My practicum was conducted in the greenbelt rail yard for the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority. It is a railyard that houses many different trains, especially on the greenline for repair, maintenance, testing, and various other reasons. There are many different people who are employed there and have different jobs such as painting, washing, testing, rebuilding, among other tasks. I was a member of the engineering department. I found this opportunity on the careers4terps website and I was interviewed by my site supervisor, Anthony Johnson, after I submitted my application. I think it is important to be proactive and learn to search for opportunities that fit your needs and interests since you know yourself best and what you want to do. I wanted to get an engineering internship that focused more on transport and other public services so this fit right into my criteria and I followed through the hiring process.
On the job site, I learned how the company runs and how I could contribute to various tasks that were done in the engineering department. The first thing I learned how to do was be a professional worker. This meant being communicative, on time, and always receptive to new information. The second thing I learned was how to write a professional document and analyze previous references. My project was to find a solution to the corrosion within brake controller units which required both new skills to complete. The first thing I did was create a format for my document which required me to dig through various documents within the system to try to understand how the template for ETP (Engineering Test Protocol) documents were formatted and written. Now that I knew what I had to do, I had to gather research and info by contacting various manufacturers. These vendors had to give permission for our modifications and recommended what we should do. I then turned these into drawings and words and justified my ideas with images and their purposes. The finished document was then approved and sent for testing. Seeing the process from start to finish had given me a sense of accomplishment and helped me learn more about how everyday things around us are constructed and maintained. I gained a larger appreciation for everyday creations since they require a lot of work behind the scenes, even not pertaining to actual science and numbers. Something else that I did was learn about documentation programs and workflow. In order to ensure that everything is done as efficiently as possible, using less time and resources, we had to be methodical and organize our work. With an outdated documentation program, it is difficult to do so, but we found a way to make a new system that would help make everything go smoother. I worked with a co-worker to test and implement a new product data management system that made searching for and creating new documents easier and more efficient. Through this, I gained more insight on how a workplace operates and made me think more about how I can implement computer science and information technology into my mechanical engineering degree. Finally, I worked on a research project to learn about how various air filtration systems would help clear up covid or other diseases from train ventilation ducts. I worked over two weeks with PHD students and coworkers to gather data and set up reliable tests to learn more about the optimal air filtration set-ups. Eventually we came to a conclusion and I found that this work was very interesting and rewarding. I think this opened up my mind to research jobs. I think that applying the scientific method in real life was something that I would like to do again, and I was happy about expanding my options in future incase I wanted to dip my toes into a different field.
Overall, this experience was valuable in helping me understand what it meant to be an engineer and what it takes to be a contributing member of a company and team. I was able to participate in a public institution and my work helped tangibly modify trains that millions would ride on. My work was done with intent and I learned the meaning of what it meant to be consistent and dedicated, something that I have kept with me.
