What Students are Saying About MECOP

My name is Colby Fleck and I work as a CECOP Intern for the Transportation Division of the City of Springfield Public Works Department. As an intern, I have a variety of tasks in my regular workload. My duties include performing intersection turn counts and ADT tube counts, updating Transportation Division maps and as-builts as needed, reviewing encroachment permits, issuing work-orders, handling civilian service requests, utilizing crash data and signal timing data, in conjunction with traffic-specific software, to analyze safety and efficiency of signalized intersections throughout Springfield, managing small projects, reviewing public improvement projects to ensure lighting, signage, sidewalk, street, drainage, sewer, striping, electrical, signal, and detector plan compliance with standard specifications, and designing a grant-eligible bike-ped. facility for submittal to ODOT's Pedestrian and Bicycle Committee. Participating in the MECOP program has been an excellent experience. The real-world tangible knowledge of engineering concepts and practices has been and will continue to be a great benefit to me as I continue my education and career. So many things can be said about the value of field-time to an engineer, but only MECOP can provide an intern with both field-time and respect and treatment by other employees as a fellow engineer. I am impressed and motivated by the attitude towards me in the workplace, and am even more impressed by the quality of people that I get to work with every day.

My job is to provide on-site computer support while fielding a system upgrade to the Solidworks software package currently in use. The company got an employee that is knowledgeable in a field they needed and dedicated to the project without taking valuable staff away from projects they are better suited to and I got experience fielding a system, evaluating hardware and software upgrades, working with a team of busy professionals and planning and working to a deadline.

Working as a process engineer intern for Tektronix, Inc. has been an incredible experience. In a broad sense, I assist in maintaining and improving the manufacturing flow for several of our main product lines. Most of my key projects reflect Tektronix™ relatively recent surge to transition into a completely lean manufacturing environment. Largely, this involves turning our traditional manufacturing lines into lean cells process centered around removing as much waste as possible in the forms of excess motion, inventory, transportation and more. As my projects wrap up, it is a great feeling to see something I've worked so hard on become a reality and to see how my decisions affect a real work environment - something a classroom can't provide. In addition, my internship has provided the unique opportunity to develop a better work ethic, understand company and business culture, and learn to interact with people from a wide range of backgrounds. In this sense, MECOP is an irreplaceable experience that helps develop the most important attributes of an excellent worker.

I work for the industrial winch and hoist division of WARN Industries, as a design engineer. My project involves redesigning and updating the industrial winch product catalogue and manual. I've been involved in numerous tests to confirm the quality of winch products, worked hands on to build prototype parts, and developed my skills and working knowledge of CAD programs. This experience will give me the working knowledge I need to find a great job when I graduate.

MECOP was instrumental to my getting where I'm at. After my first internship had ended, I continued to work as an intern part time for another 6 months while going to school. At the end of my second 6 month internship, I accepted a full time position with my second internship company as an engineering technician. I remained in that position for the next year and a half while continuing to take classes. This past spring I accepted a full time position at the company I did my first internship at. I would strongly encourage any and all engineering students to get involved with MECOP. My situation was somewhat unique because I continued to work for these companies after the internships had ended. That being the case, when I graduate in a week I will have over 3 years of paid industry experience (as well as benefits like tuition reimbursement) to bolster my career. I have been working as a titled and salaried engineer for the past 3 months now - even before I received my degree. There's no way that would have happened without the MECOP program. Thank you for the opportunity!