Engineering Internship!
I'm sure you've heard that Dartmouth has countless resources for acquiring internships. If you haven't, I hope this post reiterates that!
I recently started an internship with the Engineering department at Dartmouth, through a program called FYREE. This is the First Year Research in Engineering Experience, which provides first-year students who are interested in engineering with the opportunity to work as a research assistant for a professor at Dartmouth Engineering. The professors post their projects online every year, after which students can apply for the position based on which project they are interested in working under. There is an interviewing process involved and depending on the project, the professor will pick one or more students to work on their project. The internship could either be for one or two terms, depending on the project.
I was accepted for a project under Professor Daniel Olson which involves research about the AdhE complementation in E. coli to enable protein engineering for biofuel applications. The internship requires around 8-10 hours a week, at a pay rate of $12 per hour.
The lab is located in the Engineering and Computer Science Centre, which is a beautiful place built newly last March. The place itself makes me feel more productive almost instantly.
Before I entered the lab, I had to complete lab training and safety as there is a lot of equipment involved that could cause harm if mishandled. The project I am working on does not deal with any hazardous biological component and has a relatively low risk level. I work directly under Shuen Hon, a research associate in the lab. I only started last week, but I am already starting to enjoy the time I spend in the lab.
There are many more research opportunities at Dartmouth, but this is one of them!