Justin Tam Omron Nara, Japan Mechanical Engineer, 2019
What did Omron do? Omron mainly focused on statistics and data visualization.
What did you do on a day-to-day basis? Going into the co-op, I had very little experience with these topics since I’m a mechanical engineering major so I usually focus on 3D modeling and rapid prototyping; however, my colleagues were more than willing to not only help, but also teach me if I ever had any questions. I have learned so much in such a small amount of time, from basic formats of business presentations to knowing what the big picture is and how to achieve it. Of course, I still have much to learn but this experience has made me surpass my limits and has given me so much to think about.
What were your greatest difficulties? Being in Japan, alone, and having no one to depend on besides yourself really forces you out of your own comfort zone and for better or for worse, this allowed me to become more confident in who I am and what my interests are. On the same note, I failed almost daily but it never stopped me from learning and pushing myself further!
What did you like the most about this experience? The relationships that I have built in Japan, both in work and out of work, helped me to realize what path I want to take and what my future goals are.
Anything else you'd like to share? Honestly speaking, this has been one of the best decisions that I have ever made and it turned out to be an incredible experience that I was fortunate enough to have!
Mansi Patel GE Aviation Munich, Germany Computer Science, 2019
What does GE Aviation do? GE Aviation focuses on building jet engines for airline customers.
What did you do on a day-to-day basis? I was a full-stack developer working on the Predix IIoT platform. I was able to learn a lot of technical languages and programs during my 8 months there. I learned a lot about how the German business interacts with the US based headquarters. Learning their struggles and workarounds helped me bring that information back to the managers at GE in the states to see how we can bridge the literal and physical gap between developers.
How often did you use German? Only during lunch or breaks since GE is an American company.
What were your greatest difficulties? Getting used to the 1.5 hour commute each way to and from work and not having grocery stores open past 8 pm and on Sundays.
What did you like the most about this experience? The ability to go to a different country and get acclimated to a different culture. I traveled to many other countries and made a lot of friends along the way. I took risks of traveling by myself and loved it immensely.
What is something that you wish you would've done while on co-op? I wish I would have asked for more projects that aligned with what I want to do in my future career which is manage technology and project management. I would have loved to learn how project management occurs in Germany.
Anything else you'd like to share? Go to Germany. It's fun, it's scary, but it's worth it.
Taylor Ramsey Forschungszentrum Juelich Juelich/Aachen, Germany Mechanical Engineer, 2019
What does Forschungszentrum Juelich do? My company was a research center that has many institutes within it which focus on a broad range of topics from nuclear energy to 3-D modeling of the brain. The institute that I worked in researches ways to make nuclear energy facilities safer.
What did you do on a day-to-day basis? Monday-Wednesday I worked with one other engineer in the workshop and the experiment hall building a new testing facility. We made many of the metal parts ourselves and then assembled them. Thursday and Friday I would do whatever work I could find, from proof-reading English abstracts to cleaning and calibrating test equipment.
How often did you use Germany? I spoke only German at work everyday, and when I was with friends after work we spoke German maybe 25% of the time.
What were your greatest difficulties? Getting adjusted the first four weeks in Germany was hard, as I imagine it would be in a new city in the US even. It just took me a while to get my bearings. Also, German bureaucracy can be very frustrating.
What did you like the most about this experience? I had a lot of amazing experiences while traveling around Europe, but I also have amazing friends that I met while in Aachen which are probably more important. My company allowed me to take two extra weeks off work (paid) to take an intensive German course at a local university where I met lots of international students and we become really close friends throughout the semester.
What is something that you wish you would've done while on co-op? I wish I would've been less self-conscious when speaking German at the beginning. I also wish I would've spent more time in Berlin.
Grace Hiltz Stryker Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany Biomedical Engineer, 2019
What does Stryker do? Stryker is one of the world leaders in surgical devices, from stretchers to custom cranial and orthopedic implants.
What did you do on a day-to-day basis? I worked as a Project Management co-op for a spinal surgery software team developing a new product to assist surgeons in minimally invasive spine surgery. My projects varied, from working on building project databases to processing user needs evaluation lab data. Towards the end of my term, I spent a lot of time writing the 510(k) documentation for the product, since I was a native English speaker and the rest of the team was not. Fun fact: I was also the hand model for the device images displayed in the software!
How often did you use German? I found myself reading and listening to German much more often than I spoke or wrote it. Stryker is an American company, and many of my coworkers were eager to practice their English with me. I practiced my German more outside of work, in social interactions with roommates and friends.
What were your greatest difficulties? I think it’s very hard to adjust to living so far from all of the people you know and love. But speaking in more specific terms, German bureaucracy had many hoops for me to jump through, which was often frustrating, and the housing search was extremely difficult – I ended up moving four times in the 7 months I was there.
What did you like most about this experience? I’ve never lived away from Cincinnati, and this experience gave me the opportunity to experience life in a new culture and to make new friends and connections. I also can’t leave out how amazing it was to travel to so many new places for relatively cheap (compared to the US).
What’s something you wish you would have done while on co-op? I wish I had been given a longer-term project, instead of lots of small ones. While the small projects allowed me to spread my experience across departments and teams, having one large project would have made me feel as though I had increased responsibility and more progress throughout the double term. Anything else you’d like to share? It’s okay to be afraid of this experience. Whether you find it scary beforehand or during, by the end it’s all worth it, and you won’t be able to imagine not having such a fantastic experience.