SPARK

Discoveries, innovations, and insights that illuminate the future of the built environment

Getting To Know: Stephen Shin (Seattle)

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Stephen Shin.

To say that my life after high school has been a little unconventional might be the most accurate way to describe it. I’ve attended two different universities at three different campuses and found work in three vastly different industries. It’s been fun, to say the least.

However, as I’m always reminded, the journey is what’s important and I need to constantly remind myself of that. Besides, I like how things are going so far. It’s led me to a pretty cool internship with McKinstry, so I can’t complain.

Before I get too far ahead of myself, let me introduce myself a little bit. My name is Stephen Shin and my official position title here is “Energy Design Engineering Intern” within the B.L.U.E. Program. I’m working under Brent Hecker (a senior mechanical design engineer at McKinstry) with a group of (as expected) energy design engineers.

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Getting To Know: Rylie Van Court (Seattle)

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Rylie Van Court.

As a rising senior at Gonzaga University in Spokane, Wash., I knew 2017 was going to be my last year to intern before graduation in 2018. I also knew I wanted to try something different than what I’d experienced at my previous internship—which dealt with electrical circuit design.

I’m an Electrical Engineering major at Gonzaga and one of my most memorable recent classes was about power systems. We learned about what transformers, motors, and generators were and how they work. It was challenging and the technical reports were time-consuming, but I also found that I truly loved what we were learning.

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Getting to Know: Charles LeCuyer (Seattle)

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Charles LeCuyer.

Hello! My name is Charles LeCuyer and I’m part of the B.L.U.E. Program at McKinstry’s headquarters in Seattle. I grew up here in Seattle and I’m currently attending The University of Washington’s School of Industrial and Systems Engineering.

In late 2016, I started to look for a great place to work this summer. Luckily, I didn’t have to look far! McKinstry is so prevalent in Seattle, and I’d heard excellent things from who’s ever worked for the company. Now that I’ve been working here for a few weeks, I can definitely say that those people were right!

I started my work as a project engineering intern about a month ago, and I’m based at an active jobsite: the under-construction Roosevelt Light Rail Station in Seattle’s Roosevelt neighborhood. I’m working with James Postma (senior project manager) and Katie Arendt (project engineer). They’ve helped show me the ropes, and I’m now handling a variety of tasks: Daily pre-task plans, safety walk inspections, man-hour reports, earned value tracking, and assisting with submittals.

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Everyday Innovation, Part 2

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Innovation is one of McKinstry’s core values.

Throughout 2016, McKinstry’s Western Washington Region organized an “Everyday Innovation” campaign that set out to share innovations and recognize innovators company-wide. We chose this name for the campaign because even smaller-scale or “everyday” innovations can make a big difference in improving the way we work.

All said, the organizers of the campaign have received more than 60 submissions that highlight an impressive array of creative thinking and have sparked discussions about innovation throughout McKinstry.

While the campaign is ongoing, we’ll be featuring nine of the very best innovation submissions we’ve received thus far in a series of Everyday Innovation posts. [Read more…]