{"332461":{"#nid":"332461","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Co-op Experience Helps Grad Student \u2018Stay Competitive\u0027","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EWhen you are one of thousands of students trying to get offered a handful of jobs, what can you do to stand out from the crowd? Mehdi Nourbakhsh has a suggestion.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cEveryone is competing to get a job when they graduate, so how can you be competitive in this group,\u201d said Nourbakhsh, who is earning a Ph.D. in Building Construction and a Master\u2019s in Computer Science from Georgia Tech. \u201cThe co-op program is one way to accomplish this.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe Institute\u2019s Graduate Cooperative (Co-op) Education Program was established in 1983 and is currently the largest in the United States for science and engineering academic programs. It provides graduate students with the opportunity to work at organizations such as Google, GE, and INTEL.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ENourbakhsh discovered the co-op program because friends told him their experiences with the program were an opportunity to learn more about companies they were interested in working at in the future.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EFrom June to August 2014, Nourbakhsh worked at Autodesk, a software corporation in San Francisco. Read on to learn more about his co-op experience.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EHow did you get connected with Autodesk? \u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EI researched companies I was interested in and decided to apply to Autodesk\u2019s co-op program because they make software for the architecture, engineering, and entertainment industries, which overlaps my interests. After I received an offer letter, Ken Little in the Graduate Co-op Office helped me complete the necessary paperwork.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EWhat was an average day like while participating in the program? \u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EMy job involved both working in an office and a tech shop. In the office, I studied the framework of and worked on future design software. In the tech shop, I validated that the software was working by 3-D printing various physical objects.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EWhat does the software do? \u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ECurrently, if you want to design something, you need to ask designers to do it. The designers usually come up with a limited number of designs. In the future, everyone will be able to design whatever they need even without prior knowledge in that area. Let\u2019s say you want to design a bike. Using the software I was working on, ordinary people are able to define their goals and the software algorithmically generates a vast number of designs, and optimizes them based on weight, cost, performance, and other users\u2019 preferences.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EWhat was your favorite part of the job? \u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EEveryone I worked with was very friendly and encouraging. And the resources were unlimited. For example, we had access to a tech shop with 3-D printers and any other technology we might need.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EWhat advice do you have for other students who are interested in the co-op program?\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EKnow what type of work you\u2019re interested in doing, and then find a company in that industry that has a co-op program that you can participate in. Also, do your research about the company\u2019s program. Autodesk\u2019s was well organized and engaging \u2014 but that\u2019s not the case at other companies. You don\u2019t want to waste the limited time you have for these types of experiences.\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EWhen you are one of thousands of students trying to get offered a handful of jobs, what can you do to stand out from the crowd? Mehdi Nourbakhsh has a suggestion.\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"When you are one of thousands of students trying to get offered a handful of jobs, what can you do to stand out from the crowd? Mehdi Nourbakhsh has a suggestion."}],"uid":"27445","created_gmt":"2014-10-08 16:12:23","changed_gmt":"2016-10-08 03:17:15","author":"Amelia Pavlik","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2014-10-08T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2014-10-08T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"332471":{"id":"332471","type":"image","title":"Mehdi Nourbakhsh","body":null,"created":"1449245114","gmt_created":"2015-12-04 16:05:14","changed":"1475895044","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:50:44","alt":"Mehdi Nourbakhsh","file":{"fid":"200392","name":"mehdi-nourbakhsh.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/mehdi-nourbakhsh_0.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/mehdi-nourbakhsh_0.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":2040027,"path_740":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/mehdi-nourbakhsh_0.jpg?itok=5N8JFzZs"}}},"media_ids":["332471"],"related_links":[{"url":"http:\/\/www.gradcoop.gatech.edu\/","title":"Graduate Co-Op"}],"groups":[{"id":"221981","name":"Graduate Studies"}],"categories":[{"id":"8862","name":"Student Research"}],"keywords":[{"id":"43531","name":"cooperative education program"},{"id":"106181","name":"Graduate Co-op"},{"id":"1808","name":"graduate students"}],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:pavlik@gatech.edu\u0022\u003EAmelia Pavlik\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EOffice of Graduate Studies\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":[],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}