STEM on FIRE

Latest Episodes:

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.

66: Computer Science and Art – Look for good job culture – Michelle Brenner Nov 25, 2018

Show notes

Michelle Brenner started out in Computer Science at Drexel University and then finished up with a degree in Media Arts and Animation at The Art Institute and spent some time at Sony Pictures. She is now a Backend Software Engineer at Chownow.

Michelle’s Podcast can be found Here.

[1:52] Michelle describes what a backend engineer is and is someone who works on all the data aspects of a website, the images you see on the website would be considered the front end engineer

[2:35] She goes into how her computer science background helped with her Visual Affect (VFX) at Sony Pictures.

[4:00] Michelle goes into how finding work is hampered a bit by not finishing up her computer science degree, but now has enough experience where it is not as big of an issue.

[4:40] For those looking at Art/Special Affects, computer science is valuable.

[6:06] We get into Michelle’s specific area of expertise, which is making technology easier for people.

[6:43] What has Michelle really fired up today is server-less apps, this allows you to build apps without having your own infrastructure, like API Gateway on Amazon Web Server or Lambda on Google.

[8:47] An ah-ha moment was when really realized that there are many open source libraries that can do what you need to do so you don’t always have to write the code from scratch.

[10:40] Getting through college and skills for the real world – important to learn how you learn, and learn how to communicate.

[13:00] lightening round – If there is something you need, ask everyone. Sign up for things that you don’t know how, as it helps you grow. – An app she recommends is Slack and a book she recommends is “The Undoing Project” by Michael Lewis.

[14:43] Parting piece of guidance – focus on great culture when looking for internships and your job.

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.

65: Never let others define your limitations! – Computer Science – John Hildebrand Nov 18, 2018

Show notes

John Hildebrand earned a Bachelor of Science in Computer and Information Systems from The University of Florida. John has held many Director and VP level positions in the wireless area and is now at CSpire which is a wireless company.

[0:45] John was able to become very technical early on and then leverage those technical skills as he moved into management.

[1:10] Why John chose computers/computer science as a career path, he went to college thinking he was going to be a nuclear engineer, but very quickly realized he really liked the programming.

[3:25] John’s specific area of expertise – department of useless management overhead – kidding aside – backend telecommunication systems.

[5:10] What has John fired up today is the emerging technologies. Network 2030; what does wireless look like In 2030. As speeds increase you will have more augmented reality on your phone.

[8:00] John would recommend computer science as a career path, there are so many opportunities available in wireless and in robotics Pepper there is so much computer software in robotics.

[10:15] If you are In the Jackson Mississippi area, reach out to John on Linked in (link above) and he may be able to demo the Pepper Robot.

[10:56] An ah-ha moment John turned into success-Don’t ever let anyone tell you that you can’t do something because you don’t have the ability — you have to listen to this!

[14:10] Getting through college – 1) learn how to take good notes – quickly capture the essence of what is being said. 2) Have life balance – balance what you must do with what you would like to do. Employers are looking for people that have life balance.

[18:55] Best advice is to build strong personal relationships and always do what you know is right and a book he recommends is Introspective Engineer and the 5 Dysfunctions of a Team and I recommend Talent is Overrated.

[20:22] Parting piece of guidance — Don’t ever let anyone tell you that you can’t do something because you don’t have the ability

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.

64: Computer Science working in cyber security – Daniel Feldman Nov 11, 2018

Show notes

Daniel Feldman earned a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science from Macalester College and a Master’s in Computer Science from The University of Minnesota. He is now a principal engineer at Scytale which is a security company.

[0:40] Differences between Computer Science, Computer Engineering, and Software Engineering.

[2:25] Why Daniel went for computer science.

[4:50] Difference between a liberal arts college and larger college – was challenging finding a job graduating from a small liberal arts college.

[7:25] Daniel earned a stipend for graduate school and essentially went graduate school for free.

[8:25] Type of positions available for computer science graduates.

[10:20] One thing that has Dan fired up today is working in computer security.

[11:50] An ah-ha moment was when he started to meet with professionals outside of school – building his network has been very key.

[13:15] Getting through college successfully-he was overly pessimistic about his career possibilities and knows people in college who do software contracting on the side.

[16:57] Best advice ever received – ask a lot of questions and be interested in what others have to say. And a personal habit is that he is stubborn but has both good and bad

[17:50] Parting piece of guidance
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.

63: From Electrical Engineering to Civil Engineering working in renewable energy – Emily Arnold Nov 04, 2018

Show notes

Emily Arnold earned a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from The Milwaukee School of Engineering (MSOE) and a Master’s in Civil Engineering from Stanford University. She is now Director of Optimization Engineering at 8 Minute Energy Renewables

[1:10] Why Emily made the transition from Electrical into Civil Engineering. She originally was planning to be a chemical engineer. A 2 week long summer engineering camp helped guide her decisions. At Stanford she focused on atmosphere and energy engineering.

[5:23] Looking at the subset programs of the broader masters degrees is important when looking at graduate school.

[6:47] How Emily is merging the Electrical Engineering and Civil Engineering together.

[9:00] Emily’s specific area of expertise – solar technology and optimization.

[9:52] What has Emily fired up is that renewable are just getting started.

[11:35] Early in her career she had to learn how to accommodate the customer’s requirements and there is no one right answer to solving an engineering problem. Some may be better technically, some may be better cost wise. You have to think about all the parts and there are always trade-offs

[15:20] Launching into college successfully – talk to people, your teachers. Her high school math teacher really helped guide her for college guidance.

[18:02] Best advice – Be bold and realize that you have something to contribute. A personal habit is to find outlets to shut-off and balance throughout school and in her career.

[19:55] parting piece of guidance – need to find your own path, may not be the straightest, hone in on what you enjoy
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.

62: Find positions to fill your skills gap – Electrical Engineer – Nikita Tiwari Oct 28, 2018

Show notes

Nikita Tiwari earned a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from The University of Mumbai and a Master’s in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Portland State Univeristy. She is now a platform engineer for the automotive industry at Intel Corporation

[0:55] She has been at Intel for about 5 years and has had many positions inside of Intel. The multiple positions helped her decide what she really liked to do.

[2:23] Classes that helped her; embedded systems, VLSI (Very Large Scale Integrated Circuit) design, validation and verification courses. These along with some computer science and hardware architecture have helped in her career.

[3:39] Describes what an applications platform engineer is within the automotive industry, working on cameras and also working on some Artificial Intelligence applications.

[4:35] How she was able to work in many different positions, she knew what skills she wanted to develop and looked for roles that would help here fill those gaps.

[5:48] Why she went on for her masters and how she is passionate about computer architecture.

[6:40] Nikita’s area of expertise.

[8:28] An ah-ha moment that Nikita had that she turned into success – she did not have all the qualifications for a role, so she did a part time roll with the group she wanted to work for and gained the needed skills and ended up with the position.

[10:21] Getting through college – the power of networking and mentoring.

[12:05] The is information on the SWE website for girls interested in STEM careers. Society of Women Engineers.

[13:07] Key attributes launching into a career; whatever you do, do it well and don’t be worried about failing. Wide breadth is very important and focus on a couple of skills to be an expert in. You also want to be able to articulate yourself, your own elevator pitch.

[15:26] Lightening round – best advice is to be adaptable and don’t rehearse too much. A habit is to carve out time to get things get done and execute on what you plan. She really likes Reddit and recommends The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey.

[17:10] Parting piece of guidance – Use all the resources available to you and one thing at a time.
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.

61: From Mechanical Engineering to a Water Resource Engineer-Brad Arnold Oct 21, 2018

Show notes

Brad Arnold earned a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from The Milwaukee School of Engineering and a Masters in Agricultural & Natural Resource from UC Davis.
You can also reach Brad directly by email barnold.engr@gmail.com

[1:30] Brad found his interests in environmental engineering and tied it in with his knowledge of hydraulics gained through mechanical engineering classes and parlayed that into a sensor system design in grad school. He then got involved in water management and ties it all together in the podcast.

[4:15] How can you get a undergrad in mechanical engineering and then get a masters in civil engineering?

[8:50] What really has Brad fired up in water management?

[10:45] California is sinking – ground water subsidence – has dropped many feet in the last century

[11:40] An ah-ha moment – he started to understand the bigger picture.

[14:40] Don’t get scared off by the math and science requirement, it gets easier when it gets applied. Also look at the course catalog from the schools you are looking to see what the focus might be, for example is the mechanical engineering degree automotive focused or more general?

[18:10] Lightening round time: best advice, personal habit, phone app and book.

Interesting Links, courtesy of Brad:

USGS resource for ‘land subsidence’ in California: Based on our discussion of the land sinking due to overdrafting of groundwater supplies for agriculture, mostly in the Central Valley.

This ‘California Water 101’ from the Water Education Foundation out here also provides some good details on our water systems.

STEM courses from major universities and companies, for instance, any high school student could enroll in ‘Python Basics for Data Science’ to start learning programming

website: Coursera
book: Cadillac Desert by Marc Reisner.
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.

60: Financial Engineering-High Frequency Stock Trader-Nick Sonnenberg Oct 14, 2018

Show notes

Nick Sonnenberg earned a Bachelor of Science in Mathematical Finance and Statistics from University of California-Santa Barbara and a Masters in Financial Engineering from University of California – Berkley

[0:45] Nick explains what financial engineering is – basically applying math to the financial market. He was not aware of financial engineering and just kind of fell into it.

[4:00] Worked for a large investment bank doing high frequency trading on many of the stock exchanges.

[4:40] What you need to know to be able to work as a high frequency trader.

[5:35] Nick is now running two companies. One of them is Get Leverage.

[6:16] What has Nick fired up today? – Solving new math problems!

[7:18] Nick tells us a story of success – Within a couple weeks on a new job, his manager left and he became the head of trading in Hong Kong and was trading over a Billion dollars and making fractions of a penny at a time with very high volume.

[10:15] Where to go get information on high frequency trading? Nick highly recommends taking computer science classes and at a minimum python skills.

[11:50] Getting through college.

[15:20] Lightning round, best advice, personal habit for success and parting guidance.

Nick recommends his book “Idea to Execution”.

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.

59: PHD Biomedical Engineering-Dean at Marquette University-Kris Ropella Oct 07, 2018

Show notes

Dr. Kris Ropella earned a Bachelor of Science in Biomedical Engineering from Marquette University and her Masters and PHD in Biomedical Engineering from Northwestern University.

[1:50] Why Kris decided on Biomedical engineering, even though she really enjoyed architecture.

[3:45] Careers available in Biomedical with BS, MS, or PHD degree.

[5:58] Kris’ insights into qualities needed to be successful in college, such as time discipline, managing time. But also need to take time for some fun to be well rounded. Don’t expect to be perfect, failure is important, take some risks. Need to have emotional intelligence / personal relationship.

[11:50] Advice for young women to get insights into STEM.

[13:40] Ah-ha moment. Her internship helped guide her career path and that is where she decided that she did not want to be a doctor.

[18:40] Best advice, better is often the enemy of good. Personal habit of exercise and a sound mind. Favorite books is the harry potter series.

[19:53] Parting guidance. Be true to yourself take time to reflect

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.

58: Electrical Engineer-working in cyber security-Valerie Seidl Sep 30, 2018

Show notes

Valerie Seidl earned a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and currently works for Synercomm which is a cyber security firm.

[5:15] background on her day.

[6:00] Valerie states that with a degree in Electrical Engineering it gives you a very good understanding of the low level technology and pretty much sets you up for a career in any field in technology. Since cyber security is changing so fast, a lot is being learned on the fly, so if interested in this career path there are many starting points; could be computer engineering, computer science, information technology, etc. She is really excited about cyber security because it is always evolving and is using analytics to determine when the security has been breached.

[7:30] Valerie talks about her ah-ha moment – navigating college is tough and a professor provided an opportunity to attend a week long power electronics conference and she realized there how important security was.

[9:30] Getting through college: Don’t give up as we will all fail somewhere along the line and be agile an adaptable. Surround yourself around people that have the same common goals as you.

[10:45] Transitioning from College into a Career. Learning what is progress in the career because in college you knew your progress based upon passing of test, but no so in real life.

[12:00] Lightning round: Dreams don’t work unless you do, and expert’s aren’t born overnight.

[13:00] Parting piece of guidance.

Valerie recommends the book “Practical Electronics for Engineers” by Paul Scherz.

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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