This morning at the Sawmill Inn in Grand Rapids, 220 high school and college students interested in engineering assembled to listen to engineers talk about the future of engineering in northeastern Minnesota.
Joe Scipioni, President and CEO of Polymet Mining, captivated the group as he talked about the process his group will use to get copper, nickel, cobalt and more, as well as the fuel needed to power the mining, out of the ground. Joe showed all of the ways that engineers will be needed to startup and run this one plant.
Latisha Gietzen of Polymet, Mathew Pellinen of Landecker, Josh Skelton of MN Power, Lucas McLeod of Blandin, and Amber Mikulich, a current ICC Engineering student, then followed with a panel discussion of engineering in their industries and gave the future engineers lots of valuable advice.
The energy in the room was high. The future of engineering in this region is bright. To see hundreds of future engineers excited about this career was quite empowering.
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
Catching Up
Greetings All,
I apologize for being absent of late. Sometimes things just get a little crazy. Last week I was in New Orleans for 5 days of Navy duty followed by a 3 day conference on college industry partnerships. Both events were exciting and productive. We are just now getting off the ground with our new partnerships with Cirrus, Schwartz Redi-mix, and the UMD Medical School. Our students are excited as are our partners. Getting students to work with faculty for industry is going to be productive.
The free time in life lately has been spent in my role as volunteer assistant coach for the Hill City Boys Basketball team. I go to their practices every day and sit at the end of the bench during games for the purpose of giving individual instruction to players. Coaching youth even as old as high school students is extremely rewarding.
So in summary, I've been busy, but busy doing things that I highly recommend to everyone - finding a way to serve our country, attending professional development conferences, and volunteering free time to make a difference in young peoples' lives.
Stay warm.
I apologize for being absent of late. Sometimes things just get a little crazy. Last week I was in New Orleans for 5 days of Navy duty followed by a 3 day conference on college industry partnerships. Both events were exciting and productive. We are just now getting off the ground with our new partnerships with Cirrus, Schwartz Redi-mix, and the UMD Medical School. Our students are excited as are our partners. Getting students to work with faculty for industry is going to be productive.
The free time in life lately has been spent in my role as volunteer assistant coach for the Hill City Boys Basketball team. I go to their practices every day and sit at the end of the bench during games for the purpose of giving individual instruction to players. Coaching youth even as old as high school students is extremely rewarding.
So in summary, I've been busy, but busy doing things that I highly recommend to everyone - finding a way to serve our country, attending professional development conferences, and volunteering free time to make a difference in young peoples' lives.
Stay warm.
Monday, February 4, 2008
Advice to a New Engineer
The following exchanges took place. I would be interested in any further comments.
FORMER STUDENT:
I have some frustrations at work that I don't know how to address in aprofessional/tactful manner, and I am hoping that you may have someadvice on how to approach the subject.I am aware that I am a young, entry level engineer and with that havepositive aspects as well as drawbacks. I have been working at thisfacility for about 8 months now, and I have yet to do, or at least whatI consider to do, anything really engineering related.
Once I finished some of the general training, which included 3 months of shift work, Ihave been working on an OSHA required program that is severely lackingat this location. I know that this program is very important to get inshape and implemented, but I feel as if I am sacrificing being able to work on projects/designs here. I have brought these concerns to my direct supervisor/mentor, which is the Plant Engineer, to no real success. The last time that this was discussed was at my 6 month review. No one has a problem with my job performance, but I do.
Within this company engineers move around the country or even overseas quite often.When a new engineer is hired out of college, two years is generally how long the stay is at the first location. At this rate, I am concerned about falling behind my peers. I am worried that I won't be competitivefor the next position as a process engineer at the next unknown location. As the pressure is on to get the before mentioned program into place by corporate, it is as though the real reason I was hired, to be an engineer, is falling to the far wayside. I really don't know how to broach this subject with my superiors and getthe desired outcome-being trained on and then allowed to work onprojects. If you have any suggestions on how to do this from your experience outin the field, please feel free to relay that to me. I am actually quite lost on how to proceed from this situation. Thank you in advance for any help that is given.
RON:
Great to hear from you! I hope I can offer a fresh perspective for you. Let me start by asking you a question. When will the OSHA project be completed?
FORMER STUDENT:
As I have come to understand it, this project is not a destination but a journey. But I think the ultimate timeline is to get all of the pieces into place by June. There is tons of documentation that needs to be in place prior to using the program to the full potential. And after it is in place, it still needs to be managed.
RON:
I have spent a long time contemplating this. Here is my advice: You should embrace the task you have. Do it to the best of your ability and even better. Have the project be a smashing success. This will put you ahead of your peers who are doing design. It certainly won't put you behind.
In anything, capable people produce results. I believe your best bet is to show you are a capable person.The other option is much less pretty. If you kind of force your hand and in a sense complain that you aren't being challenged or aren't doing real engineering, then the tagline that will follow you is that you area complainer or a trouble maker.
I would much rather have the reputation of being the person who can succeed than the person who complains.Then if after a year and a half, if you have still not been put in the type of work that you want to be doing, start looking for other work. I hope this helps.
FORMER STUDENT:
Thank you for earnest response. I do like the point that you made about having a reputation of being a person who will get the job done, and done well rather than being a complainer. Thank you once again for taking the time to consider what I have asked.
FORMER STUDENT:
I have some frustrations at work that I don't know how to address in aprofessional/tactful manner, and I am hoping that you may have someadvice on how to approach the subject.I am aware that I am a young, entry level engineer and with that havepositive aspects as well as drawbacks. I have been working at thisfacility for about 8 months now, and I have yet to do, or at least whatI consider to do, anything really engineering related.
Once I finished some of the general training, which included 3 months of shift work, Ihave been working on an OSHA required program that is severely lackingat this location. I know that this program is very important to get inshape and implemented, but I feel as if I am sacrificing being able to work on projects/designs here. I have brought these concerns to my direct supervisor/mentor, which is the Plant Engineer, to no real success. The last time that this was discussed was at my 6 month review. No one has a problem with my job performance, but I do.
Within this company engineers move around the country or even overseas quite often.When a new engineer is hired out of college, two years is generally how long the stay is at the first location. At this rate, I am concerned about falling behind my peers. I am worried that I won't be competitivefor the next position as a process engineer at the next unknown location. As the pressure is on to get the before mentioned program into place by corporate, it is as though the real reason I was hired, to be an engineer, is falling to the far wayside. I really don't know how to broach this subject with my superiors and getthe desired outcome-being trained on and then allowed to work onprojects. If you have any suggestions on how to do this from your experience outin the field, please feel free to relay that to me. I am actually quite lost on how to proceed from this situation. Thank you in advance for any help that is given.
RON:
Great to hear from you! I hope I can offer a fresh perspective for you. Let me start by asking you a question. When will the OSHA project be completed?
FORMER STUDENT:
As I have come to understand it, this project is not a destination but a journey. But I think the ultimate timeline is to get all of the pieces into place by June. There is tons of documentation that needs to be in place prior to using the program to the full potential. And after it is in place, it still needs to be managed.
RON:
I have spent a long time contemplating this. Here is my advice: You should embrace the task you have. Do it to the best of your ability and even better. Have the project be a smashing success. This will put you ahead of your peers who are doing design. It certainly won't put you behind.
In anything, capable people produce results. I believe your best bet is to show you are a capable person.The other option is much less pretty. If you kind of force your hand and in a sense complain that you aren't being challenged or aren't doing real engineering, then the tagline that will follow you is that you area complainer or a trouble maker.
I would much rather have the reputation of being the person who can succeed than the person who complains.Then if after a year and a half, if you have still not been put in the type of work that you want to be doing, start looking for other work. I hope this helps.
FORMER STUDENT:
Thank you for earnest response. I do like the point that you made about having a reputation of being a person who will get the job done, and done well rather than being a complainer. Thank you once again for taking the time to consider what I have asked.
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