Topic:  What Is MECOP (the Multiple Engineering Cooperative Program with OSU, OIT, PSU, and the University of Portland) and Why Is It Successful?

Mr. Cook has been with CH2M Hill for 35 years.  Currently, he provides program and project management domestically and internationally for complex design and construction projects in Electronics, Science and Technology markets.  He also serves as the chair of the cooperative effort called MECOP.

Conceived in the summer of 1978, MECOP was a collaboration between Oregon State University and Oregon-based manufacturing companies that hired engineering graduates.  Faced with a growing gap between the skills and knowledge needed to succeed in the work place and those being taught in universities, three major Oregon companies—Freightliner (now Daimler Trucks), Tektronix, and Bingham-Willamette (now Sulzer-Bingham)—entered into an agreement with OSU’s Department of Industrial Engineering to start the Multiple Engineering Cooperative Program (MECOP).  Later expanded to OIT, PSU, and the University of Portland, MECOP is a student internship within the engineering industry that demonstrates the power of an effective business/education partnership. Oregon Tech, for example, students in Mechanical, Civil Engineering, Geomatics and Software Engineering can participate.

Typically, students gain real work experience in two six-month internships, trying out different sectors of industries, management styles, etc. This helps students learn early in their career what an engineer really is like. Students normally apply during their sophomore year in college. There are many participating companies, a few of which are: Wilsonville’s own Mentor Graphics; Intel; Tektronix; and Daimler Trucks.