COD students participate in summer engineering internships

College of DuPage Engineering students regularly gain crucial real-world experience through serving internships at prestigious local organizations.

COD student John Batke served an internship at Fermilab in Batavia, through the national laboratory's Community College Intern program. He spent his days this summer in Fermilab's silicon detector research facility as part of a team acquiring and analyzing data that will help optimize silicon photomultiplier single-photon counting detectors for the focal surface of a high-tech space telescope that will be attached to the International Space Station.

Batke, who said he found the internship to be very rewarding, is enrolled in COD's "Pathways to Engineering" program, which provides guaranteed admission for qualified students to the College of Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Since coming to COD, the Wheaton native was also named a Presidential Scholar, which comes with a full-tuition scholarship and enrollment in COD's Honors program and the Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society.

Batke said he has long had an interest in aerospace technology and hopes one day to work for a privatized space company like Space Exploration Technologies, Orbital Science or United Launch Alliance. He said he is pleased with the education and experience he has received at COD.

"The engineering classes offered at College of DuPage are some of the best in the state," said Batke. "COD offers the maximum in transfer equivalency at a community college. I feel well-prepared to hit the ground running when I get to U of I."

Batke said that COD's Engineering Club rivals any four-year school, pointing out that the club's robotics team in past years has done very well at the UIUC Jerry Sanders Robotics Competition. He added that COD's faculty of knowledgeable and supportive instructors has prepared him not only to transfer to a university, but also to succeed in his career later down the line.

"Professors Scott Banjavcic and Dave Smith have offered great insight into how this industry functions and how to get a meaningful job once we receive our degrees," Batke said.

While Batke spent his summer working with technology designed for use in outer space, Warrenville resident Aaron Carstens spent his summer very much down-to-earth. With plans to pursue a career as a civil engineer, Carstens served his internship at DuPage County's Division of Transportation. According to Carstens, his duties during the internship dealt primarily with the county road system, including surveying roads, creating cost estimates for resurfacing, performing traffic counts, adjusting traffic signal timing and performing bridge inspections.

Carstens, currently a sophomore who plans to transfer to a four-year university next year, said that the internship provided him with skills that will help him well into the future.

"The internship gave me practical experience to which I can relate many of the topics in my classes, making them easier to understand," Carstens said. "Not only that, I now have experience with a real job interview and with how to work and conduct myself professionally in an office environment."

Carstens also names Banjavcic and Smith, as well as the Engineering Club and the college's state-of-the-art facilities, as key elements of the program that are contributing to his success now and in the future.

"The engineering program at COD offers challenging coursework which has really helped me to develop good study habits and a quality work ethic," Carstens said. "Those are key skills in my future for success as a student and as a professional."

According to engineering professor Scott Banjavcic, COD's Engineering program is highly effective because of two fundamental factors.

"The success of the program is due primarily to the rigor of our curriculum, as well as the opportunities for practical, hands-on experience through extracurricular involvement such as the Engineering Club," Banjavcic said.

Banjavcic adds that he cannot overstate the importance of serving through internships, a point he goes out of his way to emphasize in the classroom.

"In this industry, you have to have something on your resume," he said. "I encourage all my students to get involved with extracurricular activities and obtain internships as soon as possible in their education. Through these activities, students learn the hands-on skills that can't be learned in a classroom."

The engineering program at College of DuPage provides the first two years of baccalaureate work, including courses covering circuits, chemistry, computer programming, engineering graphics, general studies, mathematics, mechanics and physics. Students generally transfer to baccalaureate-granting institutions where they can earn a bachelor's degree in engineering that prepares them for a wide range of professions. In addition, College of DuPage has partnered with the University of Illinois to offer the 2+2 Pathways to engineering program which facilitates a smooth transition and guaranteed admission to the prestigious baccalaureate engineering program at University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.

For more information about the Engineering program at College of DuPage, visit www.cod.edu/programs/engineering or email CODEngineering@cod.edu.