Bin Bui – Engineering Internship

My name is Bin Bui, and I have been fortunate enough to intern at the CNH Technical Center in New Holland. I am at my internship twice a week on Tuesdays and Thursdays for about three and a half hours each day. My mentor is Ben Heiser, and he had me work with several different groups within the Technical Center, which has allowed me to experience several different aspects of engineering. As a result, I have gotten the opportunity to meet and work with a variety of people.

During my time at CNH, I worked with and observed the groups at the stress and fatigue labs as well as the people in the workshop. Each day I was assigned to a new person with a different area of expertise. Due to this, I have done a variety of different tasks including doing some three-dimensional modeling, helping set up experiments, and working with a few different machines such as a brake press. On top of that, I also get to sit in on meetings with Ben, which all have covered different topics each time. Because I knew very little about engineering going in, it took a bit of time for me to adjust to the routine but more importantly the vocabulary that people were using. However, by the time I was finished working with a person, I had at least a basic understanding of what was going on. The conversations I have with the people at CNH have helped me gain a better understanding of what engineering is.

Ever since middle school, I had always said that I wanted to be an engineer without knowing what that truly entailed. Looking back, engineering is nowhere as simple as I had naively thought it was when I was younger, but that definitely is not a bad thing. Since engineering is such a wide field of professions, the most important thing CNH has taught me is the mindset of an engineer. Although I cannot say that I fully understand this mindset yet, I can at least say I know the foundations. While observing the engineers, I have seen some of their strategies on how they are able to think outside of the box. My experience at CNH has shown me what aspects I enjoy about engineering and what aspects I do not enjoy, which I am glad that I have figured out sooner rather than later. I am grateful for everything CNH has done for me as I think more about my career in engineering.

Ever since the internship fair last year, I had been hoping to get an opportunity to understand what engineering is actually about, which is what ultimately led me to CNH. Although our time was cut short, I still feel very fortunate to even have had this opportunity in the first place, and going forward, I will try to use my experiences at CNH in college and my career. In the end, even though I am not certain yet, my internship this semester has finally narrowed down my decisions regarding a career in engineering. I am excited to see where this will eventually lead me to.