Thanks for all of your submissions! We have some very talented women that make up RPI SWE, and we want to recap some of the amazing things you've done this summer!
Jessica Wong
Procter and Gamble
"Hi, my name is Jessica Wong and I'm a senior studying Industrial Engineering and Management. This summer I worked for Procter and Gamble. I worked at the Oral-B Laboratories in Iowa City as an Industrial Engineering Intern and learned all about toothbrushes. When I wasn't at work I was keeping busy-over the summer I dabbled in Pottery, took a fencing class, started flying a Cessna 150, completed AFF skydiving and learned to cook (the hard way). At the end of my internship I was even offered a full-time position with P&G which made a great summer even better! Now I'm looking forward to a great senior year at RPI!"
Andie Maret
mareta2@rpi.edu
Rogers Corporation
"This summer I worked as a Process Engineering Intern in the High Performance Foam Division of Rogers Corporation. This specialty foam is used for gaskets, orthotics and impact protection. While foam may not seem that cool, I learned it is a very unique process/technology, and most importantly, it was different than anything I’ve worked with before. As a process engineer I worked on system improvement projects including one entitled “Mix Head Cooling.” In this project I installed in environmentally friendly glycol (anti-freeze) into a coolant system to allow for chiller temperatures below freezing. I knew even environmentally friendly glycol leaks still would not be a good thing, so I also installed some quick disconnect fittings as added safety. With these and additional improvements I helped increase process speeds allowing for increased production capacity, which is very important in the manufacturing world.
The most valuable thing I learned was to make friends with everyone on the floor. The operators, maintenance staff and other Union workers interact with the systems daily so they know what’s up. During my summer if I wanted to solve a problem I would chat with an engineer, but then leave my cube to talk to an operator or maintenance crew member. I would explain my situation, propose a possible solution and then hear what they had to say. By collaborating so much with the staff we were able to make system changes in a way that was operator and maintenance friendly, but was still a valuable engineering process improvement.
Samantha Garrabrant
garras4@rpi.edu
RPI - Biomedical Engineering Lab
This past summer I worked on campus in CBIS (the Biotech Building) in a biomedical engineering lab. I worked for Dr. Kotha , analyzing skin images under strain. This involved writing some code and correlating features within images. I also made and ran gels for analysis. This was a really great opportunity to learn what it is like to work in a lab, and I was nearly able to complete a project over the course of the summer. It also gave me the opportunity to continue working during the school year in order to finish the project. Throughout the summer, I was able to go to multiple seminars given by researchers from schools, hospitals and companies regarding the research in their labs. This allowed me to network not only with RPI professors and graduate students, but with other professionals in the biomedical engineering field as well.
Stephanie Lennon
Environmental Protection Agency
This summer I worked for the Environmental Protection Agency Region 1 Labs in North Chelmsford, MA. I spent most of my days outside in the sunshine, collecting water samples or walking through rivers. My title was a Physical Science Technician, but I was really a field scientist. I worked in different groups with many different people in the agency. I worked mainly in the office of Ecosystem Assessment in the Office of Environmental Measurement and Evaluation. Being the youngest person in the lab was a little intimidating, but I held my own. I was responsible for three projects this summer. This meant that I had to write SOP's (Standard Operating Procedure) and SAP's (Sampling and Analysis Plan) which basically described what we were sampling, when, who was doing the sampling, what we were testing the samples for, and when the project was going to be completed. I had to be sworn in for my position because I was an employee of the Federal Government, it was a little scary. A typical sampling day involved getting to the lab bright and early, signing out your vehicle and packing it up with all of your materials (sampling jars, sondes, gloves, DI water etc.), getting the the site, taking your water samples which is a pretty interesting process. In order to not contaminate the sample, you CANNOT drink caffeine!!! This was the one downside to sampling for source tracking, even if you're wearing gloves caffeine is such a strong compound that it can still contaminate the samples through your hands! Other than that sampling was pretty interesting, sometimes you have to wear waders which are basically rain boots attached to waterproof overalls. They are VERY hot and sticky but really fun to wear! All in all, I learned a lot about water sampling, software and different probes. I loved what I did and I would recommend it to anyone interested in an environmental field.
Christine Falce
falcec@rpi.edu
Mt. Sinai Hospital
This summer I worked in the pathology lab at Mt. Sinai Hospital in New York City. While at the hospital, I learned a lot about renal diseases and how they are diagnosed. I attended many biopsy procedures to attain deep tissue cultures that could later be processed and observed using different microscopy techniques. The lab I worked in mainly dealt with Electron Microscopy, so once the kidney samples were obtained they were immediately placed in a fixative solution of gluteraldehyde and further processed accordingly. Processing the renal samples for Electron Microscopy involved dehydration via a series of alcohol washes. Prior to dehydration, the samples were placed in osmium which embedded a heavy metal directly into cell membranes, creating a high secondary electron emission that would be useful for electron microscopy. With each step of the dehydration process the concentration of alcohol that the sample was subjected to increased, from 50% ethanol to 100%, and then the sample was placed in propylene oxide and finally EPON epoxy resin. This whole process took approximately three hours, and then the renal samples in EPON where placed in an oven and heated overnight to harden. Once hardened, the samples, now embedded in resin, were sectioned using a microtome allowing for the preparation of samples for observation under transmitted light or electron radiation. The sections were then carefully placed on tiny copper grids and finally viewed using the lab’s transmitting electron microscope (TEM). While viewing the sections with the TEM, I learned to look for abnormalities within the glomeruli, or the filtering system of the kidney, because that is characteristic of most renal diseases. I learned a lot about renal diseases and gained experience using electron microscopy. I made a lot of connections at Mt. Sinai hospital and overall it was a great work experience.
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