Every year, Davids Engineering welcomes a group of college students to work alongside our team members on various projects for the summer. This provides the students with hands on experience and provides DE support and fresh ideas. We want to take some time to highlight this year’s interns.
Gento Shimamura is currently studying Biosystem Engineering at University of California, Davis. As an intern in our Davis office, Gento has worked with our Water and Technology group performing salinity, water level, and water quality measurements in Sutter County; conducting QA/QC on collected field data; creating python scripts to generate reports for growers; and analyzing OpenET data to help build a water budget for Sutter County.
TELL US ABOUT YOURSELF
I was born in Japan but moved to America when I was a couple months old. For most of my childhood, I grew up in Rancho Palos Verdes, CA. I am currently attending UC Davis, where I am studying Biosystem Engineering with an emphasis on Agricultural and Natural Resources.
At UC Davis, I’m involved in clubs such as the Men’s Club Lacrosse Team and the Society of Biological Engineers (SOBE). In my free time, I enjoy fishing, photography, gardening, and cooking.
WHAT ARE YOUR CAREER GOALS?
My ultimate goal is to become a professional water resource engineer in California. Although I am still figuring out exactly what I want to do, I am currently interested in helping growers use their water as efficiently as possible. I am also considering pursuing a master’s degree in Biosystem Engineering at UC Davis.
WHY DID YOU CHOOSE TO INTERN AT DE?
I learned about DE from the professor I worked for during the school year. After talking with a few employees at the UC Davis career fair, I felt that my experience working in the lab perfectly meshed with the work that DE did for the water resources industry. I ultimately chose DE since it provided a segway from research to consulting work.
WHAT DO YOU HOPE TO ACCOMPLISH/LEARN AS AN INTERN?
As a DE intern, I hope to learn how to use coding languages such as python to analyze data collected in the field. I have always been curious about how field data is utilized to help growers make informed decisions. I also hope to learn how the engineering consulting industry operates and how it differs from academic research.
WHAT MOTIVATES YOU TO GET UP AND GO TO SCHOOL/WORK?
Learning how the world works motivates me to get up every morning. There are so many things that happen to keep the world running; some by the people and some by nature. It motivates me to know that there’s things out there I have yet to discover.
BEST PIECE OF ADVICE YOU’VE EVER BEEN GIVEN?
The best piece of advice I’ve got was to figure out what you don’t like. At first, it seemed simple enough, but over time I realized that it’s better to move on from something once you stop learning. Understanding this allowed me to take one step back but three steps forward when exploring new experiences.
