1. Brief description of your STEP Signature Project (2-3 Sentences)

My STEP signature project was my internship for Parcell, a small company creating dropbox technology for commercial and industrial use. I was an electrical engineering intern that got opportunities to work with a variety of sensing instruments and electrical systems. I reported to a higher engineer and was able to work on individual projects that I was able to create solutions to.

1. What about your understanding of yourself, your assumptions, or your view of the world changed/transformed while completing your STEP Signature Project? (1-2 paragraph)

The largest thing that changed for me throughout the process of working at an internship was my view of the business process. I felt like I finally got a real view of a real company from the inside.The only information I got before this internship was comments from people I knew, but working in a real company changed my view. I felt like I got a real glimpse of my future in a way and knowing this can allow me to be a lot more decisive in my job search and knowing what kind of a job I want.

1. What events, interactions, relationships, or activities during your STEP Signature

Project led to the change/transformati on that you discussed in #2, and how did those

affect you? (3-4 paragraph)

There were multiple smaller experiences and relationships I had during my internship that helped shape my view of the company and engineering in life. The engineer that hired me, John, was a huge influence to me while I was Parcell. He always had a calm head and his process for problem solving was obvious as he had done a large design of the project I was working on already with minimal help. I believe he was a great help in showing me what an engineer should strive to be and was a great influence.

Another Experience I had was working with a variety of sensors in order to detect objects to count them in toolboxes. I had the opportunity to design and sodder my own rig of break beam sensors which was a valuable hands on experience. I also had the opportunity to try and design my own machine learning camera to take pictures of individual shelves to check if objects are there. This experience was very useful for my professional development.

A final experience I had while working at Parcell was dealing with others in a corporate environment. I think a large part of working at a company is being able to work with the people there. This experience was a great introduction to working with others on projects in real time. I gained experience with programs like Jira, Slack, and other organizing software for companies. Just basic experience with things like this is what I hoped to gain from an internship.

1. Why is this change/transformation significant or valuable for your life? (1-2 paragraph)

These changes in my life are significant because they provided me with experience with the subjects that I hope to go into in the future. This is invaluable as knowing the basics of working are a great way to impress people in a company. Some changes were significant to my technical knowledge as well which will be great for my professional career in the future. I am very grateful for the STEP experience as it allowed me to have an even better internship than I would have had without it.

Here are some photos of the sensors that I worked on