Michael Lopresti is a senior Industrial Engineering student and collegiate swimmer at the University of Missouri, dually enrolled in the Crosby MBA program.

InTech magazine has launched a new column called "Young Innovators." The column will focus on "talking shop with the next generation." The inaugural contribution comes from Michael Lopresti. Lopresti is a senior Industrial Engineering student and collegiate swimmer at the University of Missouri, dually enrolled in the Crosby MBA program.

Here is an excerpt from Lopresti's column on the impact his internships had on his automation career path:

After completing projects with an enormous business impact, my work at Lakeshore [Cryotronics in Westerville, Ohio] provided an exceptional platform for my next summer internship. In October 2010, my junior year, I approached P&G at our fall career fair and after interviewing and taking a plant tour, I accepted a manufacturing internship position at the Cape Girardeau Missouri Family Care facility for the summer of 2011.

Work at P&G proved to be vastly different from my experience at Lakeshore. The sheer size and scope of the business was overwhelming at first. Going from a company with $50 million in annual revenue to a single facility responsible for $800 million in annual revenue, the monetary and global impact of many of my projects was extraordinary.

Like at Lakeshore, my first project at P&G involved improving preventative maintenance. Specifically, I was responsible for replacing and redesigning components for a tissue and paper towel multi-roll bundler. This equipment has recorded over $65,000 in annual package sealing failures, due in part to components that were past their life cycles. More specifically, my summer project was highlighted by designing a wear pad with countersunk and colored screw heads allowing an objective determination of part failure as noted by wear levels equivalent to the countersink. This design was so successful it was applied to the Cape Girardeau site as well as all other P&G Family Care facilities. ...

As I enter my senior year at the University of Missouri, I am now enrolled in the Crosby MBA program while simultaneously finishing my undergraduate degree. Having completed two internships in diverse manufacturing settings, I have determined my interests are best suited to experience an MBA internship in corporate supply chain. Through future work experience, I will determine if supply chain is where I want to begin my full-time career.

A version of this article also was published at InTech magazine.