The Internship Experience
An internship is a way to develop knowledge, skills, and experience in the student’s career of interest. Internships give professional learning experience that helps guide the students to expectations and the way things operate in that position. Internships also offer the employer new ideas, culture, energy and developing talent into the workplace for future full-time employees.
Design Ready Controls internships might be a little bit different than other employers because they “give the keys” to their interns. Meaning, the interns are given lots of freedom in their projects and are encouraged to put their own creative input into the projects. Design Ready Controls is flexible- when trying to provide training that is relevant to the people they hire. They also focus on providing and utilizing the newest technology in their training programs to better prepare new employees for their future with the company. It often does not feel like you are an intern here because you are assigned to real projects that Design Ready Controls is deeply invested in, no task feels useless as your time is mostly spent working on real projects and genuine company products that are going to customers.
I have asked the 2021 interns a couple questions to help see into other perspectives and understand more on what it is like to be a part of an internship here at Design Ready Controls.
Arun Kumar– manufacturing engineering intern
Mankato State University
How has your internship impacted Design Ready Controls?
Most of my projects were related to cost saving, labor saving and process improvement. I believe my internship helped Design Ready Controls to enhance productivity and efficiency on the production floor.
What is a key takeaway from your internship?
In just 3 months I gained lot of experience related to 3D printing, 3D modeling, process improvement which include labor and cost saving, tool calibration, wire processing machine learning and troubleshooting. It was definitely a great experience and extremely professional place to work.
Sina Hakim-Hashemi– quality intern
University of Wisconsin-Madison
How has your internship impacted Design Ready Controls?
During my internship, I have been able to contribute a different perspective to the company and the quality assurance team. My background as an industrial and systems engineering graduate focuses on concepts of lean and six sigma manufacturing. I believe that I have brought that way of thinking to my team through my approach of problem solving and process improvements. My knowledge of statistical process control and other statistical concepts has helped with metrics collection and analysis.
What is a key takeaway from your internship?
I have learned a lot about the type of problems a medium-sized manufacturing company like Design Ready Controls encounters and aims to solve compared to large manufacturers. A creative and opportunistic mind can really thrive in this environment and is able to offer a lot. I have been able to apply my schooling to my work here more so than previous jobs and it has been very fulfilling to see that my work really does have a big impact.
Rebecca Brown– human resources intern
Concordia University St. Paul
How has my internship impacted Design Ready Controls?
I have helped Design Ready Controls by providing new viewpoints on certain things and recommending new ideas. I have been a huge part of the recruiting process, hiring dozens of new employees which has brought the company success. Also, I have done the new hire orientation with all those employees which is a crucial part of their onboarding.
What is a key takeaway from my internship?
I would say my biggest takeaway from this internship would be of course all of the new information that I’ve learned and all the experience I gained but also that manufacturing is a very difficult industry to work in and it brings a lot of different challenges each day. How to solve and handle employee conflict has been a huge takeaway also.
Paige Janssen– accounting intern
University of Minnesota- Duluth
How has my internship impacted Design Ready Controls?
I feel as though my internship has impacted Design Ready Controls by showing how much they trust their employees. I was tasked with many different things during my accounting internship and many of them being just as important as the rest of my teams. They have put their trust into me to getting work done on time while completing it efficiently.
What is a key takeaway from my internship?
The main takeaway I have from Design Ready Controls is all the knowledge I have gained from working in this environment. Not only did I learn a wide variety of accounting tasks and such but, I also got to hear from other departments on what their day to day lives are at the company. This has put into perspective that every department relies on another department in order to do our jobs to the best of our abilities. The experience I have gotten from this summer will hopefully show when I go back to school and if I continue on with this job field.
Mary Farnan– electrical engineering intern
University of St. Thomas
How has my internship impacted Design Ready Controls?
Through my internship, I am able to help minimize issues that could occur on the floor by correcting new jobs before they are released to the production floor. Furthermore, with the issues that do occur on the floor, I am able to help resolve them immediately, especially regarding the panels that need to ship out right away.
What is a key takeaway from my internship?
A key takeaway is to double check everything especially when certain components need to change and when fixing new jobs. A lot of components on the panels connect to each other, whether it is the part themselves or meeting the safety factor requirements. You need to make sure that components work together so that there are no issues when testing the panel on the floor. By double checking the schematics for correct parts, wiring, and the 2D layout, it helps minimize AME issues that may occur during the production process. It is easy to make a mistake when dealing with panels, therefore by reviewing your work and asking questions, you help minimize future problems.
Scott Lawson– electrical engineering intern
University of Wisconsin- Eau Claire
How has my internship impacted Design Ready Controls?
We are now able to monitor how much power the company is producing/using at any given time. I have created a dashboard displaying real time data that anyone within the company can view. The company can now make smarter decisions when it comes to power consumption.
What is a key takeaway from my internship?
I have learned that remote monitoring through the use of IOT devices is the future of data collection/management. I learned the importance of being able to obtain and move large amounts of data efficiently.
Albert Villarreal– software development intern
Anoka Technical College
How has your internship impacted Design Ready Controls?
I helped the developers identify what approach to take and provided direction with the analyzer. Also, I set up the base project structure and implemented some of the analyzer rules that can now be used as reference.
What is a key takeaway from your internship?
The key takeaway for me would be, to keep on keeping on. Programming does take time to understand. I couldn’t ask for a better group of individuals to guide me through my journey.
Francois Yang– mechanical engineering intern
St. Cloud State University
How has your internship impacted Design Ready Controls?
By being apart of the mechanical team, I have improved our flow and created less stress on my team.
What is a key takeaway from your internship?
The more time you invest into learning, the more efficient you become. The more questions you ask, the more you know.
Jerrod Hunziker– electrical and computer engineering intern
Virginia Military Institute
How has your internship impacted Design Ready Controls?
I was able to help get customer projects organized, removing several errors and fixing various pipeline issues. This allowed for Richmond engineering to spend less time on AME issues and more time on development.
What is a key takeaway from your internship?
Don’t be afraid to ask questions.
2021 Summer Highlights
