- Please provide a brief description of your STEP Signature Project. Write two or three sentences describing the main activities your STEP Signature Project entailed.
R.P. Gatta creates custom equipment and automation systems for industry and the government. I spent the first 2 months of this internship on the assembly floor of the facility constructing parts and machinery. This involved assembling and adhering pieces together, routing cables or pneumatic tubing, and packaging up completed machines to be shipped to customers. In the last month at R.P. Gatta, I had the opportunity to work in the office designing the parts and machines that I had previously been building.
- What about your understanding of yourself, your assumptions, or your view of the world changed/transformed while completing your STEP Signature Project? Write one or two paragraphs to describe the change or transformation that took place.
Initially, I was disappointed after my interview when I learned that this internship would likely only consist with assembly and construction. I acknowledged that this work would likely help me in the future, and I knew that it would at least give me the chance to work in the engineering office during future internships. I accepted the position even though it didn’t offer the design work I hoped for. Luckily, I had the opportunity to move into the office early and I realized how helpful that time on the floor had been.
I really underestimated the intricacies of machine design because of all the little decisions that must be made in the design can be seen when its time to assemble. Because I spent time on the floor, I gained an intuition for many of the decisions that need to be made during design: where to make parts connect, what fasteners to use, how big to make a plate, etc. All of the parts I designed in my last month were better because of my experience on the floor. The learning of course didn’t stop when I started working in the office and in fact, I think that the greatest takeaways were from the office as that is more similar to the career I hope to go into after I graduate. I got to see a bit about what it is like to be a design engineer, and I really enjoyed what I saw.
- What events, interactions, relationships, or activities during your STEP Signature Project led to the change/transformation that you discussed in #2, and how did those affect you? Write three or four paragraphs describing the key aspects of your experiences completing your STEP Signature Project that led to this change/transformation.
On my first day at R.P. Gatta, I showed up wearing business casual attire feeling nervous but excited to start a real engineering job. After torquing down around 50 massive bolts to 250 ft/lb, I quickly realized that that was not the right clothing and that I had a lot to learn before being able to do the engineering work I hoped to do. During my time in the shop, I think my most transformative experience was when another intern and I were tasked with the assembly of the cableway.
A cableway is a structure to contain cables and tubes and on this project it was a large rigid structure that would surround the whole assembly line. It had already been designed and ordered but we were tasked with unpacking it prepping it to be painted and assembling it around the machinery without interfering with the testing to ensure we didn’t miss the installation window. This was the first opportunity I had to work on something without a more experienced person by my side guiding me and I made a lot of small mistakes at first but ended up learning a lot. The first challenge was just figuring out how the cableway was supposed to operate as nobody at rpGatta had worked with this type before. Once we had everything assembled, and painted, it needed to be installed. This was by far the trickiest part because we were instructed to maintain all current connections and work on it when the controls engineers weren’t present to run tests. We made some small progress but were unable to get very far as debugging was the top priority. Eventually after working on it on and off for a week there was an opportunity where the engineers were focused on fixing another part of the line and everyone on the floor was tasked with finishing the cableway. It was pretty chaotic at first, but I felt I had a big opportunity as I knew the most about how it needed to go together and it felt pretty great to finally be the person who can instruct the rest of the workers on what needs to be done and where things are. I think I grew a lot in my problem solving and leadership skills from that opportunity.
Another transformative event was when I first got the into the office. That was the first time I really felt like an engineer, and it really changed the way that I look at objects all around. There are so many small decisions that go into everything around us and when I was first told to make a part I didn’t know where to start. I felt that I needed to ask questions about every little detail to make sure I wasn’t doing anything wrong and then I had the realization that I already knew what to do. I had been working with similar parts for the past month and I generally knew what things looked like. I realized that I had built up an intuition of how strong parts needed to be to withstand industry because I had been working with parts like that already. After making my first few parts and assemblies the complexities of the many products became a little bit clearer. I gained a lot of insight about how things are made, and I really enjoyed the process.
- Why is this change/transformation significant or valuable for your life? Write one or two paragraphs discussing why this change or development matters and/or relates to your academic, personal, and/or professional goals and future plans.
Some impacts on my life were immediate for me because of the new tools and skills I acquired. When our dishwasher broke, I was able to repair it and when I needed to move a couch to my new house, I was able to take it apart and put it back together much quicker than I know I would have otherwise. I have always been somewhat cable at stuff like that, but I know based on the lessons I learned and confidence I gained that I can and will be able to fix more things and solve more problems in practical ways throughout my future.
I haven’t decided yet whether I will return to R.P. Gatta next summer, but it is currently my best option. I could see myself starting my career there based on what I saw from my time there this summer. Even if I don’t return, I will still incorporate the skills I learned from this opportunity throughout my life. I have always had an interest in making things which is why I went into engineering in the first place. This job gave me the opportunity to make things and learn a lot of skills to do so both in the physical and virtual worlds.