School of Engineering and Computer Science

Student Profiles

Kelly Gilmore

Grade in School: Junior
Major: Engineering Management
High School: Mercy High School, Burlingame, CA
Co-op Company: Genentech, South San Francisco, CA
 
I have gained so much from working at Genentech, a leading biopharmaceutical company. They completely tailored the position to my major. 

I worked in corporate process engineering on their Hillsboro Fill Finish Project being constructed in Hillsboro Oregon. I was able to get mechanical engineering experience by helping to purchase a piece of equipment, as well as management experience by being asked to forecast and track the process equipment budget for the whole project. It was amazing the level of responsibility and challenges they gave me from the start. 

All the employees at Genentech were all so eager to teach me everything they could. Thanks to this co-op I know what I want to do after college and have the confidence to get there.

Heather Worden

Grade in School: Senior
Major: Mechanical Engineering
High School: St Mary’s High School, Lodi, CA
Co-op Company: Pathway Medical Technologies, Redmond, WA

My experience at Pathway Medical has been amazing.  The thing that I enjoy the most is the atmosphere and the people that I work with.  The atmosphere is top notch; it is playful and energetic and everyone is great to work with. 

I was assigned to the R & D team of engineers working on the Pathway PV System which is designed to combat Peripheral Arterial Disease and allow individuals to retain their limbs and resume a normal life. 

The company places a lot of trust and responsibility in its “interns”.  I had a plethora of assignments ranging from documentation, experimentation, design of tooling and testing of developing products. 

Between working with people from quality to production, to the head of clinical affairs, I have been exposed to many new realms of manufacturing that I never knew existed that has made my experience at Pathway very interesting and challenging.

Allen King

Grade in School: Senior
Major: Engineering Management/Civil Engineering
High School: Brookside Christian High School
Co-op Company: San Joaquin County Public Works, Stockton, CA 

I currently work for San Joaquin County involved in the Wilson Way bridge project.  My experience with the County has been awesome as I wanted to do a lot of field work and I go out to the field everyday. 

I'm usually out for about 7.5 hours and am only in the office at the end of day for 30 minutes.  I go out everyday and inspect the bridge to make sure that everything is being built the way it was designed and making sure there are no environmental infringements. 

It is a challenge in that, as inspectors, we are the link between the engineers and the contractors. 

It has been a great experience to learn how to communicate with all the entities involved in the project.  My mentor, who has been an inspector for 17 years, is training me on how to do the job so that I'll be able to do a few small projects on my own before my co-op is over.

Victoria Ong

Grade in School: Senior
Major: Bioengineering
High School: Lowell High School, San Francisco, CA
Co-op Company: American Dental Association, Chicago, IL

My co-op at the American Dental Association located in the city of Chicago has given me the chance to learn some new skills I might not have gotten a chance to learn during school as a bioengineer.

In the lab I work closely with the machinist and engineers and have learned how to operate machining tools, revisit the breadboard for circuits, and perform some materials testing for dental filling materials. 

I have learned how to communicate more effectively with my team and how to apply my knowledge to solving some of the equipment problems that arise in the lab. This has been the best learning experience I have had on a co-op.

Kevin Petros

Grade in School: Senior
Major: Electrical Engineering
High School: American High School, Fremont, CA
Co-op Company: Cisco Systems, San Jose, CA

My coop at Cisco Systems was a great learning experience.

I was not given trivial jobs that were not going to teach me anything, such as filing papers. I was given the same work as the full-time engineers.

The team I was assigned to was responsible for conducting hardware design testing for all of our new products. I enjoyed working with this team because I had the opportunity to work with and learn how to use dozens of Cisco products.

The best part of all was that I was offered a full-time position after I graduate!