Externship Program 2025
This year, Sherpa Design piloted an externship program designed to provide a select group of high school students with hands-on experience in an authentic engineering environment.
Sherpa Design’s High School Externship PILOT
The initiative aimed to immerse participants in activities including design, prototyping, and product fabrication under the guidance of experienced mentors. Mechanical Design Engineer Tamara Dib, who oversaw the program, explained, “We wanted to offer students the opportunity to engage directly with real-world engineering challenges.”
Participants were drawn from Portland’s Roosevelt High School engineering class, including Liam Nelson and Connor Hutcheson. On their first day, externs met their mentor team and received their project assignment: designing a fixture for the horizontal bandsaw in Sherpa’s machine shop.
Bandsaw Coolant Distributor
The bandsaw contains two coolant lines that deliver fluid to the blade. This project required the design of a fixture enabling external mounting of these lines so that coolant could be dispensed adjacent to both the exit and entry blade guides, thereby enhancing service accessibility while maintaining critical cooling functionality.
Bandsaw view with key features for project highlighted
The scope of work included developing CAD designs for left and right guides, fabricating FDM prototypes, and ultimately producing the finalized design using Carbon DLS printing technology.
The externs got to work right away on several initial concepts, which they reviewed with mentors and MEs, Anatoliy Dzhuga and Micah Flock, for feedback. They printed FDM prototypes using Sherpa's 3D printers and conducted functional tests. The tests and feedback provided valuable insights, informing iterative improvements until a successful design was achieved.
Subsequently, the Carbon 3D department supported the production of working prototypes which were further tested and documented by the externs. At the conclusion of the program, participants presented their findings to Sherpa staff, detailing their design process, files, assemblies, bill of materials, and test videos.
Connor Hutcheson reflected, “It definitely met my expectations… Everyone here is extremely supportive; overall, it was an excellent experience.” Liam Nelson added, “The most significant lesson I learned was about documentation—understanding how professional engineers organize and present their work.”
Tamara Dib remarked, “I was thoroughly impressed by the students’ intelligence and efficiency in tackling this design challenge. Their performance exceeded expectations.”
The externship proved highly successful, benefiting both the student participants and Sherpa Design. Insights gained through the program will inform the development of future internship opportunities.
Henkel Loctite IND405 Clear for the initial prototype. Carbon EPX 82 for the final.