Jacob M. Dutler - 2017 Steel Intern Scholar
This summer I have had the pleasure to work as a technical services and R&D Intern at SSAB Iowa. This amazing opportunity would not have been made possible without the help of the AIST Steel Intern Scholarship and I am very thankful for this. This scholarship will assist me with the financial requirements of studying materials science at the University of Illinois for my undergraduate degree. The internship at SSAB has taught me a great deal about the steel industry and the complicated science behind steel production. This past summer, I have split my time between technical 
services (production) and research and development. My technical services job required me to process slab and plate samples to review the quality of the centerline. At the R&D facility, I had two projects to complete. The main project was to characterize the wear mechanisms of stopper rods during continuous casting. The second project required me to determine the mechanical properties of an as-rolled grade of steel produced at the Iowa plant. The internship at SSAB greatly influenced my career goals. Originally, my plan was to pursue an undergraduate degree and then go into industry. Now, I plan to attend graduate school to pursue a master’s degree in engineering. This internship has fascinated me with the potential and complication in the steelmaking process and I would like to study this metallurgy on a deeper level. Thanks to this internship experience at SSAB, I have an exciting and interesting future career.