Being an Engineer

Latest Episodes:

S2E03 Engineering Empathy, Identifying Needs, & Developing Strong Work Ethic | Blayne Roeder Jan 22, 2021

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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 level engineers throughout his career, Blayne shares with us not only the skills that make great engineers, but skills that make great people.

blayne_roeder@yahoo.com

The Being An Engineer podcast is brought to you by Pipeline Design & Engineering. Pipeline partners with medical device engineering teams who need turnkey equipment such as cycle test machines, custom test fixtures, automation equipment, assembly jigs, inspection stations and more. You can find us on the web at https://teampipeline.us

PDX 2026 is October 20-21 in Phoenix, AZ. Learn more and register at https://pdexpo.engineer/

Subscribe to the show to get notified so you don't miss new episodes every Friday.

The Being An Engineer podcast is brought to you by Pipeline Design & Engineering. Pipeline partners with medical & other device engineering teams who need turnkey equipment like cycle test machines, custom test fixtures, automation equipment, assembly jigs, inspection stations and more. You can find us at www.teampipeline.us

Watch the show on YouTube: www.youtube.com/@TeamPipelineus

S2E02 Soliciting Negative Feedback, Understanding The Problem, & Building Sales Success | Ryan Frederick Jan 15, 2021

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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 Manual) and the other about managing a services company (Sell Naked).

PDX 2026 is October 20-21 in Phoenix, AZ. Learn more and register at https://pdexpo.engineer/

Subscribe to the show to get notified so you don't miss new episodes every Friday.

Watch the show on YouTube: www.youtube.com/@TeamPipelineus

S2E01 How to Determine if an Idea is Worth Pursuing – Mechanical Engineering Professor at MIT | Alexander Slocum Jan 08, 2021

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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 development of new products and has been significantly involved with the invention and development of 11 products that have been awarded R&D 100 awards. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and was the assistant director for advanced manufacturing in the Office of Science and Technology Policy in the White House in 2013.

In this episode we discuss how to tinker, proactivity hacks, achieving work life balance, how to monetize your mechanical design ideas, managing mechanical design engineers and designers.

Interviewed by Rafael Testai: https://www.linkedin.com/in/testai/

PDX 2026 is October 20-21 in Phoenix, AZ. Learn more and register at https://pdexpo.engineer/

Subscribe to the show to get notified so you don't miss new episodes every Friday.

Watch the show on YouTube: www.youtube.com/@TeamPipelineus

S1E59 How Oxidation Weakens Aluminum, and Why Engineers Make the World Better | Ogun Unal Dec 30, 2020

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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 without the innovations brought to us by engineers.

PDX 2026 is October 20-21 in Phoenix, AZ. Learn more and register at https://pdexpo.engineer/

Subscribe to the show to get notified so you don't miss new episodes every Friday.

Watch the show on YouTube: www.youtube.com/@TeamPipelineus

S1E58 NASA, Systems Engineering, and Sending Robots to Space | David Oh Dec 23, 2020

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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 is like living on “Martian time” (with his family, no less), as well as the indescribable excitement and fulfillment one feels when experiencing the success of a space mission at 2am in the control room knowing you and your team are the first people on earth to learn something new about our neighboring planets.

Update - David asked me to include this quick correction to the podcast: when the Curiosity rover landed on Mars in 2012, it actually took 14 minutes (not 7 minutes as stated in the interview) for the signal from the rover to reach the Earth. It takes seven minutes to land on Mars, so when we received the first data showing the rover had entered the Martian atmosphere, it had actually already been on the surface of Mars for seven minutes. For more information, see the video “Seven Minutes of Terror” on YouTube.

The Being An Engineer podcast (not affiliated with or endorsed by NASA) is brought to you by Pipeline Design & Engineering. Pipeline partners with medical device engineering teams who need turnkey equipment such as cycle test machines, custom test fixtures, automation equipment, assembly jigs, inspection stations and more. You can find us on the web at www.testfixturedesign.com and www.designtheproduct.com

PDX 2026 is October 20-21 in Phoenix, AZ. Learn more and register at https://pdexpo.engineer/

Subscribe to the show to get notified so you don't miss new episodes every Friday.

Watch the show on YouTube: www.youtube.com/@TeamPipelineus

S1E57 Designing High Precision Mechanisms in Laboratory Settings, Laziness and Automation | Daniel Kurnianto Dec 18, 2020

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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.

PDX 2026 is October 20-21 in Phoenix, AZ. Learn more and register at https://pdexpo.engineer/

Subscribe to the show to get notified so you don't miss new episodes every Friday.

Watch the show on YouTube: www.youtube.com/@TeamPipelineus

S1E56 The Benefits of Building a Long Term Career in Engineering | Paul Schaffner Dec 11, 2020

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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 like to work in a field developing test equipment for electronics hardware and why it’s more fun than working at Tesla!

PDX 2026 is October 20-21 in Phoenix, AZ. Learn more and register at https://pdexpo.engineer/

Subscribe to the show to get notified so you don't miss new episodes every Friday.

Watch the show on YouTube: www.youtube.com/@TeamPipelineus

S1E55 How Engineers Can Succeed by Broadening Their Knowledge Base | Tom Wilke Dec 11, 2020

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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 also serves as an adjunct professor at the University of Colorado Boulder where he encourages his students to learn more than just what is taught in class, and shares with us a trend he is seeing in education where students are more prepared now than ever (especially where the skill of software and programming are concerned).

PDX 2026 is October 20-21 in Phoenix, AZ. Learn more and register at https://pdexpo.engineer/

Subscribe to the show to get notified so you don't miss new episodes every Friday.

Watch the show on YouTube: www.youtube.com/@TeamPipelineus

S1E54 Serendipity in Mechanical Design, Gaining a 6th sense, SolidWorks Top-Down Modeling, How get the Most out of McMaster, Prototyping, SolidSmack Blog | Dan Slaski Dec 04, 2020

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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/author/dan-slaski/

Interviewed by Rafael Testai: https://www.linkedin.com/in/testai/

PDX 2026 is October 20-21 in Phoenix, AZ. Learn more and register at https://pdexpo.engineer/

Subscribe to the show to get notified so you don't miss new episodes every Friday.

Watch the show on YouTube: www.youtube.com/@TeamPipelineus

Help Promote the Being An Engineer Podcast Nov 27, 2020

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Thanks so much to all of you who have already helped us promote the show. There are two easy ways to help:

Go to Apple Podcasts and leave us a 5-star review
Click the "Share" button that's at the bottom of any of our LinkedIn episode posts

We'll be looking for new reviews and giving shout outs on the show to our generous listeners. Thank you!

Subscribe to the show to get notified so you don't miss new episodes every Friday.

Watch the show on YouTube: www.youtube.com/@TeamPipelineus

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