Cool runnings

So when his co-op employer gave him a complex problem to solve, he was more than happy to tackle it.

Weis came to the University of Cincinnati’s College of Engineering and Applied Science because of its highly rated cooperative education program, which allows students to split the year between full-time coursework and full-time employment in the field of their choosing.

“Ever since I was in high school, I leaned toward engineering,” he said. “I liked manufacturing aspects and design, so I switched to mechanical engineering technology. That allowed me to get my hands dirty.”

Weis is working his third co-op rotation at Cold Jet, a company based outside Cincinnati that makes innovative cleaning equipment. They serve a wide variety of industries from aviation and automotive to medical equipment manufacturers and foundries. Instead of abrasives, Cold Jet’s products use dry ice from recycled carbon dioxide.

“If you’re familiar with sandblasting, basically we’re doing the same thing except with dry ice,” said Dave Burbrink, a UC alumnus who supervises the company’s co-op program.

Cold Jet has a long history of hiring co-op students, particularly those from UC, Burbrink said. The company believes in UC’s co-op program in part because employees like Burbrink are products of it. He started his industrial design career as a co-op student in UC’s College of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning. 

Burbrink said he had a fantastic co-op at UC with an industrial design firm. 

“To this day, I’m still in contact with people I met there,” he said.

Co-op gives students a competitive advantage when they’re ready to start their careers, he said.

“There’s just no comparison between a student who has five or six semesters of co-op and another who does not,” he said.

Cold Jet is one of thousands of employers that hire UC students for co-ops and internships each year. Students at UC collectively earned $88 million last year in full-time, part-time and project-based co-ops.

Today, Burbrink is global design and technical director on a design team of two-dozen engineers in three facilities in different countries. While many of the engineers are preoccupied with function, he said form is important as well.

“Does it have to be painted black? Does it have to be a square box? That’s my role at Cold Jet, to give the equipment some aesthetic appeal that gives us an advantage over the competition,” he said.

At its wooded headquarters in suburban Cincinnati, employees build and ship the company’s many products, including machines that make dry ice to transport food and pharmaceuticals safely — even to deliver hearts and lungs for transplants.

Weis opened a bin full of tiny pellets of dry ice the company makes to test its blast-cleaning equipment. A mist of carbon dioxide wafted from the tiny pellets as he dug his gloved hands and pulled out handfuls like coarse sand.

He removed a panel from the company’s flagship cleaning machine embossed with the company’s polar bear logo and shined a light at its interior machinery, nearly all of which is made and assembled on the company’s manufacturing floor.

“I love being on a research and development team. I would definitely think about doing something like this for my future career,” Weis said.

Another UC student, Ryan O’Reilly, is studying aerospace engineering like his UC alumnus father. He grew up around planes, flight simulators and the aviation industry. He even took his first flight lessons.

Growing up, he liked figuring out how mechanical and electrical devices worked.

“I was a very hands-on kid. I made potato guns out of PVC pipe and pressurized air,” he said.

Later, he learned computer coding and took 3D modeling. 

“Last summer, I started learning more about electronics, soldering and putting circuits together,” he said. “It all has led to me being here.”

At Cold Jet, the UC engineering student quickly learned how his classroom instruction was useful in practical applications.

“This last semester I was taking fluid dynamics. And a lot of the work we do here is studying the flow in nozzles,” O’Reilly said. “I never thought I would necessarily use these skills in real life, but the first thing I do when I get here is apply those skills immediately.”

In his first month at Cold Jet, O’Reilly said he has learned a lot about manufacturing and design.

“I just want to do something I love,” he said. “You always hear the saying, ‘You don’t work a day of your life if you love what you do.’ This has been a great experience for that.”

Another UC alumnus Rob Kocol works as director of research and design at Cold Jet. He majored in aerospace engineering.

“Having that aerospace background ensures we have a full understanding of the science behind what’s going on,” Kocol said. “Everything we do is based on fluid dynamics. And you also have thermodynamics in that dry ice is -109 degrees Fahrenheit.”

Kocol said he looks for students with a strong work ethic and a willingness to learn.

“Real-world experience isn’t something you get in the classroom. You have to learn how to solve problems more than one at a time,” he said.

At Cold Jet, student Weis has gotten the chance to work on new product designs using computer-aided drafting software.

“It’s very elaborate,” Weis said. “I’ve gotten some prototyping experience here, which is pretty cool.”

And when tasked with fixing a complex problem on the manufacturing floor, he found a solution that worked.

“I presented my idea to marketing and engineering. They’re using it on the shop floor on the actual product now, which is pretty cool,” Weis said. “They always have you doing something important, which feels good.”

Featured image at top: UC student Nathan Weis holds handfuls of pelleted dry ice used in the industrial cleaning equipment at Cold Jet. Photo/Andrew Higley/UC Marketing + Brand