STEP 2023's Leading Interns

The Seminar for Top Engineering Prospects (STEP) program is a week-long residential experience directed by the College of Engineering Honors & Goss Scholars Program since around 1985. The STEP program allows the College of Engineering Program to showcase the innovative and transformative learning available to first-year engineering students at Purdue University, and to offer the opportunity for rising high school seniors to explore careers in the engineering field. In a sense, the STEP experience is a small sample of the educational and social experience they may find in the First-Year Engineering Honors program. During their week on campus, STEP attendees will be led through four major design challenges, each introduced and taught by Purdue students who have finished their first year of engineering at Purdue. Not only does this give the participants of the program a chance to get to know and ask questions from real students, but it also allows our student interns to demonstrate their familiarity with the field of engineering as well as give advice and encouragement to the next generation of Boilermaker engineers! This year, we have four lead project interns who will be guiding the participants through the main activities of the program. Kylie Caprini is the 3-D printing Lead, Benjamin Kipp is the Roller Coaster Activity Lead, Matt Laubenstein is the Arduino activity Lead and Andrew Freeman is the robotics activity Lead.

Kylie Caprini; 3-D Printing Lead
Kylie is a rising sophomore in the mechanical engineering program. Kylie is responsible for maintaining and repairing the depot of 3-D printers that each attendee will have the opportunity to use as well as instructing attendees how to design personal pieces in CAD to print and coaching them on how to get a clean and usable product from the printers. Having attended a similar program the summer leading to her senior year of high school, she learned a lot and had an opportunity to interact with engineering students and hear their experiences which led to her decision to pursue engineering at Purdue University. With that experience, she wants to lead future engineers to discover their passions. Kylie is excited to continue exploring Purdue Engineering and see where classes and experiences take her in terms of future career endeavors, but at the moment she is gravitating towards space flight and is keening an interest in the mechanical engineering role in the medical and healthcare field. Kylie wants students who are interested in engineering, “If you’re interested in something, don’t let anyone tell you that it’s too hard, just start. A lot of subjects have a learning curve, but everyone who is an expert now started as a beginner. Be patient with yourself and most importantly push and challenge yourself to grow in the things you’re interested in.”

Benjamin Kipp; Roller Coaster Activity Lead
Ben is a rising senior in Materials engineering and has participated as a TA for ENGR 161/162 (The Engineering Honors FYE course equivalent to ENGR 131/132). Ben is responsible for curating the roller coaster activity curriculum to coach and instruct the attendees on the basics of engineering physics by having a hands-on build of a small-scale roller coaster and having them explain why the mechanics of their design work from an engineering/physics standpoint. Due to his experience TAing, Ben was excited for another opportunity to teach aspiring engineers and is most excited this summer for the students to arrive on campus. So far, this summer, Ben has enjoyed designing a curriculum for the students as well as getting to know and bonding with the other interns. Ben’s advice to aspiring engineers is to take your studies seriously. As a professional in your field, you will have a lot of responsibilities. Make sure while you are in school to learn as much as you can so you can put your knowledge into practice. Ben is pursuing the 4+1 program through the Purdue College of Engineering which allows him to obtain his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in as few as 5 years. He enjoys teaching and wants to continue this as he gets his master’s in material engineering.

Matt Laubenstein; Arduino Activity Lead
Matt is a rising junior in Biomedical engineering. Matt is responsible for creating the Arduino challenge and curriculum for the students. The students will be tasked with programming a tiny music and light show using an Arduino. Matt was familiar with, but not as well versed in the functions and uses of the Arduino when beginning his internship, but has risen to the challenge and found that he is excited to show and teach the students coming in how it works and how to program their own. He wanted to become more experienced with electrical and coding techniques and has had the opportunity to pursue this interest and learn through his work as a lead intern for the STEP program. Some advice Matt would like to pass along to students thinking of pursuing engineering is to keep an open mind when exploring the various disciplines engineering has to offer and to make sure you do lots of research into what you can do with a degree in that field to make sure all of the components of it pique your interest. He also wants to encourage anyone who has the opportunity to practice code before college to do so, and that it is ok to not have any experience in coding either, just stay committed to learning a new skill. Matt has been considering the Purdue College of Engineering 4+1 program and sees himself in the future working in industry.

Andrew Freeman; Robotics Activity Lead
Andrew just finished his undergraduate degree in Electrical Engineering from Purdue University and is beginning his journey to a higher degree at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign this fall. Andrew is designing the curriculum for the robotics project students will be participating in during the program. Andrew wanted to be a part of the STEP program staff last year, but unfortunately, the program had not returned after the COVID-19 pandemic. When the opportunity came up to apply for this year’s program, he took it. Andrew has also had experience being a TA for an electrical engineering class and has enjoyed interacting with students. What drove Andrew the most towards excitement to be a part of this year's program was wanting to allow future engineers to learn and experience activities like coding and robotics before college because his high school didn’t have those programs before he began his undergraduate degree at Purdue. Some advice Andrew has for aspiring engineers, especially those who will be making their way to a college campus in the next couple of years, is to learn how to manage your time. He said he could have avoided several all-nighters had he learned the importance of time management earlier.

STEP 2023 begins its first week starting July 9, and will continue to run until its last day on July 29.