Being an Engineer

Send us Fan Mail Mike has over 30 years of experience working as an engineer and in technical fields. He has held roles from technician to engineer to CEO and brings a wealth of knowledge and wisdom to share with us on the show. Among the insights he shares in this episode are how to build a successful engineering team, why attitude counts as much as anything else in product development, and the d...

Send us Fan Mail Callye Keen helps physical product companies grow through strategy, design, and manufacturing in his company, RedBlueCollective ( https://www.redbluecollective.com/ ). Golden nugget #1: Train your eye to see opportunity by starting something. Golden nugget #2: To be the best engineer, work at a machine shop or a manufacturing company for at least a summer.  Two books for technical...

Send us Fan Mail Barbara earned a degree in chemical engineering then learned she found manufacturing and design more interesting than chemicals. Beginning her career supervising a manufacturing team, she quickly learned the importance of humility when working with others, and developed a love for helping those on her team. She continues to develop professionals as she leads her team at Irwin &amp...

Send us Fan Mail Elizabeth shares her unique perspective having worked at a “theory X” company prior to her 10+ years at Gore, and contrasts those experiences with the “theory Y” environment that has been intentionally developed at Gore. Learn about how the enterprise’s principles of supporting and building individuals has led to it success, and how these principles and processes can be implemente...

Send us Fan Mail Matt shares his deep and valuable experience with us from testing pharmaceutical compounds and understanding the mechanics of the universe on an atomic level through implementing truly practical quality systems that help teams work more productively without weighing them down in paperwork and bureaucracy. Learn more about his work by visiting PSN’s website . The Being An Engineer...

Send us Fan Mail Like many great engineers, Blayne Roeder (pronounced like “raider”) grew up on a farm with a strong work ethic and in a culture that valued the ability to maintain (and sometimes build) your own equipment. Those skills helped Blayne quickly advance through a senior level engineering role and into multiple engineering director roles. Having provided guidance to hundreds of junior l...

Send us Fan Mail Ryan Frederick has spent his career building software product companies and during this episode shares just a few insights he has learned over the years. Directly applicable to both software and hardware companies, listeners will find his instruction a valuable asset in their bag of development tools. Ryan has also written two books, one about starting a new company (The Founder’s...

Send us Fan Mail Alexander Slocum is a professor of mechanical engineering at MIT and is one of the authorities in the realm of mechanical design. He has written two books on machine design, Precision Machine Design and FUNdaMENTALs of Design (free download on http://pergatory.mit.edu ), published more than 150 papers, and has 130+ issued patents. Alex regularly works with companies on the develop...

Send us Fan Mail Ogun Unal ’s expertise is in industrial engineering and metallurgy. He shares a particularly interesting example with us describing how the oxidized top layer of molten Aluminum can be pushed sub-surface and lead to failures in the cast components if not handled properly. Ogun also shares an interesting take on how engineers spark change in the world, and what life might be like w...

Send us Fan Mail   David Oh is the former flight director for the Mars Curiosity rover, and current systems engineering manager and system architect at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) for the upcoming Psyche launch. During this episode David shares his insights and experience working with large engineering teams on (literally) mission critical systems and subsystems. He also shares what it...

Send us Fan Mail Daniel Kurnianto is a Product Manager Owner, R&D Senior Mechanical Design Engineer of lab equipment & automation. Daniel’s F.A.S.T. Liquid Handling Automation Positive Displacement Pipette Tips device captivated me and prompted me to invite him to the podcast. Watch his automated Displacing Pipette Tip device here: https://tinyurl.com/yytyokfu Interviewed by Rafael Testai...

Send us Fan Mail Paul Schaffner has worked for Benchmark Electronics for over 30 years. These days it’s hard to find individuals who have stayed with a company for effectively their entire careers. Join us on the episode and listen to what factors have motivated Paul to develop his long-term strategy, and the benefits he has enjoyed through doing so. Along the way, learn a little about what it’s l...

Send us Fan Mail Like many engineers, Tom Wilke spent his youth taking things apart and putting them back together. Engineering was a natural fit for him. As he progressed in his career, Tom began learning that he had another skillset that wasn’t as common for engineers: sincerity. This skill has helped him build many engineering teams and bring dozens of successful products to the market. Tom als...

Send us Fan Mail Dan Slaski is a mechanical design engineer. He specializes in hands-on prototyping, manufacturing, knowledgeable in industrial components, packaging, and labeling. He’s a writer for SolidSmack Blog.  This episode is perfect for a beginning to intermediate mechanical design engineer specializing in CAD, SolidWorks.  Read Dan’s SolidSmack Blog Posts Here: https://www.solidsmack.com/...

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Send us Fan Mail HP’s new (ish) multijet fusion technology is opening doors to companies looking for low volume production without the investment of tooling as would be the case with injection molding or casting. This novel technology, similar to SLS, but with its own key advantages is perfect for manufacturing parts in the hundreds to thousands quantities, and is especially adept at making small...

Send us Fan Mail While she currently serves as the Director of Operations (at Scientia Vascular ), Martha has spent much of her career in R&D environments. Her keen organizational skills and perspective on diversity have allowed her to work within, and also develop, R&D teams that succeed based on clearly defined goals, knowing when a design is “good enough”, and the hard-earned lessons th...

Send us Fan Mail What does it mean to be a user experience designer? Join our session with Caden Damiano to learn how it’s much more than simply graphic design, but rather the responsibility for architecting the start to finish experience a user goes through during their interaction with physical and digital products. Also learn Caden’s brilliant method for learning deep insight from key thought l...

Send us Fan Mail Robert started his career as an electrical engineering, as many EEs do, working a lot on the computer. Over time he developed a repetitive strain injury that did not go away with rest. Worried at the prospect of not being able to use a critical tool for his job, Robert had a flash of inspiration: he needed to develop eye-tracking technology, for himself and for others. So he did....

Send us Fan Mail Jeff started his career as a machinist, then earned a degree in manufacturing engineering and eventually a graduate degree from the Stanford School of Business. Both in his own efforts as well as in those of his teams later in his career as a business owner ( Phoenix DeVentures ) he emphasized a critical methodology for developing new products successfully. In fact, this method wa...

Send us Fan Mail After learning to fly at a young age, Mark started his career in the aerospace industry designing parts and test equipment for aircraft. He then moved into automotive where he learned about hose routing and innovative ways to actively cancel noise within vehicles. At Levolor Home Fashions he helped develop the first cordless blinds to minimize safety risks for children. Now, as an...

Send us Fan Mail Like any good engineer, Peter loves solving challenging problems. And conversely, hates working on boring problems. When one of his former employers presented him with one (that was going to take 3 years…all of which would be soul-sucking drudgery) he engineered a solution around it that allowed him to finish in 3 months. Hear his story as we dive into automation, entrepreneurship...

Send us Fan Mail Mauricio is a senior manager of metrology (no longer a principal engineer as mentioned in the recording) at Johnson & Johnson’s Vistakon division , and has been automating equipment and manufacturing lines for well over a decade. In this episode he shares practical advice on when to automate a process and when to NOT automate a process, and even shares a few of his favorite au...

Send us Fan Mail If your product works, is it a success? During our conversation with Les we learn that is not necessarily the case as we discuss the various elements of a project that all need to succeed in order for the project as a whole to succeed. Les also shares his wisdom and insight on effective communication within engineering & management teams, as well as the skills and habits one n...

Send us Fan Mail Are you passionate about your work? If not, is it possible you are not performing to your greatest extent? These are questions Astrid asked herself early in her career as a product development engineer. Her hard truth was no, she was not passionate about the detailed engineering role she held back then…but Astrid also realized what she is passionate about: marketing. Thus commence...