly efficient and has taught me how engineers have improved the design and effectiveness of many of the manufacturing machines at Teledyne Impulse. After I had finished learning about the jobs on the floor, I began working more closely with my mentors. They have given me small projects, many of which include analysing rejected products in order to determine what caused errors in the product and how we can work to fix them. Unlike most of the jobs on the floor, this one involves critical thinking and problem solving, which makes it interesting and different for every rejected product. A larger project that my mentors will have me completing over a few weeks will be recording the procedures for building a wire cutter. Currently, they have a short set of procedures that is familiar to many of the engineers at Teledyne Impulse, but could be vague to others. They would like me to rewrite the procedures thoroughly so that any person (not just the engineers now) would be able to build it. During the weeks to come, I will watch closely as a co-worker builds a wire-cutter and record any descrepancies in the current procedures. This coming week, the computer technician will be installing two computer programs on my computer called AutoCad and Solid Works that will allow me to design 2D and 3D models of a variety of parts (cables, molds, bodies, etc.). This way, I will be able to design more parts on my own or fix errors in past drawings that need to be updated. I look forward to the different and challenging tasks ahead. As far as the environment goes at Teledyne Impulse, I could not have asked for a greater first paid internship. Everyone is extremely friendly and courteous. Although they take their job seriously, my mentors and co-workers are enthusiastic and flexible. I am always having a wonderful time! Madeleine Ota |
| I am currently three weeks into a six-week internship at SeeScan (formerly SeekTech; the company underwent a name change between my being hired and my beginning work). Everything is going very well. SeeScan has a friendly work environment that makes us feel welcome. We’re encouraged both to collaborate with other employees and explore solutions on our own; we’re given a lot of freedom to use our own judgment and abilities. Our supervisors and bosses are incredibly helpful and very patient. I’m working on an add-on for our batteries that will allow someone to carry a spare battery on his or her belt. I had to research different types of belts and different methods of attachment, and I settled on a clip that will be integrated into the existing battery cover. I used Solidworks to modify the battery cover to hold a clip I purchased and printed out the model with the company’s 3D printer. Now I’m learning from that prototype to better join the clip and the cover, and soon I will work on making an original clip best suited the battery. Overall I’m very happy with how my internship is going so far. Brianna Birk |
| The internship is going great so far. From day one I have been exposed to concepts, programs and machines that have been both intriguing and challenging to use. This internship encourages me to think outside of the box to solve the problems given to me. Currently, I am working on creating a sales demo case for DeepSea. I have used Solidworks and an epilog laser to assist in the creation of the demo case and am nearly finished. Working at DeepSea has proved to be an exciting and challenging experience that has allowed me to gain invaluable knowledge and experience. Cole MacCulloch |
| The internship at DeepSea has been fantastic so far. The work is fascinating, the employees mentor-like, and boredom keeps afar. I have been working on designing a pan and tilt and so far I have done research on gears and motors that would be good for the application and worked on perfecting the art of designing cycloidal gears. Robert Kwiatkowski |
| Things are going great! I’ve gained a lot of experience over my past 4 weeks at SeeScan. The first week I was introduced to the 3D modeling program ‘SolidWorks’ and given a project. In short, I was told to build a ‘whisker’ that would help turn a camera at the end of a hose if there is a split in the road (pipeline). The second week was full of generating ideas and making different models on SolidWorks. At the meeting during my second week, we decided that this ‘whisker’ would be an accessory that you can put on and take off. During the third week I did a lot of research and experimented with Nitinol Wire, a wire that shortens once electrically charged. It would have pulled one side of the camera head at a time to turn the camera but I discarded the idea as Nitinol wire is too fragile and doesn’t have enough pull-force. Last week I built and printed several models of a sleeve that is connects to a floating ball out in front with springs. I’ll be testing the different versions this week and seeing what attributes produces the best results. Then hopefully after some research I can figure out how to control the ball out in front. All the staff here are fantastic. They are great teachers and are there to help. They are also a great resource in learning about the career path of engineering and what it entails. Nathan Fisher |
| I am two weeks into my internship with SAIC Marine Operations Divison (MOD). So far I have had a blast. Luckily, I was able to figure out most of the suggestions/roles on my own. My co-workers at MOD are really nice and supportive of my ideas. I have spent most of last week working on a project that uses modern HTTP protocol and a lot of sever and client based javascript to monitor and control devices on the network. I have a lot of experience working with web-based or at least network-based programming and design. My mentor has a lot of experience working with serial data. I have been able to teach him a lot about network protocols while I have been learning about serial data. Together, the project we are working on strives to create a ethernet-based monitoring and control protocol that could be accessed from any device with a web browser on the network. As an end result, our work could provide a framework that would process data from various parts of a ship and print out an easy to read, meaningful listing of the ship’s operations. I hope I didn’t bore you with the details. Needless to say, I am really excited about what I am working on. This is one of the first times I have been able to share my knowledge with others and make a useful product. I have also picked up a really good understanding of current data transfer protocols. My co-workers have also exposed me to some engineering concepts and the tools they use to design their products. I am very thankful for this opportunity and I have been making the most of it. Brian Anglin |
| My internship is going wonderfully. Everyone I meet here is quite pleasant. I have been able to fully grasp the feeling of a true work environment. At SAIC’s MOD they have me working on a plethora of projects. In the shop I have been heavily involved in the maintenance of several winches (10k, 30k, focus and traction) as well as the linear cable engine. Everyone in the shop has been gracious about explaining how everything works. Inside the office I have been working on a buoy, which is about to be built. This includes doing calcs with the others in the office, doing modeling in SolidWorks and doing in-depth research. I have also been working on a database for manuals. I also worked with Brian a bit on the RPi programming. I’d like to sincerely thank you and everyone at MTS for this life changing experience. Trevor Smith |
| Currently, I am an intern for Teledyne RDI, a company that produces tools for marine measurements. I am working with software called “Solidworks”, to produce 3D Models of their products. After obtaining measurements on existing products (In some cases, existing 3d models), I convert the measurements to a 3:8 scale. I then rebuild the model using these modified measurements. The model is then produced, via a 3D Printer. The time that it takes to produce a model for a single product can range from a couple of days, to two weeks. This has been a great experience for me. Not only have I learned to use advanced modeling software, but the exposure to work experience has greatly benefitted me. Daniel Lobree |
| I am immensely enjoying my internship experience at SeeScan. The people at the company are very helpful. My project is being overseen by Mr. Mark Olsson and my mentor, Alex Warren. They have been able to answer all of my questions. We also have an intern meeting every Thursday, so each intern can give an update on their projects. I am currently designing a clip that will clamp onto pipes. The clip is connected to a transmitter and completes a circuit between the transmitter and pipe. The main objective of the project is to create a clip that can be easily modified to clamp onto different size pipes. I have gone through a few different designs and used SolidWorks to model all of them. I have used SolidWorks before, but Alex taught me more useful tools in the software, so I can create better models. I have been able to print a few prototypes using their 3D printer. I should be able to use the other machines soon in order to create the metal parts that are in the clip. Adeline Longstreth |
| This summer is going wonderfully. Sidus has changed and grown some since last I was there, making this a still fresh experience. Coming back a second time makes things simultaneously easier and harder on me, as I know my way around the company and my job a lot better, but am thus expected to perform at a higher level than before. I believe I am living up to those expectations, and am having a wonderful time being back with the family at Sidus. This summer, I was given a much more ambitious job, one that has taken me slightly out of my comfort zone. I am in the process of building Sidus a web store that will satisfy its customers and really give them the plethora of options and modifications that customers expect from Sidus. Throughout this project I have learned a great deal about SQL and database manipulation, html, javascript and a host of other wonderful tools for both programming and web design. I have been challenged in the best way possible, allowing me to learn skills outside my field of mechanical and electrical engineering. And I believe things will only get better from here. Tristan Murphy |
| Everything is going very well! I love the internship at SeeScan and everyone there is more than happy to help out if I have a problem. I have been working on a motorized dolly for one of SeeScan’s cameras. It’s actually really difficult, but it’s a moving process. Just yesterday I was able to print out my first model on one of their 3D printers! Yeah, I was kind of excited about that. Adam Itokazu |
| The past 7 weeks I got an opportunity to design, 3D print, and assemble the mechanical as well as electrical components of a GPS test module enclosure. It is basically a case to facilitate GPS data collection for our test engineers, as prior to this unit they had to carry around antenna, the laptop, and circuit boards separately – very unwieldy. The original intention was to just make a simple box that could store the motherboard, power supply board, and four GPS boards. However, there was a lot of excitement as new ideas came up to improve the entire unit altogether and simplify as many aspects of data collection as possible. I was about finished with the first model about three weeks in, but the improvements carried me all the way until my very last day of work – final assembly of the enclosure was completed with one-hour left to spare before I had to go home. I ended up adding a handle mount and building an antenna mounting-base that can fasten to the bottom of the enclosure so that the user would not have to hold the antenna in his hands. Aside from the mechanical aspect of SolidWorks, I also was able to learn to solder. My mentor and project manager, Scott, allowed me to solder everything (headers and wires) to the motherboard and breadboard (onto which the GPS boards were connected). Soldering wires required me to understand the electrical schematics, which wire went to which connector, etc. He taught me a great deal and gave many crash courses on the principles of physics, electrical engineering, as well as mechanical. There were two engineers, Scott and Alex, who checked up on my progress every day, but aside from discussing the project, they also gave me a lot of insight about the corporate world, the workings of a company, the college application process, and even high school classes. Everybody was incredibly cheerful, eager to help, and always had wonderful advice in conversation. I will never forget SeeScan. Although I have never intended to enter a career of engineering, this internship was beyond simply engineering. Ray, the head scientist, was kind enough to give me several articles on molecular biology after hearing about my interest in stem cell research. I actually still have three of his books, two on math and one on evolution, which he agreed to let me hang onto. This experience was well worth it and transcended everything I had expected it to be. I did not anticipate meeting so many amazing people – saying goodbye to everybody yesterday was undoubtedly the hardest part. I could not have asked for anything more – even little things such as post-it notes and white-out were provided, not to mention Mark bought all of us interns brand new computers. We even got our own business cards! Lisa Vo |
| I’ve only spent a week at my internship with NOAA, but have still learned a lot. Josiah is an excellent mentor and very open to questions. The project is at the intersection of several fields, so I have been experimenting with Matlab, designing circuit boards, and studying new technology. I always have something to do, and I am grateful that Josiah and the others consider my input. I can only look forward to the rest of my internship – thank you so much for this opportunity!Brandon Zeng |