“For this summer’s MJS Designs internship, it was a great experience for the design team to work with Alexia and Mark. As they were challenged in training and performing design work, they started picking up momentum with experience and trying new ways of solving a puzzle. Alexia left no stone uncovered with detailed work and great curiosity. Mark looked like he was at home maneuvering tools in ways an experienced designer would. With their interest and passion in engineering, I know that they are going to do great things in the future.” – Albert Castro, Senior Design Manager.
“Having Alexia and Mark with us this summer was a real pleasure. Alexia, a senior in college, and Mark, a freshman, both brought incredible intelligence and a quick learning ability to our team. Their enthusiasm and dedication were evident from day one, and it was impressive to see how rapidly they picked up new skills such as writing code for embedded microcontrollers and designing analog amplifier circuits. This internship not only allowed them to contribute meaningfully to our projects, but also helped them to identify and pursue the career paths that truly excite them. We are confident that both of them have bright futures ahead.” – Devin DeGarmo, Director of Engineering.
Summer Intern Highlight
Mark J.
Hi! My name is Mark J., and over the course of the summer between graduating high school and beginning my Electrical Engineering curriculum at Arizona State University I had the incredible opportunity to participate in an internship at MJS Designs. I approached MJS Designs at the Chandler Innovation Fair, where their display of electronics and focus on the manufacturing and engineering of electrical devices enticed me.
My first few weeks began with Albert, John, and Paul, who are all PCB designers in the design department. My first few days were admittedly intimidating, but the welcoming atmosphere helped me adjust. I spent most of these days placing components and routing traces for circuit boards. I found difficulty with the software at first due to its unfamiliarity, but I found that as I grew comfortable with the program, my ability to design and understand the nuances regarding circuit board design grew. It was genuinely interesting to learn of the high precision and detail that must be accounted for when designing for IPC standards.
My previous experience with circuit board design was limited to the hobbyist level, and limited by my lack of guidance. As a result, having the aid of professionals with years of knowledge and experience helped me greatly with expanding my own knowledge regarding circuit board design and layer stack up, and I am grateful that I have had the opportunity to expand my skills in this regard.
After my time in the design department, Alexia and I, as interns, were given a detailed tour exploring and understanding the numerous processes that occur at MJS Designs to produce and manufacture their circuit boards. I was able to understand and observe how parts are cataloged in the stockroom, the ways documentation and paperwork is handled to keep all the processes organized, the machines used to optically and electrically inspect each board, as well as the swift and precise machines used for surface mount soldering. Observing this process helped me understand and appreciate the inner-workings of business and the complicated process required for high-reliability electronics manufacturing.
After about six weeks in the design department, I began working with Devin and Adrian in the engineering department. With their help, I began dipping my toes into writing embedded C for a part of a library for a development board utilizing a PIC microcontroller. This particular part of the library would help setup the capture, compare and PWM (CCP) modules present in the PIC’s architecture. I utilized my newly written code with a project involving a fan, where I was able to use the capture function to measure the fan’s RPM, while utilizing the PWM function to control the RPM with a potentiometer. Over the course of a week and a half I debugged and polished my code, gaining familiarity with tools such as oscilloscopes and power supplies. Finishing these projects and seeing the near-perfect RPM calculations from the PWM-controlled fan was incredibly gratifying for me.
After finishing my work with the CCP library, I, over the course of two weeks, with the help of Devin and Adrian, designed a circuit that would draw a configurable amount of current from a power supply to test its reliability. This process of circuit engineering was incredibly new and informative for me, and I gained many pertinent electrical engineering skills as a result of designing this device.
After finishing the circuit, we compiled a bill of materials and had these supplies ordered and delivered to MJS Designs. After the mechanical team built up the project, I was given the task of programming an ESP32 development board used in the control of relays and MOSFETs, as well as the monitoring of heat, input voltage, and the current draw when this project is in use. In this process of creation, I understood how projects go from idea to physical concept, as well as all the problem solving required for engineering as a whole.
Throughout my internship, I — along with the marketing team and fellow intern Alexia — was invited to participate in a few events for the Arizona Tech Council as a representative of MJS Designs. These conferences were incredibly informative and gave me a valuable opportunity to network and discuss MJS Designs with other people in the technology industry. Having had this experience has helped me with my discussion of business as well as skills in sales and technical marketing.
This internship that I participated in has been a great introduction into the industry of technology and engineering. Being involved with a large part of the inner-workings of this business due to the smaller nature of MJS Designs improved my knowledge and skills in all manners of electrical engineering, software engineering, sales, and business management. I am so grateful to have had this opportunity and the ability to learn immensely in the field I plan to work in. I hope that other future students have such a great opportunity to begin their careers here!
Summer Intern Highlight
Alexia M.
Hello! My name is Alexia M., and I am a rising senior studying computer engineering at the University of Michigan. This summer, I spent 2.5 months as an intern at MJS Designs and I am excited to share my experience.
During the first month of my internship, I had the opportunity to collaborate closely with Devin, the Director of Engineering, and Adrian, an Electrical Engineer. From day one, I dove into an engineering project involving the design of a high current AC/DC summing amplifier. This amplifier was designed to handle high currents and could adjust its AC and DC output based on inputs from a potentiometer. The main purpose of this project was to test how well a customer’s device could identify AC signals on its power line.
Despite my lack of experience with Altium Designer, I familiarized myself with its schematic tools, thanks to Adrian’s guidance. I valued the freedom to experiment with my own design, refining it with the support of the engineering team and utilizing the LTspice simulation software to analyze the circuit’s performance. One of the significant challenges I encountered was learning to navigate distributor websites for electronic components and interpreting datasheets to find the right component for my application. By the time I assembled my bill of materials, I had developed a clear vision of the board’s functionality and where to look if anything went wrong in testing. After our manufacturing team built the board, Devin and I rigorously tested and debugged it using various test equipment, including an oscilloscope and frequency generator, ensuring its performance met our expectations.
After developing the analog circuit board, I worked on designing shipping fixtures for a PCB using CAD software. These fixtures would protect delicate components on the PCB from being damaged in transit to the customer. Once again, I became proficient in a previously unfamiliar software as I quickly learned the subtractive/additive nature of CAD design. After designing the shipping fixtures, they were printed in house on a Stratasys 370CR 3D Printer.
Applying my knowledge in embedded C programming, I started working on MJS Designs internal development board libraries. In particular, I developed I2C serial communication functions. I was constantly researching and debugging the nuances of I2C communication and the PIC microcontroller I worked on. By the time I completed writing and testing my I2C library code, I felt much more confident and skilled as an embedded systems engineer.
After a month of working with the engineering team, I started working with the PCB design team. Throughout my time in the design department, Albert, Senior Design Manager, conducted highly instructional and informative sessions about PCB manufacturing and design with me. With his support, I quickly picked up on what IPC Class 2 and 3 standards are along with key factors PCB designers must consider before sending Gerber files to the bare board shops. In a month, I learned to create component footprints, route traces, and generate design rules according to IPC and MJS Designs standards while working on two designs in Altium Designer.
In addition to the projects I worked on, I had the opportunity to represent MJS Designs during customer meetings and Arizona Tech Council Events alongside the marketing team and fellow intern Mark. It was a great experience networking with industry professionals across the state. Explaining the services MJS Designs provided to others significantly strengthened my technical speaking abilities.
In my final week at MJS Designs, I focused on designing the Graphical User Interface (GUI) of MJS Designs 3D LED Cube. This cube is designed to change colors and display different frames based on user input through the application. Applying my knowledge in C/C++, I quickly adapted to C# and began working on the XAML and XAML.cs files integral to the Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) application. Wrapping up my internship with this project was a great way to end my time at MJS Designs.
MJS Designs was exactly what I was looking for in an internship. From learning about IPC class standards to experiencing every aspect of the company, I was extending my academic background to real world applications. I am grateful to MJS Designs for teaching me about their PCB assembly processes and engineering services by entrusting me with projects. Looking back at my time here at MJS Designs, what I was able to accomplish in 2 ½ months was nothing short of incredible. I hope that other students have the same opportunity to grow and thrive in such a dynamic and supportive environment!
Interested in interning for MJS? Contact Kirk at kcollins@mjsdesigns.com