Student Spotlight: Nikki Casasanto
9/30/2015
Status: Senior in industrial engineering with a minor in Six Sigma
Hometown: Springfield, Pennsylvania
Projected Graduation Date: May 2016
Internship Experience: Casasanto was an intern at General Motors’ Powertrain Foundry in Defiance, Ohio from May through August 2015. Her responsibilities at GM included: developing systems to improve throughput and productivity of precision sand manufacturing; converting Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) process to Throughput Improvement Process (TIP); automating data summary for TIP to work in order to eliminate bottlenecks within the manufacturing process; and designing a system for layered audits.
In 2014, she completed an internship with Amtrak in Philadelphia, serving as an industrial engineering intern. There she performed data analysis to support the development of Engineering Departmental goals and tracked progress against those goals; assisted industrial engineering and quality control staff in analyzing production work groups to maximize productivity and identify opportunities for improvements; evaluated asset failure data generated by Amtrak’s Enterprise Asset Management software to identify trends and assisted in optimizing maintenance programs and repair work scheduling; and generated reports to identify trends in unplanned events and assisted in root cause analysis and the development of corrective actions.
Casasanto also spent the summer of 2013 completing a scientific data entry internship for the International Centre for Diffraction Data in Newtown Square, Pennsylvania. In this role, she analyzed published articles to help compile the database of diffraction data and investigated and evaluated moieties and derivatives of popular chemical groups to identify compounds with possible pharmacological and pharmaceutical activity.
Study abroad experience: Casasanto studied in New Zealand and Sydney, Australia over winter break in 2013.
“My study abroad experience, ranging from hiking a glacier to swimming with dolphins to bungee jumping off of a bridge in Queenstown, was an adventure of a lifetime,” she said. “Through the New Zealand and Sydney, Australia: Humans and the Environment study abroad program, I was given the hands-on opportunity to examine the integrated natural resource management and conservation actions throughout New Zealand and Australia.”
Industry involvement: Casasanto is the treasurer/web-coordinator for the student chapter of the American Foundry Society. She is also a member of the Penn State student chapters of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, the Institute of Industrial Engineers, and the National Society of Leadership and Success.
Other Penn State activities: Casasanto has been a member of the Atlas Organization for THON and she served on the Hospitality Committee during the 2014-15 academic year.
Awards: She has been the recipient of scholarships from the H.H. Harris Foundation and the Foundry Educational Foundation (FEF).
Casasanto was also the first place winner of the Engineering Design Group Competition for the Harris Corporation Energy Project. She is also a FEF student delegate and attended the organization’s industry conference in Chicago in November 2014.
Career goals: “Through studying Industrial and manufacturing engineering and minoring in Six Sigma, my goal for the future is to obtain a position within a manufacturing plant and apply the knowledge I gained in the classroom, overseas, and during my internships and involvement in manufacturing and metal casting.
“It is my goal to gain as much experience in manufacturing as possible in the hopes that my well-rounded experience as an industrial engineer at Penn State will allow me to someday become a leader in my career in metal casting.”
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Casasanto, left, with fellow IE student Katie Thompson
