Floating Lessons at DeepCwind (USA)

The DeepCwind Consortium reviewed dozens of applications and placed 12 students around Maine and Washington, D.C. for eight-week-long summer internships.

Follow this series to hear from the mouths of interns what it’s like to work for companies that are launching the floating deepwater offshore wind industry.

 Dustin Jalbert, Masters Candidate International Finance and Economics

Interning at AEWC Advanced Structures and Composites Center

It’s my fourth week here, and things are going pretty smoothly. The “Windterns”, as we’ve been affectionately named, are becoming quite comfortable in the office together. Though we all have our individual assignments, we’ve found varying ways to lighten up the day, such as the ever-popular “Spanish word of the day.” I’d say our Spanish is getting good!

 I’ve also been very impressed with the creativity of the group, both the interns and permanent employees in Education and Outreach. Having been educated in the “dismal science” of economics, it’s refreshing to be working amongst people with backgrounds in engineering, marketing and visual design. Collaborating and talking has really helped me broaden my exposure to a whole new side of the business world that you don’t get with people planning to be financiers or economists. Even though I don’t necessarily have a specialty in these areas, it’s been nice to know that my skill sets are still helpful to producing a final product used as a marketing tool—a nice change from what I’m used to!

 Peter Drown, Undergraduate in Economics

Interning at Strategic Marketing Innovations (SMI), Washington, D.C.

Most excitingly this week marked the formal establishment of Future Leaders in Energy Excellence (FLEX). Richie, an Ocean Renewable Energy Coalition (OREC) intern, and I decided to found the group to give clean energy a voice from the people who are going to inherit this planet. We hope to expand the coalition into an effective tool to share networks and create business opportunities in the clean energy field.

 Terran Siladi, Undergraduate in Mechanical Engineering

Interning at AEWC Advanced Structures and Composites Center

 This week I started working a bit with [the researchers working on] floating turbine design and testing.

 I love it.

 Being able to do more engineering is quite awesome. I’ve been researching all kinds of marine corrosion information, and am constantly finding myself getting way too excited about what I am doing. As an example: I was trying to find the amount of area that I would be able to cover with 1 kg of a product. Sounds pretty boring I know, but with pencil and paper in one hand and Wolfram•Alpha in the other, I geeked out and busied myself converting between different units of measurement, finding densities of the material I was working with, and came out with a number that actually made sense. (It even had the right units! My dynamics professor would be proud, I’m sure.) I was quite proud of this fact, and I feel like it was one of the first times that I’ve actually been required to use just a little of the engineering knowledge that I’ve picked up over the past two years.

 (deepcwind)

[mappress]

Source: DeepCwind Windterns, July 19, 2011