UC engineering students recognized for achievement in cooperative education

Pierce Elliott’s co-op experience includes three semesters of research at UC, one semester at Rhinesthal AMG, and two semesters at Relativity Space as a test engineering intern.

Elliott is the first UC student to successfully land a co-op at Relativity Space and has paved the way for future UC students there.

After graduation, Elliott plans to pursue a PhD in aerospace engineering at UC.

Brooke Barney's co-op advisor offered a few thoughts about her. "Flat out gets it done and does everything well," the advisor notes. "Whether it be shutting down a project site because the sub-contractor didn't have the proper insurance documentation to spearheading her employer's charitable events, Brooke is a great addition to the engineering community and a great example of what can be accomplished on co-op."

After graduating, Barney will work full-time for her co-op employer Skanska.

Teresa Hawk, a Columbus, Ohio, native, completed co-op rotations at Cook Medical, Ethicon, Eli Lilly and STERIS as well as a research experience at Cincinnati Children’s. She learned a variety of roles and consistently exceeded her supervisors’ expectations.

Hawk mentors fellow engineering students, and she has served for three years on the executive board of Enable Cincy, a nonprofit student organization that designs and uses 3D printing to create free prosthetics and assistive devices.

Hawk also received the prestigious Herman Schneider Medal this year.

Emily Smith completed co-ops with Mane, Nestle and Dow Chemical. Across three terms at Dow, she focused on manufacturing projects that increased efficiency, created safer work processes for operators, and minimized safety hazards. At Nestle, she developed and executed two technical trial protocols to eliminate 20 metric tons of plastic use annually.

Smith is president of the Society of Women Engineers UC chapter and serves as a CEAS Ambassador. After graduating, Smith will work full-time with Dow Chemical as a production engineer in Carrollton, Kentucky.

Having come to the University of Cincinnati from Egypt, Hamza Khairy’s impactful co-op experiences span multiple industries – manufacturing with Midea, testing with Signal.X Technologies, and telecommunications networking with Infinera.

He has optimized testing pipelines, enhanced user interfaces, and automated large-scale financial management workflows.

He has also made contributions as a peer mentor and leader.

Jacob Mitsch completed five co-ops with Messer Construction in Cincinnati. After staring in the main office, he moved into the field with increased responsibility and did his final co-op as a project engineer for the Siddall Hall renovation on the UC campus.

Mitsch was involved in the Construction Student Association as NewBuilders Competition chair, Construction Competitions Club president, and Canstruction chair.

He has accepted a full-time job with Messer Construction upon graduation.

Ryan Fieler’s two early co-op terms at the pretigious General Dynamics Electric Boat shipyard revealed his interest in controls engineering. He moved on to Fortna and then ControlTouch Systems (CTS) where he was commended for performing at 100% without supervision when the typical expectation for co-ops is 50-70% with supervision.

After graduation, Fieler will work for CTS sister company Sortation Labs, which works on conveyance systems for companies like UPS, FedEx and Amazon.

Through UC’s International Co-op Program, aerospace engineering major Matt Boller worked at Yuri GmbH in southern Germany, where he was responsible for supporting the development of life science payloads for European space agencies through hardware manufacturing, testing, and system integration.

In one project, he worked with investigators at a research hospital in Berlin to help prepare and execute an external testing campaign.

After graduation, Matt plans to pursue a research-based master’s degree in aerospace engineering at UC.