Mechanical Engineering Intern, Anita Burns, has spent her summer organizing inspections, updating lists, and making PI Books.
One of Anita’s projects this summer has been to rename and organize crane and hoist inspections to make them easily accessible. This project is complete to date, and new inspections will be added monthly. Another of her projects involves updating the ammonia valve lists and ensuring all labeling matches. This project has seen great progress, and Anita expects to complete this by the end of the summer.
Anita has also made new PI Books, in addition to working with another intern to make sure all previously made PI Books transferred into PI Vision correctly. As there are many details to check on each system, this has been a tedious process. However, they believe most of the differences are fixed. They plan to double check everything and wrap up this project by the end of summer.
Throughout this internship, Anita has learned more about power generation and an engineer’s role in keeping the plant operating smoothly. She says, “I have also learned that organization and dividing responsibilities are big factors in a successful workplace. No job is done alone.”
She has enjoyed having the opportunity to go into the boiler to inspect tube leaks with other engineers, along with helping perform an air heater inspection. One of the most memorable things happened after completing this inspection, Anita says, “We had just finished closing the door and started picking up our papers to leave when I realized no one had the 5-gas monitor. After we looked around for a second, we all realized we left the monitor inside the air heater. We had to open the door all over again to retrieve it.”
After this internship, Anita feels that she has picked the right major. She looks forward to a career in mechanical engineering, and she hopes to find a job in the field where she can enjoy work every day. This internship has swayed her to look further into the power generation industry, since she has greatly enjoyed her time at Prairie State.