Student Stories
Mechanical Engineering Internship Story: Integrated Solutions for Systems (IS4S)
Luke Allen
Mechanical Engineering
What company did you intern with and where are they located?
Integrated Solutions for Systems (IS4S) in Opelika, AL
How did you identify and apply for your internship? Are there any specific resources you used to find the opportunity (i.e. Handshake, career fairs, other recruitment events)?
Career fair, handshake
What was the application process like?
I applied on handshake and then met with recruiters at the career fair, where I was selected for interview.
Tell us about your internship experience. What types of tasks and projects did you engage in? Was there a particular project or part of the experience you learned the most from?
At IS4S, I worked on drone drop payload stabilization, primarily redesigning tail fins for a drop test program. This involved SW modeling, 3D printing, running physical drop tests, extracting frame-by-frame angle data, and analyzing it in excel using differentiating, smoothing, and damping calculations. I also created a durable, mass-matched inert test article for this contract to ensure accurate drops during testing. Overall, I enjoyed supporting the team through meaningful, valuable projects that contributed to the success of the contract.
In what ways did this internship help you prepare for your next destination after Auburn?
It helped me realize that I really enjoyed R&D and hands on testing and design validation. I had previously worked in manufacturing, so it was great to see both worlds and it helped me find what I want to do.
In what ways did your coursework or other experiences at Auburn prepare you for your internships? Are there specific topics or skills you learned from classes that you put into practice on the job?
I learned a lot from both Dynamics and Systems classes, as I was using fall kinematics to redesign tails, and the angle-vs-time data was a second-order system.