(Engineering Director Paul Nidezielski and intern Ujwol Niraula)
About Crest Electronics:
Crest Electronics, has been a manufacturer and distributor for the medical industry for 51 years, making a variety of medical device from fall management to clinical care and everything in between. Based in Dassel, Minnesota, Crest isn’t exactly “close” to any of the major colleges or universities in the state. But despite its rural setting, the electronics manufacturer has never had a hard time finding interns excited and willing to join the team.
SciTech intern Ujwol Niraula, commuted roughly 45 minutes to and from work every day to get to his internship at Crest. “The drive from St. Cloud to Dassel is very pretty,” he said, and well worth the commute for the experience he received.
“Both of the senior electrical engineers that we have were interns first,” said Nancy Swenson, the HR Director. Swenson has worked at Crest Electronics for 25 years and recalled that the preceding head engineer, as well as the one before them, also started their career with internships at Crest.
“We get busy with larger projects but there’s a lot of work, like reverse engineering client products, that need to be addressed but take up a lot time,” said Paul Nidezielski, Crest’s engineering director. “Interns really help us move the essential day-to-day projects along.”
About the interns:
Ujwol Niraula is a college senior studying electrical engineering at St. Cloud State University. Under Nidezielski’s guidance, Niraula conducted his projects primarily through reverse engineering –taking apart products, examining them, fixing their problems and then putting them back together again.
“That’s what all engineers do,” Niraula said, “they figure out a way to solve problems. The projects I did in school of course required critical thinking, but out here it’s more a combination of critical thinking and getting physically involved with the process.”
Niraula worked on wireless station and nurse call devices, aiding the engineering team as they attempted to improve the speaker quality for the handset.
“The experience has been greatly valuable for me, to get to work with other senior electrical engineers and see how they work. It’s been very educational.”
Whether Niraula decides to stay on at Crest, or applies his talents elsewhere in the field, the industry experience he gained during his internship grants him a foot in the door and opportunity to better advance his career.
About SciTech:
SciTech dedicates itself to making opportunities like these available for students and small businesses across the state. With the start of the 2018-2019 program year already underway, there’s a multitude of wage matches currently available. Students can secure a paid internship in their field while employers receive a reimbursement for half the intern’s wages, up to $2,500 per student hired through the program. Learn more and apply now.