Every summer, k-Space hires student interns and challenges them with responsibilities designed to propel their career. And every year, it seems the interns exceed our high expectations. This year, especially.
Our 2024 interns, Caymen Cline, Ethan Kotre, Nolan Sinkwitts, and Nick Whalen, all did a fantastic job here this summer.
k-Space has its scientists, engineers, software teams, support staff, and production teams all co-located together. No functions are outsourced. This is unique to the industry, and this collaboration enhances new product design, ensures the best quality products, and makes for better customer support. It also means we are a good place for interns to challenge themselves and gain a true, real-world assessment of their strengths.
Caymen Cline: Caymen is pursuing a BSE in Computer Engineering at the University of Michigan-Dearborn. Caymen provided analysis and reporting on multiple glass samples, programming an Epson robot to scan a laser profilometer around the edges of the glass and obtaining detailed edge profiles for quality analysis. Caymen interned at k-Space last year as well, working on both a robot and conveyor control project, and was eager to return this summer.
Nolan Sinkwitts: Nolan is a Marketing Major in the Eli Broad College of Business at Michigan State University. Nolan was tasked with supporting our website SEO function and helping with events planning. He also helped clean up the graphics design and consistency of several of our product marketing brochures. Because he is considering a career in marketing analytics, Nolan was also tasked with analyzing our digital advertising efforts. While Nolan gained marketing experience, k-Space improved and completed several marketing projects because of his efforts.
Ethan Kotre: Ethan is working towards his Electrical Engineering degree at Western Michigan University. Ethan was tasked with helping design a rotation stage for wafers to rotate between 5-1200rpm. This device will be used for testing and when we exhibit at trade shows. Ethan’s work focused on the electrical redesign of the rotation stage. He also performed Teensy 4.0 and Arduino coding, used KiCADTM to develop electrical diagrams, and worked with our engineering team to test and build the PCB for the final product (see below). He and Nick Whalen were the co-leads on this project.
Nick Whalen: Nick is a Mechanical Engineering sophomore at the University of Michigan. He worked with Ethan on the wafer rotation stage project, focusing on initial design, building prototypes, ordering parts, and final circuit design. Nick wrote much of the code controlling the Teensy and Arduino microcontrollers, as well as the code for the LCD displays on the unit. Nick also learned the DraftSightTM mechanical design software and helped generate mechanical schematics of both the rotation stage as well as existing kSA metrology tools that needed updated mechanical drawings.
k-Space CEO Darryl Barlett told the pair at the start of the summer to make sure the final product works well and looks good. And they delivered. Ethan and Nick had to overcome a variety of roadblocks to deliver a finished product. These included issues with overheating, sturdiness of the model, and getting the right components.
At k-Space, all our interns are paid and their contributions matter. We put their skills (and interests) to work and believe this benefits each of them in their professional ambitions. We also do this to help grow the STEM economy in our region. We are proud of our “Michigan Made” k-Space interns.
