June 24, 2020

Isaac Lagermann is putting his electrical engineering courses to work at Garmin this summer.

When Isaac Lagermann ’21 began an internship at Garmin earlier this month, he immediately put his electrical engineering courses to work.

“As soon as I walked in the door, I was able to contribute and diagnose issues,” Lagermann said. “It’s Mizzou’s teaching that’s helping me out. It’s making me look good.”

Lagermann is working at an aircraft hanger just outside the company’s headquarters in Kansas City. There, he is creating diagrams and instructions to help buyers install Garmin products in airplanes.

This is Lagermann’s second internship with Garmin, which provides navigation technology for the automotive, aviation, marine and fitness markets.

Last summer, he had the opportunity to design a switch power device for a new, yet-to-be-released product.

“Garmin is pretty cool because they give you real projects,” he said. “The power supply I designed is actually going to be in a device in a certified aircraft flying in the air someday. That was really rewarding.”

Internships are important because they allow students to get industry experience alongside their education.

For Lagermann, they provide opportunities to apply the foundational concepts he’s learned in electrical engineering courses.

“I keep concepts top of mind as soon as an opportunity arises to apply them,” he said. “Each electrical engineering course goes deeper into concepts. And now here I am in this internship using these concepts fluently.”

‘Would Definitely Recommend Mizzou’

On campus, Lagermann has also taken advantage of opportunities to apply what he learns. He spent two years helping conduct high-voltage capacitor research. And he’s been involved in competition teams since his freshmen year. He was president of the Electric Car Team, which later merged with the Mizzou-Eco Racing team. He now serves as treasurer.

Lagermann is a Bright Flight recipient who wanted to study engineering in Missouri. For him, Mizzou was an obvious choice. He fell in love with the campus, which doubles as a botanical garden. And once here, he gained an appreciation for all the opportunities Mizzou provides its students.

“The mentality of the College of Engineering is that they give students every resource possible to succeed,” he said. “And here you get a lot of opportunities to collaborate with other majors and gain a lot more experience. I would definitely recommend Mizzou.”