920 Delaware St. SEApt. 1018

Minneapolis, MN 55414

September 6, 2016

Professor Joseph LabuzDepartment of Civil, Environmental and Geo- EngineeringUniversity of Minnesota 500 Pillsbury Drive SEMinneapolis, MN 55455-0116

Dear Professor Labuz,

This letter is a formal report of the co-op I completed at Edge Consulting Engineers, Inc.

from January 2016 to August 2016, as per the requirements for CEGE 4101 Eng. Co-op

Assignment. Edge Consulting Engineers, Inc. is headquartered in Prairie du Sac, WI and is a

civil, environmental, and telecommunications engineering firm. Edge also has a branch office in

Lakeville, MN, where I was employed. Their services include structural analyses, geotechnical

analyses, surveying, environmental site assessments, archeological investigations, zoning

coordination, cellular tower climbs, and other various architecture and engineering (A&E)

services. While many of these services are completed for civil projects, Edge specializes in

carrying them out for telecommunications sites of carriers such as Verizon, T-Mobile, and

AT&T.

Formally, my title at Edge was Design Engineering Co-op. I first inquired about the

position when I spoke to my future manager at the Fall 2015 University of Minnesota CSE career

fair. In our discussion, I spoke of my qualifications for the co-op, such as my involvement with

Engineers Without Borders, volunteer activities, and the Institute on the Environment Leaders

program. Following our discussion, I connected with my future manager on LinkedIn and then

interviewed at the Lakeville office. I was offered the position in the following week and

accepted.

My first day was spent at the Prairie du Sac office, where I was trained on the CAD

software Edge employs, Bentley MicroStation. I worked through both the standard tutorial

provided by the developer and also a tutorial compiled by the CAD Manager at Edge. The latter

tutorial provided more specific knowledge and skills on the standards and practices used in

Edge’s construction drawings, reports, and CAD work.

The typical task I was assigned to work on at Edge was to draft construction drawings in

MicroStation for telecommunications sites. At the beginning of the week, I would meet with my

manager and he would explain the tasks assigned to me for the week. Upon completion of each

task, I would first email it to one of the other designers or engineers for review. Once they had

reviewed it, I would address their comments (commonly referred to as “redlines”) and then send

an updated version directly to my manager. He would then do a second review, and once

satisfied would sent the document to the client.

In almost all cases, these sites were small cell installations. These types of installation

usually included two radios, a couple of antennas, and sometimes other electrical and fiber optic

equipment such as load centers, single electric meters, and fiber cabinets. The purpose of these

installations is to provide increased cellular coverage to an area no larger than a couple city

blocks. Small cells are commonly employed in urban and high-traffic areas. For instance, in

anticipation of the 2018 Super Bowl in Minneapolis, Verizon has been building small cells all

around the area to increases its cellular capacity.

There are three types of documents which I commonly drafted. The first was the ‘site

sketch’. The site sketch was completed after a site walk in which photos and layout

measurements were recorded. The site sketch included a site plan page and an elevation page, to

give all parties involved a basic knowledge of the proposed node design. Another document, the

‘lease exhibit’, was similar; it contained the same two pages with the more technical information

removed. The lease exhibit’s purpose was to identify the ownership of the property and

equipment associated with the node. Finally, the culmination of these documents and many

others was the preliminary construction drawings, or simply “Rev A”. This document included a

title, site plan, elevation, and details pages. Enclosed with this letter is an example of the Rev A

which I put together for a node named “MIN Hamlet MPLS”.

A couple of courses which I completed at the University of Minnesota were very

beneficial to my ability to be successful at Edge. For instance, the concepts I learned in WRIT

1401 Writing and Academic Inquiry helped greatly in creating construction drawings which were

clear and concise. Many of the text callouts which I inserted needed to express a fair amount of

technical information into a couple of statements. Additionally, the ability to express concerns,

understand feedback, and ask constructive questions was essential in being able comprehend

content and improve myself as an employee.

The principles I learned in AEM 2011 Statics also aided in my understanding of the

telecom sites. Having basic knowledge of how the loading of different types of equipment affect

the structural integrity of various structures was useful in creating construction drawings. For

instance, I deduced that more equipment placed on a taller light pole would create a larger

moment. This intuition allowed me to draw the foundation of the light pole to be the

approximate size it need to be in order to be structurally sound.

Not only did previous knowledge assist me in my co-op, but I also gained an enormous

amount of knowledge and skills from it. For example, I now have a thorough understanding of

what is necessary to create a comprehensive set of construction drawings for many types of civil

and telecom projects. These aspects include the CAD and survey line work, field measurements

and photos, equipment specification and details, and general information (i.e. contacts, location,

table of contents). Furthermore, while at Edge, I observed on a daily basis how every employee

was constantly striving to make tasks easier through updating, standardizing, and refining

documents and practices. As an example, in the enclosed construction drawings for MIN Hamlet

MPLS the details on pages A-3, A-4, and A-5 were already prepared by others and available for

my use, as with many of the other detail boxes. In general, this procedure was reinforced to me

as a co-op as excellent engineering practice regardless of the setting.

Lastly, in regards to my future career aspirations, my time at Edge solidified my interest

in urban infrastructure and its harmony with the environment. Seeing the ingenious design of

many small cell installations to blend seamlessly into its environment has challenged me to think

of new ways which this concept can be applied other infrastructure and technology. I hope to

bring this thought process into the classroom as I continue school. Someday I could see myself

working in the environmental division of a firm like Edge, or maybe at Edge itself.

Overall, my co-op experience exceeded my expectations in the technical skills that I

learned, intuitive knowledge I gained, and relationships I developed. Most importantly, my

experience gave me a glimpse of what post-graduation life might be like and the opportunities

which are available.

Yours sincerely,

James ButlerBachelor of Environmental EngineeringDepartment of Civil, Environmental, and Geo- EngineeringUniversity of Minnesota—Twin Cities ‘18