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Co-operative education experience

Summary

Six 4-month co-op terms in 3 countries over 2 years.

The University of Waterloo has a unique co-operative education program that allows students to alternate between study and work terms. Each co-op is normally a four-month-long remunerated full-time position, which allows students to gain valuable industry experience. I was fortunate enough to be part of this program, and I did six work terms in three countries over a total of two years.

Design Engineer, Starquip Integrated Systems

May to August 2012, Toronto, ON, Canada (on-site)

Summary
  • Assisted in the mechanical design of pneumatic lift-assist devices using Solidworks.
  • Converted existing 2D drawings to 3D assemblies, reducing the creation time for most new devices significantly.
  • Produced ASME-compliant drawings.
  • Developed a new system which modularized the pneumatic diagram and interactively generated a bill of materials.

Starquip is an engineering company in Toronto, which offers design and manufacturing for custom-made ergonomic lift assist devices, as well as crane and track systems to various industries. The machines that the company develops use pneumatic circuits for their control logic and mechanical actuation. Starquip combines the pneumatic and mechanical aspects into solutions for industrial lifting, handling, and workstation applications.

I assisted in the mechanical design of pneumatic lift-assist devices using Solidworks. I converted existing 2D drawings to 3D assemblies. I analyzed existing designs, and created new, modular parts which reduced the creation time for most new devices from about a day to less than an hour. I produced ASME-compliant drawings.

In addition, I made a new system which modularized the pneumatic diagram, which shows the parts and their connections, but is not to scale. The system also interactively generated a bill of materials. That reduced the creation time of 80% of new drawings from hours to around 10 minutes.

Junior Project Engineer, Kevin Quan Studios

September – December 2011, Toronto, ON, Canada (on-site)

Summary
  • Completed basic and intermediate Solidworks training, including surface modeling.
  • Created parts, assemblies, and drawings for mountain and racing bicycles.
  • Wrote an airfoil generator and exporter using LibreOffice and Python.
  • Performed 2D and 3D CFD analysis in Solidworks, determined the optimum configuration for several racing bicycles, and designed tooling molds and parts.

Kevin Quan Studios is a bicycle design studio in Toronto which has designed several award-winning bicycles. At the time, the company was three years old, and had only three employees, including me.

Kevin Quan is a certified Solidworks instructor, and I completed basic and intermediate Solidworks training, including for surface modeling. I created parts, assemblies, and drawings for mountain and racing bicycles. I also wrote an airfoil generator and exporter using LibreOffice (and, later, Python), which I used in order to perform 2D and 3D CFD analysis in Solidworks. I determined the optimum configuration for several racing bicycles, and designed tooling molds and parts.

Hardware Associate, IMS

January – April 2011, Waterloo, ON, Canada (on-site)

Summary
  • Involved in selecting and coding new hardware, prototyped hardware solutions using Altium Designer, and programmed microcontrollers using C and C++.
  • Provided general assistance to lead design engineers.
  • Investigated self-resonance in inductors to enhance the accuracy of test results.

IMS (then Intelligent Mechatronics Systems, now Insurance & Mobility Solutions) is a technology company in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. At the time, it developed automotive safety products, including telematics which would enhance driver behaviour, and mobile media which allows drivers to acquire and manage critical information in the vehicle.

I was involved in selecting and coding new hardware. I prototyped hardware solutions for future products using Altium Designer, and programmed microcontrollers using C and C++. I provided general assistance to lead design engineers, and investigated self-resonance in inductors in order to enhance the accuracy of test results.

Research Assistant, Multiscale Additive Manufacturing Lab

May – September 2010, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON, Canada (hybrid)

Summary
  • Designed, procured, and assembled parts for an enclosure for a solid freeform fabrication (SFF) workstation.
  • Manufactured or coordinated the manufacture of several parts.
  • Performed image processing on scanning electron micrographs using Octave.

The Multiscale Additive Manufacturing (MSAM) lab focuses on next generation additive manufacturing processes. To this end, the lab explores novel techniques to develop advanced materials, innovative products, modeling and simulation tools, monitoring devices, closed-loop control systems, quality assurance algorithms and holistic in-situ and ex-situ characterization techniques.

I designed (in Autodesk Inventor), procured, and assembled essential parts for an enclosure for a solid freeform fabrication (SFF) workstation, as well as the printhead assembly and the environmental isolation system. I manufactured or coordinated the manufacture of several parts. The workstation was used to produce 3D scaffolds for the regrowth of bone and cartilage.

I also performed image processing on scanning electron micrographs using Octave.

Research Assistant, Computer Vision and Mobile Robotics Lab

September – December 2009, American University of Beirut, Beirut, Lebanon (hybrid)

Summary
  • Developed a positional navigation system for the localization of robots.
  • Wrote code to estimate the current position using a 6-axis IMU, researched the state of the art of IMU-vision integration.
  • Used an Extended Kalman Filter to incorporate information from encoders, IMU estimates, and visual odometry estimates.

I worked under Dr. Daniel Asmar at the Computer Vision and Mobile Robotics lab at the American University of Beirut.

I researched and developed a positional navigation system for the localization of robots. I wrote code to estimate the current position using a 6-axis IMU, I researched the state of the art of IMU-vision integration, and used an Extended Kalman Filter to incorporate information from encoders, my IMU estimates, and visual odometry estimates from a PhD candidate. The EKF results were then used to reduce the error and drift on the IMU.

During my internship, I audited a fourth-year robotics class, and designed digital logic circuits to control a robot with no programming. I also programmed a PIC-16 in C and assembly, and used an external debugger.

Engineer in Training, Sierra Construction Systems

January – April 2009, Freetown, Sierra Leone (hybrid)

Summary
  • Created and verified as-built structural and electrical diagrams for buildings.
  • Performed arc welding, cutting, woodworking, and aluminium working, repaired internal combustion engines and hydraulic systems.
  • Prepared estimates for building construction with Primavera and Microsoft Project.
  • Used VBA, Excel, and Word to computerize the company’s payroll system, resulting in a significant increase in productivity.

Sierra Construction Systems is one of the largest construction companies in Sierra Leone, with hundreds of employees.

I created and verified as-built structural and electrical diagrams for buildings. I performed arc welding, cutting, woodworking, and aluminium working, repaired internal combustion engines and hydraulic systems, and prepared estimates for building construction with Primavera and Microsoft Project.

I used VBA, Excel, and Word to computerize the company’s payroll system, resulting in a 60x increase in productivity, and a corresponding decrease in time and resources needed. I created a master list of employees, and automated the pay, pension, and taxation calculations for each, including in special circumstances. I also automated the preparation of new attendance tracking cards, which used to be written by hand.