Nothing is Routine at The Weather Channel: Student Co-op Assignment

The Weather Channel may not be the first place you think of as an industrial engineering cooperative education assignment. But IE students and alumni have long recognized the diversity of an industrial engineering degree. Now, other industries are beginning to appreciate the IE experience.

Bernardo Franco, a 23-year-old senior in ISyE, co-oped at The Weather Channel Companies (TWCC) from January 2002 to August 2003. The position was originally available only to management majors, but Franco saw it as "the perfect opportunity for me to use my IE skills in a management-focused setting."

Franco, a native of Bogot�, Columbia, began his industrial engineering studies at Los Andes University in Bogot�. The Columbian university places a heavier focus on management, as opposed to production/manufacturing, so Franco transferred to West Virginia University in 1999. He left for Atlanta in 2001, because "Georgia Tech offers a very good undergraduate curriculum and we are number one in the nation."

At TWCC, he was assigned to the Strategy and Development (S&D;) department. "As a long-term task I was in charge of researching competitors, maintaining the com-

petitors' database, and publishing a bi-monthly newspaper on competitors' new technologies and ventures," says Franco. "I spent most of my time helping my supervisors in different projects that would arise each semester. One could think of the S&D; department as a small consulting firm within TWCC. We would work together with all the strategic business units, helping them and guiding them with their ideas and products."

"My team was a problem solver group," he continues. "We had to deal with competitor threats; we had to figure out new revenue streams; we had to review and/or enhance our current business models; and we had to plan or forecast technology trends in order to guide our management strategies."

He feels that the experience was different from that of other IE co-op programs. "In traditional co-op assignments, students usually learn how to improve processes, how to analyze and interpret data, and how to make wise decisions based on prior analysis," explains Franco. "However, at our level, co-op students, we usually learn how to make operational decisions that become routine with experience. At TWCC, nothing was a routine as every project was completely different."

"I also learned that we (IEs) can apply our skills in non-manufacturing settings as well. I think it is important, as the United States has partially shifted from a manufacturing economy to a service economy, that we start using our skills across all platforms and start being creative," he continues.

"Finally, and most important of all, I understand why Dr. (Jane) Ammons used to tell us in class: 'we don't just want you to learn how to solve problems, but to learn how to think about them.' And she was right. I was able to think about the different problems that I faced at TWCC and from there generate possible scenarios.

Franco is a well-rounded student, with a passion for sports, fun, and his family. In his childhood, he learned self-discipline through swimming and tennis. Now, he prefers soccer, a regular pursuit. He also admires the literary works of Albert Einstein and Leonardo Da Vinci. "I try to apply their thoughts in my personal life," he says.

At Georgia Tech, Franco has received several scholarships, and he is a member of The Helvetia Honor Society, the National Society of Collegiate Scholars, Golden Key Honor Society, and the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers.

After completing his co-op assignment, Franco spent Fall Semester 2003 in France, studying at the Sorbonne and the American University of Paris, with the goal of learning French, his third language (after Spanish and English). He will graduate Summer Semester 2004 and has plans to earn a master's in International Logistics at Tech. His long-term goals include an MBA from Harvard before returning to Columbia to start his own business. "I see myself operating throughout Latin America and leveraging new opportunities there," he says. "I want to be able to generate employment and help my people, as I am conscious that not all Columbians have had the same opportunities I had."



• Winter 2003 Engineering Enterprise Table of Contents
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