Making the world more sustainable. That’s one of Darren Foster’s goals for the future. And he’s doing just that, thanks in part to his internship at IACMI.
Darren, who graduated from the University of Tennessee in 2019 with a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering, says he has always been environmentally conscious.
“Going through the engineering program at UT, as well as working in a research laboratory, opened my eyes to the true cost of manufacturing – especially when it comes to energy consumption,” Darren says. “There is also a severe underutilization of green energy across the board, and I want to be part of the solution.”
Darren did a 10-week IACMI internship with the Ford-Dow partnership in Detroit in 2018, where he studied how dissimilar materials are impacted when they go through thermal cycling.
Darren is one of 100-plus interns who has participated in the IACMI Internship Program, managed in partnership with Oak Ridge Associated Universities. The program’s success – and the interns – speak for themselves: 100 percent of graduated interns are currently pursuing an advanced degree or working in the STEM fields within 6 months of graduation.
“The IACMI internship benefitted me by allowing me to see industry firsthand on a novel project that resulted in a co-authorship on a journal paper,” says Darren, who now works as a materials test engineer at TPI Composites in Warren, RI. “I primarily learned the importance of microstructure in composites and how they impact the part on a macro scale.”
Interestingly, Darren originally wanted to be an architect when he was younger.
“Throughout school I was pushed to be an engineer because of my aptitude for math and science,” says Darren, who originally hails from Alamogordo, NM. “I went into college intending to major in computer science but quickly switched majors.”
Darren has worked at TPI since June, where he prepares specimens, tests samples and works on reports for customers and for internal use.
He says his internship at IACMI definitely helped him enter the world of composites on a professional level.
“In the grand scheme of things, my internship has been vitally important,” Darren adds. “Maybe not directly in what I did during it, but more in the network I have been able to build in composites because of it.”