UTA aerospace students get hands-on industry experience
UTA junior Jheir Cuesta (far left) in front of the RECARO offices.
For UTA junior Jheir Cuesta, a summer internship at RECARO, an aircraft seating manufacturer, provided something the classroom could not: a seat at the table on an actual production line.
"It was amazing," said Cuesta, an aerospace engineering major who spent 10 weeks at the RECARO Aircraft Seating Americas facility in Fort Worth. "It helped me understand how engineers have to think."
Cuesta landed at RECARO through a UTA program funded by the National Science Foundation’s ExLENT program. It trains aerospace engineering students in hands-on skills and connects them with internships and jobs at local companies. Shiyao Lin, the UTA professor leading the project, said the program provides two training sessions a year, one in the spring and one in the fall, bringing together about 20 students each session.
"Every day we have students doing hands-on stuff, making and testing and analyzing aerospace materials," Dr. Lin said.
During training, students build and test composite materials, from manufacturing samples to running them through mechanical testers that measure strength and stiffness. Sessions typically run seven to nine hours a day, and students are paid for each day they complete.
UTA designed the curriculum with input from the companies that hire its graduates, including RECARO, Lockheed Martin, Aeroblaze and Cortex Dynamix LLC.
"We talked to Lockheed Martin, RECARO, Aeroblaze, and we asked them what they need," Lin said. "We have the students; we're going to train them, and we want you to hire them, but what do you want them to know when they enter your company?"
This year, two students landed internships at RECARO, two at Aeroblaze Laboratory, two at Bell Textron and one at Cortex Dynamics, all local companies.
At RECARO, Cuesta rotated through several departments. He worked in a test lab evaluating seat components against company specifications, learned industry-standard design software, and even built a training program for future interns on how to properly weigh and balance seat parts.
Cuesta said he asked his director at RECARO what the company looks for in new engineers, and the answer closely matched the work he'd been doing during his internship.
"It was great to know that. Because of that, we have a better chance to be hired in the future," he said.
Lin said the hands-on approach does more than teach technical skills; it also builds teamwork and leadership, as students are often split into competing groups during training and must manage each other to get the work done.
"Experiential learning will help you bridge the fundamental knowledge to industry needs,” Lin said.
About The University of Texas at Arlington (UTA)
The University of Texas at Arlington is a growing public research university in the heart of Dallas-Fort Worth. With a student body of over 42,700, UTA is the second-largest institution in the University of Texas System, offering more than 190 undergraduate and graduate degree programs. Recognized as a Carnegie R-1 university, UTA stands among the nation’s top 5% of institutions for research activity. UTA and its 300,000 alumni generate an annual economic impact of $28.8 billion for the state. The University has received the Innovation and Economic Prosperity designation from the Association of Public and Land Grant Universities and has earned recognition for its focus on student access and success, considered key drivers to economic growth and social progress for North Texas and beyond.