The featured student this week is Ethan Weaver, a Mechanical Engineering major from Spring Hill, Tennessee, who worked for PolyOne in Clinton, Tennessee.
Weaver worked under the Maintenance Manager, using his knowledge of engineering related practices and programs to support the maintenance department of the company in any way possible. During his coop, Weaver designed a replacement for the machinery located in the plant.It was his responsibility to measure the machine, design the part in AutoCAD, and then reach out to the contractors to find the most cost-effective way to get this part fabricated and installed.
He also worked on creating a digital catalog for all of the CAD drawings used by PolyOne. This project required him to design a data archive and create a process for efficiently cataloging, dating, and extracting thousands of drawing files created over the course of 25+ years. This project allowed the maintenance staff to easily find CAD drawings that are critical to their work in minutes instead of days.
Weaver says, “My time as a co-op has given me a new appreciation for my education and it taught me the value of hard work. While attending classes between semesters, I felt more engaged because I knew that what I was learning would be helpful in the future.”