Logan D. A. Williams
  • Home
    • Navigate Website
    • Contact Logan
  • Research
    • Research Projects
    • Publication Repository
    • Photovoice Projects >
      • Photovoice Project - North Carolina
    • Research Assistants >
      • Recent Work with RAs
  • Consultancy Services
  • Recent News
  • Logan's Blog
  • Teaching
  • Knowledge from the Margins

International Engineering Co-op through Iowa State University (Summer and Fall 2002)

19/8/2010

0 Comments

 
Originally posted here http://www.eng.iastate.edu/intlprogs/profile.dawnw.asp
Picture
Hello from IBM Technology Campus here in Dublin! Working these past three months with the Process Engineers (PEs) for i, p and z series servers has been great craic!

Here on Campus, things are changing very quickly. When I came in June 02, they were in the middle of reorganising the entire manufacturing (mfg) floor to maximize the use of available space in order to improve mfg line efficiency. I have to say, it is starting to come together, and I am pretty excited about the new floor layout and mfg process flow.

Each engineer in my department owns an area on the floor and is responsible for all operations within it, as well as any parts that come through. I have been learning about each area and how they interact through various projects from different PEs. I have assisted the PEs to implement the change in the BUILD area to a Cellular manufacturing process by:
  • conducting training sessions for the Builders in the new process.
  • auditing the New Cell Layout Mfg Configuration, and chasing open PE action items
I have also had the opportunity to do a follow-up analysis/ergonomic study of workstations in the SHIPGROUP area, which will be used to help convince Finance that a certain piece of equipment is needed for that area. My favorite project thus far was creating a training document for a small subassembly, and then training an FKitter on how to make it!

How did I get here? As Dublin e-server is the sister plant of both Rochester e-server (for i&p series) and Poughkeepsie e-server (for z series), I had the opportunity to interview at Iowa State University for an international co-op with the first half in Minnesota and the second half in Ireland!

I spent spring 2001 working in IBM Microelectronics Division, Fiber Optics department 3EH (now part of JDS Uniphase). My job included the mechanical design and analysis of housing for various fiber optics products. It also included independent projects such as the creation of a miniature wind tunnel used for thermal testing of chips and heat sinks.

Not only has working abroad given me the chance to expand my perception of what Mechanical Engineers can do within IBM, but it has also given me the opportunity to work alongside people from all places and walks of life! I have met twenty-five or so other students from U. of Limerick, U. of Cork, U. of Galway, Universität Stuttgart (Germany), France, and Spain, as well as employees from Italy, Japan, Congo (Zaire), Nigeria, South Africa and Turkey!

Note: U. Of Limerick and U. Hohenheim, Stuttgart, have exchange programs with Iowa State.

You can imagine what it was like in the canteen during the 2002 Fifa World Cup. We could watch 3 of the 64 matches, and at each one it was packed, with people cheering for both sides!

I can’t say that I have any regrets about entering a co-operative program with IBM. Though it adds a year to my graduation date, that is 12 months of solid engineering work experience BEFORE graduation. I have learned so much that would be impossible to repeat in a classroom setting. My experiences have encouraged my growth professionally, as well as personally and academically. It is exciting to come back to school after working, and to use and apply knowledge gained on-the-job.

Whoever told you the weather here is awful was lying! It is lovely except for when it rains. Slainte! <wink>
0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Picture

    Author

    Logan primarily uses this blog to: reflect on policy and professionalization issues in STS (e.g. research funding, discipline formation, skill building, job-hunting, policy applications of STS theory) and to disseminate her own scholarship.


    Archives

    June 2017
    June 2015
    September 2013
    July 2013
    February 2013
    December 2012
    July 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    February 2012
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011
    July 2011
    May 2011
    April 2011
    August 2010

    Categories

    All
    4s
    Adapt Science And Technology
    Agra-Alliance
    Arguing Better
    Asa
    ASA-SKAT
    Blogging
    Call For Papers
    Caorc Multi Country Fellowship
    CAORC Multi-country Fellowship
    Cleveland Oh
    Conference
    Coordination
    Creativity
    Crime
    Critical Thinking
    Cwwl Graduate Fellowship
    Dialogue
    Dublin
    Engagement
    Engineering Co-op
    Engineers
    Environment
    Environmental Economic Social Sustainability
    Environmental-Economic-Social Sustainability
    Federal Funding
    Gigiri Nairobi Kenya
    Gordon Research Seminar
    Graduate Programs In Sts
    Graduate Students
    Health
    Ibm
    India
    Information And Communications Technologies
    Innovation
    Institutions
    International
    Ireland
    Junior Professionals
    Kathmandu Nepal
    Kenya
    Knowledge From The Margins
    Laico Internship
    Learning As Process
    Local Global
    Local-global
    Low Income Communities
    Low-income Communities
    Madurai India
    Media Arts
    Mexico City Mexico
    Middle School
    National Science Foundation
    Natural Scientists
    Nepal
    New Delhi India
    New Haven Connecticut
    Open Spaces
    Periphery-center
    Planning
    Point Of View
    Policy Makers
    Policy-makers
    Post Docs
    Post-docs
    Poverty
    Publication
    Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
    Rpi
    Science And Technology Policy
    Science And Technology Studies
    Science From Below
    Sleeping
    Social Scientists
    Socoiology
    Sts
    Survey
    Teaching As Process
    Terminal 3
    Top Universities In The World
    Travel
    Triple Bottom Line
    Triple Helix
    Unep Internship
    Urban Development
    User As Producer
    U.S. House Of Representatives Committee On Appropriations
    Woods Hole Massachusetts
    Workshop
    Writing Faster
    Yale University

    Contributor For

    CWWL Graduate Fellows
    Passage International

    Academic Professionalism Blogs

    Get a Life, PhD
    Female Science Professor
    Savage Minds

    Women, Minorities & K-12 STEM Blogs

    RIFE
    Schooling Science
    3Helix

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly