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William Hoffman ’10, right, spent his summer as an intern under the guidance of Alex Karapetian ’04 at Acopian Technical Company in Easton.I’ve spent most of my time at college in the Acopian Engineering Center, which has provided me with a concrete foundation for my future in engineering. After having spent hundreds of hours there, I still had no idea what was behind the name. But it turned out that the place where I was to be a summer intern was none other than Acopian Technical Company, a manufacturer of electronic power supplies. My prior experiences with power supplies had been minimal, and the internship greatly helped me to develop hands-on experience with them and increased my knowledge in the field of engineering.
While at Acopian, I saw first-hand not only how power supplies are designed and tested, but also how they are manufactured, something we don’t really have an opportunity to see when we are in class or lab. Acopian, located just a few miles from Lafayette, specializes in high-reliability power supplies, and has customers ranging from Disney to the U.S. government. All the people at Acopian were very helpful and answered any questions that I had or directed me to where I could get the answer.
During my first week at Acopian, I was able to do a little bit of everything to get myself acquainted with the place, but I spent most of my remaining time in the production department. In the building and testing of power supplies, production must precisely follow the engineer’s design and testing procedure. The first task given to me was soldering components onto printed circuit boards, a skill that is essential for any electrical engineer.
Troubleshooting ability is one of the most important skills for an engineer to have, and production is the place that really helped me to develop it. When a circuit is built, it should, of course, provide the intended output. However, this is not always the case. There could be a wire missing or a wrong component or any number of other things that could be amiss. I learned what to look for and how to test a circuit, piece by piece, until finding the problem. Learning this skill was easier with a circuit that had been proven to work. I had someone familiar with the circuit guiding me where to look for the problems and helping me in other ways.
As the summer progressed, I began to help the engineers from time to time on new products that were still in the development phase. I helped with the printed circuit board layout, making sure that all of the connections found on the schematic were also on the circuit board. Later, I assisted with testing different features on a new production power supply that is now being introduced to the market.
It was a privilege to have Alex Karapetian ’04 as my supervisor, because he very cordially welcomed me as a part of the Acopian family. Although I am still not sure about what I want to do with my future, my experience with power supplies could influence it. With few people studying power supplies, there will always be jobs in that field. I am thankful to have had the opportunity to gain this experience, and I wish everyone at Acopian the best.