UA Interns Join Business Efforts to Increase Efficiency, Reduce Waste

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Eberspaecher North America’s plant in Northport makes automotive exhaust systems. This includes mufflers, exhaust pipes and catalytic converters. The Northport plant produces systems for Mercedes vehicles built at the Vance plant.

Like most manufacturing plants, it uses a lot of compressed air, sometimes called the fourth utility, after electricity, natural gas and water. Compressed air requires a lot of energy, which is expensive when evaluated on a per-unit-of-energy-delivered basis.

So when Cory Gammon, a senior at The University of Alabama majoring in operations management, received an internship at Eberspaecher this summer, he was assigned to find leaks in the firm’s compressed air system. For every 1/16 inch leak he finds, he saves the company about $600 a year and provides another step toward energy conservation.

Gammon, of Northport, is one of six University of Alabama students who fanned out across the state this summer to take part in summer internships designed to help companies increase energy efficiency and reduce environmental waste.

“This is truly a unique approach to internships,” said Alan Hill, director of the Alabama Productivity Center at The University of Alabama’s Culverhouse College of Commerce which developed the pilot Alabama E3 (Economic, Energy, Environment) Student Summer Internship Program.

“Along with the Alabama Technology Network and other partners, we developed a pilot program to train and place University of Alabama graduate and undergraduate students in a select number of Alabama manufacturers for a 12-week summer internship program,” Hill said.

Hill said agreements have been reached with Johnson Control Inc., in Cottondale; Johnson Control Inc., Northport,  Flexco in Tuscumbia, Phifer Wire in Tuscaloosa, Michelin –BF Goodrich in Tuscaloosa,  and Eberspaecher in Northport.

“The program will be paid for by the clients, by Alabama Power Company and through grant funding we received from the ATN’s ECAR Grant, which is the E-3 program,” Hill said. “The students will be assigned tasks that are specific to reducing energy consumption and environmental impacts. UA students have received training that included sessions from manufacturing experts as well as training on ATN Next Generation services such as Practical Energy and Purdue Green training modules.”

The students are enrolled in both the UA business school and the College of Engineering, including one student who is enrolled in the STEM Path to an MBA. They were selected by the participating companies and work as contract employees for the University.

The students began work May 20 and will finish near Aug. 16. The students will track the impact of their work and prepare a presentation for the Alabama E3 Sustainability Conference that will be held in Montgomery Aug. 22-23.

“We are excited about the program,” Hill said. “The Manufacturing Extension Partnership is providing 50 percent of the stipends for the students, and representatives from the MEP will receive the impact reports at the August conference.”

“These are not just summer jobs or simply providing jobs for students,” said Dana Stone, MEP program manager. “These internships have the potential to transform a supporting company and drive their sustainability and growth.”