Working with Industry

04/19/2017
By Edwin Aguirre

Mechanical engineering alum Franklyn Webb ’14 has what he considers his dream job out of college: working with a team of engineers and physicists at the Charles Stark Draper Laboratory in Cambridge to develop and test cutting-edge instrument designs.

And he’s thankful for UMass Lowell’s Professional Co-op Program for helping make that dream a reality.

“I wouldn’t be working at Draper without the co-op program. It’s the main reason I was able to get my foot in the door,” says Webb, whose original six-month paid co-op at the nonprofit research and development company turned into 18 months of co-op experience – and an eventual full-time position as an electro-atom/optic development engineer. 

Since launching in the summer of 2010 with 29 plastics engineering students, the Professional Co-op Program has enjoyed tremendous growth, particularly for students in the Francis College of Engineering. With the addition of civil and biomedical engineering this year, the program now includes all engineering majors.

In the 2015–16 academic year, a record 222 engineering students were out on fall, spring or summer co-ops. That number will be eclipsed this year, as 195 students have already been hired for the fall and spring – and scores more will be out again this summer.

Many students have completed more than one professional placement, getting experience at different types of companies and organizations. All told, the program has provided 951 engineering co-op experiences to 665 students at 240 companies so far in its first eight years. More than a 1,000 engineering students, meanwhile, have taken the Professional Development Seminar, which is required before students can begin their co-ops.

“We’ve been very intentional about how we’ve grown the program, actively doing the employee development while we bring more students into the program,” says Rae Perry, director of cooperative education. “Now we’re at the point where students are selling it to each other. It’s definitely growing because of word of mouth.”

Junior mechanical engineering major WaiPhone Tint just completed a six-month co-op at NxStage Medical in Lawrence. Working in sustaining energy research and development, Tint performed software verification and validation testing to ensure the company’s home dialysis machine meets FDA requirements. He also assisted in process improvements, software updates and component developments.

“It was an amazing experience. I learned a lot,” says Tint, an international student from Myanmar. “I was able to work with several different departments and help them build up various testing on new things they are developing.”

Robinson Arias Gonzalez, a junior electrical engineering major from Lynn, landed a coveted six-month software engineering co-op at Draper last fall – even though software engineering was a little outside of his academic wheelhouse.

“There was a steep learning curve because my background is in electrical engineering, but I ran with it,” says Gonzalez, who first connected with the company at a co-op expo on campus and believes he was hired because of his follow-through. “They told me I seemed determined to learn, and that’s why they hired me.”

Perry says the fact that UMass Lowell students are not required to do a co-op is a differentiator that works in their favor.

“I think our employers find that our students are really eager for the opportunities,” she says. “In many ways, they have to work harder for the opportunities because it’s not like their curriculum has a distinct path. So the students want to be there and are ready to take advantage of the opportunity.”

When Diane Hewitt, the university’s former associate director of cooperative education, started the program, 80 percent of the co-ops were three-month positions. Today, nearly 75 percent of students are doing six-month co-ops.

“We know our employers prefer that, since it gives them more opportunity to teach a student and reap the rewards of having them there,” Perry says.

Chemical engineering alum Steve Whitten ’15 was among the program’s first group of students to go out on a six-month co-op. In the spring of 2012, he worked as a semiconductor manufacturing co-op at Vicor Corporation in Andover.

“The program was a reset button for me,” says Whitten, a native of Middleton who says his junior year hit him “like a wall” academically. “When I came back from that co-op experience, I learned what I wanted to do, which gave me that little bit of extra motivation.”

Whitten went on to another six-month co-op, this one as an R&D engineer at Semprus BioSciences. After earning his degree, he worked as a research associate at BIND Therapeutics and is now a manufacturing associate at Moderna Therapeutics, a nanoparticle therapeutic startup in Cambridge.

“The co-op program was fantastic, especially if you’re nervous for interviews or you need help with your résumé,” says Whitten. He credits the professional preparation he received from Career Services, which works with students to fine-tune their LinkedIn profiles and résumés, practice interview skills and hone their elevator pitches.

Another way that engineering students are connecting with industry is through the college’s Interdisciplinary Senior Design Projects, which has grown this year to include 64 students on 16 teams. Industry sponsors include Nypro, Dell-EMC, Brooks Automation, Symbotic, MKS, Analog Devices, Raytheon, United Technologies, BAE Systems, Skyworks Solutions and MACOM.

Working on multidisciplinary teams, students gain integrative design experience in engineering and apply their problem-solving skills on open-ended, real-world projects. Students presented their industrial capstone design work at a midyear project showcase in December at Moloney Hall. Final presentations are slated for May.