STEM on FIRE

Latest Episodes:

76: Environmental Engineer in Sustainable Chemicals at Nike – Joy Marsalla Feb 17, 2019

Show notes

Joy Marsalla earned a master’s degree inEnvironmental Engineering degree from Arizona State and is a sustainable Chemicals Manager at Nike.

[1:05] Why Joy chose more of an industrial route vs a remediation route with her Environmental Engineering Degree. She had no idea that a company like Intel, or any big company, had a need for Environmental Engineers.

[2:50] Some things Joy did not like about the remediation side of the business – She was not real keen on the consulting side, the upfront business process. She wanted to be more technical.

[4:30] She explains what she does today.

[5:22] Goes into the Master vs a Bachelor’s degree – the route you want to take will dictate whether a master’s degree is needed.

[7:20] Describes what a day might look like – no typical day, but always working with people on day to day basis many that don’t have an environmental degrees.

[8:55] One thing that we don’t know – Big companies, when you make a small change there – it can have big changes/impact.

[10:40] What has Joy fired – inspired by the movement around awareness for environmental needs around the world.

[11:40] Turning an Ah-ha moment into success – sometimes people connect with your story vs you being right – people care about the why, why people should care.

[14:34] Getting through college – it is important to socialize and build relationships and learn what their story is. If interested you can connect with Joy on linked in Joy Marsalla.

[18:05] Your time spent reflects your values.

[19:20] Parting guidance – find and experienced person you can talk to.

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.

75: Civil Engineer Struggled with ADD and Depression in College – Liz Wells Feb 10, 2019

Show notes

Liz Wells earned Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering from UW-Platteville and works for the Wisconsin Department of Transportation.

[2:10] Progression of career at the WI-DOT- entry level – design or construction are options. In the construction side you are typically on-site. Liz is focused on highway construction now as a project leader. There is also the concept of Mega projects like big interchanges.

[6:25] Liz is in charge of the contractor for the cones for, closures ahead, etc. Many times what is designed on paper just does not work, and has to be adjusted in the field. – She goes into some examples.

[9:45] She is really fired up about traffic control and is constantly changing.

[12:15] taking an idea and turned into success – toothpick competition on bridges – and found she was passionate about bridges. This drove her towards engineering.

[14:35] Getting through college was challenging – even in High School she struggled. She was borderline ADD after some tests. In College she failed many classes, failed Calculus-II at least 3 times and had to go back to Calculus 1. Then got diagnosed with ADD. That first year, she had clinical depression. Liz was very dedicated to making this work. What made a big difference was the Platteville team supporting Liz. It did take about 8 years to graduate, she really wanted the Engineering Degree.

[20:05] Why she did not just quit after failing so many times – one word is Passion.

[21:45] More discussion on ADHD – when you go talk to your counselor – think of them of them as your coach.

[25:10] Best advice – always respect everyone regardless of their title.

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.

Jupiter South pole - Junocam — **74: Planetary Science – Harriet Brettle** Feb 03, 2019
Show notes

Harriet Brettle earned Bachelor of Science in Mathematics and pursued finance before following her passion for space and going back for a masters in Planetary Science at Cal Tech and is now a Business Analyst at Astroscale .

[0:52] After having a career in finance she decided to go back to school for planetary science and goes into options after college.

[4:07] Where to go find more information about different jobs available with a Planetary Science Degree: Students for the Exploration and Development of Space and Space Generation Advisory Council.

[7:20] Think about the skills you need in the future, and any STEM degree will provide you with skills that would be employable. She would recommend a Math or Engineering degree.

[10:20] Area of expertise – Computer simulation of the storms of Jupiter.
The first picture is courtesy of Jovian Infrared Auroral Mapper (JIRAM) – Adriani et al., 2018, Nature.
The second picture is courtesy of JunoCam – Hansen.

[12:40] an ah-ha moment – going from finance to planetary science. She realized that there was a lot of overlap between finance and planetary science based on the math schools. Math is a tool kit and incredibly valuable.

[16:16] Tip for getting through college – she had no idea what she wanted to do when heading off to college and thought math was a good path and did not even know engineering was a degree when applying to college.

[18:30] Best advice – Don’t be the person that says no to yourself. And a habit is being very organized and structured and a lot of planning.

[20:30] Parting advice is to have fun – and you don’t know where you will end up

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.

73: Innovation Program Manager at Nike – Mechanical Engineer – Jill Murfin Jan 27, 2019

Show notes

Jill Murfin earned Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from the Portland State University and is a Manufacturing Innovation Program Manager at Nike and is the president elect for the Society of Women Engineers SWE.

[1:08] Journey from Mechanical engineering into manufacturing. – There are so many opportunities for mechanical engineers and most desire to go into the design side to do the creative side, but Jill found that she could use the creativity on the manufacturing side.

[3:50] Gets into what an Innovation Program Manger does at Nike – how to make shoes in a way they have never been made before. On her team are robot designers, chemical engineers doing material development, and industrial engineers. – Nike is actually a very high tech company employing many engineers.

[7:11] What a day might look like.

[8:35] What has Jill fired up – Basically how everything is changing

[11:10] An ah-ha moment – Had a great position at Intel and then received an opportunity to work at Nike came up and new it was outside her comfort zone – she knew she would regret if she did not try it.

[13:05] Getting through college – about 250 interns at Nike and many of them engineers. She had straight A’s in high school. And her first calculus, well she failed her first midterm, but she worked her way through it. Getting a couple C- in college does NOT mean you are not going to be a good engineer.

[17:20] Best piece of advice – when her mom recommend she get her degree in engineering instead of a law degree. You can basically do what you want. And a book she recommends is “Shoe Dogs” by Phil Knight.

[19:20] Parting advice – make it meaningful

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.

72: Software Engineering at Google – Matthew Castelaz Jan 20, 2019

Show notes

Matthew Castelaz earned Bachelor of Science in Software Engineering and Mathematics from the University of Wisconsin – Platteville and is technical solution consultant at Google.

[0:56] Describes the difference between Software Engineering and Computer Science – computer science is more software classes and software engineer is more system design type classes but both will typically write code in their day to day job but will spend time on system design and know how to manage a project from start to finish with a software engineering degree.

[2:59] Delving into his mathematics emphasis – it helped set him apart from other engineers looking at the same position

[4:37] Internships – what Matthew did at Kohls in their IT department. Built some front end web pages to add new attributes for new products and also did research.

[5:59] Describes what a Technical Solutions Consultant is a at Google – about 70% software and 30% project management.

[7:34] Getting a job at Google – was afraid of going to a smaller state school that is not well known outside of Wisconsin and the surrounding area that it would be a disadvantage – this was not the case at all. But you should get experience through internships or co-ops as well as activities outside of class, like student body president. This essentially told Google that he could excel in school and outside of school.

[10:30] What has Matt really fired up today is artificial intelligence and machine learning and google just announce a project called Google Duplex. Also he is excited about the wearable space and google just released a product called Jacquard which is technologically advanced fibers in clothing and can use the clothing to control your smart phone.

[12:38] Matts ah-ha moment – there has not been any big moments but a lot of smaller ah-has and the small success of writing software

[13:57] Getting through college he wish he realized that it is ok to change your mind and ok to make mistakes as long as you are able to learn from it.

[15:43] Best piece of advice ever received is don’t be afraid to fail and don’t let fear prevent you from trying something new. And a personal habit is persistence. And a book that Matthew recommends for getting through the technical interview is Cracking the Coding Interview.

[16:51] Parting piece of guidance – explore your options in college.

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.

71: Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Applied to Medicine – Elizabeth Nance Jan 13, 2019

Show notes

Elizabeth Nance earned a PHD Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering from John Hopkins and is an Assistant Professor in Chemical Engineering at the University of Washington focused on nanotechnology – you can see here page here at Nance Lab.

[0:37] Elizabeth did not always know she wanted to go into engineering, in high school she looked into many different career paths.

[1:40] Why she chose Chemical Engineering and Bio-molecular Engineering and not a doctor. A mentor she trusted – if she did not actually want to treat people but rather wanted to work to solve disease and why they occur – the PHD in Engineering was a better choice. – Chemical Engineering is not an applied Chemistry degree it is a lot of math and physics and this can be applied in the health field.

[5:33] Getting into the bio-molecular aspect and how she is applying nano-technology. She does a lot of imaging with the brain and uses nano-technology as a probe in the brain to see how they interact with the brain especially when there is an injury.

[7:40] As a professor Elizabeth gets into questions that she receives on a regular basis from students on how the different engineering degrees can be applied in the health field – there is no right degree.

[13:22] An ah-ha moment Elizabeth turned into success – working in a lab focusing on mucus and working on drugs that can pass through the mucus membrane. Mucus really does protect you so makes it very challenging to get a drug across it. You can design nano-particles to pass through the mucus membrane. She was doing this in her first year of her PHD work.

[19:00] Best piece of advice is from her dad – when getting anxious; be yourself, take a deep breath , and smile. A habit for success is to keep a list of what needs to be done and always tries to seek feedback.

[19:50] Parting guidance – just get out there and try things and invest fully in those experiences.

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.

70: Chemical Engineering and Author of the book “STEM Gems” – Stephanie Espy Jan 06, 2019

Show notes

Stephanie Espy earned a Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a Masters degree in Chemical Engineering from Berkley in California as well as a Masters Degree in Entrepreneurship and Marketing from Emory University. Stephanie worked at Merck for a couple of years but went on to pursue her own company MathSP. MathSP is an academic and test prep coaching company that has mastered the art of equipping students with a “math state of mind” while arming them with the strategies and insider “tricks” they need to ace standardized tests and attend the schools of their dreams.
Stephanie is also the author of the book STEM Gems targeted at high school girls looking at STEM and shares 44 stories from women in STEM all in different STEM fields.

[0:50] Stephanie started working at Amoco (now BP) and also did research at UC Berkley and was involved in Natural Rubber manufacturing.

[2:07] Describes what a Chemical Engineering Process Engineer would do.

[3:41] Why she chose Chemical Engineering over the other STEM/Engineering fields. She was a fan of Math and Chemistry and Chemical Engineering is a combination of both.

[5:51] Stephanie’s area of expertise: Plastics and Polymers along with Oil and Gas.

[6:45] What has her really fired up today – what can she do as a woman to help expose females to engineering careers. Which is why she wrote STEM Gems. Put in link…..

[9:04] You get your best products when you have diversity in the workplace. You may go to college and major in a STEM degree and there may only be a couple of women in the classes, and people may actually tell you, this is not the right career for you. Don’t listen to them! Find and organization that will support you, like SWE – Society of Women Engineers.

[12:08] An ah-ha Stephanie turned into success; being the only women at her workplace inspired her to write the STEM Gems book. Also, in graduate school she was tasked with how to get a natural rubber plant to produce higher quality rubber and better yield – this had never been done before. She spent 3-4 months tweaking an experiment to figure out the problem – she finally got it to work and was able to publish 2 papers on her results and was very rewarding. You have to persevere and just stick with it and don’t give up on yourself.

[16:20] Getting through college – Stephanie says here number one thing was how important it is to ask for help and not work alone. In high school she could read the book do the work and do just fine, that was not the case her freshman year in college. She did not even know that it was OK to ask for help in college.

[19:17] Best advice ever received is to “give yourself permission” and a personal habit for her success is to have a to-do list and write things down, use a planner and also live in the moment but also plan for the future. A book that she recommends of course is her book the STEM Gems – learn about 44 women in their unique careers STEM Gems.

[22:31] Parting piece of guidance – continue to work hard and seek help and be brave not perfect and always stay curious.

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.

69: Industrial Engineering directly into Semiconductor Sales – Owen DeLeon Dec 16, 2018

Show notes

Owen DeLeon earned a Bachelor of Science in Industrial Engineering from the University of Central Florida and a Master’s Degree in Business from the Georgia Institute of Technology. Per his linked in profile – he is the Eastern Area Sales Director for Intel PSG products (FPGAs).

[1:20] Started out at the University of Miami in Computer Engineering before transferring to the University of Central Florida – and while he liked Computer Engineering – he did not love it. He liked the business side, and his guidance counselor recommended he stay in engineering but to consider Industrial Engineering.

[3:25] getting into the sales side…and needed to figure out how to work with a larger team to be successful.

[5:35] Why Owen waited a couple years before getting his MBA

[7:45] Internships during college, that is where he realized that he liked being out in the field vs designing in a cube.

[9:05] Recommended career path if you like the business side -stay with engineering vs just business school.

[10:10] One thing that really has Owen fired up – transformations in many markets – 4G to 5G transformations and being at the forefront of this with Intel.

[11:21] Ah Ha moment – just went off to college and made a lot friends and in sophomore year in Boolean algebra the professor says “On the final…” and Owen said out loud “The final?” was having so much fun in college lost sight of school and within days new he had to make a change and transferred to the University of Central Florida and that was a pivotal move that set his new direction.

[14:59] Getting through college – Discipline – treat college like a job.

[16:08] Listening round – growth and comfort never co-exist – Owen is an efficient and effective time manager and likes Seeking Alpha for industry insights and a book he recommends is “Outliers” by Malcom Gladwell or “Freakonomics”.

[16:41] Parting piece of guidance – stick with STEM and find something you are passionate about.

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.

68: Game Designer – Martin Grider Dec 09, 2018

Show notes

Martin Grider went to college for an english degree with a creative writing focus and is a freelance software developer focused on game development and you can see his website at Abstract Puzzle and also Chesstris.

[1:20] how Martin got into game development – even though he was an English major he started doing web development, actually for the English department in college. There have been times where a 4 year computer science degree was required and those jobs, even with experience, were not available to Martin.

[4:30] Goes into the background of getting into game development – writes in his game journal every day, and tries to have a new idea every day. You can use a tool called Unity https://unity3d.com/

[7:00] Making money in the gaming world is extremely challenging, about 1 in 6 from the big game companies will make money.

[9:08] Martin is really fired up about the Nintendo Switch.

[10:40] An Ah-ha moment is that he gets most of his ideas in the shower – figured out some grid movement for Tetris and chess – Action Chess.

[14:00] Getting through college – he had a big gap in math from freshman year to college – do not have any math gaps – keep taking the math.

[15:25] Why Martin went for English vs Computer Science – he always thought he wanted to be a writer and not a game developer – the computer side was always just for fun and that turned into the career. He highly recommends getting a computer science degree / software development – it is very practical.

[18:12] Lightning Round – while he did not take the advice, go to California to start a company. He follows what he thinks is really interesting and that has led to success. His favorite internet resource is Board Game Geek and a book he recommends is “Snow Crash” by Neal Stephenson.

[20:10] Parting piece of guidance – follow you dreams and make things you want to see and the games you want to play.

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.

67: Biomedical Engineer focused on drug delivery – Brittney Pachucki Dec 02, 2018

Show notes

Brittney Pachucki earned a BioMedical Engineering Degree from Worcester Polytechnic Institute and is a pharmaceutical device engineer atMedImmune.

[0:50] Why Brittney took the path of Bio-Materials and Tissue Engineering – she thought she was going into pre-med and be a doctor – but she realized she liked the hand on. She liked the fact that Biomedical was diverse. Her advanced classes later in college were Tissue Engineering and Bio-Materials and some pre-med classes.

[3:38] Spinach Leaf heart project growing heart cells.

[5:05] Area of Expertise – she figured out that to really go into Tissue engineering you really need a masters or PHD. But via her internships she got into Medical Devices and Drug Delivery Systems.

[6:25] What has Brittaney fired up is where extended drug delivery is headed especially for folks that need to have an injection every day.

[7:10] Ah-ha she turned into success – Engineering school is hard and in college she got her first “C” and did not know how to handle it and a little distraught and simply moved and her ah-ha was that sometimes things don’t go as planned and that is currently fine.

[9:40] Getting through College – go to class, do the work, ask for help – that was her school motto.

[11:30] Attributes you may need when moving into your career – need to learn how to get out of your comfort zone.

[13:30] Lightning Round – Find what you love and figure out how to make money at it and she also writes everything down using sticky notes and really loves Youtube as a resource and a book she recommends is “Life Liberty and the pursuit of Food Rights” by David E. Gumpert.

[15:30] Parting piece of guidance – Just keep swimming – you are allowed to make mistakes and you can recover from them and if you don’t know what to do – ask for help.

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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