Thermal Analysis Labs interns shared a little bit about their experience during the first weeks of the internship.
Jenna Betts
Fourth-year chemical engineering student with a specialization in biomedical at The University of New Brunswick.
I am originally from Nova Scotia and decided to come to New Brunswick for school. I was very interested when I found out UNB had an option in biomedical engineering under chemical engineering and knew I wanted to jump into that opportunity. When not working or completing schoolwork, I enjoy playing intramural basketball and softball with my friends, thrifting, and being home with my family and animals.
In my case, this is my first CO-OP/work placement, so I was excited but also very nervous. Starting a new job is like learning a whole new language, and every workplace has their own language that you have to pick up pretty quickly. Everyone here has been very supportive in my learning process. We all learn differently, and the people that are teaching me here are very respectful of that by ensuring that I am learning in the way that is most efficient and beneficial for me.
In the broad range of applications that chemical engineering can cover, heat transfer and thermal analysis is one of them. I was first introduced to heat transfer in depth in third year where we had to take a heat transfer course.
Despite my nervousness, I felt very welcomed to the team and that my thoughts and opinions were valued. I hope to continue learning the valuable skills I am learning here every day, which I know I will take with me in the future.
Hitoshi Taniguchi
Third-year chemical engineering student at University of New Brunswick (UNB).
I am a Japanese international student, but this is not my first time living (and studying) in a different country. Although I was born in Japan, I spent majority of my life in Thailand where I was raised.
I have joined C-Therm Technologies through UNB’s Science and Engineering Co-Op Program, and I am extremely grateful for the opportunity to gain a professional experience prior to my graduation here at C-Therm.
My first few weeks here at C-Therm were quite hectic yet very exciting. I received various trainings on how to operate the state-of-art equipment in the lab, and I had an opportunity to work with the engineering team, where I had a chance to meet all the “brains” behind the Trident and other innovations from C-Therm. The tasks assigned were all very new to me and I struggled at the beginning, but thanks to the helpful and welcoming colleagues, I was able to get them done.
Before I worked at C-Therm, thermal conductivity was something I would only see at the back of a heat transfer textbook, and although I knew some examples in which it could be used for (like calculating a heat loss from a reactor), I did not understand how crucial knowing the thermal conductivity of a material is to so many different fields and applications. Through my first few weeks, I became aware that in almost any field of industrial applications, thermal properties play a crucial role for development and design of such process, and I grew a massive appreciation for new technologies and methods being developed for thermal characterization.
I would like to thank people at C-Therm again for having me as a member of the team and supporting me throughout the onboarding process. Although it has been only a few weeks, the experience I have gained here were eye-opening, and it made me realize a career path that I would have otherwise never considered. As an engineering student who is graduating in almost a year, this experience would be an irreplaceable one in my life.
Check our careers page for the current open positions at C-Therm.