Announcing the 2025 SSOE Co-op Student & Employer of the Year

A Swanson School of Engineering student's work at the world’s largest paint and coatings company led him to receive a prestigious award from the school, and a local company was also awarded for its consistent mentorship of co-op students this fall.

Student of the Year

The SSOE Cooperative Education Program named Emilio Hoyos-Sosa, a fifth-year student in chemical engineering, its 2025 Co-op Student of the Year after his four co-op rotations with the Sherwin-Williams Company. 

“I remember getting the email saying I’d been nominated and it honestly felt surreal.” Hoyos-Sosa said. “When I heard I had actually won, it felt pretty crazy, but I'm really proud. Looking back on the impact I had during my co-op and all the ways I’ve been involved here at Pitt, it feels great to see my work recognized.” 

During his rotations at the company’s Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Ohio facilities, Hoyos-Sosa split his time between process engineering and project engineering, working on both short and long-term projects. Much of his work focused on safety improvements, return-on-investment analyses, and asset preservation, where he collaborated with operations and maintenance teams to turn engineering analysis into practical solutions.

“I really enjoyed doing job safety analyses, presenting my solutions, and getting feedback from the operators,” Hoyos-Sosa said. “Helping create an immediate improvement to their daily process and being able to implement those projects as a co-op was a great experience.”

Hoyos-Sosa is also a long-standing member of Pitt’s Society of Astronautics and Rocketry (SOAR), where he spent two years in leadership roles and helped advance large-scale aerospace design projects. 

“A lot of the engineering skills I have now came from SOAR,” Hoyos-Sosa said. “I learned 3D modeling, engineering standards, and the full design process through our projects. It’s been one of the best parts of my time at Pitt.”

After graduating this December, Hoyos-Sosa will join Emerson Power and Water in Cranberry Township as part of their thermal power engineering team.

“I'm really excited to start that role, even though it will be a different environment than what I had with Sherwin Williams.” Hoyos-Sosa said. “It's definitely going to be something new, but it will definitely be exciting.”

Employer of the Year

The Conair Piovan Group was also selected as the 2025 Co-op Employer of the Year. As part of Piovan Group, Conair is the leading supplier of auxiliary equipment, solutions, and installed systems for plastics processors, supplying application-guaranteed equipment to keep plants running efficiently and profitably. Since partnering with the Swanson School of Engineering in 2018, the company has hired 27 co-op students and consistently provided high-quality, hands-on experiences that often lead to full-time roles for graduates. 

“Conair has established an outstanding co-op program that gives students a stellar experience with a potential direct path to full-time employment,” said Chris Ann Frankovic, director of cooperative education & internships at the Swanson School of Engineering. “We have many Pitt engineering alumni in several senior roles, and with their great management and mentors, we truly value their partnership.”