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 Miami’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.
