STRATFORD, Conn. — After months of putting an internship program together, engineers at Sikorsky had just weeks to rearrange their plans when the COVID-19 pandemic made it clear changes were needed.
“We had four weeks to completely redesign and come up with a virtual competition, so there were a lot of late nights trying to figure out what’s the right software and what kind of competition do we want to do,” said Tadd Shiffer, Associate Research Engineer at Lockheed Martin.
Using Lockheed Martin’s Prepar3D software, the interns were able modify an aircraft, redesign it and test it in a virtual tournament-style race from Sikorsky Memorial Airport to the Sikorsky plant in Stratford.
“We get the problem statement and then we work forward to getting an initial design, then testing the design and then competition day is putting the design to work,” said Meghan Moscarelli, a design and engineering intern at Sikorsky.
Because the Lockheed Martin program was virtual, about 52 percent of the interns worked from home, while 48 percent worked at under strict CDC guidelines. Communication was a key takeaway for many of the interns, who came from a variety of educational backgrounds.
“All of the communication skills were so beneficial. Working with non-engineers and explaining technical things to people who don’t really know technical things has been a great skill to have,” said Moscarelli.
They are skills that will serve the interns if they get hired on by Lockheed Martin and Sikorsky in the future.
“Some of the goals are teaching them how Lockheed works, how Sikorsky works, and then a lot of the other ones are how do you make them a better employee. Our biggest goal this year was to teach them how to make a decision and then back that decision up to upper management, to the customer, to your coworkers, your fellow peers, which applies to all positions, not just engineering,” said Shiffer.
Lockheed Martin is committed to hiring 50,000 new STEM careers over the next 15 years, so even through the pandemic, it is hiring.