Eric Silva, a junior in the department of mechanical and aerospace engineering, and Jeff Schoonover, a senior in the department of materials science and engineering, at the Case Western Reserve University Case School of Engineering have received corporate awards from two of the university's industrial partners where the students have worked in cooperative education programs.

Silva, of Baltimore, Md., is the first student intern to receive the $250 employee award for quality, service, integrity and innovation (QSII) from the manufacturing department at Keithley Instruments in Cleveland. Historically, the award has been given exclusively to salaried employees of the company who are nominated by their department supervisors for demonstrating well-rounded performance, outstanding quality and service to the company, integrity and innovative thinking.

The junior said his mentor at Keithley and supervisor in the company's manufacturing department nominated him for the award because the intern simplified mechanical drawings and created a standard that bolstered the company's quality assurance and increased its bottom line.

"My experience at Keithley Instruments was the best work experience I've ever had," Silva said. "I would highly recommend other Case students participate in a cooperative education program because you get to test out what you really want to do with your future career."

Schoonover, of Portland, Ore., received a $500 award for Student Intern Contribution from General Electric (G.E.) in Cleveland. This honor is reserved exclusively for interns whose job performance ranks in the top 3 to 5 percent of all company interns worldwide including the company's appliance and lighting divisions.

The senior received the award for helping the company reduce its lamp costs by decreasing the cost of manufacturing, as well as for work on an accelerated life test for lamps.

"I was able to use computer software to help implement my idea to change the way the company manufactured a part of a product," Silva said. "This helped the company save thousands of dollars by saving them an hour per day on the production line and improving their total quality management."

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