#student – Hunt Institute for Engineering & Humanity

October 6, 2021February 15, 2022

Summer Internship Experience: Natalie Owings

My time at La Tarte Tropézienne was a reality check on my ambition and my degree. I’m not saying I didn’t enjoy my time there, in fact, it was an amazing experience. Unlike a typically discussed experience, my internship was a path towards self-discovery.

To start, I was beyond excited to begin this summer work adventure. It was a perfect combination of two interests and degrees: French and marketing. Before an official introductory meeting with my boss, I had already brainstormed a social media facelift and marketing strategy. I wanted to apply my ideas immediately.

For the first month and a half, my work was praised and my eagerness to impress grew. I accepted multiple projects even though I didn’t have the time for them. Unfortunately, a health issue combined with work overload halted my progress. Compared to the beginning of my internship, my performance lacked the usual flare. At the time, I didn’t understand what was happening, but I had reached my limits.

I realized my desire to constantly impress caused burnout. I wasn’t meeting personal expectations, so I continued to stress myself. Initially, I loved my internship, but I soon began to fear it. I despised the reality I soon discovered; I didn’t want to do social media for a living. I would like to say I’m knowledgeable in the subject, but I do not have a passion for it. This new reality scared me because I thought I would have to change my major. I love doing creative projects, but that doesn’t mean social media is the only route in creative marketing. I have other options and my skills can be applied elsewhere.

I thought this internship would solidify my career choice, but I’m just entering the work world. Internships are trial runs. I’m young, and I have time to make mistakes and discoveries about myself. The road from an internship to one’s first job is never straight. The path has twists and turns, ups and downs, and tunnels where a sense of direction is unclear. I ingrained in my mind the idea that everyone has their life and career figured out at twenty-one. That’s not true. I wanted that easy path, but I honestly needed this journey to recognize what I truly want. La Tarte Tropézienne provided this introspection, and I’m incredibly thankful for the work opportunity and my newfound knowledge.

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September 14, 2021February 16, 2022

Summer Internship Experience: JuliaGrace Walker

Many of our student workers were able to spend this summer participating in various internships outside of the Hunt Institute. Students often return from these experiences with a fantastic arsenal of newly acquired skills, ideas, and perspectives. This summer, the Undergraduate Program Manager in the Institute, JuliaGrace Walker, was a Staff Intern for Ambassador E. Tony Wayne at the Mexico Institute at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. The Wilson Center, located in Washington, D.C., is a non-partisan think tank focusing on “tackling global issues through independent research and open dialogue to form actionable ideas for the policy community.” JuliaGrace shared the following about her internship experience:

During my internship in Washington D.C. this summer, I had the opportunity to fully immerse myself in current events, politics, and trade in regard to Mexico. I also continued to practice a higher level of Spanish by reading news articles on issues pertinent to Mexico’s domestic policy and government. I mastered condensing large, dense topics into specific, concise bullet points for presentations. I also managed and updated data for several graphs on topics such as homicide rates, border apprehensions, and the top trade partners of the U.S.

As an intern, I was in charge of helping with the logistics of our hybrid and virtual events centered around special topics regarding the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA). I learned about the different successes, challenges, and stakeholders involved in several USMCA chapters. I am very thankful for my newly acquired knowledge of the USMCA, Mexico’s politics, and current events.

Throughout my internship, I also gained a lot of insight on US trade relations and trade-related foreign policy. I was also fortunate to meet several Ambassadors and USAID foreign service officers who shared insights and advice on a career in the Foreign Service. Overall, this summer prepared me for future endeavors in the international affairs sector.

August 31, 2021February 21, 2022

Summer Internship Experience: Sydney Lobato

I had never done data analytics before, so it was an exciting challenge to take up. My team focused on the satisfaction score, which is the measure of how satisfied customers are with the price of items. I was tasked to understand why this score had been increasing and if there are any additional ways to continue its upward trajectory. I learned how to filter through thousands of data results from surveys to see which drivers within AT&T were causing this score to increase. I also took those drivers and did a deeper investigation to find areas of improvement for the company that would also result in a better score. Throughout the summer I gave presentations to my team, communicating the results I had found along with additional insights from my analysis.

Although this experience was virtual, I still felt very involved, and I really liked the numerous events focused on immersing interns in the company experience. These included a group activity with fellow interns, social get-togethers, and hearing about the many different sides of AT&T. One takeaway from my internship was the experience of networking with the people I met. Everyone was willing to help if I had any questions, and I gained knowledge on different job roles along with a ton of advice through networking. This summer was also a fantastic learning experience; I acquired a new understanding of data analytics and how you can use numbers and statistics to tell a story about what is happening within a company. I went out of my comfort zone with this position, but I am so grateful I did because I know I can use this skill in many future endeavors. I really enjoyed my internship, and I am so appreciative for all the people I got to work with and meet. I expanded my time management, collaboration, creative thinking, and communication skills and I look forward to using these abilities in the Hunt Institute.

August 31, 2021February 16, 2022

Summer Internship Experience: Sofia Murillo

“Sofia, if you had the chance to intern at AT&T again, would you change anything?” asked an AT&T Senior Executive during my intern synopsis presentation. At that moment, I took a few seconds to truly reflect on my summer internship at AT&T.

Over the course of my 10-week long internship, I helped with the recreation of the Compliance Data Management System (CDMS) used by thousands of EH&S (Environmental, Health, & Safety) employees through the creation of four user stories. User stories are documents that give IT/developers an idea of what the person/organization needs from a system being developed. In other words, it’s the instruction manual for developers but from the perspective of the user. The four user stories that I created had over 15,000 words and 100 pages combined. Completing these user stories was no easy feat. Coming into my internship, I knew nothing about EH&S which put me in a position where I had to be resourceful and network around the department to learn more about both CDMS and EH&S as a whole. At the end of my internship, I learned that the time and effort I put into creating the user stories would help AT&T save over a million dollars in time and resources annually.

Even though I kept myself busy with the creation of the user stories, I still sought some programming experience before the end of my internship. After some more networking around the company, I was notified of a project that would provide me that experience. My mini side-project involved using ReactNative and APIs to code a live project filter within a project tracking system used by a different department. Essentially, I helped streamline the search process within the system and I learned how to code using ReactNative (something I’ve always wanted to learn, especially as a Computer Science major and tech lover).

Beyond the projects I worked on, I also led the Intern Newsletter Team made up of 21 interns for three out of the four editions we published, as well as the Interviewing Team throughout the completion of the four editions. I also created and administered the main channel of communication for 176 interns.

Overall, the knowledge and experience that I took away from my internship at AT&T as well as the people I met along the way were absolutely invaluable.

So no, I would not have changed anything about my internship at AT&T, perhaps, at the most, I would have told myself to take a deep breath and trust the process.

August 30, 2021February 10, 2022

Waste to Energy Broader Impact Report

Waste to Energy: Harnessing the fuel in organic waste to create a business opportunity for a recycling-based society and system, Harshada Pednekar

In the summer of 2020, Harshada Pednekar, at the time pursuing a master’s degree in Environmental Engineering at SMU’s Lyle School of Engineering, was approached by the Institute’s Executive Director, Dr. Eva Csaky, to work on waste to energy research. Amidst the pandemic, Harshada joined the team remotely and immediately hit the ground running on her research, despite the challenges of getting acclimated to a new role without being in-person.

Harshada is passionate about the environment and achieving sustainable business practices while being mindful of the triple bottom line: people, planet, and profit. She had a professional career in India, most notably working as a Design Engineer at Indo-French company Mailhem-Ikos Environment Pvt. Ltd. where she designed portable biogas plants and bio-methanation (UASB Reactor) plants, with capacity ranging from 1000 kg to 100 TPD of municipal solid waste. After graduation, Harshada began work at AECOM in Greenville, South Carolina as a Civil Engineer.

Research on this report went well beyond desk research, as Harshada also examined industry best practices and gained insight from experts in the field. We were fortunate to have excellent industry advisors from the Terra Group at Toyota Motor North America, Inc.; Matthew Sheldon, Hunt Institute Social Intrapreneur; Jason S Sekhon, Fuel Cell and Hydrogen SME; Mark Hitchock, Zero waste, recycling, and the City of Plano Liaison; and Kelli Gregory, NTCOG liaison, clean energy mobility. Faculty advisors included Dr. Eva Csaky, Hunt Institute Executive Director, and Mohammad Khodayar, Ph.D., Associate Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Lyle School of Engineering.

Harshada completed her report shortly before graduating, and the final report is titled Waste to Energy: Harnessing the fuel in organic waste to create a business opportunity for a recycling-based society and system.

Included in the report is a quote from President of Toyota Motor Corporation Akio Toyoda, who said, “I believe that our mission is to provide goods and services that make people throughout the world happy, or, in other words to “mass produce” happiness…I view this as also being a part of earnestly engaging in the sustainable development goals.”

The summary states that to generate a feasible amount of methane to support a digester, it is estimated that 10 to 12 tons/d, with 8-10% contamination and 80% of the contamination being bioplastics, can produce about 70 Nm3/h of biogas. This is the amount of biogas needed to produce 200 kg/day of hydrogen, which is the smallest commercially available packaged system. The greenhouse gas emission (GHG) for IngeoTM is currently 1.3 kg CO2 eq./kg polymer compared to approx. 3.2 kg CO2 eq./kg polymer for PET. Therefore, implementing anaerobic digestion for PLA can reduce around 942.5 kg – 1132 kg per day of CO2 equivalent emissions.

A total of 1 ton per day of undigested bioplastic with 30% of total solids will be sent to landfills; 3 tons per day of dewatered digestate cake can be utilized for composting, and Class A fertilizer can be produced. The research on anaerobic degradation of biopolymers is still in its infancy. Therefore, this report has discussed different pre-treatment alternatives to treat PLA such as physical, chemical, and thermal treatments. The findings suggests on-site segregation benefits of the current solid waste management scenario in the commercial sector of Plano, Texas. This report consists of a description of existing scenarios and possible pre-treatment alternatives for bioplastic degradation generated from the commercial sector in hopes of finding a solution good for people, our planet, and that can be a viable and profitable solution for a city like Plano, Texas.

August 24, 2021February 16, 2022

Summer Internship Experience: Mariana Midolo

During my internship I worked on the Bank of America team, where I served as a liaison between the client, internal Epsilon technical delivery teams, and management. Furthermore, I executed Change Management Requests and coordinated full Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC) processes and tasks including requirement definition, functional specification, and client documentation. Also, I had the opportunity to collaborate with other interns on a group project, where I assembled and analyzed data to produce well-reasoned recommendations for our client, Ben & Jerry’s. Our sponsor for this project loved our presentation and even mentioned that she would be implementing our recommendations!

Overall, I enjoyed my internship experience at Epsilon, and I believe I gained very valuable experience. The internship taught me many things outside the classroom and textbooks. I learned to never be afraid to ask too many questions. No question is a dumb question, and questions lead to answers and knowledge. As simple as that sounds, I was the only intern assigned to the Bank of America team, and as such, I was challenged and pushed out of my comfort zone many times to ask questions to my teammates in order to move forward with my projects. Also, I realized how certain skills like time management, multi-tasking, and communication are applied differently in the workplace than at school. At the internship, my primary focus was the client, while in college, we often focus on our own personal and academic development. These lessons and skills are all things I will work on improving as I finish my senior year and start my professional career.

August 13, 2021February 16, 2022

Summer 2021 Recap

Summer in the Hunt Institute is always an exciting season of transition and growth for our team. Though the summer team is typically smaller with many of our student workers participating in internships or taking summer classes, it was nonetheless encouraging to be able to engage in person with our coworkers after adjusting to a hybrid workspace for much of the last year. After we celebrated our graduating students in May, we changed gears to a summer of training new team members and strengthening our processes, delving deeper into existing projects, and continuing to engage with our community. This post serves to highlight some specific happenings in the Institute over this summer:

In June, Mohammed Njie shared a HunTalk about his journey to bring clean energy to The Gambia and the support of his colleagues in the Institute along the way.

Mohammed said that clean, reliable energy in The Gambia “is necessary now more than ever given the effects of climate change on agriculture, the country’s most important industry. This makes our venture a necessary and worthy cause.”

Also taking place in June was the final ImpactNights ™ of the academic year, which was dedicated to “Freedom Day” with an expert-led look at the obstructions in our justice system that hinder economic freedom for a significant number of black and brown Americans. Read more about the event here and view the engaging conversation here.

The Social Enterprise Program in the Institute was a focus this summer, as the 2021 Cohort of Social Intrapreneurs continued developing their innovative solutions. Working to support the intrapreneurs is Valecia Harris, the graduate Program Consultant and Manager for the Social Enterprise Program.

Valecia noted that she is “excited to be part of a team where I can lend my knowledge and experience in developing strategies and supporting innovative solutions that generate transformational impact.”

Undergraduate student workers are involved in this area as well, as Undergraduate Research Analyst Scott Zuo was featured in July for his research involving inclusive economy best practices and mapping of the international ecosystem for social enterprise.

As mentioned previously, many student workers in the Hunt Institute received tremendous opportunities to acquire new skills and experiences through internships outside of the Institute. Undergraduate Marketer John Morgan reminded us to worry less and dream more after recounting his experience working with children as a program specialist at Lakeview Methodist Conference Center, and Undergraduate Research Analyst Sam Borton explained his summer research on non-revenue water at the Institute for Technology and Global Health. We are excited to reconnect with all of our student workers who worked elsewhere this summer to hear about their experiences.

Lastly, we highlight the exciting progress being made on STEM Up Phase II, in which using the solar power produced at Tintinto Primary and Secondary School in The Gambia, low-cost and low-power servers and refurbished laptops will outfit a computer lab. This project continues to progress as Wilkie Stevenson ’20 works tirelessly to finalize the prototype.

Be sure to stay up to date on these and the many other exciting projects and initiatives happening at the Hunt Institute this Fall. Pony Up!

August 6, 2021February 16, 2022

Summer Internship Experience: Sam Borton

Sam Borton, student at Southern Methodist University

Startling statistics often have a way of provoking people to take action. Even as early as elementary school, I was taught the effectiveness of using an “interesting fact” as an introductory sentence. In the process of searching for a research topic this summer, I was sent down an entirely different path after coming across one such statistic: developing countries lose about 45 million cubic meters of water daily, totaling a loss of over $3 billion per year. I knew that lack of access to water is a significant issue, but the fact that this much water was available but not reaching end consumers was surprising.

In the beginning of the internship, we had a week of courses about doing research in the public health and technology space. One concept that stuck with me was that of developing a theory of change before implementing a program. I learned that going through the process of identifying the series of causal links between implementation and the intended end result is important in both accounting for unintended consequences and clarifying the program’s focus.

Initially, my group’s research efforts were going to be focused on sanitation infrastructure. After further pursuing the idea of water loss, however, I discovered the concept of non-revenue water, which includes physical water leakages, unbilled and unmetered water consumption, and illegal connections. It seemed to me that a vital preliminary step in achieving better sanitation conditions is achieving sufficient access to water. Addressing non-revenue water not only increases water availability, but by properly collecting revenue, local water utilities have increased capacity to repair and expand the existing water infrastructure. Ultimately, my group’s summer research culminated with the completion of a working paper about performance-based contracts as a solution for reducing non-revenue water.

I feel very fortunate to have been able to meet and work alongside other students who are passionate about contributing to a more inclusive, sustainable world, similar to my great co-workers at the Hunt Institute. My experience at ITGH taught me about working towards a tight deadline, developing a research question, and even about the wonderful challenges of collaborating remotely across several time zones. I am very grateful for the experience, and I am excited to apply what I learned to my role at the Hunt Institute and beyond.

July 26, 2021February 16, 2022

Lessons from Summer Internship: Worry Less and Dream More

Take a moment and think back to your youth. Think about times when you were running around your backyard pretending you were anywhere else. Think about walking down the aisle in the grocery store begging your parents for a toy or a snack. Think about how upset you were when a sibling or friend had something you didn’t, and that thing seemed like the most important thing in the world.

These instances, along with many others from our childhood, can seem cringeworthy or laughable in retrospect, but I think it’s important to remember the mindset with which we would approach life as children. That innocent, worry-free worldview often escapes us as we mature and are confronted with reality. However, every now and then, it may make sense for us to embrace the youthful spirit of having a goal in mind without focusing on the complications in accomplishing it.

This summer, my daily routine for six weeks consisted of facilitating games, setting up activities, and entertaining armies of third through fifth grade kids. This can certainly be a daunting task, but the relationships that my coworkers and I formed with these kids were ultimately what kept us sane. While it isn’t fun to constantly remind elementary campers not to wander into a live archery range or swim too far in the lake, it was easy to fall in love with the genuine excitement and enthusiasm with which they approached every moment. It’s fair to say that I learned as much from them as they learned from me.

One memorable moment from my experience surprisingly came from a response on one of the camper surveys at the end of the week. Despite the various misspelled words –“dogball” instead of “dodgeball,” for example– and no shortage of blunt feedback from these kids, many of the most meaningful responses came from the question, “What did you learn about yourself this week?” It was here where a kid, one who I had seen blossom from a state of homesickness on the first day to pure joy by the end of the week, answered that he learned that he needed to worry less and dream more. Reading this and knowing what this camper had gone through in those five days, I couldn’t help but shed some tears.

After forty days in the middle of East Texas, I have returned to reality with the strong notion that it might be beneficial for us to take that third grader’s advice: worry less in our pursuits in order to dream more.

Here at the Hunt Institute, we strive to serve as a hub to develop future-focused solutions to worldly challenges. As the undergraduate marketer, I have the privilege of witnessing and showcasing the Institute’s impactful projects and initiatives. We bear a responsibility to help improve the world around us, and therefore we must continue to think big, allowing ourselves to dream instead of listing the barriers in front of us. In the fulfillment of our aspirations, let’s choose to worry less and dream more.

July 14, 2021February 16, 2022

Mapping the Social Enterprise Ecosystem: a student’s perspective

Scott Zuo is a student at Southern Methodist University

One of the fantastic opportunities for a select number of student researchers is to work directly with the Executive Director of the Hunt Institute, Dr. Eva Csaky. Our team members engage with the Global Development Lab pillar of the Institute, the Social Enterprise Program (SE), or the Inclusive Economic Consortium (IEC) initiative or work on a cross-cutting communication team. On occasion, there is an overlap with one or more providing an opportunity for team members to be exposed to some of the initiatives in other areas such as the Inclusive Economic Consortium (IEC) and the Social Enterprise Program. Undergraduate Research Analyst Scott Zuo’s work, where the SE and IEC intersect, represents one example of this kind of opportunity.

Beginning in the spring of 2021, Scott has been working with Dr. Csaky and other team members on research involving inclusive economy best practices. Scott’s first project involved building and updating a database of such best practices, using examples based on FinTech Awards and case studies from the IFC and UNDP. Scott and the team analyzed each of these examples through a variety of lenses, including collaboration, building access, sustainability, innovation, and more.

Ultimately, the database aims to serve a variety of purposes. For one, since a similar exercise had been done a few years prior, cases included in the initial database that no longer exist in 2021 represent opportunities for updating with new case studies. Secondly, these best practices can contribute to a global map of the social enterprise ecosystem. The examples also serve as useful models through which a framework can be developed for effective business models in the inclusive economy space.

When asked about his experience working on this project, Scott said, “The analyzing process inspired by Dr. Csaky really improved my ability of critical thinking as well as knowledge related to globalization.”

Improving the student experience at SMU is one of the benefits student workers can lean into when they work in the Institute. Undergraduates and Grad students alike can apply to positions posted on SMU’s HandShake. It is a competitive process to be chosen to join the team due to the high level of interaction student employees have with Affiliates, community partners, and leadership in the Hunt Institute.

Stay tuned to the Hunt Institute Digest for future updates on this exciting work and other projects with impact. To hear what student employees in the Hunt Institute are saying about their experience >> CLICK HERE.