Experiences from Summer of 2012.
| As of today, I’ve interned for three weeks at Teledyne RD Instruments. The company specializes in designing and manufacturing underwater acoustic Doppler products for an endless array of current profiling applications. These three weeks have gone by really fast, a telltale sign of a fun experience. I am currently designing and creating an online product selection portal. The purpose of my project is to provide potential customers a helpful tool for selecting an RDI product. Based on their given application, the customer is prompted with products relevant to their needs through the website. My first task was to familiarize myself with the wide collection of Teledyne RDI products. Initially, I was intimidated by the daunting lineup of instruments. However, I learned a lot from my mentor Jerry about the company, its profiling instruments, and how the instruments work. It was great seeing topics covered in my science classes implemented in a real world application. I then took a tour of the building’s manufacturing facilities. Next, I started to map out the flow of the website. I wanted the portal users to progress through the selection process in a logical and uncomplicated manner, so I kept user experience and graphic design in mind. After making a rough blueprint, I started to put together the backbone of the portal. I’ve been using HTML, CSS, and Javascript to make the website itself and Inkspace and GIMP to create graphics. Last week I finished a “rough draft” of my project. Now, I am using some feedback and suggestions from my mentors to improve the portal. I’m looking forward to the final three weeks of my internship. Thanks to the folks at Teledyne RDI and the MTS for this awesome opportunity!Christopher Rose Canyon Crest Academy |
| The internship at SeekTech is going brilliantly. I didn’t expect to be immediately entrusted with assisting the company’s research and development, much less directly contributing to developing software for an actual line of products. I have found the people at SeekTech to be casual, friendly, and extremely helpful. Overall, I am greatly enjoying my MTS internship. Originally, I worked with Solidworks in an attempt to design a more efficient nozzle for a Dyson vacuum cleaner with the specific intent of picking up cigarettes. Later, I was moved to creating a system to replace the Dyson’s battery with a SeekTech one. Currently, I am collecting data with a prototype locator, importing said data into Excel and MATLAB, and using the results to develop more efficient code for magnetic field sensing. Thank you so much for giving me the opportunity to participate in MTS’s intern program!Jason Chu Westview HS |
| Everything at SAIC has been going well for me. So far I have done several things. A lot of the focus has been preparing their three vans, which are basically like large storage sheds for their customer’s ship. I helped to fill the tool van and the rigging van with an assortment of items. I then helped to organize the numerous manuals and paperwork that accompany all of the tools. Additionally, I have helped find certain things to order for the third van, the workspace van. In their lab I also went through the different electronic chips to inventory them in a spreadsheet and to find datasheets explaining about what they all do. Another spreadsheet I have worked on is one showing all of the mill bits and drill bits in the workshop. Some will be sent out for sharpening, and I will be making a placement container to hold them all. Another of my projects is to make a chart of hydraulic and electrical symbols from several schematics that I was given and explaining what they all mean. This includes all sorts of valves and electrical components. It has been interesting figuring out what everything does in the plan. Just yesterday, I desoldered buttons from a circuit board so that one of the workers there can reuse them, which I thought was a cool task. I have three more weeks to go, and I am looking forward to the new things that I will be able to do!Caleb Logan Mt. Carmel HS |
| I have been having a fantastic time interning at SeekTech. The flexibility in the schedule has been great (especially for coordinating transit), and I have found everyone there, interns and full employees, nice and helpful. I am working heavily in Solidworks to create a part that will improve the functionality of an existing product, and the challenge of planning and creating the model has taught me a tremendous amount. It is also great to be able to print up the parts that I create, and to learn new methods by examining them myself and through feedback from others. So far this has been a great experience, and I am looking forward to the weeks ahead.Colin Murphy Canyon Crest Academy |
| My internship at Seabotix is going great. I am mainly helping produce work instructions for the people in production and designing some jigs in Solidworks. I also got to help out with the robosub competition, which was really interesting. This last week I have been helping rework some parts in production and documenting why they are failing. Overall it has been a lot of fun and I am learning a lot.Weston Braun San Dieguito Academy |
| Everything at SonTek is going great. There are interesting people with amazing stories to share at SonTek. It’s a fun and productive environment for me to work at, and there’s always something to look forward to every time I wake up, especially the daily food that our Secretary cooks for us! But on a serious note, my mentor Jon Kneier, pushes my limits and makes me think of even more creative ideas to solve one of my CAD model designs. Right now I am designing a boat fixture to hold an instrument underwater for testing purposes. I’ve made countless designs and drawings. There was one where Jon rejected a weeks worth of work, brainstorming and designing. I felt heartbroken that that happened but I knew I had to move on. This gave me a huge headache and made me deeply inquire what went wrong with the other design; did the fixture not hold the instrument tightly? Was it too expensive? Was it hard to install and take out the instrument? He did not giving me easy and repetitive tasks. I know I am learning because I could see my self thinking differently, seeing the world from a different point of view. After everyday of work, I know I’ve done my best and gave it all my effort to design these fixtures. And that’s about all of what I’ve done.William Quan Preuss School |
| I would like to thank you again for the wonderful opportunity to intern at Scripps Institute of Oceanography. Everything is going fantastic. The people are great and always very open and helpful. So far, I have primarily been working on digitizing maps of sea grass and seaweed species that are found in the Bird Rock Tidepools in La Jolla. I have digitized maps spanning the four seasons over numerous years using a program called GRASS (Geographic Resources Analysis Support System). It has really been very interesting seeing the pattern of the distribution of species as the seasons change. I have also had the opportunity to snorkel around the SIO pier in order to familiarize myself with the area for future reference for data collection on the water. I have also been allowed to feed the resident pygmy cuttlefish that resides in a tank in my office. Observing her behavior is quite interesting and provides a unique outlook into a species that would never be seen in our coastal waters! Next week, my mentor plans to take me with him as he collects data on the water, where I will be assisting in this process. I am looking forward to the remaining weeks of my internship and the valuable skills I am gaining through this opportunity.Cassidy Walker Del Norte HS |
| Everything is going great! I’m in my last week of interning now, and it’s been very smooth sailing so far. I’ve honestly learned a ton, and some experiences have really been amazing incidents that I would never have in a classroom. Thank you so much for this opportunity! I’ve been programming a Matlab routine to automate the collection of satellite data of two set parameters from the Pacific Ocean. The program then combines this with a mathematically generated data table to predict the probability of sardine habitat off the West Coast. I finished this programming part and am now working to convert the program to a different language so I can post it to a website. Thanks for checking in with us!Alice Wu Canyon Crest Academy |
| The weeks I have spent at SeekTech have been an amazing experience. The atmosphere is very welcoming and the chances to learn are ever present. If you want to know about something all you need to do is ask. There is always someone that can help you. Knowledge is ever present and ready to be gained. Over the past few weeks I have been designing and creating parts for a locator. I made the locator stable at one height and easily movable by mounting wheels on to it. I also mounted a GPS antenna and data collector on the locator that allows the user to locate pipes while receiving data that places a coordinate to where the pipe is in the world within millimeters, which is highly accurate. In order to have more control of the locator, I designed and made a handle for the locator. All of the pieces I designed came to life by the magic of a machine, the FDM machine. This machine prints 3D plastic models of 3D designs one makes in Solidworks, which is where much time is spent. The part I designed to attach the antenna on the locator was created in the machine shop that is on sight. All of the resources, technology, knowledge, and outstanding employees at SeekTech make this internship the most exquisite experience. I am honored to have been given the opportunity to participate in this internship at SeekTech. I would recommend to anyone who is thinking about an internship to stop thinking and take action. The chance to have a first hand experience in an engineering field gave me a better idea of what a typical day of work is like. MTS has put together wonderful companies that give students the opportunity to thrive.Connor Heise Coronado HS |
| Everything is going extremely well! I’m very happy with Seektech and feel very lucky to be working for them. So far, I’ve been given an individual task to re-engineer and shrink the current slide hammer design to make it more effective, user-friendly and small. I’ve been working on solving flaws in the current design and creating new ways the design could be broken down for easy storage yet still retain its effectiveness and strength during use. I’ve also been using Solid Works and familiarizing myself with the program by making models of my designs. Thank you for this wonderful opportunity!Sydney Limond Granite Hills HS |
| So far everything has been going great at Fugro Pelagos. After I had spent a few days learning the basics of ArcMap, a GIS software, I received a number of different projects to help process some of Fugro’s LiDAR data. I’ve worked with some of the tools on ArcMap to add maps and simplified datasets for their data center, built some maps from other sets and helped install and run a new tool extension. Mr. Martinez has been very helpful and the staff here is friendly.Alicia Cabrera Bishops School |
| Hi, my summer has been going very well at Sidus Solutions. The internship is everything I wanted and more. Money matters not behind the great benefits of work experience and expertise in proximity. I have been given great R&D projects to engage myself with and a question friendly environment. Thank you for this opportunity,Tristan Murphy Canyon Crest Academy |
| Everything is going well at SeekTech. I have been working on programming with Python and working with Pure Data, which is a mix between a sound engine and programming language. The project that I am working on for SeekTech is a sound system for the locators that indicates which direction the pipe is, so the user does not have to look down at the screen at all times to find the location of the pipe. The work I have done so far is very interesting and I am enjoying the learning experience.Gabriel Lopez St. Augustine |