Engineering Quarterly VOL.IV. . . No.1
FALL 2021
W ELCOME ! Welcome to the first issue of Volume 4 of the Engineering Quarterly, a newsletter published four times a year by the University of Mary School of Engineering. In it we try to include articles from each of the five engineering majors that we currently offer on campus: Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Civil Engineering, Computer Science, and Construction Management. We report on items and events of interest to engineering students, engineering companies, and now alumni of our engineering program. You will read about our service and outreach activities in the community, the scholarships our students have been awarded, descriptions of the internships our students have worked at over the summer, guest speakers that have come in and enlightened us, and even assignment problems and projects that our students have completed as part of their course work. We hope that you will enjoy revisiting some of the problems that you had to solve back when you were studying for your own engineering degree – or at least you will enjoy the fact that you don’t have to solve them! The intended audience of the Engineering Quarterly is engineers, engineering students, engineering alumni, future engineering students, and people working in fields closely related to engineering such as science, computing, and mathematics. Enjoy! Dr. Terry Pilling Dean of Engineering
S UMMER I NTERNSHIPS Many of our engineering students who are Sophomore level and above have internships each summer and they return with many great stories of the fun and interesting things they did while working at companies and firms. Here are some of their stories. Megan Achbach interned in the South Dakota Office of the State Engineer. “My main responsibilities were to assist the project engineers during meetings with the architect and contractors and to maintain the project records. I really enjoyed my time there as I worked on a great team and stayed busy. The coolest thing that happened was
leading a project that was approved by the governor for $50,000 in monument restoration.” Mara Dalton interned at CORE Consultants, a professional services firm in Englewood, Colorado offering Civil Engineering, Natural Resources and Land Surveying services. “I was able to dabble in many things at the firm, but my primary responsibility was sheet set up for water, sanitary, and storm plans for a variety of projects. I was also able to lay sanitary services in Civil3D, update and create water services, as well as shift roads and other elements in the 2D linework. I really enjoyed learning what the ‘real world’ of Civil Engineering is like and thoroughly enjoyed the company culture and community. Experiencing site visits, client meetings, CAD trainings, and work parties was also very fun!”
University of Mary
FREE
Paige Lang interned at APEX Engineering Group in Bismarck, ND. “I was in the Water Resources department working on projects that included storm sewer design and pipe extensions. I enjoyed this internship so much. I worked with some amazing people who taught me a great deal about different engineering software, the bidding process, and how they acquire jobs. One cool thing I did during my internship was tour the Forterra concrete plant. The best part of the internship is having the ability to continue working during the school year.” John Soupir worked at Crusoe Energy Systems in Williston ND. “I worked on test equipment development, and crypto miner repair and deployment. I figured out how to build an improved version of some expensive crypto miner test equipment using scrap parts. It was a great time and I plan on returning next summer.”
Kolbe Raiche owned and operated a deck building business in upper Michigan this summer called The Deck Dudes. “Running this business allowed me to learn about the construction management process on a very small scale. In addition to managing the financial Cole Kitzenberg side of the business and ensuring profitabilworked at Armacost ity, I was also responsible for designing and Trane in Billings, building the decks. I would take soil tests, MT, one of the leadcalculate loads, and then pay a professional ing developers and engineer to stamp my drawings. To help build sellers of air condithe decks, I hired some of my friends from tioning and heating high school which was a ton of fun. This products in the world. summer, the company tripled in revenue to “I worked as a meabout $100,000 gross which allowed me to chanical engineering see the whole picture of construction manageintern. The first three ment. The coolest part of my summer was re-building a 1200 square foot deck which weeks were all about learning about the refrigeration cycle and the physics involved in had been compromised by frost heave. it. They then had me selecting units for cusPreston Owens intomers based on specified need and generating terned and this sumproposals and submittals. I helped install and mer at a construction set up rooftop units and helped with control company doing framwiring.” ing. “I made 15 dollars an hour and I was Will Blewett worked assigned to all kinds at Advanced engiof jobs, I cut wood, I neering and envinailed studs, I build ronmental services dormers, I built door(AE2S) as Resident ways, I was kind of Project Representaall over the place. Honestly I liked this job it was very physically demanding and I always tive (RPR). “Loved it! I was able to work felt productive. I also had the opportunity to on a water supply learn many things, this job was overall a great summer job. I wouldn’t say that anything cool project that is once happened but something stressful happened, in a lifetime. It is the Red River valley water the crane was lowering a truss into place and it supply, taking water from the Missouri and dropped it on the rest of the roof and knocked pumping in to the Cheyenne River. This will help provide water for 2/3 of Eastern ND.” all the other trusses over.”