Engineering students set career plans in motion through Grand Rapids internship
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich.—Innovation initiated by Western Michigan University students during an engineering internship helped suds up sales potential for a boutique soap company. Dan Praise, an aerospace engineering student from Cameroon, and Landon Sykes, a computer engineering student from Kalamazoo, Michigan, brought a single-batch soap-making robot to life this summer while working at Moetion Technologies, a Grand Rapids engineering firm specializing in research and development.
“They built and tested this system, so it has all the components needed to actually automate the soap-making process, including user interface, motors, spatula and pumps, and all the required features,” says Ben Moes, company owner and CEO. “The customer was thrilled with what we produced. They actually showed it off at a trade show and were able to prove everything they’ve been describing to their potential investors for the past year and a half.”
It’s one of several projects Moes enlisted the students to execute as part of his team. Another involved designing internal components for complex implantable medical devices. Praise even built a 3D printer so the company could complete the testing in -house.
“We’ve been able to arm our interns with the knowledge and skills necessary to say to them, ‘We’re confident that you can accomplish this on your own. Here’s what you need to accomplish with our support and guidance. And then there are things that none of us know how to do, and we’ll have to work together to get it all done,’” he says. “It’s been phenomenal for us.”
“To be able to start an internship and be working on real projects from day one just amazed me. For Ben to have that trust in us meant a lot,” adds Praise. “And it’s really helped me learn a lot, too.”
Strengthening the foundation
Whether in software or hardware development, Sykes is calculating a future in computer engineering. Engaging in Experience-Driven Learning opportunities including internships while he’s completing his degree has helped him crack the code to his career path.
“My first internship gave me a foundation for working with teams of engineers. And here, I’m building on that by working with more engineers, especially ones who are doing something closer to what I’d like to be doing,” says Sykes, whose first internship at an automotive manufacturing company focused more on process engineering compared to design engineering at Moetion Technologies. “Being here is a much different environment than anything I’ve ever experienced; I’m just fond of the entire experience.”
While Sykes has been fine-tuning his career pursuits through software and hardware interfacing at Moetion Technologies, the internship has been an eye-opener for Praise, an aspiring rocket scientist who grew up working on boat engines alongside his father. His time with the company has allowed him to expand his expertise into the mechanical realm and better fortify his engineering foundation.
“Here I have the ability to work with electrical engineers, hardware engineers, software engineers. For my design to work, I have to make sure it’s compatible with my coworkers’. So, this experience has really helped me build those communication skills,” says Praise.
Sykes says becoming a better communicator will open doors for him in the job market and even in the classroom as he prepares for his final year at Western. “It’s like I was sitting in front of this box of puzzle pieces. I’d gotten through my various classes and didn’t know exactly how to put them together. When you have the pieces, you don’t necessarily see the big picture, and it’s a little difficult to know why you’re learning what you’re learning. But I feel like now the connections and branches between the things I’ve learned are much more clear.”
Support to thrive
Praise secured his internship through the Broncos Lead Internship Program, which offers paid internships and professional development to Western sophomore through senior students, supported by the historic Empowering Futures Gift. By providing student intern wages, the program also helps small businesses, nonprofits and startups that can’t afford an intern have the opportunity to tap into Western’s talent pipeline.
“The ability to add skills sets to the team has been phenomenal for us,” says Moes. “No one here really had any experience doing mechanical design before, so that was one of our big challenges. Without the support of the Broncos Lead program, we wouldn't have even pursued a mechanical engineering intern, and we would have been left without those resources on some of these really key projects. So, for us to be able to expand what we can do here internally, add a 3D printer, add some of these capabilities on these projects has been tremendous for us.”
This was the first time Moes has employed a Bronco, but he says it definitely won’t be the last.
“I was really impressed with the quality of candidates that came our way,” he says. “The (soap robot) project was really about the collaboration of multiple interns working in tandem, and it just went fantastic. It was really awesome for us as a team to watch our next generation of employees already working together to execute projects and have customers tell us they really knocked it out of the park.”
It’s a win-win for the company and for the students who will finish the internship with impactful resume experience and professional connections.
“I did not know how to use the software before, but now I know and I’m learning even more,” says Praise. “My goal for the internship was I didn’t want to go back to Western the same. And now I’m not, which I’m really, really happy about.”
“It may be ambitious to say, but I think the rest of my degree will be smoother than I would have anticipated because of what I’ve learned in my internship,” adds Sykes. “I’ve grown quite a bit.”
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