Our student this week is Matthew Shapiro, a mechanical engineering major who accepted a co-op at Malibu Boats of Tennessee located in Loudon, Tennessee. He describes the department he worked in and what his main responsibilities were.
“I worked with the plastics and sewing departments to improve upon the interior design of every boat,” said Shapiro. “Specifically, I worked with the CNC routers and Lectra machine (machine for cutting vinyl patterns) to make fixes and improvements to current production pieces. I also spent a good portion of this work term preparing new interior designs for the new model year.”
A challenge that Shapiro had to overcome on this assignment was to be a better communicator. “There were a few times during this work term where I failed to convey something clearly and it led to issues that I could have resolved by simply being better at communicating,” he said.
The most valuable benefit Shapiro received during his co-op assignment was in gaining experience. “I feel more confident in the skills I can offer a future employer because of the valuable skills I have learned on my assignment,” he said.