Christina Lentz about her Co-op at GE Aviation

GE Aviation produces commercial jet engines, military jet engines, and engines for marine applications. They are the world's leading producer of large and small commercial jet engines and military jet engines. GE Aviation is publicly owned and the stock is listed at the NYSE.

Christina Lentz is an electrical engineering major from California, KY. She graduated in 2005 from Campbell County High School and spent a year at Northern Kentucky University before transferring to UK .

"Initially, I hoped that I could do something very important and ultimately beneficial to the company. It turns out that I actually did, which is really cool. My group (Assembly Process Engineering) was very supportive in the learning process. I was constantly told that if I ever had any questions to be certain to ask them, even of the head of the PDD (Product Development and Delivery) department. Co-ops are encouraged and invited to go on interesting tours of different buildings and departments at the GE Aviation Evendale plant. The relaxed work environment made me very comfortable at my job. I did not need a reality adjustment to what engineering was all about, however I didn't realize that a lot of engineers sit in front of the computer 8 hours a day!"

As a "first rotation" co-op in Assembly Process Engineering, a first assignment was to research LVDT's (Linear Variable Differential Transducer) and different computer hardware setups, such as USB systems or PCI boards. Christina learned how they worked and are used in industrial applications. In the second part of physics, students learn about mutual inductance and solenoids. Also in Circuits I, they learn about voltages, currents, AC, frequencies, and phases. This information is useful because a current is provided in the primary solenoid coil and a voltage is induced in the secondary coil when the LVDT moves. Christina was able to recognize and understand a lot of things learned in those classes.

  Another assignment was to graph the hours that it took to use the existing software and assemble the compressor and turbine parts of different engines. This allowed an easy visual reference for seeing needed improvement time, maximum time and minimum time.

  The biggest project was to program new software to help take different measurements in the assembly process of the engines. This assignment challenged her in many different ways. Besides learning more about the basic concepts of computer programming, she also learned the Visual Basic programming language in order to manipulate spreadsheets in Excel and create a free standing program. While working on this program she had to keep in mind the standardization among different engines and the users. Obviously this led to a variety of issues which she had to solve and reason through. Overall, all three of the assignments allowed her to see what Assembly Processing Engineering is all about.

I advise middle and high school students to take as many math and science courses as possible. Even if you don't get into engineering (which you should because you can do some really cool stuff), it will help you a lot in your future. Learning material is always easier the second time around rather than the first time. So it's best to be exposed to as much science and math as possible in high school as opposed to waiting until college..

This experience reinforced my career goals and has inspired me to continue to do well in my classes. My goal from this experience is to get into one of the leadership programs that GE Aviation and other companies offer. For example the EEDP (Edison Engineering Development Program) is one that I'm extremely interested in. This allows time and support to get your Masters and also to rotate into different GE business groups."