YSU junior heads to S. Korea for internship

Staff report

youngstown

Bryan Zilka is going global with a co-op internship in Seoul, South Korea, this summer.

A junior mechanical engineering major in Youngstown State University’s College of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics, Zilka will be working for light electric vehicle manufacturer MPS Korea Co., Ltd.

MPS is based in Seoul and sells products throughout Asia and North America as the maker of small electric vehicles, such as golf carts, electric manufacturing trucks and other applications.

This is the first time the STEM college has been able to send an intern on a foreign assignment in recent memory.

Zilka will spend the summer and return in the fall.

Zilka said he’s excited for an opportunity to work abroad in his field. He will be staying in Seoul for nearly two months this summer, working on the product line for an MPS industrial truck.

“Mechanical engineering is a much broader field than I thought it was going into my major,” said Zilka. “So I’m working on figuring out all the opportunities available to me before deciding on a career. That’s what this internship will really help me do.”

Zilka is a member the American Society of Mechanical Engineers and the Honors Program at YSU.

The Youngstown/Warren Regional Chamber approached the STEM college in the spring about the opportunity, as in their communication with MPS found a need for engineering support for some of MPS’s upcoming new products.

The Regional Chamber’s vice president of Iinternational business attraction, Eric Planey, lauded the efforts by MPS to hire Zilka.

“MPS has given us at the chamber great insight as to the business climate in Korea, to help attract Korean businesses to the area. Further, we have seen how MPS excels at engineering-driven solutions for its products, and we thought this would be an excellent opportunity for a student like Bryan and the STEM college to showcase their talents,” he said.

MPS was one of three Asian companies in town recently for the YSU Sustainable Energy Forum.