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Final Paper
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One of the highlights of engineering education is the opportunity to participate in an internship. Although not a graduation requirement in most curricula, the internship provides experience and opportunities to engage a professional organization to supplement the academic experience. The Citadel recently developed a mechanical engineering program and sought opportunities to promote academic activities beyond the basic engineering requirements. Internships allow students to enhance their learning and problem solving experience in a real world environment and perhaps give them a start on their senior design project. The summer internship program allows them to conduct research and solve engineering problems with scientists and engineers in some of the nation’s finest facilities. Internships are purely voluntary, but nearly half of the mechanical engineering majors forfeit some of their free time at least one summer to participate in these programs. These internships are usually all summer (12 weeks) but some are shorter in duration due to other institutional requirements that can only be accomplished during the summer. This, however, is sufficient time to allow the students to be exposed to, work on, and sometimes solve an engineering problem. The John Hopkins Applied Physics Lab (APL) and Army Research Laboratory (ARL) along with a host of local and regional organizations sponsor most of the internships. This paper describes the internship program and discusses how it attracts engineering majors and assists in job placement. Additionally, feedback from the project sponsors can be used to measure student progress and assess the curriculum.
Author(s):
Coleman Floyd
Mechanical Engineering
The Citadel
United States
Kyle Johnson
Mechanical Engineering
The Citadel
United States
Robert Rabb
Mechanical Engineering
The Citadel
United States