In my sophomore year, I was promoted to the role of Alternative Media Coordinator. My day to day responsibilities are to manage the workflow and oversee the team of 12 technicians. I create and assign work orders, manage incoming and outgoing assignments, and contacted textbook publishers to expand our existing e-library of books. I got a lot of experience hiring and recruiting self driven employees as well as managing the individual members of a diverse team.

The Cal Poly Disability Resource Center is an on campus service that provides students with learning disabilities access to the resources they need to succeed academically. There are a few services offered but I specifically worked in the alternative media department where we provide accessible formats of books to students. Often, we convert physical textbooks to accessible PDF’s that can be passed through an online screen-reading software that reads the text back to the student.I was hired my freshman year as a technician. My main role was completing work orders that usually consisted of a student requesting one of their textbooks to be converted into a specific format. I would scan the pages of their textbook into our database, and then run the files through a series of software programs to convert the text into either a Word document, accessible pdf, or mp3 file. I used the program ABBYY FineReader to identify the text on each page and format it, and TextAloud to create mp3 files from the Acrobat file.

This 12 week summer internship involved a wide variety of opportunities for technical and professional growth. I worked on the following over the course of my project. General:-picking components for an RFID based systemSoftware (all C code):-characterizing and developing driver and application level C code to control an RFID reader IC-integrating the above code into the current software architecture of a multi-microcontroller based systemHardware (analog design)-High frequency antenna design for NFC communication-high frequency design antenna for an RF repeater-creating an entire RFID system prototype that could abide by current mechanical constraints given by the next generation product-create a new schematic for a current PCB with added IC, matching network, and various other passive components

I worked as an intern on the Design & Quality Assurance team. My main project was the development of a power analysis system for insulin pumps undergoing highly-accelerated life testing (HALT). I wrote python scripts and labview vi’s to control and communicate with a DC power supply that externally powered the pumps. I also touched on PCB schematic and layout design, as well as some basic machining.Overall, I developed a feel for working in professional engineering, and learned a lot about the medical device industry. This experience strengthened my desire to apply my degree to the biomedical sector and I hope to tackle more of the great contemporary medical device issues in my career.