AC 2007-1658: USING GRADUATE INTERNSHIPS TO ENHANCE GRADUATE STUDENT EDUCATION AND RESEARCH

Many universities focus their industrial outreach activities for students at the undergraduate level. Universities have required optional cooperative education programs or promoted industrial internships during the summer months for undergraduates to allow them to gain real-world experience. While these positions are helpful for the students, they often have little impact on faculty or departments. An area that few companies consider relates to internships or cooperative opportunities for engineering graduate students. This program has advantages for all involved. The companies are working with MS or PhD candidates who already have an engineering degree and have an advanced maturity compared to undergraduates. For the students, their maturity allows them to get involved in real-world problems and make a broader impact in a short period. Also, in many cases the industrial activities can be extended into a thesis or dissertation topic. For the faculty member, it provides exposure to the current issues within industry, provides examples for the classroom and sometimes provides funding for research projects. This paper will highlight several recent examples of how graduate internships have enhanced the company, students and faculty in the collaboration. It will discuss dos and don’ts for developing the graduate internships. Impressions by several graduate students will also be included. How we are exposed to the industry Normally college students learn about companies through career fairs. Career fairs allow students to meet with a company’s representatives. These representatives explain to the students what the company does and some the job positions available. These types of events provide an opportunity for students to make a good first impression with the company. Through the conversations, a student can also get a good understanding of the company and decide whether or not to seek employment opportunities with that particular company. The employment opportunities can consist of internships, cooperative (Co-op) education rotations, and full-time employment. Internships and co-ops are the best way for a student to get a broad exposure to industry while still in school [1]. Another opportunity where student can gain exposure to companies is when faculty members bring industrial representatives to class for presentations. This provides an informal outlet for the students to learn about parts of industry. The students can ask questions about the company as they would at a career fair type of event. This also provides an non-intimidating atmosphere for students to ask questions about companies and careers. The industrial environment is quite different from being in school. Through the exposure to industry, one can gain knowledge and become appreciative of the material being taught in the classroom. Sometimes students ask themselves whether or not they really need to know the material they are currently studying. It is rewarding to actually see how applications being taught in class are applied in the real world. This tends to help students think about problems in a P ge 12549.2 different way versus the way they did before their industry exposure. With the exposure to industry, students can gain more confidence and enthusiasm to approach new problems. One area that allows students to combine coursework and an industrial experience is a graduate internship. A graduate internship involves having a graduate student spend a summer or a semester working for a company. This project could be related to their research or in another area. It would provide the student with a close-up look at the real world. While some students do research related to a company, many times the research is done at the university. The graduate internship provides a total immersion experience where the student gets to test drive an industrial job and see the similarities and differences between school and the industrial setting [2]. References [3-8] provide some insights of internships or industrial related academic experiences. Challenges as a graduate student in a company A student is often anxious when starting an internship, but there are some challenges related to the internship for the student must overcome. Since many internships are during the summer, the student needs to make the most of the short time frame. For that reason, the student needs to hit the ground running. One priority is to learn how to prioritize and organize tasks and schedules. As a student we have deadlines for class projects or homework, but it not the same as workrelated deadlines. The graduate student has to work with others, do part of the work, incorporate his/her ideas and the ideas of other people in their group, and give the results to others to analyze and comment on. The student may have more than one supervisor, so s/he will need to allow enough time to make corrections and then turn in a final report. It is important to be able to prioritize the tasks according to their urgency and be organized. Being organized can provided many advantages in making sure all the requirements are met in a timely fashion. Because of time constraints, the graduate student needs to understand the industry’s research or project faster to obtain results in a short period of time. One way to do that is to learn how to take advantage of the opportunity to work in groups as well as alone. The student needs to learn how to get the information that is needed by him/her, talk to other people that may help, and look in books or references for previous work. Sometimes the supervisor has meetings or has to travel, so it is the student’s responsibility to get the information. Working in groups as an intern can be hard, as the graduate student needs to convince the group about the quality of a graduate student’s work, the good that the student contributes to the group and the company. The graduate students need to learn how to incorporate their class-related knowledge with their industrial experience. The student has to be able to work with others. Projects are being conducted that depend on other workers’ performances, which can be quite stressful. Another big challenge for a graduate student intern is to learn the industry language. Some industries have their own language. Depending on the field, workers use acronyms in reference to many topics. There are many more that are used on a daily basis. Many workers have been using these acronyms for years, so this is not going to change. In the experience of several interns, conversations are filled with acronyms at first. This makes it difficult but it is very important for the intern to ask questions and understand the meanings of the acronyms. Becoming part of the corporate culture is an important lesson to experience and learn. P ge 12549.3 Since the student is a temporary employee, there may be some constraints related to detailed information and using certain computer systems or networks. Sometimes students may be frustrated as paperwork and procedures may take days or weeks to get computer accounts, telephones and computer access. Students should be patient and understand that the temporary nature of their position may impact these tasks. Another key lesson that can be learned during the internship is understanding the hierarchy and processes in industry. Understanding the “chain of command” and working within the constraints of the organization is a valuable lesson that can pay long-term dividends. Remember, these challenges are going to make a stronger and experienced employee in the future. How graduate internships enhance the company, students and faculty Graduate Internships can create a very positive relationship between a company, the university, the student, and the faculty. When the student produces quality work during the internship, this opens the door for other students from that college, opens doors for other faculty to develop new research and other projects with the company, and at the same time increases collaboration between the university and the company. Internships can enhance the students’ impression about working in industry. As an intern, graduate students can provide new ideas and state-of-the art technology knowledge, in comparison with company engineers who may have graduated five to ten years before. This new information from classes provides a way of thinking outside the box and allows fresh minds to suggest new ideas [1]. Also, there can be some synergy between the classes, the internship and the research project as shown in Figure 1. First the student gets a strong background in classes. During the graduate internship, the student gets a deeper background and foundation on the topic. Additionally s/he learns the constraints, limitations and other issues that must be addressed within the industrial environment that might be overlooked in academics. Next, the student takes this industrial relevance and applies it to future classes that enhance the academic foundation and provides him/her with additional knowledge as s/he tackles advanced problems in graduate classes. Then either directly or indirectly the graduate student applies the industrial background and advanced classes to a project and completes the research work.