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Joy’s Quotes #11

[97-103] When I was in high school, I was on a robotics team. One of my mentors from there works at a company that designs vehicles. He remembered me and offered to let me work there as an intern for summer, cause he thought that I would be a good fit. My job involved some designing, as well as working with the assembly technicians to sort of implement the stuff that I was making. It was definitely small-scale designing for me. The company had about 14 employees. So, it was a small company.

[104-110] They make disaster relief vehicles. They weigh between 15 and 50 thousand pounds, depending on which attachments you put on them. The vehicle that I worked on over the summer that we actually shipped out had a 30-ton forklift on the front. Yeah. Sorry. It didn’t weigh 30 tons. It could lift that much weight. It was massive. I have never seen a forklift that big. I didn’t even know that the actual forks themselves were wider than my body. It was very weird and quite tall.

[111-116] Anyway. And it had six German automobile company battery packs. So, those are the size of a twin-sized bed. And so, those go inside. I think those go inside of vehicles that the German automobile company makes, but it’s definitely not the cars, cause a car battery is small. But, anyway, so, that was that. And then, a dump bed and a scissor lift on it. And so, that was sent to the west coast and it helps with their port.

[117-122] But there’s also ones that we’re looking into sending to an orchard that will harvest apples and other things and spread chemicals over whatever the trees they need fertilizers. So, it’s a very diverse purpose for each one of the vehicles. They’re kind of expensive, like a million dollars each. You can buy this vehicle, and then, add attachments.

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Joy’s Quotes #12

[159-164] The first thing that was kind of unique about this experience was that I was the only female in their company. So, at first, they didn’t really know what to do with me, so to speak. For example, I would walk into the room, and they would be talking, and the assembly technicians would be talking, and they would cuss or something, and then, they’re just like, “No, no, no. You can’t do that. Joy’s here.”

[166-170] But, as the summer went on, it was a lot of fun to get to know them. And, because they were between 35 and, I would say, 55, it was a lot of fun to work with them and hear about, I don’t know, their life experience in the different companies that they’d worked at over the years, and just kind of getting the insight into what’s it like to work in a company.

[171-178] Then, another part of that was they were kind of intimidated by the fact that I was in college. And I didn’t understand that, because I looked at them as, “Wow, they’re just full of wisdom, and I have so much to learn from them.” At the beginning of the internship, in addition to when I would walk in, they would just kind of stop talking and be on edge. If I was working in the same room around them and not with them, they would first just say things like, “I wish I was good at math,” or “Guys are supposed to be better at math than women.” And I was like, “What? Why are you trying to purposely talk loud so that I would hear them say these things?”

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Joy’s Quotes #13

[179-189] So, it was a little bit weird at first. But, yeah. I don’t know. I would say, after the first of two weeks, I started working with them as opposed to around them. And so, talking with them while mounting things and asking them for help on, I don’t know, operating machinery that I hadn’t seen before. It was a great teaching experience for them and learning experience for me. They liked the way that I was organized. So, any time something went missing in the shop, they never pointed a finger at me, because I had a reputation of, any time I would get a tool out, I would organize the entire drawer when I put it back. Cause, I mean, all the tools would be everywhere. They joked that they could figure out where I had been, almost like they were detectives, because anywhere there was clean paths, it was because I was there.

[190-195] So, the assembly technicians, it was, honestly, it was just really enjoyable, as opposed to them mentoring me in an engineering sort of way, because I don’t think any of them went to college. It was like they had a high school degree and they’d worked in factories their entire life. And so, that was the kind of experience they were teaching me and telling me about, or their family dynamic, and just that kind of stuff.

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Joy’s Quotes #14

[123-128] Anyway. So, I spent the majority of my summer either working with the assembly technicians, attaching decals and running wiring harnesses. Let’s see. What else? Attaching minor hinges and doors, panels on there. As well as, I designed a forklift control panel. So, all the levers that you would need for the joystick.

[129-136] It was really fun. I was sent the dimensions for men and women from the first percentile to 99th percentile. Then, based on those dimensions, I had to design my system based on the radius that someone’s wrist, both men and women, from, I think fifth percentile to 80th percentile. I think that’s what I had to design it for, from wrist rotation to fingertip, because there were four triggers. So, that was the main project I worked on and it was a success. We put it onto one of our units. And, because each vehicle’s personalized, they probably won’t need it again unless somebody wants a forklift. But, yeah, it was so cool.

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Joy’s Quotes #15

[196-201] When I wasn’t in the shop, I was working with the engineers and the other interns. There were three other interns. Also, the owner of the company also worked in the offices. So, that was really cool. And the founder; he’s the owner and founder. So, that was where I learned a lot about what’s this going to be like to be an engineer later on.

[207-216] So, my supervisor would give me a task. For example, he said, “Make the forklift operating station,” and then, sent me the documents, and then, said, “Email this other person,” who was a project manager, but he has an engineering background,” to get the schematics for the dimensions of human arms, including the radii in which the elbow and wrist rotate.” So, my very first mistake was that I did not clarify. I don’t know if this was a mistake on my part or their part. But I did not clarify what radius they wanted me to make this off of, either the elbow or the wrist. And I assumed it was the elbow. I designed the whole thing in CAD, and even made a prototype, and I give it to them, and he goes, “This is not comfortable.”

[217-224] I was like, “Oh, my goodness. I am in so much trouble.” And I was kind of concerned, cause I’ve never been given a responsibility in any of my internships so far, in which me making a mistake actually impacts people. And so, it was really weird to be the only person on this project. And, basically, until I get it done, I don’t have to report to anyone. But, no, that was very interesting. They weren’t upset with me. They didn’t blame me for that. They were just like, “Yeah, this is a learning experience, and this is why you make prototypes. Also, you’re an intern. You are supposed to be learning.”

[225-236] Then, they went through the process of explaining to me why you’d want the elbow radius versus the wrist radius. Oh, actually, sorry. Reverse that. I made it off of the wrist radius first, and it was supposed to be the elbow. Which means, it was a much tighter radius. It was more arched, as opposed to flat. And so, he explained to me, “On an airplane, you need to have very precise adjustment abilities. And, therefore, you should just be moving your fingers and your wrist. Whereas, if you’re going to be sitting and operating a heavy piece of machinery, like a tractor or a forklift or something like that, for hours on end, you do not want to have to hold your wrist at the perfect angle. It’s more comfortable to just kind of rest your elbow on the chair and hold the trigger down for multiple hours in a row than just running it back and forth.” So, it was really interesting to hear the science behind why you’re making a simple decision like that.

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Joy’s Quotes #16

[237-242] The engineers were very kind, and I learned a lot from them. And I’m more confident in my ability to go through the engineering process of, “We have a need. How do we solve that need,” and how to get from Step A to B to C and finally putting it on the machine. Because it was a small company, I was able to actually see the very start all the way to actually shipping it out on the unit that the customer was going to use.

[137-152] Then, at the end of the internship, I worked on modifying one of their vehicles that they had to accommodate a fifth wheel. So, I researched what kind of fifth wheel we would want. And a fifth wheel is something that’s on the back of a trailer, or, sorry, on the back of a semi that the trailer hooks into. So, it has the kingpin from the trailer that goes in, and it latches into the fifth wheel. And that’s what allows a trailer to rotate on the back of a semi. I worked on that, changing one of their pre-made units that they keep in-house, and they don’t sell, to be able to have a fifth wheel that they can then haul their semi-trailer with. Because, they need to use that trailer in order to haul some of the units that they are shipping to the companies. Cause, right now, we ask our trucking company to come and take our vehicles. Cause, you can’t ship these things on a plane. They are way too heavy. So, we hire a company to pick up the unit and drive it to the west coast. But we would like to use our own trailer from now on. Then, when we’re moving stuff around our plant, it’s nice to have our own way to move our unit from one end to the other without having to drive it from down the property

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Joy’s Quotes #17

[80-82] My engineering internship was a lot of fun, and kind of helped me regain my confidence in my engineering abilities and just kind of get myself out of the academic mindset.

[248-269] Because it was so difficult a year ago. Then, I was just so tired from trying that two semesters ago. This last semester, I was just really discouraged in my abilities to work through my classes and the homework. I was just talking with a friend about this, that it’s gotten to the point where the last time I can remember feeling like I’m actually good at something was high school. Because, you try, you don’t understand something in calculus, you just read the textbook one more time, and then you got it. Whereas, heat transfer is something, you fail a quiz, and then you do fine on the homework and that’s because you spent hours and hours and hours on it. Then, you fail a quiz, and then you fail a test, and it just keeps going. In other cases, getting A’s on things, and I’ve come out of the classroom, like, “Yeah, I have an A- in this class or an A, but I really don’t feel like I understand this.” I’m just fighting to go through that course.

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Joy’s Quotes #18

[261-269] So, it is kind discouraging to feel like I’m not good at this, and how am I going to make it through engineering? How am I going to make it once I get into the real world if, even when I get A’s and things, I still feel like I have no idea what I’m doing? So, it is really encouraging to talk to engineers and say, basically that, “Yes, your classes set you up with a foundation, but that’s not necessarily what you’re going to be doing. You’re not going to be applying the second law of thermodynamics, necessarily, on every single day of your life. You don’t have to have that memorized and understood perfectly and be able to implement every equation you ever learned in that class. Because, girl, you know you’re not even going into something that requires you to use that class.

[270-273] Or, I mean, differential equations. You’re not going to be using differential equations every day. It’s just like a foundation. And, because we live in a world with technology, and you can Google things, and you have mentor, senior engineers around you, you don’t have to have all this stuff memorized. It’s all about learning.”

[274-289] I think the process of having this internship and just the number of times that I went through designing and implementing small projects just made me realize that’s where I was. I would go to the senior engineers and be like, “I’m not sure how to solve this.” And they were like, “Yeah. Me neither. That’s why we asked you to do it.” We don’t all have the answers. The whole point of engineering is not that you go to a textbook and suddenly have the answers. That you figure it out. It’s made me realize I enjoy figuring things out. Whereas, academically, it’s not really about figuring it out. It’s about, you better know this on the exam and be able to regurgitate everything, and perfectly. Whereas, in industry, you’re able to make mistakes. Hopefully not big ones. But, make mistakes and you learn from those mistakes. So, it just gave me confidence in the ability to be an engineer. I think the people that I intern with said that they would love to have me back next summer, or even hire me while in term. And so, I was like, “Wow.” It was a success, and I was like, “Okay.” Engineering is not necessarily what college makes it out to be. And so, it’s just a nice reset button on my thinking of what engineering is.

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Joy’s Quotes #19

[305-311] As for the classroom, I feel that I know my professors better and they know me better. They’re able to tailor the classes better to how they know us. And just that trusting, like if we have a question, we’re going to raise our hand, we’re not going to just sit there and be confused. If we ask for an extension, they know which students don’t do the work and are just asking cause they’re lazy and which people genuinely try.

[312-317] So, I guess the respect and just the mentorship. As a freshmen, you don’t really know your professors all that well. Even at a small school, you don’t really know them. And as a junior now, I definitely think that it’s more personalized in the way that I can go to their office hours and, yeah, I don’t know, talk to them on both mentorship level, like asking them what I should do for an internship or career related questions as well as helping on a heat transfer exam or material science stuff.

[318-330] So, separate from the professors themselves, as for the classes, I think I’ve finally gotten used to the workload. And so, in class, I’m not as stressed about writing down every single word that they say. And it’s more of just learning the material and less scrambling. I realize that I’m going to understand this. So, I guess, not as fear-driven. I still have the same number of labs and projects and stuff, because, the way my program works. They want freshmen through seniors to work on projects on a regular basis. And so, I really don’t have any more labs. As for the lecture style, it’s still pretty much the same as freshman and sophomore year, just based on the class. I don’t have any engineering labs this semester. I’m taking chemistry, which is a piece of cake, because it’s freshman chemistry and I’m a junior. But it’s one of my gen-ed classes that I have to take. I guess I would say it’s interesting to have only lecture classes instead of lab classes for my engineering classes.

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Joy’s Quotes #20

[335-341] In my heat transfer class this semester, it’s [the professor’s] second year teaching. And last year, for example, he taught a class, and it was huge. It was very difficult. Because he didn’t know any of us, and so, trying to talk to him about homework or, basically anything, was impossible, because he just … Yeah, I don’t know. He was just kind of scared of the whole teaching experience and not confident in his abilities, necessarily, and felt like he didn’t think that we liked him, and it was just a struggle.

[342-348] Whereas, this semester, not only has he been in industry making air conditioning units and heating units for the past 30 years of his life, so, heat transfer is his thing. It’s, let’s see … I’m trying to think of a specific example. I guess he calls on us more in class, almost like in high school. He knows each person’s name and what they struggle with and what they’re good at, necessarily. And so, engaging us in class, specifically saying, “Joy, do you know this example,” or, “Eric,” whoever. It’s like asking them, “What is the answer to this?” Or, “Why is this the way it is?”

[349-359] Also, he applies the lesson to what we want to do in our lives. And so, he will be like, “Hey, so, for mechanical engineers, we can look at heat transfer through this perspective. “But he’d also relate it to the electrical engineer. “Each one of the substances that the heat is flowing through can be represented as a resistor. You can make a circuit that is analogous to the system that we have.”

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