More than 200 College of Engineering students are in internships and co-ops this summer, gaining valuable on-the-job experience at employers throughout Iowa and the U.S.

About 65 percent of the students are working for firms or organizations in Iowa.  Others are employed as summer interns in Minnesota, Indiana, Illinois, Nebraska, Ohio, Missouri, Florida, New York, Colorado, Wisconsin, Tennessee, California, Massachusetts, Michigan, Alabama, Georgia, Texas, Utah, Montana, North Carolina, Ohio, and even Thailand and Nicaragua.

Combined, the students cover all five departments of the college -- biomedical, chemical and biochemical, civil and environmental, electrical and computer, and mechanical and industrial engineering.

A few examples of the projects students are working on over the summer include:

• Developing a device to remove blood clots from veins before they break apart and migrate into the blood in order to prevent pulmonary embolism.
• Designing an ArcGIS map to label air emission points in a plant in order to aid EPA inspections and audits.
• Integrating CAD creations and CAE results to increase efficiency of design for vehicle development programs.

Internships and co-ops were acquired a variety of ways, including attending college career fairs, receiving counseling through the college's Professional Development Office, utilizing the university's web site--HireaHawk.com, applying to companies directly, exploring job social media sites, and networking through family and friends.

The Engineering Cooperative Education and Internship program at the University of Iowa gives students the option of exploring and developing their careers through periods of professional practice.  These are institutionally supervised, professional and engineering-related experiences in business, industry, education or government that are recognized by the College of Engineering. The program is structured in a way that there is goal setting at the beginning, analysis and reflection at the mid-point and evaluation and feedback at the end.  Experiences range from ten-week summer internships to multi-term co-ops.