What is an engineer?

Here is my definition:

An engineer is a person with an engineering degree.

One of my pet peeves (other than people who actually use the words pet peeve) is when a person tells me "I don't do real engineering" or "I'm not really an engineer". This absolutely drives me crazy. It is like there is this perception that to be a real engineer you have to be doing design work or something.

Here is the list that most books use to describe the functions of an engineer:

Design
Develop
Testing
Production
Operations
Management
Marketing
Consulting
Teaching
Research

Well I challenge you to find a job that isn't on this list! (Other than working at McDonalds or something similar). Just about every job falls into one of these categories...so if you happen to have an engineering degree and perform one of these functions you ARE an engineer.

To me, being an engineer is a mindset. It is using our creative abilities to do good things for people. Our education prepares us to do this. The way in which we go about it is our own choice. The broad spectrum of opportunities is incredible.

I've had many people say to me "you are not a real engineer, you are a teacher". Is that so? Teacher seems to be on the list above. The state of Minnesota let me use four years of teaching to qualify me to take the Professional Engineers exam. An exam I passed. So the community of professional engineers considers me to a licensed real engineer.

TBL: Earning an engineering degree is one of the most significant accomplishments you will have in life. Wear that badge proudly. Don't diminish what you do as being anything less than being an engineer.

Safety

I had lunch today with an HCC Engr alum who stopped by to drop of his paperwork for the engineering alumni scholarship drive (yay!). It was awesome to catch up on his life and bring each other up to date on our mutual acquaintances. I continue to be ultimately impressed with the quality of individuals that the 18-20 yr old college students I knew become as mature engineering professionals.

Anyhow, at one point in our conversation we turned to safety in the workplace. He said, "the number one priority in our workplace is NOT production...it is safety of the workers...I think back on all of what they taught us in college - not one class on the importance of safety." This person is an electrical engineer. People in his line of work have to always be on their toes. High voltage electrical power is nothing to get lazy about.

Throughout the rest of the day I have reflected on our conversation. He is right. Safety, especially when we haven't had a close call, can take a second chair as we carry out our daily work as engineers. In fact safety procedures can seem tedious or anal. In college we do not put the right level of emphasis on safety.

As we approach the one year anniversary of the United Taconite accident that took the life of our alumnus Andy Reed, I can't help but wonder if we, in academia, had put more emphasis on safety, if that accident might have been prevented.

TBL:Put more emphasis on safety in your workplace and with your coworkers.

Be on Time to Meetings

This fall the faculty and staff at ICC have begun to emphasize the importance of being on time to meetings. Our culture had slipped into one where it was not at all unusual for people to wait 15 minutes while others were coming late to meetings. Additionally, we have some people who are habitually late. You may know some people like this either in your company or teachers in your school. It is really downright disrespectful and probably something we all need to work on. If we each do our part, our workplace and our lives will be better places to be.

TBL: Don't be late.

Disc Golf

As the new school year starts, ICC students will be taking to the new disc golf course on campus. The nine pin course was built last Spring by engineering students Steve Carlson and Tim Cameron. Steve is now a junior at the University of Minnesota and Tim is starting at St. Thomas. They designed the pins, pitched the idea to the college administration, raised the funds, bought the materials, built the pins, designed the course and put the course in place. Pretty cool.

More cool are the reasons they did it. While Tim and Steve, who are graduates of Forest Lake High School, were first year students at ICC, they had a friend from back home who died. They wanted to do something in their friend's memory. Secondly, they wanted to do something for the college community in repayment for the education and experience they got at ICC.

I am impressed by these two engineering students. How many times in our lives have we acted on similar impulses? Doing something for these reasons is the right thing to do.

TBL: Take page out of Tim and Steves' book, take the opportunity to make a difference when you can.

Layoffs

Before I begin this topic, I guess asking for sympathy after three months of vacation was probably not too smart. Oh well. :)

I recently received an email from a student who stated "the one thing college didn't prepare me for was the threat of layoffs... I would like to believe the quality of my work would be rewarded...with layoffs it doesn't even matter."

Layoffs are a real part of life. It doesn't matter where you work - public or private - big company or small - teacher or engineer. The worst part is, the people most susceptible are those most junior and probably least financially prepared for the loss of income. I don't have any advice on how to avoid layoffs. Perhaps the best advice is to, as soon as you start working (before you take out that big car loan or buy a new house), get enough money into savings to cover a couple of months of lost income.

Personally, if I worked in a place where there were threats of layoffs over a long time, I would look to move on. The stress is real and no fun.

Back to School

Happy Monday - Well it is back to work time. Tomorrow my sabbatical leave is officially over and I am back to 100% work. I do so with great enthusiasm. Teaching is a great career and a new school year means lots of excitement and many new beginnings.

I've been in contact this weekend with some of the students who are transferred off to university and starting their exciting transition to upper division and a whole new level of expectation. I wish them well and offer to be a sounding board whenever they need it.

Our new group of students (there will be 150 total at ICC in engineering) starts to move in on this coming Saturday and school starts next Tuesday. In the interim we teachers begin the work of planning curriculum and activities as well as professional development workshops. I'm throwing in a two day engineering camp on Wednesday and Thursday for students who are starting Project Lead the Way at Grand Rapids High School.

For those of you out in the real world. I encourage you to take a moment to realize how nice life is without 3-4 hours per day of homework. We envy you.

Have a great day and expect TBL frequency to drastically increase!

35 Years - Your Choice

Here is a quote I often mention in class and is always worth repeating. When I graduated from college my Dad told me the advice that one of his friends shared with him. "Happiness at work is a personal choice." Think about it. You know people who work doing the same job in the same office, half of whom would say they like their job and half would say they hate it. I know it is true in all of the places I have worked and others I observe. Most of us are going to work for 30-35 years, whether we like it or not, is really our own personal choice. Make the right choice.

Sideview Mirrors

We made it home safe and sound from our trip to San Antonio. While driving I was reminded of this driving tip I got from my insurance company a few years ago.

Doing the following eliminates a driver's blind spot:

We typically drive our cars so that using the sideview mirrors, we can see what is behind us. This however, is redundant. Our rearview mirror already allows us to see back there. Thus, the sideview mirrors should be adjusted to see what is beside us. Here is how - put your left cheek up against the window then adjust the left mirror outwards until you just lose sight of the side of your car. Do the same on the right side, but you obviously can't put your right cheek on the window, so just lean as far right as you can.

Once you have done this, the first few glances in the mirrors seem weird. But just wait until you are driving and have a car come up behind you to pass. Watch as they leave your rearview and simultaneously enter your sideview. It is awesome for freeway driving and has saved me from pulling into people on a couple of occassions.

Paradigm Shift

For the past few days I have been in San Antonio for my daughter's graduation from Air Force basic training. I've seen the change in her, heard stories about what the past 7 weeks were like, and seen a DVD made about the experience. It has been an occurrence for me to reflect back to 1988 when I went through a similar 6 week experience. People have different opinions about the military and about those of us in the military. But that aside, there can be no arguing the worth of an experience that pushes you to your limits and far beyond what you previously thought your limits were. The paradigm shift, the expansion of personal boundaries, that comes from a basic training type experience is incredible. I recommend you look for such opportunities in life and jump at them if possible.

Tragedy

Yesterday Angie, Ronnie, and I started our day at the memorial for the Oklahoma City federal building bombing. We spent considerable time walking around and taking in the incredible devastation as well as reflecting on the loss of life.

Several hours later as we were driving into San Antonio for Liz’s basic training graduation weekend, I received a call from Jamie telling me about the bridge collapse. Basically, we have been glued to CNN ever since.

As normal human beings we are shocked. It is hard to comprehend how this happens so close to home. We worry about our friends and relatives who might have been on the bridge. We reflect back on the last time we drove across the bridge (last Sunday picking Ronnie up from baseball camp).

As engineers we are frightfully reminded of the tremendous importance of our responsibility to society. It is really hard to know what went wrong. In our culture there seems to be a need for blame and finger pointing. Engineers are going to be in the crosshairs on this incident. Don’t be surprised if you feel some shame or guilt by association. It is normal – I feel it. However, it is not well placed.

I do not believe that this will prove to be negligence on the part of the design team nor the inspection engineers. Remember this bridge was designed and built 40 years ago, under what I am sure were acceptable standards at the time. The negligence here is a responsibility as a country to keep its infrastructure safe. Our interstate was built in a relatively short period of time (a great engineering feat), but a relatively long time ago. This infrastructure failure is going to be repeated on interstate bridges across the country that are nearing this same age and usage.

TBL: As engineers we are sobered when the public for whom we are responsible suffer due to a failure of an engineered structure.