Stay connected to RIT,
while gaining experience
Fall 2012 Issue
Co-op Factoids | Out On Co-op – 100 Years of Co-op Contest Winners
| Making the Most of Your Co-op Tip | Share Your Experience | Save the Date | Are
You Number One?
FALL QUARTER CO-OP FACTOIDS
Number
of students on co-op: 1099
Number
of students on co-op internationally: 14
Number
of companies employing co-op students: 636
Highest
Co-op Wage: $55 (woo hoo!)
Companies hiring the
most students this quarter:
Wegmans Food Markets, Thomson Reuters, BorgWarner Morse TEC Inc, Toyota Motor
Engineering & Manufacturing North America, MOOG Inc, Vicor Corp, Advance
Testing Company Inc, Cisco Systems, UTC Aerospace Systems (formerly Goodrich
Corp), Cisco Systems, Harris - RF Communications, Lord Corp, Welch Allyn Inc, MIT
Lincoln Laboratory, Paychex, RIT - Distributed Support Svcs, Amazon, Carestream
Health, Fisher-Price
In
honor of the 100th Year of Co-op – Did You Know…
The original 12 companies that
participated in the first Cooperative Education program at RIT:
(Still in existence)
Eastman Kodak Company
Gleason Works
Rochester Stampings, Inc
City Engineers Office (now part of the
the City of Rochester)
Stromberg Carlson (now operating as
Siemens Information and Communications Networks, Inc in Boca Raton, FL)
Rochester Railway and Light
Co.(consolidated under RG&E, and now operating as a subsidiary of Iberdola
USA)
New York State Railways (became
Rochester Transit Authority, and since 1971 has operated as the Rochester
Genesee Regional Transportation Authority)
No longer in existence:
Taylor Instrument Companies (merged
with Combustion Engineering, which later merged with ABB technologies; Taylor’s
technical expertise continues to be used by ABB today)
Morgan Machine Company, Inc.
Ingle Machine Company
German American Button Company
OUT ON CO-OP – 100 Years of Co-op Story Winners! Claire McKenna Information Security and Forensics
NASA Langley Research Center, Hampton, VA
June 4, 2012 – August 10, 2012
Who hasn’t dreamed of being an astronaut as a kid? I
certainly remember picturing myself exploring the stars once or twice. So of
course I was over the moon when I received my acceptance into the NASA Langley
Aerospace Research Student Scholars program. I would be getting the chance to
work at the organization that put a man on the moon! I was even more thrilled
to learn I would be interning with the Information Security team. My ten weeks
at NASA gave me a chance to explore the incident response and forensics process
and learn that it was something I want to pursue after graduation. Forensics is
very much like a puzzle or a scavenger hunt, looking through the information
available for any clues that will lead to the answers we need. Prior to my
experiences at NASA, I had very little exposure to the forensics process. After
a few days of learning from some of the incident responders on the team, I
quickly picked up the skills I would need and found myself wanting to explore
further. I know now that I will be pursuing a career in digital forensics once
I graduate from RIT.
There were many other experiences I had at NASA that
contributed to such a successful co-op experience. Every week, the program
coordinators arranged for lectures for the summer interns to listen to. We
heard from a range of speakers from an Intel Futurist to a NASA Astronaut. We
had plenty of opportunity as well to learn about the rich history that
surrounds NASA Langley. Langley Air Force Base was originally the site of NACA,
the predecessor to NASA. Much of the research and training leading to the first
moon landing was performed at Langley as well. Neil Armstrong himself practiced
working with the moon lander equipment on base. The highlight of my summer was
watching the Mars Science Laboratory, Curiosity, landing successfully. A live
feed from the control room at JPL in California was set up at the local IMAX
Theater and members of the NASA Langley workforce as well as the community were
invited to spend the night learning about the mission to Mars and watching the
landing. It was an experience I won’t soon forget. I was lucky to be able to
experience NASA at such an exciting time for the science and technology fields.
Ultimately, I achieved exactly what the co-op program tries
to provide students here at RIT. I was able to gain experience in a topic that
interests me and I know now what I wish to pursue in my field. I can come back
to classes this year with a focus and drive to achieve my goals.
Nicholas J. Conn
Electrical
Engineering
Biotronik SE & Co. KG in Berlin, Germany
June 2010 – November 2010
During the summer and fall of 2010 I worked for Biotronik,
an implantable medical device company located in Berlin, Germany. My time at
Biotronik was funded by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), a German
national agency which supports international academic cooperation. As an
electrical engineering student focusing on biomedical applications, this co-op
directly built off of my class work and presented me with the opportunity to
gain experience with cutting edge medical devices.
The focus of my project was to create an electronic model of
the heart for testing pacemakers and defibrillators. By accurately simulating a
multitude of complex cardiac rhythm disorders, my model was able to increase
the effectiveness of pacemaker and defibrillator firmware. Years later, my
final heart model is still being used for the testing of implantable cardiac
devices.
While my work was very demanding and challenging, I enjoyed
every day with my coworkers. I believe the attached picture perfectly
illustrates the complexity of my work while showing how much fun I had during
the course of my co-op. This picture was taken towards the end of my six months
at Biotronik while my boss and I were using my heart model to help solve a
problem that had come up in clinical testing of new defibrillator firmware.
While I gained an indescribable amount from my time in
Berlin, including hands on experience with implantable medical devices and
fluency with the German language, what I value the most are the lifelong
friendships I made at Biotronik.
MAKING THE
MOST OF YOUR CO-OP TIP:
REFERENCES AND RECOMMENDATIONS – USING YOUR CO-OP
CONNECTIONS
Before you end your co-op and leave the organization you are
with, you should be sure to secure a recommendation from someone in the
company. Why? A reference or recommendation could prove pivotal in your
future job searches. Having an “objective” person comment on your professional
performance could tip the scales in your favor. The recommendation could
be from a supervisor, a colleague or a senior manager.
Reference vs. Recommendation
Typically a reference is someone you ask to formally be on
standby should an employer call to inquire about your work history, ethic etc.
You should plan to have 3-4 references and you should definitely ask them ahead
of time before listing them.
A recommendation is usually in letter form (or electronic
form). A one page letter outlining how the person knows you, in what
capacity they know you, their overall assessment of your qualities, skills and
abilities is sufficient. It can be a generalized document so that it can be
used multiple times or it can be specifically addressed to fit a particular
situation.
Social Media - LinkedIn
On the social media website LinkedIn you can ask colleagues
to “recommend you” electronically. By doing so, anyone who views your profile
can see and read the positive recommendations. It also serves as a step
in completing your LinkedIn profile. Definitely ask your manager or colleagues you worked with
while on co-op, to submit a recommendation if possible.
Sort of related to recommendations is the new “endorsements”
feature just added to LinkedIn -- your contacts can also “endorse” you.
According to
Linkedin, the addition is
intended to make it easier to recognize people for their skills and expertise.
Linkedin users can either endorse their contacts from a new Skills &
Expertise section, or select or suggest skills at the top of their profile.
SHARE
YOUR EXPERIENCE -- GOT A GREAT PHOTO?
RIT co-op students have worked all
over the world, with large and small companies, collaborating with all types of
people.
We are building a collection of
photos/videos of RIT students at work to feature in future co-op newsletters
and possibly on our site.
Interested in sharing a photo (or
video) of yourself "on the job"? The more active and specific to your
job the better!
If you wish to submit something --
please include the following:
Name, Major:
Company Name:
City, State/ or Country:
Even better, want to do a brief write
up about your co-op experience? Please include:
Job Description:
How Did you Find the Job?
Tips for First Time Co-ops?
How Did Co-op Benefit You?
SAVE
THE DATE
Spring
2013 Career Fair
Career Fair: Wednesday, March 20, 2013
from 11am-4pm
Interview Day: Thursday, March 21,
2013
Gordon Field House
ARE YOU NUMBER ONE?
Students – are you the first co-op student your company has
ever had? If you’ve had a good co-op experience, but are now leaving, this is
your chance to help your company and other RIT students too!
Before you go, talk with your supervisor about the
possibility of hiring another RIT student, to continue the work you started, or
work on a new project. It’s easy to post a co-op position on our employer web
site – www.rit.edu/recruit, and if they have any questions, you can refer them
to your program coordinator, or our main office – 585.475.2301. Your supervisor
may even want you to be involved in recruiting your successor!
Thank you for helping us maintain a good relationship with
your company, and develop co-op opportunities for other RIT students.
