Day in the Life: Luke Muckerheide | Mechanical Intern

My name is Luke Muckerheide, and I am an upcoming sophomore at Purdue University studying mechanical engineering. I chose Introba (formerly Ross & Baruzzini) for my first summer internship because I heard good things about the company and the work seemed interesting. The first week of my internship was mostly onboarding activities to get me set up on the company’s systems and programs while preparing for the work I would be doing.

By the second week, I was already working on projects with the mechanical team, going on-site visits, and talking with suppliers to get equipment with the right specs. Within the next couple of weeks, I started on my biggest project of the summer: The Indiana University School of Medicine.

After learning the basics of Revit, I was given the freedom to look through our model of this expansive, ten-story building. I was looking to fix any conflicts between pipes and ducts in the confined area between ceilings and floors called the plenum space.

At first, I would just fix minor errors by nudging one pipe or duct slightly out of the way (after checking the ends to be sure I would not hit something else). But as I gradually got accustomed to the program and the building, I gradually worked on larger and larger fixes. After this project, my coworkers gave me other tasks, including, markups (implementing an engineer’s on-paper sketch into a CAD model), basic calculations, and moving data around on schedules (large spreadsheets with information about mechanical equipment).

The great thing about this internship is that you immediately get involved with real-world work. After review, the HVAC systems I worked on can be put into buildings. The documents and schematics I worked with will be sent to contractors and building owners. You can walk into a hospital or classroom in ten years and know that your work is a part of it. That’s the greatest thing about building engineering and you get to experience it yourself as an intern at Introba.