STEM on FIRE

Latest Episodes:

86: Digital Design Architect – Electrical Engineering – Do what you commit to – Nathanael Huffman Apr 28, 2019

Show notes

Nathanael Huffman earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Electrical Engineering from Purdue University and is a Digital Design Architect at a large medical device manufacturer.

[1:45] Why electrical engineering – had always been interested in computers, has done some programming in high school, and he enjoyed electrical physics.

[2:35] One thing we may not know is that you may end up doing a lot of paperwork and testing. Many times a lot of trial and error is needed to get the designs working properly.

[4:35] Describes what an FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array) is and then goes into what resources you could utilize to go investigate. StackOverflow FPGA

[7:00] One thing that He does not like about Electrical Engineering – there is a lot of delayed gratification when designing electronics whereas software design is a little more instant.

[8:30] What has Nathanael really fired up today? – In the tech space, he really loves FPGAs.

[10:20] If picking one programming language to go off and learn, what would it be? Python Nathanael uses it daily.
Python stack overlow link StackOverflow

[11:20] An ah-ah moment – found out in freshman year it was a lot of math, was trying to figure out how it all applies to the real world, he started to second guess if Electrical Engineering was the right choice, but after his first internship he realized that it is not all math. Had he not gotten the internship and realized what real engineering was about he may not have actually finished up in engineering.

[13:50] Getting through college: go to all your classes and get your homework done earl. Find study groups.

[16:35] Attribute needed to be successful going from college into a professional career – problem solving with scientific method. You need to have a positive “can do” attitude and be a team player.

[18:00] Best advice is “Do what you commit to” will make you exceed expectations. Basically do what you say you are going to. He also reads a lot and a book he recommends is Great at Work by Morten Hansen.

[20:40] Parting advice: Look really hard for internship opportunities as early as you can.

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85: Epidemiology and Biostatistics – Stop Starting and Start Finishing! – Rebecca Carter Apr 21, 2019

Show notes

Rebecca Carter earned a Bachelor’s in Psychology and PHD in Epidemiology and Biostatistics and is a Post-Doctoral researcher at Ohio State.

[0:0] Rebecca is a Post-doctoral researcher in cardiovascular medicine and goes into what careers are available in Epidemiology – you could work for the CDC – Center for Disease Control and Prevention as well as other government positions.

[2:25] Bio-statistics, it is the statistics for medical purposes.

[3:05] Bachelors in Psychology – she actually did Marine Biology research at Boston University while in high school.

[6:25] Rebecca takes us through her journey of research – she uses Evernote to keep of information and if you are interested in doing research while in high school, you should create an online presence and portfolio before reaching out to your local university. She discusses the EIS – Epidemic Intelligence Services program and some other programs are the AAAS Science & Technology Policy Fellowship.

[9:30] what has Rebecca fired up today is the use of statistical significance, the P-value.

[11:30] Heading to college – no one will train you, but you, and you need to stay organized and to think about the next day , and ask yourself – what am I avoiding? – that is probably the most important thing to do.

[13:00] best advice received – stop starting an start finishing and a personal habit is to focus on the process and not on the end results. Favorite app is Evernote/Onenote and a good book is “The Artist’s Way” by Julia Cameron.

Free Audio Book from Audible. You can get a free book from Audible at www.stemonfirebook.com and can cancel within 30 days and keep the book of your choice with no cost.

84: Physics and PHD in Solar Physics studying the Sun – Stephanie Yardley Apr 14, 2019

Show notes

Stephanie Yardley earned a Bachelor’s and Master’s Degree in Physics and a PHD in Solar Physics and is a post-doctoral researcher at the University of St. Andrews in Scottland.

[0:40] She is focused and studying the eruptions that come from the sun, and those eruptions can disrupt technology on earth. There is the solar wind, solar flares, and eruptions. Problems with satellites, GPS and radio black outs are just a short list of the problems these eruptions can cause.

[2:40] how did she decide on Physics? She really like applied math – she went on a trip to the Johnson space center in Texas and meet some of the astronauts and was hooked at that point.

[5:45] If you like the solar systems, and Astor-Physics – what are options outside of the research and the academic world? You could go into the engineering side, build instruments for satellites, space weather forecasting, energy sector to name a few.

[7:15] Fun fact; the sun light takes about 8-1/2 minutes to arrive to the earth, but it takes 100,000 years for the photons (light) to get from the center of the sun to the surface of the sun before making their way to Earth.

[8:50] What has Stephanie fired up? — Space travel is becoming closer for everyone, and technology is catching up where science fiction is becoming closer to reality.

[10:05] An ah ha moment was here amazing trip to the Johnson space center and they were able to simulate experiments between the control center and the ship on a mission.

[11:50] Getting through college – take every opportunity that comes along and persevere.

[15:10] Best advice – take every opportunity, and a habit is to persevere. She likes the night sky apps

App: Sun App
Book “15 Million Degrees” by Lucie Green

Twitter @Slyardley

[17:00] Parting guidance: just don’t give up.

Free Audio Book from Audible. You can get a free book from Audible at www.stemonfirebook.com and can cancel within 30 days and keep the book of your choice with no cost.

83: Computer Science and Entrepreneur: You need to architect your career – Chris Smith Apr 07, 2019

Show notes

Chris Smith earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science from Michigan State University and an MBA in Entrepreneurship from the University of Minnesota and is the Director of Personal Healthcare Technology Innovation.

[0:30] Director of Innovation, wearable devices, drone delivery, AI, Augmented reality to name few.

[2:13] Chris hires new college grads, so we get into what attributes he looks for – need to have the technical foundation of course, need to be able to work well together, everything is done jointly, across the enterprise. Ambitious but to the point where you put yourself ahead of the team. You need to be open to new ideas, and be a very good listener.

[4:10] Advice on the type of STEM degree to pursue: Technology is so broad and growing all the time, figure out what plays well in your persona.

[6:10] In STEM, you have to study a lot, how do you develop the skills like communication. The STEM curriculum builds this in when you are forced to work in teams. If you are nervous speaking in front of a group, then dive into that and find some activities to build those skills up. In the end you have to be well rounded to work well with others. YOU are responsible for building these skills.

[8:30] Chris talks a bit about the rotation program available at United Healthcare Rotation Program
New grads come in with a fresh mind and new ideas, how to apply new technology

[11:18] What has Chris fired up? Artificial Intelligence it is so broad, and very exciting – how can you free up time for the doctor to actually be able to spend more time with the patient. Try to go deep into an area of focus vs going broad.

[15:00] Ah-ha moment is when he realized that no one was going to spoon feed his success in his careers. You have to be prepared for when opportunities present themselves.

[17:00] We talk about architecting your career – you have to control your career path.

[20:26] Reach out to Chris Smith and some parting advice: Work harder than you think you should, you can either start now working hard or work harder later in life. You also need to market yourself, how you carry yourself, that is your commercial and your reputation will follow.

Free Audio Book from Audible. You can get a free book from Audible at www.stemonfirebook.com and can cancel within 30 days and keep the book of your choice with no cost.

82: Civil Engineer – Was not aware of STEM until after her first degree – Mel Butcher Mar 31, 2019

Show notes

Mel Butcher earned a Masters in Civil Engineering with a focus water resources from The University of South Florida and is a consulting engineer.

[0:30] She was not aware of engineering when younger. Going off to college she was not equipped to make decision on the right career to choose.

[3:15] How did Mel determine that she wanted to pursue a STEM degree? It took success in the professional world to give her the confidence that she could pursue a STEM degree.

[5:10] Guidance for finding the right STEM profession.

https://www.bls.gov/ooh/
https://seagrant.noaa.gov/

[11:00] Getting through college, don’t wait until the last minute – in high school start to get active in organizations. It is also ok to take a break before getting into college and investigate trade jobs. Forget about what other people think.

[17:00] Parting advice – take a deep a breath and investigate how you can cultivate mindfulness. Nearly impossible to make a decision when you are 18, you can always course correct. – make a decision that works towards setting you up for success.

Free Audio Book from Audible. You can get a free book from Audible at www.stemonfirebook.com and can cancel within 30 days and keep the book of your choice with no cost.

81: Mechanical Engineer focused on Sports Biomechanics – Alison Sheets Mar 24, 2019

Show notes

Alison Sheets earned a PHD in Mechanical Engineering with a focus in sports biomechanics from UC Davis and is a researcher at Nike.

[0:30] Always been passionate in sports and now combining that with a STEM career.

[1:10] Goes into what a Biomechanics researcher does

[2:15] Why mechanical engineering over bio medical engineering – she likes things she can see and goes into what opportunities are available in the work world.

[5:15] How is important is the PHD for the research – her gymnastic coach actually had a PHD in physics. She started teaching at Ohio State University and then an opportunity opened up at Nike to do research and she moved into that position.

[8:30]} What really has Alison fired out, are all the tools now available for monitoring the bodies motion.

[10:15] Artificial Intelligence as it applies to biomechanics – pay attention in your linear algebra class.

[13:20] Getting through college – classes got very hard in college – be patient with yourself and you will learn how you learn.

[15:50] Lightening round – best advice and personal habits for success

[17:15] parting guidance – don’t be afraid to try something new

Five Days at Memorial by Sheri Fink.

Free Audio Book from Audible. You can get a free book from Audible at www.stemonfirebook.com and can cancel within 30 days and keep the book of your choice with no cost.

80: Science Geek to Management – Biology and MBA – John Heltemes Mar 17, 2019

Show notes

John Heltemes earned a Biology Degree and MBA fromThe University of Wisconsin-Whitewater and is a Senior Manager in Quality Control.

[1:05] Why Biology: Biology is a wide field; ecology, botany and microbiology – really enjoyed science and wanted to be broad.

[2:28] With degree from Whitewater – were there a lot of jobs? They did not call out Biology degrees, but there were a bunch for the science field. Most companies will train you for the actual roll.

[4:15] Going into management – there was a need to help drive the lab environment and he really enjoyed it. Started by doing what needed to be done and determined he needed to educate himself more in leadership and management, hence the MBA.

[6:10] At times you need to do things that just need to be done, and management will notice.

[9:00] John’s specific area of expertise: general biology is where it started – very quickly it moved into food microbiology and now specifically bacterial culture.

[11:00] What has John fired up today – in microbiology it is really evolving, and continues to be exciting.

[12:20] Ah Ha into success – Has always had a great work ethic, but did not understand what drove him. You need to be self-reflective to see what your strengths are.

[14:40] Getting through college – find a routine that works for you, but you are in control since you are on your own. Experience is key and you do not have to be perfect.

[17:00] Best advice – when it comes to your career do what you are good at.

The Happiness Advantage by Shawn Achor.

Free Audio Book from Audible. You can get a free book from Audible at www.stemonfirebook.com and can cancel within 30 days and keep the book of your choice with no cost.

79: Data Scientist at Facebook – Don’t be afraid to try something new – Brandon Rohrer Mar 10, 2019

Show notes

Brandon Rohrer earned a PHD in Mechanical Engineering fromMIT-Massachusetts Institute of Technology and is a data scientist at Facebook.

Brandon Rohrer Blog
Electrical Grid Blog
Brandon Rohrer – Twitter Feed

[0:00] Started out with a love of Robotics which got Brandon into Mechanical Engineering and migrated over to machine learning. Deciding how a machine was going to respond is where the machine learning comes into play.

[3:05] Brandon goes into the types of skills needed to become a data scientist – and has never taken a formal class in data science beyond software engineering. Almost all of his knowledge in data science came after his formal degree.

[4:20] How Brandon applies machine learning at Facebook – worked on a team to determine where electrical power existed in developing countries. They used satellite images to make guesses, and use an algorithm to connect all the dots to look for power lines. Now he is taking a lot data, like text, how to determine what the data really means – Text Classification.

[7:00] What are ways to get up to speed on machine learning – you should just start playing around.

[8:20] What a day might look like in the real world — he feels like he is building a big lego tower from all the bits of data and building something pretty spectacular.

[10:37] What has Brandon really fired up today – has kept his love of robots – and seeing how AI and Machine learning is advancing is very excited. There is so much room for growth in this area and potentially a really good career.

[13:45] Story of success – working as a teaching assistant and was only a year ahead of the students asking the questions – and felt very much out of his comfort zone. It is OK to explain and teach things even if you are not an expert.

[16:20] Getting through college – don’t be afraid to try things, you need to be comfortable feeling dumb and doing things badly as you learn new skills.

[18:06] Best advice – the ideal machine has no moving parts – simpler is better. Personal habit is to keep the end goal in mind don’t get sidetracked with the immediate task. Brandon uses twitter to gain insights. Brandon Rohrer – Twitter Feed

[20:40] Parting guidance – don’t be afraid to try something out.

Free Audio Book from Audible. You can get a free book from Audible at www.stemonfirebook.com and can cancel within 30 days and keep the book of your choice with no cost.

78: Computer Science – You need to focus on the human side to solve complex problems – Zoey Gagnon Mar 03, 2019

Show notes

Zoey Gagnon earned a Computer Science Degree from The Metropolitan State University of Denver and is an Engineering Manager at Meetup.

[0:00] Zoey has focused on Agile development and builds large complex things with teams of people in humane ways and chose Computer Science in large part due to the degrees being offered.

[1:50] Goes into a little bit about PHP and Micro Services and moving it into newer technologies.

[5:45] Goes into what a day might look like – as a manager, Zoey is more of a coach.

[8:40] What has Zoey fired up today is thinking about software architecture and goes into ways to make architecture decisions. — Need to have patience when making decision that will be hard to change in the future.

[12:15] Getting through college – have an idea of the value that you want to get out of college. Go to college when you can really understand why you are going.

[14:00] Software can be a very creative path, as the software is the path to solving problems and many ways to solve them.

[15:40] Best advice is to have patience and to listen and to give others space to express themselves. And an attribute for success is to be an avid note taker. Zoey really likes the web page Lean X in Y Minutes for syntax translation from language to language. And a book Zoey recommends is “Working Effectively with Legacy Code” by Michael Feathers.

[19:15] Parting advice – understand that the technology problems that we are trying to solve are very complex, too complex for a single person. So you need to focus on those human elements to work with people

Free Audio Book from Audible. You can get a free book from Audible at www.stemonfirebook.com and can cancel within 30 days and keep the book of your choice with no cost.

77: Chemical and Electrical Engineer with some great insights – Stephanie Chin Feb 24, 2019

Show notes

Stephanie Chin earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Chemical Engineering and a Master’s Degree in Electrical Engineering from The University of Southern California and is an engineer at Intel focusing on Yield Analysis.

[0:55] How can you go from Chemical Engineering into Electrical Engineering?

[2:35] Goes a bit into what NanoTechnology is – study of materials at a very small particles.

[3:32] Discuss a bit about yield analysis – this requires knowledge of chemical processing and materials. Looks at the overall production using data. Works with people with Physics, electrical, material, and chemical engineering disciplines, it is a pretty diverse field.

[8:20] what has Stephanie fired up, it’s chemistry.

[9:06] Chemical Engineering or Chemistry, what would Stephanie recommend? – the million dollar question, are you more interested in being in the lab, then maybe Chemistry vs Chemical Engineering, bringing knowledge of chemistry to an application. There is more math in Chemical Engineering than in Chemistry.

[11:20] Her first internship was an ah-ha moment that not all industries are the same, the general way of approaching a problem can be different. So you need to see if you will fit into that industry.

[15:10] Advice for getting through college – Explore and try to do some research and industry experience.

[16:50] Attributes to be successful after college – need to master time management, not just for work but yourself and your family.

[18:25] Best advice-is to mentor others, you always have something to share. And a personal habit for success is self-reflection, but do not turn into self-doubt. And a book she recommends is “Educated” by Tera Westover.

You can get a free book from Audible at www.stemonfirebook.com and can cancel within 30 days and keep the book of your choice with no cost.
Free Audio Book from Audible.

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