I really seemed to enjoy how UDRI as a whole took care of their interns, they gave us plenty of experiences to network with others our age throughout the summer despite working in other areas or buildings. This may not work for everyone but if you decide to go another route in your future career then that advice or understanding could be extremely helpful. The individuals that I worked around were always open to help but not afraid to let me figure out problems on my own in order to grow. UDRI and the digital transformation center as a whole is a great place to be as there are plenty of individuals interested in your work and interested in expanding their knowledge.
What I wish was different
I wish I had been given some more individual projects. However this was party on me as being a first time co-op it can be pretty daunting to request work out of other individuals that may or may not be higher up that you. As well as the kind of work I was involved in is on an extremely large scale so a short summer position was not nearly enough time to complete an entire project on my own. Other than that there was really no issues with the work load as there was plenty of work to do but you just have to ask about it.
Advice
Do not be afraid to voice your opinion on subjects, when it is appropriate of course. Many companies hire young individuals for their new set of opinion or eyes on certain objectives and being quiet and just following order may not be very beneficial to those companies. This goes along asking questions along the way, depending on what you are working on it could be a very expensive mistake so asking questions will not hurt anyone. However, you must fine a middle area between asking questions and figuring it out on your own as it can be very difficult to learn by being handed everything.
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Mechanical Engineer Intern
January - May 2022 • Dayton, OH
What I liked
I really liked how welcoming and understanding my boss and coworkers were. They knew I was new to this and that I had football and classes to take as well so they were very flexible with my time. I liked that they gave me real tasks and put me on projects with other engineers. I felt very independent but I knew that if I every got stuck or did not know how to do something I could always fall back on someone on the team. Overall I felt very welcome and and learned a lot of skills applicable to my major.
What I wish was different
I wish there was some sort of introduction or warm up to what I was going to be doing. I was kind of just thrown in but everyone I worked with was more than willing to help me learn. This was not necessarily a bad thing because I was able to learn fast and had some prior knowledge to some of the tasks I was given. I wish I could have chosen what projects I wanted to be on, but I understand that certain projects needed more help than others and I did not have the experience which was why I could not choose. Besides these two things there is nothing else I wish was different.
Advice
Go in with an open mind. There is a lot of variety in what you might be working on. If you feel like you do not know what you are doing do not be afraid to ask for help. Be sociable, it will go a long way and it will help you make friends in the workplace. Accept failure, you will mess up on somethings which is part of the engineering process.
