Name: Cali Copsey
Major: Mechanical Engineering ’14
Internship: Target Engineering Support Branch for the Naval Air Command at the Patuxent River Naval Base in Maryland
Could you tell us a little bit about the internship you completed this past summer?
My internship was with the Target Engineering Support Branch for the Navy. The main purpose of the Support Branch is to design and somewhat manufacture targets for the navy to practice shooting at. There were three other interns and we each worked on a different project. I was paired with a mentor and we worked on the “Over The Horizon” project.
Tell us more about your project!
Since weapons have become so advanced, the Navy needed to develop a relay system to control their practice targets. Since the targets are so far away, they needed a mechanism that would go up to the sky and relay the message back down. We used to use airplanes for those purposes but that is very expensive so now we are trying to use aerostats, which is basically a blimp and doing different calculations to see if it would work because not a whole lot of research has been done in this area yet. That was the main project I worked on.
Did you feel prepared for your internship?
Yes. Everything I’d learned in class was very relevant to what I was doing, especially my Mechanics of Solids class that I had taken with Dr. Brown. It was amazing because you always hear how at school you mostly learn how to problem solve and learn the rest on the job, but this was a pretty direct application of what we had been studying. We were using the same equations.
You are from Leonardtown, Maryland. How did you end up at CBU?
I wanted a small school with a good engineering program, which is really hard to find. An engineering program with all the facilities is really expensive so most small schools don’t have one. I came and visited, I liked the facilities, I figured out that I could continue running cross-country so I was hooked. I really enjoy being in such a small school. My teachers know me well and I feel comfortable going to them when I have questions.
You are graduating next year, we know it’s still early, but have you had a chance to think about what you would like to do after you graduate?
I am still thinking about it. I really enjoyed my work at the Target Engineering Support Branch but I am also curious about the biomedical field and there are plenty of professional opportunities in that area here in Memphis.
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To read more Internship Spotlight pieces, take a look at our recent interviews with Brian Vinson (Sport Management, ’13), Michalyn Easter (History & Political Science ’13) and Riley Pace (Chemistry, ’13).
If you are interested in doing an internship, talk to your advisor or contact the Career Center today!
