What is my LINK Internship?
My Link ProjectsFor LINK my projects were to make a show combustion chamber for the 100 lbs thrust motor, and conduct water flow testing on their additive manufactured elements to see the resistances through them to give to the designers so they can make better injectors. So first off, my combustion chamber was created in Fusion 360 and has the correct internal geometry, as well as they, were made with the SLA printer in which I found the close to perfect settings for the print quality. With the guidance of some of the guys from Agile (the design part of the company), I designed the combustion chamber with specific parameters like having a determined L* of 15in (except we had to resize it because it was too large).
The water flow testing that I conducted was on testbed elements that were all made from additive manufacturing, but slightly different providers in creating them. My job for this was to find the resistance of the water flowing through the element, so we can gain an understanding of what is happening inside of the passages. With the data, I attempted to figure out what was truly happening, but I ended up running out of time. You can find AMPT here https://ampt.pro/ My Final Thoughts About LinkI loved my LINK internship. I thought it was one of the coolest things I was able to see and be apart of, heaven for the short amount of time that there was. I found that I had some of the skills needed to be useful at AMPT like my ability for critical thinking. Most importantly one of the most important skills that I had was a small understanding of Fusion 360, and calculus, both of which I used to design my combustion chamber. I also found that by using my understanding in Fusion I was able to further develop my knowledge of cad programs.
One of the most important skills that I took away from AMPT, was my ability to understand the testing process in engineering. So the ability to take multiple tests and find the key differences between them and changing only the variables that we need to get the results we are looking for. I also ended up learning how to really troubleshoot by narrowing down what actually happened from the data, as well as what didn't happen. The one thing that really struck me during this entire experience, is that I need to have a college education to really understand what is happening. I often found myself lost listening to my colleges because of my incomplete knowledge of what was happening as well as the acronyms that were in the business. I found though, through my incomplete knowledge that there is so much to learn, and that I am extremely eager to find out the rest of propulsion in rocket science. Even though High School interns can be a pain in the rear, I believe that every company should consider talking on one so the interns can start to shape their reality. Too many of us go into the world thinking about what we want to do, but in actuality, it isn't what we want to do. We need to see first hand what it takes to be someone in the fields of our idealization. I also believe that it actually helps the company to have a High School intern to foolproof there systems, as well as develop their own knowledge so the company can actually describe what they are doing to a high schooler, and the outside world in whole. Through the LINK internship, I learned that I have to go to college if I want any part in engineering or the world as a whole. As I was watching, I found that the information of having a higher education helps us out by knowing what is going on as well as the prestige and added class of having one. The idea that having any degree will help my standing in life. Most importantly though, I found that everyone needs to work hard for one, they don't fall out of the sky. But with any education, how much you put into it helps in the long run. When I do get my degree I want to learn almost everything there is to in this world. Because a college education is what you put into it, even if you get a degree, you need to know how to use it and understand what the world is and how to apply it. |