The Signal.X / University of Cincinnati Co-op Program: The Co-op Perspective, Part 2

My name is Patrick and I am a second-year Computer Engineering student at the University of Cincinnati and a first-term co-op at Signal.X. Working at Signal.X has been an exciting learning experience for me. One of my favorite things about being a co-op here at Signal.X is that I actually get to do work that pertains to my major. Since the first day on the job I have been given tasks that directly pertain to engineering and I frequently get to work with other engineers on the projects they are working on. Here at Signal.X I feel like I am actually contributing to the team instead of doing only the work that other engineers don’t want to do (I have yet to touch an Excel sheet!).

Even though this is my first term, approved I have already learned quite a bit working at Signal.X. Every day I learn to work with new technologies and software that I didn’t even know existed before I started working here. One of the most exciting things for me is getting the chance to learn and develop in LabVIEW and interface with National Instruments software and hardware. It is exciting to have a plan of what you would like a program to do and actually get the program to function using LabVIEW coding. It is also exciting to see how LabVIEW code and our software interfaces with National Instruments hardware, and is able to measure and acquire data for nearly anything and interrupt it into readable data that is in turn used to help our customers solve complex issues. I also am getting hands-on experience every day setting up and interfacing with this National Instruments hardware and getting experience working with National Instruments’ own Linux distribution, LabVIEW RT. At Signal.X I feel like I am actually part of the team, and I have gained a great deal of engineering experience throughout my first term.