Systems Engineering Major Takes a Test Drive at Volvo
Systems engineering major Aj Smith spent the summer interning at Volvo, where he got the kind of hands-on experience that drives careers forward.
Aj Smith, a senior systems engineering major at College of Charleston, spent the summer of 2025 getting hands-on experience at Volvo, one of the automotive industry’s leading innovators and an important industry partner in the Charleston area.
Through his internship, Smith was able to apply what he’s learned in the classroom to real-world challenges, gaining the kind of experience that drives careers forward.
“I chose to take an internship at Volvo because I wanted to gain more experience, specifically in automotives,” says Smith, noting that he also wanted to test the job market and explore different careers. “As a systems engineer, you have a very wide variety of options and career paths. You can go anywhere – from automotive to civil to industrial. I feel like I was able to explore different options through automotive specifically and manufacturing.”
Working alongside a variety of teams at Volvo underscored the importance of communication for Smith.
“System engineering requires a lot of teamwork, just for the simple fact that you’re working with such a wide variety of different teams and components – anything from assembly line workers to the stakeholders in the company,” he says. “It’s really important to have those communication skills and be able to work very well on the team and hold everybody accountable at the same time; you kind of just make sure all needs are met because you really are just as strong as your weakest link.”
Smith is grateful for his internship experience, and credits the College – and especially Qian Zhang, assistant professor of engineering – for the opportunity.
“She’s been with me kind of just the entire way, just kind of giving me advice on entering the workforce, showing me the ropes of everything and just giving me potential directions I could take,” says Smith, noting that Zhang helped him land his first internship – with Siemens and Fraunhofer in the summer of 2024 – too. “She definitely helps me narrow down and pick the best opportunities that are going to be best for myself.”
And getting that hands-on experience that internships provide is something that Smith suggests for any student.
“I would just say to anybody: Just go out there and really just take the risk – roll the dice on yourself,” he says. “There’s a lot of different stuff that could come out of any experience or any internship interaction, so just kind of just put yourself out there to learn something new.”
