Beers with Engineers

#21 – Chris King: Engineering Songs (verb, not adjective) Chris is Program Engineer at Church & Dwight Chris was drinking a Sedlec 12° from Human robot brewery in Philadelphia. His house had a slate roof. You could see light through it but it didn’t leak. On drinking 151 rum – after burning off the alcohol. Loves the creative problem solving of engineering. 3D printers are great to have but it...

#19 - Dave Guertin: The Nuts of Software Dave is a Senior Programmer Director at Meditech. Not a Beer drinker – Sangria or Bailey’s Software engineers have a sense of humor, too. His high school had AutoCAD in 1985(ish). He learned it and sort of taught the class. Software engineering hasn’t changed, yet it is completely different. Programming has been commoditized – But it depends how you define...

#20 - Danielle YoungSmith: From Outer Space to Inner Space Danielle is an astrobiologist turned software engineer turned Purpose Clarity Coach.  Homebrewing is safe and delicious, but occasionally messy. She wanted to be an astronaut She is a full stack engineer – she can do the back and front end of your software product. Astrobiology – more than studying aliens More people would take organic che...

BONUS #1 - Jen Uschold: She can engineer your pain away Jen is my sister and an awesome physical therapist Jen is a physical therapist – let’s call it a body engineer. She is an “engineer” because she fixes problems you didn’t know you had using methods you don’t understand. Psychotic pain and being sedimentary? Jen knows a lot about pain science. It is very complex Some is mechanical, some is “so...

#18 - Dave Honan: Engineers are dogs, designers are cats Dave is an industrial designer for Technimark, LLC Like the title says, engineers are like dogs and designers are like cats Dave was very detailed in the models he made as a kid. He still is. IDSA is Industrial Designers Society of America. Have the rookies design your next product Many design firms are under molders instead of being indepen...

#17 - Heidi Mehrzad Fun with hashtags Her favorite beer is Bitburger, from her hometown in Bitburg, Germany. The thing about German lightbulbs... Heidi is autistic and ADHD. Her work uses her creative and analytical side Investment banker to software engineering to pilot to aeronautical engineer to human factors scientist (with a stint as an EMT) Redesigning a cockpit layout a lot of fun. Human fa...

#16 - Mike Warznie: When in Germany, Be Like Mike Mike is an engineer for Nissan outside of Detroit.  Mike is right 95% of the time He became an engineer to be cool. Decided he liked engineering only three years ago. Fatigue failures – find your own k factor and are tough to solve Don’t trust your memory – write everything down. Evaluating silicone seals can be unexpected. Doing lab reports in col...

#15 - Tom Kenney - He makes jet engines cool. Literally. Tom is an engineer at GE Aerospace Vocational schools aren't what they used to be. From Porsche 911 dreams to Miata reality to Bughatti dreams. Or maybe just an MG. Jet engineer or rocket scientist? You decide. Jet engines are hot, Tom makes them cool. Material science and better cooling have made jets are way more efficient than they used t...

#14 - Robert Kropiniewicz: You can't drill holes from the inside out First guest outside of US. Before becoming an engineer, he was going to go into religious life. Started in engineering in quality but didn’t want to wear safety shoes. In Solidworks, just because you can do it one way, doesn’t mean you should. It is critical to design the part for the process. Also, build the part to convey desig...

#13 - Cherie Duddridge: Retirement and ROUSs Cherie is retired after many years at BP. Topics of Conversation: Oil companies are not all bad. - they invest a lot in green technology in various ways. Bert’s crazy solution to recycling. Cherie’s experience with autism and neurodiversity. Any individual is neither unique or universal Benefits on including non-experts Your local chamber of commerce ca...

#12 - Dave Smith: He plays games and asks questions. Dave is a manufacturing engineer that I worked with at Avery Dennison. We talk about: How those little things that hold the tag to your clothes are made (by Avery Dennison) It is pretty cool and the reason Dave still works there. Manufacturing is hard. Book reference  - “Zero Marginal Cost Society” and 3D printing tractors Space Exploration by s...

#11 - Rafael Diana: Wait a minute? He's an engineer? Sorry, no joke this time. Learn by doing and helping others Land the little fish before the big fish. New projects and interviews are like a first date. Read a lot and learn from many different sources. Mentoring  - it’s important and worth it to take the time teach people. Mentoring – people at all levels need it. Loss aversion and the strange...

#10 - Charlie Sears: Are some engineers becoming a commodity? CAD – from the beginning Scotch in bourbon barrels 3D printing – from the beginning Medical Device approval Concurrent engineering and FDA approval Rise and fall(?) of product development firms. Engineering vs software development Being good at CAD vs being a good engineer. Design Engineer vs mechanical engineer. Don’t get cute designin...

#9 - Frank Uschold: An engineer or an intellectual rapper? Today's guest is my nephew, a recent graduate of Clarkson University. Some of our topics include: Double engineering major and a minor in history. Why do it and how to accomplish it. Working on intellectual rap What he looks for in a job Skillshare as a music teacher The Colorado River The Great Wall of China How to ruin eggnog Can a chemi...

#8 - Mike Marcoux: Buying your wife auto parts. For Christmas. Today's guest is Mike Marcoux, Director of Engineering at Boston Engineering . (As of 4/2024, he is a senior engineer at Physik Instrumente) Here is a couple of links to videos of the robotic tuna, link 1 and link 2 . We also talk about a robotic pterodactyl. Here is a video , but maybe not the one we discussed.  Mike's career advice:...

#7 - Jeff Turk: We can’t all be engineers Today’s guest is an engineer but he is a recruiter who helps engineers get jobs. Recruiters are sometimes like lawyers or salesman. They can be annoying until you need one, but when you need one, you want a good one. Jeff is one of the good ones. Our conversation covers: Recruiters: good one vs bad ones. Are recruiters working for the worker or the company...

#6 - Brian Smith: Agility and character: for work and for play. Brian coaches agility development for BigBear.ai. Our conversation starts in Guam, includes the Wright brothers, and ends with family karate. We also discuss: - managing vs coaching - listening to and learning from your employees - efficient employees vs. high value employees - the cost (and benefit?) of standing by your principles -...

#5 - Nate Rollins: his network is his most valuable resource. Nate is a design engineer and independent contractor. Among our topics are: - his motto – “my network is my most valuable resource” - 3D printed sugar snacks - buying cyanoacrylate by the gallon - the end of mechanical designers - having your coop employer pay for college - design engineer vs mechanical engineer - why his company is sti...

#2 - Jay Julian: Did hew say ramen spectroscopy? Today's guest, Jay Julian, is founder of Accelerate Design in Charlton, MA.  Out topics include: specialist vs. generalist, remote teams, mentoring, rock and ice climbing, big vs small company employment, and race cars.  Here is a link to Jay's company, Accelerate Design . Here is a link to Bert's company, Dexterity Engineering, LLC .  While I am ge...

#4 - Ken Stuber: When engineers go camping. My guest today is Ken Stuber, a friend I met when I lived in Kentucky. He worked for a few years as an engineer for RCA but most of his career was at a non-profit called the Christian Appalachian Project where he did home repair.  We talk about some of the things we built while camping, how his job and Kentucky have changed during his career, and differe...

#3 - Ralph Thibodeau: This one is for moose. Ralph is a program manager at Jabil Healthcare in Clinton, MA. We discussed some similarities between our colleges and how we decided what kind of engineer to be. advantages of trial by fire and doing a little of everything as a young engineer learning from everyone you work with big salaries can have bad consequences companies and cultures can change F...

#1 - Joe Paraschac: I am glad I didn't kill him. The first Beers with Engineers podcast talks with Joe Paraschac, a very experienced medical device engineer that I have known for over thirty years. Among our topics are: - the importance of design - serving customers - knowing when to say when at a job - second chances in engineering - changes in engineering management - a little about playing ukul...