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ChE @UMD > Students & Advisement > COOP
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Chemical Engineering Co-Op (ChE 3951) Students can work for a company as a chemical engineering coop student (for credit) or as a chemical engineering intern (not for credit). Students who intern – without enrolling for any credit – do not need to meet any departmental requirements or standards. The chemical engineering department strongly encourages students to participate in an internship or coop experience. Students desiring credit for coop experience may enroll in ChE 3951. This course is open to sophomores, juniors, or seniors who have been admitted to the chemical engineering program and who are in good standing in the department. Transfer students must complete ChE 2111 before enrolling in ChE 3951. Both internships and coops can be done for any period of time; generally for 3 to 15 months. However, long-term internship (more than a summer) causes problems with student status and related issues if the student is not enrolling in a course for credit. COOP Contract required for registration in ChE 3951 Students can enroll (and pay tuition): For 1 to 3 credit of coop per semester (summer is a semester for that purpose). For longer coops, it is better to register for all three co-op credits during the summer. This would prevent the loans from entering repayment during the semester when you are on co-op, as well as reduce costs for fees. Those credits can be used to: Transfer students may satisfy the 3-credit requirement of Intro to ChE (ChE 1011). The 3-credit requirement of Science or Engineering elective. Students who do not need these credits may still wish to enroll for coop because It allows them to remain “full time” student in the eyes of all medical insurance companies (the dept. head writes a letter to the insurance company if needed – no insurance company has ever denied coverage for coop students after receiving our letter). International students (visa) must work with the International Student Counselor regarding remaining full-time student status. Documents your engineering work experience for potential employers and looks better on the resume. Provides experience in multidisciplinary engineering environments. Coop students get letter grades. The following requirements must be fulfilled: Write a formal report and submit it to the department head at the end of the semester. The report format (and these requirements) is detailed below. Generally one report is needed for all consecutive coops. However, greater details (length) are expected for greater credit (about five pages/credit). The grade is entirely dependent on this report. The students must arrange to make a presentation to the Chemical Engineering Department's Industrial Advisory Committee or AIChE student chapter after returning to campus. The presentation is not graded. The student must fill out a survey form and ask his/her supervisor to fill our a similar form. Neither of the surveys is used in grading the student. Course Description: Co-op involves engineering related work experience in industry or government. These positions are typically paid and generally involve 40 hours/week for one to three semesters. The student will most likely need to temporarily relocate to the employer’s location. The student is responsible for obtaining the co-op position; however, the department and the career services assist students in this regard. Talk to the career services about your interest in participating in the program. E-Fest, the UMD engineering job fair in October, is a time when many companies interview on campus for their regular as well as internship and co-op positions. The department also alerts all ChE majors when information about new co-op positions becomes available. Reporting Requirement: Each time a student enrolls for co-op credit he/she must prepare (1) a co-op report detailing the work experience, (2) self-evaluation survey (3) request his/her supervisor to send a one-page evaluation survey of the co-op work, and (4) make presentations to the Chemical Engineering Department's Industrial Advisory Committee and the AIChE student chapter meeting. For a student going for a consecutive second “term” (semester following a summer or summer following a semester) only one set of “final” report, evaluation and presentations is required. The final report must be submitted before grade reporting time for the semester. Evaluations: Students and employer/supervisors must complete an anonymous survey of the student's co-op experience. Evaluations may be returned to the UMD Chemical Engineering Department by email, fax, or post. The student should provide a copy of the survey and a self-addressed, stamped envelope to their employer/supervisors. Download the Student and Employer/Supervisor Evaluation Surveys (Word file, pdf file) Report Format: Typical report length is 5 to 15 pages (for 1 to 3 credits), not including appendices. This report and evaluation surveys are submitted to the Department Head before grade reporting time for the semester or summer term. The report should summarize the student’s work experience and discuss in detail a variety of educational aspect of the experience. The report should strive to demonstrate how their educational experience has prepared them for co-op and how co-op has affected their education. In particular, the report should discuss and assess multidisciplinary experiences gained from the coop. Inappropriate report items include confidential material, overly technical discussion of the work, heavy reliance on internal jargon, chronological listings of tasks (“Dear Diary ...”), or other topics that do not demonstrate a synthesis of the co-op experience and the student’s education. The report should be written for someone technically literate, but who may not be familiar with what was done. The report might consist of the following parts: Cover page with your identifying information. Number all pages Use headings on a separate line for each section. Executive Summary/Abstract – Describe briefly the main tasks you performed. This should be a very short (less than a page), succinct, to the point description of what you accomplished. Length: maximum 1 page. Introduction –Describe the place where the work was done including what materials or services it provides. Next give the problem statement(s) and background information you were given from your supervisor or co-workers. This is also a good place to describe the disciplines of people you worked with (engineers, business, sales, etc). You may have done multiple projects or only one, so the length will vary accordingly. Length: 1 to 3 pages. Background – Discuss what ideas you needed to use in order to accomplish your objectives and how did they relate to your education. This would be a good place to discuss any new material you needed to learn. Length: 1 to 3 pages. Procedures – Describe any new procedures you may have learned and how they were needed to accomplish your objectives. Do not provide details of operation, just a summary of the new equipment used and its purpose (i.e. I learned to use a dissolved oxygen meter to test for the presence of oxygen in boiler water which can cause corrosion in boiler tubes). Length: 1 to 4 pages. Results – Describe what was accomplished based on the work you did. Write about any new information or procedures you helped develop. Length: 1 to 4 pages. Include information about working in a multidisciplinary environment. Discussion – Provide your interpretation of the results of your project(s). It is acceptable to discuss them even if nothing was changed, or your project failed to find a better solution. You should also discuss the value this opportunity provided to your education in terms of engineering skills and working in multidisciplinary environments. Length: 1 - 3 pages.
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