海角社区 Industrial Engineering Grad Student Interns With Tesla
October 4, 2023
BATON ROUGE, LA 鈥� 海角社区 Industrial Engineering graduate student Min Pun is braving the Texas heat while he interns at Tesla鈥檚 Gigafactory Texas in Austin this fall. Pun, who is originally from Nepal, has worked for Tesla before and jumped at the chance to have an internship there again.
In 2021, Pun was offered a summer internship at Tesla鈥檚 Gigafactory Nevada (less than an hour from Lake Tahoe), where he served as a quality engineering intern working on projects related to Statistical Process Control, Gage R&R, Non-Conformance, Root Cause Analysis, PFMEA, and Control Plans. According to Tesla鈥檚 website, Gigafactory Nevada is one of the world鈥檚 highest volume plants for electric motors, energy storage products, vehicle powertrains, and batteries, producing billions of cells per year.
Pun enjoyed his Gigafactory Nevada internship so much that, in 2023, he began a fall internship at Gigafactory Texas in Austin, serving again as a quality engineering intern.
鈥淚n Nevada, I worked on Model 3/Y battery packs, where I was drafting the control charts for high-voltage joints of battery packs and also the validation study for the new End of Line testers; whereas in Austin, I鈥檓 working on a project related to Cyber Truck鈥檚 Drive Unit, where I am trying to compile and analyze the program files for Drive Unit parts鈥� dimensional measurements,鈥� Pun said.
What Pun enjoys most about his internship in Austin is the 鈥渆ver-learning environment, open-door policy, hands-on experience, and personal growth aspect of his internship,鈥� he said. He鈥檚 also loving the city that likes to 鈥渒eep it weird.鈥�
鈥淚 loved both of my internships, but I love Austin as a city,鈥� Pun said. 鈥淎ustin is great as there are so many places to explore nearby, work is accessible to downtown and the airports, and on top of that, people are amazing here. I鈥檝e only been here for a month, but in my free time, I鈥檝e been visiting amazing restaurants, food trucks, and artsy places with my friends.鈥�
Austin is nearly seven hours from Baton Rouge, but 海角社区 is a long way from Nepal, where Pun was born and raised. He moved to the U.S. in 2014, when he enrolled at McNeese State University in Lake Charles, La., to work on his bachelor鈥檚 degree in mechanical engineering. He then went to work for medical device company Zimmer Biomet as a quality engineer before deciding to work on his master鈥檚 in industrial engineering at 海角社区.
鈥淲hile working for Zimmer Biomet, I realized there is a massive gap between what I studied in my undergrad and what I was doing there, mainly through the perspective of the course and concepts that I learned in my undergraduate degree,鈥� Pun said. 鈥淐oncepts like statistical analysis, quality management, process improvement, lean methodologies, which are crucial aspects of Quality Engineering (QE), were missing in undergrad. When I was applying to grad school and the majors that align more with QE, I learned about industrial engineering at 海角社区.鈥�
Pun chose to attend 海角社区 to earn his master鈥檚 in industrial engineering after hearing about the variety of research conducted at 海角社区 while he was in Lake Charles.
鈥淟ouisiana always felt like home away from home鈥攖he people, the food, and the culture are so reminiscent of back home,鈥� he said. 鈥満＝巧缜� has always been my top choice for its strong academic programs, faculty expertise, and research opportunities.鈥�
Pun, who graduates this fall, plans to work in the automobile industry as a quality/process engineer.
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