Stevens Institute of Technology: Admissions Blog

Internships Yield a Job at Goldman Sachs for Senior Caitlin Early

Caitlin Early’s plans included focusing on internships as soon as she began her college career. She says she started the search at the Fall Career Fair just a few short months into her freshman year at Stevens. Working with the Office of Career Development, Caitlin laid the groundwork for building an impressive resume early on: at that Career Fair, she landed her first internship at AEP in Columbus, Ohio.

When she returned to Stevens as a sophomore, she was presented with the opportunity to attend an information session on campus for Goldman Sachs. After applying and having what she calls “a slightly overwhelming seven interviews,” she got the internship. That summer she was an analyst in the service division on an infrastructure planning team. She returned for a second summer the year after in project controls as a project manager.

After completing her second internship at Goldman Sachs, she received her full-time offer. She accepted the job because she had two great summer experiences with the organization and was confident the role was right for her. Caitlin will be an analyst in the Services Division when she starts in July, though her exact role has not been specified yet.

“That Information Session, hosted by the Office of Career Development, introduced what would be a large part of my life,” Caitlin states. “Who knew it would ultimately lead to my full-time position.”

Caitlin will graduate with a Bachelor’s in Electrical Engineering, a Master’s in System Engineering, and a graduate certificate in Financial Engineering. On campus she has served as a tour guide, orientation leader, peer mentor, member of Gear and Triangle, President of Eta Kappa Nu, and took advantage of the Study Abroad program. Like Drew, she too hopes to eventually pursue an MBA. 

“I have been provided with more opportunities then I ever expected at Stevens,” Caitlin asserts. “In my four years I was able to not only enjoy my time as an undergraduate on campus and in Hoboken, but I also lived in Ireland for five months while studying abroad. All that and I was still able to complete two degrees and graduate with an amazing job.”

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Taking Leadership Experience to Verizon

As a soon-to-be 2013 Stevens graduate, Teddy Poppe of Quincy, Mass. will head to Washington, D.C. this summer to begin a full-time career as an affiliate engineer in Verizon’s competitive Leadership Development Program, working primarily on FIOS and wireless development.

Poppe, who will earn a B.E. in Mechanical Engineering and an M.E. in Systems Engineering this May, is ready for the challenge.

“Stevens has a great five-year master’s program that provides a well-rounded education and makes students very well-prepared for life after college,” he said.

Poppe – who was personally recommended for Verizon’s program by a university leader – impressed in many ways as a Stevens undergraduate.

The Student Government Association (SGA) president, he oversaw more than 95 student organizations and a $1.2 million budget.

“This position brought all sorts of new challenges, but I think I was able to handle them well, and I think that we truly improved the SGA as a whole during my term,” Poppe said.

He also started Stevens’ first-ever Golf Club; held positions within in the Gear & Triangle student leadership society, Order of Omega Greek leadership society, and Sigma Nu fraternity; and did charity work for Up ‘til Dawn, which raises money for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

Poppe’s volunteerism during Hurricane Sandy earned him the Outstanding Citizen Award from the Stevens Campus Police, and he was also honored for his civic engagement and leadership on campus at the 2011 Stevens Student Leadership Awards brunch.

A member of Stevens’ Cooperative Education program, Poppe also gained work experience as an employee of two companies as an undergraduate student – L’Oreal Paris and ITT Electronic Warfare Systems.

At L’Oreal, Poppe designed custom tools and processes for production machinery, led an efficiency improvement initiative, and performed other manufacturing engineering duties.

At ITT, Poppe – who, as a youth, wanted to design fighter jets – worked in the circuit card assembly division, turning blank circuit cards into anti-radar systems for military use.

Given the mark he left on so many aspects of Stevens, Poppe was the obvious choice to address the Class of 2016 at the university’s 142nd Convocation ceremony in September 2012. There, he urged incoming freshmen students to make the most of their time at Stevens.

“This is your home; it will only be as good as you make it, and you will only get out what you put in,” he said during his speech.

Now Poppe is ready to leave his Stevens “home” and embark on his future at Verizon, thanks to the excellent preparation he received at his alma mater.

“I think I’ll find myself ahead of the game in work experience and overall engineering knowledge,” Poppe said.

He hopes to one day become a leader at Verizon.

“Like many Stevens graduates before me, I see myself staying at Verizon for the long haul,” he said. 

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Professional Practice Yields Career Opportunity for Senior Richard delos Reyes

Senior Richard delos Reyes completed three cooperative education (co-op) assignments during his Stevens career. He worked at L’Oreal as a Process Engineer, optimizing manufacturing times of various products; and twice at Movado Group, Inc. as SAP Production Support & Business Analyst. Driven on all fronts, Richard will graduate in May with a B.E.  in Engineering Management, an M.E. in Systems Engineering and three graduate certificates: Logistics & Supply Chain Analysis; Systems & Supportability Engineering; and Business Intelligence & Analytics.

After his two co-op terms at Movado, he was approached about a full-time opportunity with the organization. He knew he wanted to continue learning and felt Movado provided many avenues for growth. Richard is currently working part-time until graduation, when he will officially join Movado as a SAP Business Systems Analyst, specifically for the custom after-sales service functions and programs developed within SAP. He credits his Stevens experience with helping prepare him for this opportunity.

“Stevens gave me the skillset needed to stand out while working at Movado, which caught the attention of the CIO,” Richard says. “The Engineering Management program gave me a better understanding of process analysis and management, while the Systems Engineering program gave me a different perspective in analyzing products and processes.”

As a student, Richard has participated in many clubs, and even co-founded one: the Stevens Chapter of the Society of Asian Scientists and Engineers (SASE). He says his standout experience was taking part in the Summer Research Institute, hosted by one of Stevens’ National Centers of Excellence, the Center for Secure and Resilient Maritime Commerce. Participants were tasked with modeling the effects of a dirty bomb attack anywhere in the New York Harbor, and Richard worked on modeling the economic impact of such an attack. He calls it “an eye-opening experience”.

In the future, Richard would like to pursue IT/Business Systems consulting as well as a higher degree, but he is keeping an open mind and views the world as his oyster. He is grateful to Stevens for the “many, many opportunities for internships, co-ops and research, as well as extracurricular activities” it provides:

“Taking advantage of as many of those opportunities as possible will help bolster resumes and give students a better chance of landing great job opportunities.”

He certainly is proof of that sound advice!

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Designing the Future

When presented with a real-world problem, Stevens Institute of Technology students kick into gear, and not just because they're required to do so.  The Senior Projects Expo last week exemplified the reality that Stevens students not only develop the skills and knowledge to design solutions to challenging problems but that they enjoy the process!  

It was a beautiful day as faculty, staff, students, alumni, community members and friends gathered for Stevens’ annual event, a showcase of the senior year design projects of the graduating students from the Charles V. Schaefer, Jr. School of Engineering and Science, the Howe School of Technology Management, and the School of Systems and Enterprises.

The Expo is the culmination of the undergraduate education experience at Stevens. It allows students to apply the knowledge they have learned over four years to address a significant challenge in the areas of engineering, science, computer science, engineering management, and technology marketing and management. More than 100 groups were present at this year’s event – with outdoor exhibition space set up for the first time ever to accommodate the overflowing arena. 

"Every year, it is exciting to see the progress, teamwork, and execution of these concepts as ideas become reality," says Dr. Keith Sheppard, Associate Dean of Engineering and Science. "A number of these projects will go on in competitions, while others will make positive changes as industry applications. These students look forward to an incredible future."

The projects on display ran the gamut from alternative energy solutions to biomedical applications to innovative and efficient new vehicles. 

Team Five Guys was among the senior design teams displaying their projects in the Canavan Arena. Nyle Hammond, Edgar Barrios, Kyle Hanas, Elliot MacMillan, and Peter Yurkowski designed an interactive ordering solution for casual eating establishments, a project sponsored by Johnny Rockets, "The Original Hamburger," establishment in Hoboken, NJ. Their solution to inefficiency between front-end service and back-end management functions at restaurants that capitalize on maximizing table turnover? They designed a system that includes utilizing Apple iPads with the "Easy Pay Touch" hardware, docking stations, iOS mboile operating system software that integrates with the restaurant's POS system, and an administrative Web page. 

Essentially, they put touch-screen devices in the hands of customers, allowing them to choose and submit their orders directly to a ticketing system, generate and manage their bills, request server assistance, and split bills easily - decreasing time and error that would otherwise impede flow of service and, essentially, profits for the restaurant.

One of the groups, TEACHINS-U, worked to develop a therapeutic device for autistic children. Designed in two phases, a training phase then a hands-on phase, the acronym stands for Training and Educating Autistic Children to Help Improve Necessary Skills Unit. The Mechanical Engineering team has been receiving very positive and enthusiastic feedback to the device, according to group member Jeff Pass.

 

An Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) group created The Digital Wall Calendar, a device which will utilize a calendar-based operating system for organizing plans, meetings, and other scheduled events. They also intend for it to incorporate a custom photo feature to replicate the novelty of a traditional wall calendar.

 

The team members report that the project development was a lot smoother than they originally thought. They were able to utilize their time throughout the entire Senior Design process, completing the research early on, which made putting the final product together even easier. The team also published a QR code on their poster, drawing smart phone users to a website explaining their project. 

 

CADeyes, a Stevens Start-up company, is an advanced mobile mapping system designed to create dimensionalized site and contour maps, and as-built drawings of both the exterior and interior of building structures. The company tasked a Mechanical Engineering group with developing a mobile indoor-scanning platform for 3-dimensional mapping and visualization.

 

“We are really pleased with the way the CADeyes IntelliScan turned out,” said Ravi Javia. “The device is exactly what we expected it to be. CADeyes didn’t have a system for indoor scanning yet, so this is just what they wanted. Our group created something that delivered to their exact specifications.”

 

An Engineering Management group stayed close to Stevens for their project, working with the Athletics department on their website. They developed a highlights video package for Athletics events that would create a more interactive website experience.

 

Their display was a colorful, interactive board, complete with streaming video. Gene Kang stated that the board replicated exactly what they intend the website to look like beginning next year. Attila the Duck, Stevens’ mascot, hung out with the group at the Expo.

 

“We’re getting a lot of attention today,” said Kang. “But I think that’s because of Attila!”

 

Margaret Przeszlo, an ECE major, and her partner Kevin Fuhrman, worked on a project entitled Facemask. At the Expo, she stated: “Everything worked out so well! Last week our system crashed and we were afraid we wouldn’t have anything to show but we were able to work the glitches out. I guess that’s what Senior Design is all about, right? Real-life, real-working challenges – and finding solutions.”

 

That sentiment is definitely a recurring theme among the students.

 

"The hands-on Senior Design process is very helpful," says Biomedical Engineering student Dalia Shendi, whose "Heat Wave" Senior Design team created a portable device to re-warm patients suffering from hypothermia, with applications for both the U.S. Army and New Jersey Physicians. "Before Stevens, I had little real experience, and now I know I can research a problem, look at the market for a product, and build and test a successful prototype."

 

Engineering Management Students win Best Poster Award at 2008 USMA Capstone Conference

Stevens Engineering Management students had a victory at the recent 2008 USMA Capstone Conference at West Point, where they recently won the Best Poster Award for their work re-engineering New York Presbyterian Hospital’s Emergency Department registration. The five-member team from Stevens, also known as "Better Managed Solutions, Inc." includes two students who are completing the Four Plus One program to obtain an ME in Systems Engineering, and three undergraduate Engineering Management students.

Originally conceived as a Senior Design Project, the initiative quickly gained a professional scope as the students made connections inside the hospital, including a Six Sigma Blackbelt internal consultant, and the Chief of Emergency Medicine, who welcomed them to participate in senior management meetings, after they were fast-tracked through the hospital’s volunteer access protocol. "We were treated like consultants," says Adam Hecht, ME Systems Engineering ’08. "They are in the process of implementing bedside registration, which was one of our recommendations, and we are meeting with the hospital staff again to discuss our findings." Word has spread about the study conducted by the team, and area hospitals are contacting the group about their findings.

At the 2008 USMA Capstone Conference, hosted by the USMA Department of Systems Engineering, the team presented their work among a strong group of Systems Engineering programs, including US Air Force Academy, University of Virginia, and West Point students. Many of the research projects presented at the conference were completed with dedicated school staff, and significant budgets, as well as having a military focus.

According to BE Engineering Management ’08 student James Norberg, "It was like being a magic act at a singing contest, bringing in a civilian project to be evaluated." Apparently, the magic worked, with the poster describing an application of business process reengineering to make drastic improvements to NY Presbyterian Hospital’s current Emergency Department registration. After assessing the current process, performing a time study, comparing performance statistics against other local hospitals, and making use of simulation software to complete the final analysis, the team was able to make recommendations to simplify patient flow and make both the hospital staff and the patient experience better.

The School of Systems and Enterprises extends congratulations to Kathryn Abuan, Drew Cottrell, James Norberg, Adam Hecht, and Chris Babula, and faculty advisor Eirik Hole for excellent work promoting the value of Systems Engineering.