My name is Dylan Rivera and I’m from Waco, Texas. I’m a rising sophomore at Baker College studying mechanical engineering at Rice. At Rice, I’m involved with Rice Eclipse, the rocketry club, and I play intramural soccer. This past spring semester I was in a freshman design team that created a dog washing station for a local animal shelter, making it much easier for the shelter to wash large, high-energy dogs. Sometime that semester, we were told about SEED, a summer internship at the OEDK. I thought it would be a great opportunity to get even more engineering experience under my belt and to learn some very important skills, so I applied. After going through the application and interview process, I was notified that I was accepted, so here I am!

This week is the first week of SEED. Right now we’re in the middle of a boot camp meant to teach us the engineering design process. Honestly this week has felt like it’s going at lightning speed. This boot camp has basically condensed the entire ENGI 120 class (which takes an entire semester) into only a few days. So far we’ve done a lot of different team-building activities and have gone to the Houston Zoo twice. We’re currently working on a small project for the zoo; we’re tasked with creating a feeder for one of the Red River hogs, Luna, that will create more physical activity for her, as she currently is heavier than normal and does not engage in as much physical activity as the zookeepers would like. Today we finished the brainstorming process and are currently preparing our solutions for screening and scoring to narrow them down to a final design.

 

One of the coolest things I’ve done so far is meet the other members of SEED, especially the international students from Malawi and Tanzania. I’ve never worked with international students in this kind of setting before, so I’m excited to work in an engineering team with them; I think they could bring a lot of unique ideas to the table. In addition, I am serving as a host for the international students. I’m tasked with planning activities and outings both at Rice and around Houston for them and with being one of their primary points of contact at Rice. Even in the short time that we’ve been here, I’ve already learned so much from them. This will be a great opportunity to share our cultures with each other and for me to hopefully be a part of a great experience in the USA for them. Ultimately, after SEED ends I hope to have gained much more knowledge and comfort in the engineering design process, and to have gained valuable skills that will help me throughout college and my future career. I’m very excited for what the rest of the summer has in store for me!