Former IACMI Intern Will Henken Experiencing the highest level of academia while working for international company – Institute for Advanced Composites Manufacturing Innovation – IACMI

If IACMI’s internship program had a poster child, William Henken could be it.

Now a doctoral student in the University of Tennessee Knoxville’s structural engineering program and, since January, a Volkswagen Fellow at the automaker’s Innovation Hub in Knoxville, Henken says his two stints as an IACMI summer intern — at Purdue University’s Composites Manufacturing and Simulation Center in 2016 and, in 2018, with innovative ground mobility company Local Motors’ direct digital marketing and 3D printing “microfactory” in Knoxville — are why he is where he is today.

“The IACMI internships eventually led me to pursue my Ph.D. in structural engineering at the University of Tennessee, which is something I’m thankful for, and the marketable skills I developed in those experiences strengthened my application for the Volkswagen fellowship,” he says.

Henken’s internship at the Purdue facility came at a crucial time for the then-third-year University of Central Florida engineering student.

“I had just changed my major from industrial to aerospace engineering, and I wasn’t too confident in that decision,” Henken says. “But that experience at Purdue really reaffirmed my decision.

“I was fascinated with how aerospace materials like carbon fiber-reinforced composites were being used to design lightweight performance structures, and it left me eager to learn more about composites and their applications,” he says.

He got that opportunity two summers later when he was awarded his second IACMI internship, the one that took him to Local Motors’ Knoxville facility. While the Purdue experience had exposed him to the important design aspects of fiber-reinforced composite materials, Local Motors gave him a much fuller picture.

“Local Motors was an amazing chance for me to observe industrial applications of composite design and how beneficial lightweight composites can be to a variety of industries,” he says. “Interning there also helped me develop professionally, by seeing how composites research and development is conducted. While I was there, I was able to witness construction of what was, at the time, the world’s largest 3D printer.”

For Henken, who already was dabbling in and using 3D printing for some of his engineering projects at UCF, what was even more thrilling was watching as that newly built piece of hardware 3D-printed Olli, Local Motors’ self-driving electric shuttle. That was energizing to the nth degree.

“From working with Local Motors, I developed a passion for 3D printing,” Henken says. “Since then, I have built my own desktop 3D printer to continue learning about additive manufacturing and to print for a hobby.”

His three months as a Local Motors summer intern flew by, and he was thirsty for more. Thanks to IACMI’s flex-term internship program, Henken was able to return to Local Motors shortly after graduating from Central Florida with his aerospace engineering degree in December 2018, and he remained there through 2019 while beginning his doctoral studies at UT.

In January, though, with the grand opening of Volkswagen’s Innovation Hub in Knoxville, his sizing fellowship started. It’s a four-year dissertation project in which he’ll investigate the complex interfacial interaction between fiber and resin by evaluating how sizing affects fiber-reinforced composite materials.

“Right now, I’m straddling the academic and automotive industries,” Henken says. “It’s a unique position, to experience the highest level of academia while working for an international automotive company.”

It’s a position he never would have imagined himself when he was a college freshman or sophomore. And that brings him back to internships. For current and prospective engineering students, interning is essential.

“Internships are vitally important to developing the marketable skills employers are looking for,” Henken says. “As an IACMI intern, I was able to explore the composites industry and realize my interest in it before pursuing this career path.”

He notes that a key objective of IACMI’s internship program is workforce development. That was a big draw for him.

“I had no real engineering experience at the time, and the promise of learning a valuable skill like composite material modeling and design sounded like an amazing opportunity,” he says. “I truly sought to get everything I could out of my internships, and I feel I’m a strong example of those workforce development efforts paying off.”