Co-op and Internship Programs
ECE students put their education into practice in the real world through Co-op and Internship programs.
Our students are in high demand – each semester more than 100 students are employed in more than 40 company environments here in Kentucky and across the globe. The Co-op program involves a structured alternating-semester experience, typically consisting of three or more semesters of full-time work at one or more companies, alternating with full-time academics. Internships involve separate individual work experiences, which can be over the summer or during the semester. In either case, our students receive meaningful work experiences doing engineering and interacting with engineering teams.
As high-skill high-demand workers, students are well-paid for their expertise from their first work experience. On average our ECE students earn $21 an hour, plus a wide range of benefits including housing and logistics assistance and specialized training programs.
Career Development and Counseling
Students are placed into Co-op and Internship work experiences through our fantastic UK College of Engineering Career Development team.
Interested but don’t know where to start? Visit the College of Engineering Career Development and Job Resources.
To connect with us, please contact engrcareer@uky.edu or 859-218-1685. Contact us to schedule an appointment today!
“The Engineering Career Development Group meets the unique needs of UK engineering students and employers. Our mission is to assist students in developing job search skills, build career networks and help secure rewarding careers in their chosen fields of study.”
Sample Plans of Study
Each student's plan of study is individually customized with their academic advisor. Examples of these for the Electrical Engineering and Computer Engineering undergraduate programs are shown below, representing a typical plan of study for a student choosing to start their co-op experience in the fall semester of their Junior Year.
Student Experiences
Bryan Willis, Computer Engineer for NASA's Johnson Space Center
"When I was offered the full-time position, it was very surreal. Since my first tour at NASA, I knew that I had found my passion in life"
Bryan had previously worked hand-in-hand with the Flight Operations Division on an application called Solar Flux, which aids in trajectory propagation. He also spent time in the Hybrid Reality Lab working on a lunar simulation that provided tactile feedback to astronauts as they roamed the surface of the moon.
From dream internship to dream career, Bryan traded Lexington for Houston to become a computer engineer for NASA's Johnson Space Center.
Kelsey Daley, Northrop Grumman
“In college you shouldn’t be afraid to take opportunities that you don’t quite feel ready for, like a leadership experience or an internship. It’s important to be bold and go for it, because that’s what’s going to get you ahead.
As a sophomore, Kelsey spoke to recruiters from Northrop Grumman and interviewed on-site. A few weeks later, she received an internship job offer to work at their Palmdale, California, location. Kelsey spent the summer in California’s hot deserts, working in the IT department on an internal application for the company’s supply chain. That opportunity soon took her to Cincinnati the following summer, where she worked in Northrop Grumman’s mission systems sector. Working on small-scale communication systems, Kelsey had her own workstations and built multiple programs.
Her internships led her to her fulltime position at Northrop Grumman in Cincinnati.
Industries offering Co-ops and Internships include
- Cypress Semiconductor
- Faraday Future
- GE Aviation
- Harris Semiconductor
- Lexmark
- LG&E/ KU
- Microsoft X-Box Team
- Missile System
- NASA Langley Research Center (LaRC)
- NASA Johnson Space Center
- Nato
- Northrop Grumman
- Scientific Atlanta
- Tesla
- Toyota Motors
- United Airlines