Dev Shah Named Co-op Student of the Year

During his co-op at SCal Mobile, an Irvine, California-based company that deals in the re-commerce of iPhone products to extend their life cycles, Dev Shah had numerous standout projects. One of them involved building a WhatsApp chatbot that could handle customer orders and answer questions. It began as a structured, form-like tool that reduced manual workload, then evolved into a language-model-powered assistant capable of natural conversation. 

The core challenge was balancing reliability with flexibility. Highly structured flows were accurate but limited, while more conversational AI increased usefulness but also the risk of errors, particularly around pricing and information accuracy. Running the system in production introduced additional technical hurdles, including scaling for heavy traffic, maintaining performance, and improving overall system reliability and safety.

“It was pretty fun because it also let me apply a lot of the classroom skills that I learned,” Shah said. “It was very similar to the classes I took, but the classes I took were very theoretical where you're making toy projects that worked in very ideal situations but then applying them to industry and in the real world, you saw how things don't exactly transfer and that was really fun as well.”

A student of the Department of Computer Science at the McCormick School of Engineering who earned his final credits in December, Shah was named the 2026 Walter P. Murphy Cooperative Engineering Education (Co-op) Program Student of the Year and now works full-time in SCal’s data science department. Shah sat down with Engineering Career Development (ECD) to reflect on the invaluable experiences gained during his co-op and their impact on shaping his future as an engineer.

Why did you decide to do a co-op?

Coming into college, I wanted to do a lot of different things. I wanted to do some research and get some real-world experience in addition to the coursework, because I thought it would really expose me to the work culture here and the kind of stuff that I can do in the real world. The industry I wanted to work in was in AI.

Just at the pace at which AI evolves in today's world, it was really important to me that I did something where I could see how fast it was, and that's why I wanted to work. Around the end of my first year, the idea of a co-op seemed very interesting to me because I could submerge and immerse myself in the experience for a long period and meaningfully contribute to a company.

And that's how the idea worked out. I talked to some advisers here, and then I started doing it. I actually started in the Chicago Field Studies program, and then I converted that into a co-op, which just became really interesting from there.

What did you learn about yourself during your co-op experience?

I learned a lot about how I like to work and what kind of work is most meaningful to me. I realized that at any position that I want to work, I want to make sure that I am doing something that's good for society, but also on a day-to-day I'm doing something that makes a difference to the company and the people around me as well.

Every action I did had some sort of impact and some sort of use. It wasn't just like something that got thrown away once my internship was over. That really made me value the work I was doing and made me motivated to work harder and do more. Beyond that, the culture of the company is something I just really enjoyed. There was there was a lot of initiative and drive allowed for everyone in the company. If you have an idea, you can go ahead and try it and see where it goes from there. That gave me the flexibility and freedom to figure out things for myself, but also innovate and explore, which I just really enjoyed.

There was just a culture of working very hard but also enjoying what you're doing. I like to work a lot and sometimes it's nice that everyone around you is also working a lot because it encourages you to work harder and have meaningful impacts.

How has ECD helped you through the co-op process?

ECD has been great and extremely supportive throughout. I'm an international student, so I do need a curricular practical training visa to work. The logistical part has been great. Starting as a first-year student, I talked to assistant director Helen Oloroso, associate director Tameca Lyons, and assistant director Dannielle Curtis and took CRDV 301-0: Introduction to Career Development.

I think everyone's just been really supportive in building a resume, working on my LinkedIn profile, and just trying to apply to different places and figure out how to navigate that entire process. That's been great. I think everyone's been really supportive.