The SASI advantage: Preparing CEC students for success
Mechanical Engineering graduate Abed Cabrera Cordero ’24 shares his experience with the Systems Automation Springboard to Internships (SASI) winter workshop.
The SASI advantage: Preparing CEC students for success
The College of Engineering and Computing (CEC) hosted another successful Systems Automation Springboard to Internships (SASI) workshop this J-term. SASI is a three-week training program designed to give students hands-on experience in process control and automation. The program is led by a variety of industry experts and faculty who teach students through lectures, hands-on activities, and a plant tour. Students who are selected are sponsored by a variety of companies to participate in the workshop and prepare for an internship or co-op.
Abed Cabrera Cordero ‘24, a recent Mechanical Engineering graduate, participated in the workshop this winter. He previously took a plant tour of Avery Dennison this past summer while working on a K-12 outreach program. There, he met company representatives, and when he reconnected this past fall, he was selected to interview for a co-op position at Avery Dennison. After graduating, he was ready to be trained for this position and set a foundation for his career. The SASI workshop provided him with this opportunity right here on ¾أ¾أث®أغجز’s Oxford campus.
“My biggest goal in my career is to advance my knowledge,” said Cordero. “I want to get as much experience as possible, and I thought that SASI would be a good opportunity for me to learn about automation and how manufacturing typically works.”
The lectures that Cordero participated in will give him a head start on his co-op. The SASI workshop teaches students a variety of methods in control systems, including the terminology and functions of equipment that Cordero will use during his co-op. Throughout the three weeks, industry professionals introduce students to a variety of coding languages and bring in equipment to show the different ways companies will implement control systems.
This year, the workshop included a tour of Essity, a paper plant in Middletown, Ohio. This tour allowed students the opportunity to visualize what they had learned and see the real-life applications. “The tour really helped us connect what we were learning to specific areas of a plant. It's one thing to talk about the machinery, it's another thing to see them in real life.”
The SASI workshop is held during J-term each year and is highly recommended by its participants. “I think SASI is a great program. It can be challenging, but if you pay attention, you get a lot out of it.”
To learn more about the SASI workshop, click here.