Coop has begun
I started my coop last week and so far it's great. I like the people I work with and the work I'm doing is really interesting. I've learned a lot so far and now I'm getting to contribute more in terms of writing code, testing stuff out in the lab, and contributing to demos and presentations. The group I'm in does really cutting edge stuff and then we show it off to the rest of the company for other groups to decide where and how they can use the different "building blocks" that we've developed.
Also the company, BAE Systems, has a lot of summer interns so for the rest of the summer the other coop and I get to participate in those programs. Yesterday we got to go on a tour of the microwave electronics center in another facility nearby. They told us about how they fabricate all of the specialized chips and electronics for the rest of the company and we got to see (through windows) the clean rooms and equipment.
Another great thing is that we get every other Friday off by working 9 hours instead of 8 Monday - Thursday, so I've had all day off today to just appreciate that it's finally a nice sunny day, not raining like it has for most of the summer so far.