Written By: Jack Robertson
Today, we had a fascinating time touring Tekniker, an esteemed Spanish engineering company. We explored much of their facilities and learned about their operations, which taught me a lot about what my future career might look like.
One highlight for me was seeing the projects that student interns had been working on with the company. The project shown above is an upgraded walker, designed to be easier to use and accessible to a wider range of patients. The students replaced the fixed wheels with swiveling ones and upgraded the grip material to improve user comfort and control. Although these may seem like simple changes, I found it fascinating to see a student like me applying their engineering knowledge to improve the medical field.
It was also very interesting to learn more about the process of turning a prototype into a fully marketable product. The image shown above shows the level of uncertainty that comes with every step in the bench-to-market process for a product. In the early stages, uncertainty is high, but as the product develops and moves closer to completion, both the engineers creating the product and industry tend to gain more confidence in it. I found this especially interesting, as these same design tendencies will almost certainly apply to whatever position I end up in.
I also found it fascinating to see how such a large company manages so many employees. The picture shown above displays the workspace where a large portion of the staff works, where they are lined up along desks in a long, open room. While the setup may seem simple, the lack of cubicles encourages easy communication among colleagues, which is a key piece to a healthy workplace. We also learned how the company is divided into multiple teams, allowing for more effective management and ensuring everyone has a clear role.
Overall, I thought today was really insightful in helping me understand what my future career might look like. I realized how much I enjoy companies like Tekniker, which work in many different fields and always have new projects and startups happening. I think working at a company like this would be really satisfying and would make me excited to come to work every day. Seeing how the employees use their engineering knowledge in their daily work made me even more excited to see what skills I learn in the rest of my college career. In summary, today really inspired me in what I am capable of in my future career, and makes me excited to see where the road will take me.