Congratulations to our Michigan engineers who received the opportunity to intern at General Atomics (GA) and General Atomics Aeronautical Systems (GA-ASI) in San Diego, CA this summer!
Interns completed projects in a range of positions including Composites Manufacturing, Opto-Mechanical Engineering, and Industrial Engineering. A total of eleven interns represented the University of Michigan; ten were aerospace engineering students. David Fillmore, a Michigan Engineering alumnus and Systems Engineering Senior Manager of USAF Programs at GA-ASI comments on this summer’s Michigan cohort: “Our executive staff took notice of the quality, productivity and capabilities of our Wolverine interns.”
Throughout their ten-week internship, Michigan engineering students learned valuable skills and insights on the aerospace industry. Following his Stress Engineering internship at GA-ASI, Aerospace Engineering senior Henry Beh reflects on how his summer experience has changed his attitudes about becoming a full-time engineer in aerospace structures: “I feel much better prepared to move into full-time industry work. Moving forward I know what the type of work I want to do looks like and can more accurately determine my path. While overall my goals haven’t changed – I still want to work on structures – I would like to in the future work more closely with design. I saw firsthand how interesting the design side of structures can be in industry, and in the future I’d seek to incorporate some aspect of that into my job.”
Another crucial element of the summer internship is gaining a sense of the company’s culture. Matthew Szczerba, another Stress Engineering intern comments, “I really enjoyed the people I worked with. They were all very friendly and willing to help. They cared about their jobs but also cared about their relationships with their peers as well.”
Michigan representation in General Atomics’ intern programs has increased by over 30% in the last year, jumping from eight to eleven between 2017 and 2018. Among this year’s interns were two Captains for engineering design teams: Philip Wdowiak on M-Fly and Sam Elwell on Hyperloop. Congratulations to all eleven of our Wolverines!
