UB - University at Buffalo, The State University of New York

Work Experience, Internship, and Certificate Programs

Required Internship

All undergraduate IE students complete supervised projects as a required part of the IE curriculum. These projects are typically completed as a 1-day per week internship during the spring semester of the senior year. Along with the work experience, students register for a 1 credit lecture which covers important topics in ethics, communication, and professionalism; and provides a forum in which students can receive input on their projects and produce a technical report and presentation regarding their work project. Internships can be identified by the student, faculty, or department, and must include a substantive engineering analysis and/or design component.

Some examples of recent required internship projects are:

• Caplugs, LLC: Evaluation/Analysis of Labor Standard Data
• Cobey, Inc.: Job Shop Scheduling Analysis
• Delphi Harrison Thermal Systems: Kit Parts for Production/Batch Process Flow Analysis, Facility Layout/Lean Manufacturing Analysis
• General Mills, Inc.: Down Time Study and Customer Complaint Database Analysis
• Glauber Equipment Corporation: Energy Analysis for Adjustable Frequency Drives
• Moog, Inc.: Inventory Control Analysis for Tooling

In addition to this required work experience, students may pursue work opportunities through the Engineering Career Institute (ECI) summer program, or through a multi-semester co-op program.

Engineering Career Institute Program and Engineering Co-op Program

Two optional programs are offered through the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences to assist engineering students in gaining real world experience. The Engineering Career Institute provides job search assistance and enhances your co-op student job performance by providing classes in leadership, communication, teamwork, total quality management, and other pertinent subjects while the in co-op program.

The Engineering Co-op Program enables students to gain exposure to a real employment situation, applying technical and business skills in an industrial environment. 

For more information, please contact:

Dean C. Miller
Assistant Dean
412 Bonner Hall
Buffalo, NY 14260
(716) 645-2768 X 1112
Web site: http://www.eng-intern.buffalo.edu/stu_home.html

Six Sigma Program

UB's Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering and the Center for Industrial Effectiveness (TCIE) have launched a Six Sigma Certification Program available to seniors and graduate students within UB Engineering. This program provides students with a distinct advantage in the competitive workforce and can result in Black Belt certification.

Over 25 students have participated in this program since its inception in 2004.

What is Six Sigma?

Six Sigma is a quality improvement program pioneered by Motorola and General Electric. It focuses on addressing problems at the root cause level, eliminating the need for unnecessary inspection and rework processes. The Six Sigma approach identifies and eliminates defects with a structured, data-driven, problem solving method of using rigorous data-gathering and statistical analysis. To achieve Six Sigma a process must not produce more than 3.4 defects per million opportunities. There are five phases to a typical Six Sigma project: Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, and Control.

Requirements

Admission to the Six Sigma Certification Program requires completion of IE 408/508 Quality Assurance and IE 409/508 Six Sigma Quality with a B or better. The courses cover statistical methods, management principles, and methods for dramatically improving the quality of products produced resulting in increased productivity as well as quality. Black Belt certification also requires the completion of a full-scale Six Sigma project with a local company and satisfactory performance on a four-hour comprehensive exam. Students will be paired with Black Belt certified mentors through a partnership with TCIE to conduct their company projects. The program spans two consecutive semesters and is open to seniors and graduate students within UB Engineering.

Program announcement and application requirements for the next program year are generally released in February.

Contact

Program administration is provided by Nick Randell, administrative director of TCIE.

For more information on Six Sigma certification at UB,
please contact Nick Randell at TCIE: 636-2568 ext. 14

Post Graduation

Career Services offers a wide variety of assistance for engineering  job placement including on-campus interviews, technical career fairs, resume and interview workshops, and emailed job postings.

To find additional information on part-time UB campus vacancies, graduate assistantships, part-time summer vacancies (no degree), part-time summer professional, and paid/unpaid internships, see Career Services.