- February 11, 2022
"I can say that I have a much better understanding of how to solve technical problems; however, above all, I found a new community, a new culture, and a new place to call home."
In search of adventure and life experience, Melanie threw herself into the unfamiliar and beautiful city of Barcelona to work as an intern for HP Inc for a year.
Cambridge to Barcelona
As someone who had always dreamed of someday moving to a Spanish-speaking country and who was not ready for the typical 9 to 5 in which she would inevitably find herself if she stayed home in the United States, Melanie was extremely enthusiastic to take advantage of MISTI’s program in Spain. When she received an offer to work at HP, Inc. in Barcelona for the next year, it was not a difficult decision to say yes. With only a vague one-sentence description of the project she might be working on, a shiny new degree in mechanical engineering and a minor in Spanish under her belt, Melanie arrived in sunny Barcelona only two weeks after her graduation.
Writing Systems Engineering Intern
Immediately from the start of her internship, Melanie was treated less like an intern and more like an already established member of the team – complete with a full agenda of meetings and a large project for which she was responsible. Officially her title was “Writing Systems Engineering Intern” which, in simpler terms, meant that she was part of a team that designs processes created to optimize user experience and part quality of HP’s 3D printers (i.e. calibrations and optimization of materials). Initially, Melanie was placed on a project to design a calibration for the top lamps – making sure that after this simple calibration, a user can be confident knowing that the top lamps are working up to par and producing uniform temperature throughout the 3D printing bed and uniformity in the resulting parts. However, due to a shifting of priorities that is quite typical for large companies, Melanie’s project changed from a focus on top lamps to one on the fusing lamps.
Melanie was now tasked to find a calibration for the fusing lamps of the 3D printers that avoided the unwanted external effects of humidity, which was shown to cause a significant change in the result of fusing lamp calibrations. From ideas and guidance given to her by others on her team, she developed a process that uses a humidity-independent material which should be implemented in coming versions of the printers. From this experience, Melanie gained a wealth of knowledge and experience in working in teams and solving problems in ways that are not always super obvious.
Life Outside of Work
On top of new experiences in the industry of mechanical engineering, Melanie found herself gaining a plethora of new experiences culturally as well. While she worked full-time at HP during the week, this did not mean that she was too exhausted on the weekends for the occasional weekend trip around Spain and throughout Europe. She took advantage of her time by exploring many of the places she’d always wanted to see: Paris, London, Amsterdam, Munich, Bordeaux, and a scattering of places within Spain. All of this, however, never detracted from the enchantment of her temporary home of Barcelona. There, Melanie found her community in the form of an unlikely assortment of students and interns from all over the world - but mostly Spain. Over the course of her unforgettable stay in Barcelona, Melanie was able to gain new perspectives, gain a new culture, and gain a new home.
Until Next Time
Despite plans to come back to the United States after the end of her internship, she hasn’t quite finished traveling the world. In the future, she would like to take advantage sooner of the variety of communities of travelers and foreigners that one would inevitably find in any city around the world. She offers high praise towards the MISTI-Spain program and would recommend the experience to anyone – even if it’s not in Spain. To conclude her time spent throughout this program, Spain, and Europe, Melanie offers not a goodbye, but an “hasta luego” – until next time!