September 07, 2023
Meet Our 2023 Summer Interns
This summer, Ecosystem welcomed a dynamic cohort of interns who brought their fresh perspectives and enthusiasm to our team. It was a pleasure to host these bright and talented individuals. While they learned and grew, they also made real contributions to our projects. Meet some of our summer interns…
Luca Sheridan, a high school intern from Brooklyn Technical High School, joined the New York City team this summer.
Q. What’s the biggest ‘aha’ moment you’ve had during your time with us? A. One of my biggest realizations is how different this is from school. In school, you are doing heavily structured assignments where there is either one correct answer or strict guidelines to follow. I’ve found in my time as an intern here that it is much more common to be given a task where there is a clear goal, but it is up to me to structure and figure out how to do it.
Q. How has this internship influenced what you want to do in the future?
A. This internship has set high expectations for my future workplace – I want to find a space as kind and welcoming as Ecosystem has been. Another influence it has had on me is something that Adam [Shelly] brought up. He said that working in person and remotely allows him to get different types of work done – more collaborative in person and more focused when remote. This sounds like a good way to balance the two types of work and something I would like to be able to try in my future job.
Q. What new skills have you gained or something you have learned that surprised you?
A. Something that I learned more about (and was surprised by how much I liked it) was using formulas in Excel. I enjoyed learning new functions and ways to use them together. Making a new sheet was like a series of short coding puzzles, and I found it very interesting to figure out. I also didn’t expect to enjoy learning about HVAC systems as much as I have. There is a strange feeling to learning about the systems that have surrounded you your entire life, but never really took note of or understood.
Ying Fei Zang, a McGill University student studying computer science, shares what she’s learned during her internship.
Q. What’s the biggest ‘aha’ moment you’ve had during your time with us?
A. I think one of the ‘aha’ moments I had is the fact that people can manage their time. Everyone can decide the time they want to have lunch, the time they leave, and take a small break whenever they need it… It helped me realize that “oh, so I can do that, too” and loosen up a bit.
Q. How has this internship influenced what you want to do in the future?
A. Working with weather data has got me interested in Data Science. In fact, I am planning to add a course called “Introduction to Data Science” for my upcoming semester to get to know more about this subject!
Q. What new skills have you gained or something you have learned that surprised you?
A. I have developed the skill of troubleshooting by working with the two projects assigned to me. Before, instead of fixing the actual problem, I would rather start all over again to see if the problem could be avoided or abandon the actual plan right away and switch to a new solution. Now, I have learned, from my supervisor, to do more research online about the issue and take time to test the code again and again, until it is completely debugged.
William Logue, a Binghamton engineering student, spent his second summer with New York’s construction team.
Q. What’s the biggest ‘aha’ moment you’ve had during your time with us?
A. The biggest “aha” moment came from looking back at the construction progression of the project. Learning all the coordination and scheduling that is involved to ensure a safe and smooth construction process was very fulfilling.
Q. How has this internship influenced what you want to do in the future? A. This internship has spiked my interest in a future in energy efficiency. It was rewarding to come into older buildings and implement modern technologies to achieve efficiency goals. Reducing energy emissions and carbon footprint is a passion of mine that has only grown stronger through my time at Ecosystem.
Q. What new skills have you gained or something you have learned that surprised you?
A. Working on existing buildings, I understood there would be difficulties, but it was surprising to me how many obstacles reveal themselves throughout a construction project. With the mentoring and assistance of a great design, construction, and optimization team, I learned how to create solutions and plan around any hurdle along the way.
Olivier Culat, an engineering student at Université Laval, shares his insights from his time as an intern.
Q. What’s the biggest ‘aha’ moment you’ve had during your time with us?
The biggest ‘aha’ I had so far as an intern was when my supervisor explained to me why steam networks are still so present today. Despite their relative inefficiency, the lack of pumps needed to run the steam feed gives a steam system a simple advantage compared to a hot-water system. I hadn’t thought through that steam systems do not need pumps to run, except for the condensate return in some applications, of course. It makes total sense to me now, and my understanding of building mechanics keeps growing every day!
Q. How has this internship influenced what you want to do in the future? This internship has shown me that as an engineer, and even as an intern, there is a lot more to this domain than just designs and engineering. There are entire company sections dedicated to managing information to help the designers, others to continuing internal education, which is what I have been doing this summer incidentally, and of course, teams dedicated to selling our expertise to clients. This internship has shown me multiple door openings, and I am excited for these future opportunities.
Q. What new skills have you gained or something you have learned that surprised you?
Besides all the building mechanics knowledge I have begun to accumulate, I have developed a few skills. I learned to use Articulate 360, a fantastic software that helped me create interactive games about bad installations we often see on job sites and mechanical rooms. My editing skills have grown a lot from using it daily, and the attention to detail I now put in motion when designing these games is transferrable to many other platforms.
Another skill I learned that surprised me is accounting for the human factor. The human brain is a complex machine, and we need to understand it for educational tools to work properly. I had a few meetings with a psychologist, with the goal being to create games that would keep the brain interested, with a variable difficulty range and multiple layers of questions. The results are games with a stable format that can be used in a different way to make the exercise of a certain week stand out and stimulate the brain to learn.
Michael Brunetti, an engineering student at the University of Guelph, shares his insights on what he’s learned as a construction intern this summer.
Q. What’s the biggest ‘aha’ moment you’ve had during your time with us?
The biggest ‘aha’ moment I had during the time of my internship at Ecosystem was when I was able to explain to my friends what we were doing on the project and why we were doing it. This is when I realized that I had an understanding of what I was working on.
Q. How has this internship influenced what you want to do in the future?
This internship has shown me how rewarding being on-site and learning from people with diverse education and career backgrounds is. In the future, I want to continue working alongside engineers, designers, and tradesmen to get a full perspective of the project.
Q. What new skills have you gained or something you have learned that surprised you? Working on a retrofit project has taught me how to plan and stay ahead of the project to avoid problems and how to find quick solutions when unexpected challenges arise. During the project, there were many times we had to work as a team to quickly find solutions that differed from the drawings because there was no room for our piping.
The summer internship program at Ecosystem has been an enriching experience for both our interns and our organization. We appreciate their valuable contributions and dedication, and we are confident that they will continue to make significant strides toward a more sustainable world. We look forward to their future successes!
Want to join the Ecosystem team? Check out some of our job openings.
