The internship that I was a part of during the Summer of 2022 was at WMATA (Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority). I worked in the Engineering department and I had various projects, the main one being an Engineering Testing Document that detailed how to modify the brake controller system to make sure it was not affected by corrosion. A typical day had a 9-5 schedule. I would go to the office and clock in before sitting down at my cubicle desk. I would then go through various documents and send out some emails in the morning before talking with co-workers and supervisors about my project. Some days, I would do mostly desk work and some other days I would be out of the office talking to mechanics or doing some testing. This would help me get a better idea of how to finish up my proposal and understand if my processes were plausible from a mechanic’s standpoint. By performing hands-on work, I was able to understand how things such as torque and stress worked in real life, things I learned in engineering mechanics classes. I understood that tightening things too much could cause breakage and failure of equipment and how everything had to be within a certain limit to keep it from breaking. I also learned during testing of equipment how material science concepts such as diffusion worked while testing air filtration systems. I learned that while many things in class are done with an ideal environment in mind, they can still apply to real life situations that have more chaos and varied factors. I think that I could have prepared better for the internship by learning the basics of how trains worked or getting some certifications beforehand so I wouldn’t have to use some of my time there to get them done. I am interested in pursuing similar opportunities in the future, perhaps with electric vehicles as well, something we learned about in SGC. I would recommend this opportunity to other SGC students since it involves concepts such as carbon neutrality, electric vehicles, and public transportation, which is great if you want to learn about engineering that can benefit the environment.
