2024 Steel Intern Scholarships
Drew J. Kuiters
I had the opportunity to work at Steel Dynamics Inc.’s (SDI) Flat Roll Division in Butler, Ind., USA, this summer. I worked under Austin Fischer as a mechanical engineering intern in the cold mill, troubleshooting issues that operators faced. As a young and inexperienced student, I gained valuable knowledge about what being an engineer entails and how to apply theoretical knowledge to real-world problems.
One of the projects I worked on was the pup coil table. We band our scrap pup coils to be sent back for remelting. Our coils need to be banded before being moved, which can be inconvenient for the operators. I designed a system, using SolidWorks, that when you feed the banding through, it follows a track that directs it around the coil and back to the 
operators. I applied previous knowledge of this software I learned in my classes and gained new insights that I learned at SDI. Another project involved reverse engineering a frame that holds a hydraulic system on a coil buggy. This project taught me how to gather details needed to design the frame based on information from previous frames and required dimensions to maintain compatibility. It also taught me how to dimension parts so others can assemble them easily.
These projects gave me the opportunity to learn and apply many engineering principles in a real-world setting.
During this internship, I made many mistakes, but I learned from them and became a better engineer. Not only did I improve my design skills, but I also learned how to collaborate effectively with others to achieve a common goal: making jobs safer and easier while producing high-quality products. I am grateful for the opportunity to learn what it means to be an engineer and for the information and techniques that will help advance my future career. I would like to thank everyone at SDI and AIST for giving me this chance to expand my knowledge this summer.