Summer Internships and Co-ops
BSA is committed to increasing the visibility of Black students and Black professionals in the aerospace and aviation industry. As such, we support our members in their career endeavors and aspirations. During the school year, we offer professionally-neriching opportunities to our membership to prepare them for the real world. These include resume workshops, interview prep sessions, and in-person interactions with established companies such as Lockheed Martin, Boeing, and Vayu Aerospace, to name a few. These efforts culminate in a membership body that is well-prepared for the workforce.
Below are highlights from our many members' summer employment experiences.
Summer 2022 Employment
Alan Makoso (Aero), graduating Winter ’25
This past summer, Alan interned at Intermode, a start up that specializes in the creation of robotic hardware. As an Industrial Operations Engineering Intern, Alan created bills of materials and ensured that the inventory was filled and supply lines were functioning efficiently. After the experience, Alan’s knowledge about manufacturing tools of autonomous robots and industrial systems increased and he is now able to apply such knowledge to future, manufacturing-related projects. Alan intends on using the mechanical skills he gained to work on projects that increase sustainability in the aerospace industry. This includes creating prototypes for new, low-emissions aircraft and ensuring ethical material sourcing in the supply chain.
David Akinbola (EE), graduating Winter ’23
David is currently working as a System Engineering Co-op for FORVIA Faurecia in Farmington Hills, Michigan. At FORVIA, he is assigned to a Volkswagen Cluster Development project, for which he creates compliance matrices. He also provides problem-solving techniques to the Software/Electronics development team, and supports the product Process & Validation team with product testing. Additionally, David supports the development of tools and processes that ensure product and process conformance to customer and plant quality, cost, and delivery targets. Finally, he assists with the implementation and maintenance of change control systems, as well as product assembly and tear down to support Product Process & Validation objectives. After graduation in May 2023, David hopes to work with computer systems and circuitry for consumer-facing software applications.
Elijah Simpson (Aero), Graduating Winter ’25
This summer, Elijah had the opportunity to intern with Northrop Grumman in Roy, Utah, as a Technical Engineering Intern. During his three months with the company, he primarily supported a mechanical engineering design team, assisting in areas such as CAD work, technical documentation, and helping facilitate a trade study. It was amazing for Elijah to see the forefront of engineering innovation first hand!
Outside of work, Elijah was also able to fully enjoy everything a summer in Utah had to offer. He traveled to multiple national parks and enjoyed visiting many breathtaking natural sites. He also gave back to the local community in the form of volunteering at a local STEM action day for local youth to learn about STEM. It was an amazing experience through which Elijah felt he was truly making a difference by education and promoting STEM interests to our next generation. In the future, Elijah would like to get more experience by interning for a commercial space company.
Eric Hersey (Aero ’22), Aerospace Engineering master’s student, Graduating Winter ’23
Eric graduated from UMich with a bachelor’s degree in Aerospace Engineering, and he spent his summer as a Quality Systems Engineering Intern for Lockheed Martin in Denver, CO. In his role, Eric designed a new database for the information gathered by the supply chain quality assurance teams for Lockheed Martin’s missions. He also worked on improving the processes of the Procurement Quality Assurance team’s documentation and accumulation of unnecessary files, along with assisting in inspection, procurement, and other quality assurance processes with veteran engineers. Through this experience, Eric was able to expand his professional network, learn about government/military work, and spend time out in Denver. Eric then returned to UMich to acquire a master’s degree in Aerospace Engineering. Eric loves working in a fast-paced engineering environment, and hopes to work at an aerospace tech startup after graduation.
Erika Jones (Aero ’22), current Robotics master’s student at Georgia Tech
After receiving her bachelor’s degree in Aerospace Engineering from UMich, Erika worked remotely for Pratt & Whitney, based in Hartford, Connecticut. As a General Engineering Intern for the Mechanical Systems, Externals, and Nacelles group, Erika synthesized and analyzed data for displacements of military jet engine cases that expand and contract due to the varying temperatures of tubing along the outside of the case. Erika gained exposure to various software that organized data. She also performed data transfer and interpretation from gathered displacement values into stress summary tables, that detailed the stresses on the jet engine case from tubes carrying fluids such as air and fuel. This work gave her an understanding of the elaborate processes that engineering companies often use to translate test data into useful applications for the improvement of their product. As she continues with her Master's in Robotics program at Georgia Tech, Erika aspires to improve the functionality and intelligent situational awareness of aerospace vehicles, and potentially apply these skills to other engineered apparatus in other fields such as biomedical engineering and computer science.
Erin Levesque (Aero ’22), Aerospace Engineering master’s student, graduating Winter ’23
After graduating with her bachelor’s degree, Erin spent her summer in Los Angeles with ABL Space Systems as a part of the Matthew Isakowitz Fellowship Program. She worked as a Propulsion Engineer Intern in the turbo-machinery group, modeling and analyzing turbopump components. Outside of work, Erin spent her time hiking, playing beach volleyball, and taking weekend trips to places like San Francisco and Yosemite! Erin returned to campus in the Fall of 2022 to work on her master’s degree in Aerodynamics and Propulsion.
Erin Skillon (ChemE), graduating Winter ’25
This summer, Erin participated in Duke University's Research Experience for Undergraduates (Duke REU) program. She worked with Dr. Adrienne Stiff-Roberts in her lab characterizing the different deposition methods for lead halide perovskites, for their concurrent use with silicon in photovoltaic cells. Erin tested the difference in purities between spin-cast deposition and RIR MAPLE deposition for phenylethyl ammonium lead iodide using FTIR Spectroscopy. She loved her experience at the lab, and is looking forward to learning more about photovoltaics/solar cells/renewable energy as a whole. Erin plans on studying abroad next summer, but after that, she would like to conduct even more research.
Jardine Allen (Aero / Robotics), graduating Winter ’25
Jardine spent summer 2022 with BAE Systems over the summer in Nashua, New Hampshire as a Hardware Engineering Intern. She worked in the Engineering Lab Services Department with lab coordinators, where her primary responsibility was to make sure that engineers were properly using equipment and following proper safety protocols. She also made sure that the equipment was calibrated and chemicals were within their usage dates. Throughout her internship, Jardine learned the ins and outs of the engineering world, what different positions at BAE Systems look like, and got to tour multiple lab facilities that were in charge of different processes. In the future, Jardine would like to work with AI and deep learning algorithms to increase general autonomy in the aerospace field.
John Milton (MechEng), graduating Fall ’22
During the Summer of 2022, John worked as a Reliability Engineering Intern at Avery Dennison in Peachtree City, Georgia. Avery Dennison is a design and manufacturing company that produces a wide variety of labeling solutions for consumer, food, medical, and industrial products.
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John was mainly tasked with completing a reliability review of the extruder which makes hot-melt adhesive for labels used in hot and cold applications. The tasks completed in this review included cataloging all 195 critical equipment, updating Piping & Instrument Diagrams (P&IDs), identifying 30 obsolete equipment, and discovering areas that cause frequent issues or shutdowns. During this review, John determined a preventive maintenance (PM) gap in which 73 pieces of equipment were not having PMs done. To solve this issue, he worked with the maintenance department and used equipment documentation to make recommendations for new PM plans for all 73 pieces of equipment. Lastly, he created the preliminary design for a piping duplicity project to eliminate a 1-2 day waiting period for unloading one of Avery Dennison’s most used feedstocks. This design also involved reviewing the project with contractors to determine a total cost of $55,000.
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From this internship, John gained valuable experience with how to communicate technical details to people with different technical backgrounds including operators, maintenance technicians, engineers, contractors, and plant leadership. In the future, John would like to develop and utilize his technical experience to troubleshoot manufacturing equipment when it breaks down.
Margaret Perr’tiangha (MechEng, EE minor), graduating Fall ’22
Margaret spent Summer 2022 as a Project Engineering Intern for The Whiting-Turner Contracting Company in San Diego, California. Whiting-Turner is a company that provides construction management, general contracting, design-build, and project delivery services for construction projects.
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During her time as an intern, Margaret assisted project and field engineers with pre-construction planning tasks for a half-billion dollar, 890,000 square-foot warehouse distribution project. These tasks included performing quantity takeoffs for monthly-updated architectural, structural, and fire suppression blueprints, for cost estimation, logistics, construction feasibility, and quality control purposes. Margaret communicated with trade partners to ensure proper completion and acquisition of OSHA safety documents. She also evaluated potential subcontractors to find a suitable trade partner for drone documentation of the warehouse construction process, as well as a suitable trade partner for the man hoist. Finally, Margaret served as the business development liaison for a six-intern, internal bidding project focused on compiling a project proposal for 75,000 square feet of tenant improvement.
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During her time in California, Margaret got the opportunity to visit previous and current Whiting-Turner construction projects, such as the Google Bayview campus and various Stanford University buildings. Margaret is looking forward to combining the project management experience she gained with her technical engineering education and experience to build a better, more beautiful, and more sustainable world.
