Because their co-ops are treated the same as full-time engineers, my responsibilities were the same as those of a full-time employee.
Name: Diana Liepinya
Major: Materials Engineering
Employer: MPR Associates
Location: Alexandria, VA
How did you find your internship position? I found the opportunity on Careers4Engineers. I was intrigued by the company's involvement in clean energy.
What were the highlights of your work? MPR is a small-medium sized engineering consulting company. Because their co-ops are treated the same as full-time engineers, my responsibilities were the same as those of a full-time employee. So far, I've gotten to write a Python script that many other analyses will rely on, document my work on this script to nuclear quality assurance standards, work directly with a fusion energy client on materials selection and manufacturing options for a unique reactor component, and assist with project management tasks for a battery energy storage company, among many smaller tasks.
What is the vibe in the office? I love the attitude here; "here's a hard problem on a topic you've never seen, but you're smart, you'll figure it out," rather than "you don't know anything, go do bland intern tasks."
What skills were required and what new skills did you learn? ALL OF THEM! I brushed up on some hydraulics concepts, learned about the pros/cons of different metal fabrication methods, software (lots of exposure to nuclear neutronics software), interpersonal communication (written and verbal, formal and informal, with clients and with internal people), organizational, time management, learning when to say no, but most importantly, how to come up with an answer to a problem when you have zero training in that area!
Did you receive adequate support from your supervisor throughout your work term? How has this relationship benefited your learning experience? Absolutely! My supervisor has done a great job putting emphasis on work-life balance. As someone who can and will sign up for everything I see (I love learning and having new experiences), this has been incredibly helpful, particularly because I'm ultimately the person deciding whether or not I can handle working on another project at a given time.
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