What does being an engineer mean to you?

RE: What does being an engineer mean to you?

mcb1 — Fri, 27 Jun 2014 08:45:11 GMT

What characteristics do you feel determine you as an engineer?

The ability to solve problems, design solutions and come up with innovate ways to improve daily life.

Electronics involves smoke and mirrors. In my early days we worked on valve equipment which meant you could see where the smoke should be, and it never really escaped (it got tired).

I am able to work out which bits had had the magic smoke released, but the hard part is working out why it got released.

How did you come to the realisation you wanted to be an engineer?

From an early age I was pulling things apart and putting them back together, or making things. During High School I stumbled into electronics, and with support from my parents brought a kitset radio.

It was a total disaster and required help from a local 'guru', we rebuilt it (well he did most of it .. and now 40yrs later I help him). He helped me get my Radio Amateurs licence at 14, and the seed was set.

When I left High school at 15 I was told I couldn't get a job in the Post Office as an Electronics Technician, so I proved them wrong.

Are there any ‘rites of passage’ an engineer should go through?

You need to fail to understand the world doesn't stop revolving, and that it can be rectified.

You need to succeed to know it sometimes takes hard work, long hours and some inspiration, and other times just blind luck!.

As Douglas said " ..how to solve any problem .." is a method of ensuring you fully understand the problem, symptoms, and any conditions which contribute.

You need a methodical approach to solving it by changing only one thing at a time, rather than a 'scatter gun" approach (otherwise you don't really know what solved it)

What advice would you give to any budding engineers?

Be confident enough in your own abilities to accept you will fail.

Never assume you know everything (you never will). Try not to portray that impression ... it never sits well with your work peers.

Don't be afraid to discuss the problem with someone else, even if you think they may have zero idea of how this technology works (you might be surprised).

When you talk with various stakeholders, you'll find different characteristics ie the sales people ignore problems, while engineers/technicians see any potential issues and the accountants just see the cost.

Try to understand the problem you are attempting to fix, and try to replicate it before trying to fix it ..... otherwise how do you know its fixed.?

Probably the most important advice is "If you don't understand ASK" ... .. Yes you might think you look stupid, but not as stupid as if you destroy something or cause an outage.

Do you communicate and network with other engineers? How?

I work with number of engineers from software to mechanical to electrical.

element14 is a great way to broaden your horizon and get you outside your comfort zone.

I also assist with electronics and microcontroller programming at some Chch schools, which is encouraging our potential future engineers and is very satisfying.

Do you have any stories to show what being an engineer is all about?

I had someone come to me one day asking if I could change the lamp colour to red, since they couldn't see when a radio channel was in use.

They already had a white lamp, and this was working as it should.

Sure I could change it, but why? since the white was working, how would this help? The response was this radio channel was a bit quiet and they needed to turn it up to hear.

I offered to have the channel looked at to ensure the levels were correct, and then we could have the conversation again if it was no better.

The levels were low and were rectified, and we never had to have the conversation or change the lamp.

So understanding the symptom and fixing the problem is important (rather than hiding or solving the symptom).

Mark

RE: What does being an engineer mean to you?

dougw — Fri, 27 Jun 2014 05:39:29 GMT

What characteristics do you feel determine you as an engineer?

The primary characteristic that I feel defines me as an engineer is a passion for solving problems. I get real satisfaction from building things, making things work and fixing things and I get an even bigger thrill out of designing things that actually work. For me the harder the problem is the more satisfaction there is in solving it. Achieving something really, really difficult can be absolutely euphoric. I can adjust how much pleasure I collect simply by choosing the difficulty of the problems I solve. I always have multiple projects in progress, mostly with 1 or 2 week schedules so I get lots of success during the course of longer and tougher projects. I augment paying job projects with home projects to ensure a steady flow of success.

How did you come to the realisation you wanted to be an engineer?

I grew up in a mining town in a jungle with no TV but always had a wide range of interests, including sports and building models, boats, planes, kites, meccano, tinkertoy etc.

When I was 12 years old my Dad gave me a choice, I could go to boarding school in Canada or stay and become a pro golfer (I was already a scratch player and had won a tournament by shooting 2 under par - because I could play for free after school as long as I got on the course before the men showed up after work) Of course he made it clear I probably would have more options if I had a good education, than I might have as a golfer. Needless to say, I chose boarding school and growing up in a mining town, it always seemed like engineers had the most interesting jobs. I wanted to be a mechanical engineer, but rapidly discovered that electronics was far cheaper as a hobby and the pace of new electronics technology development was amazing.

Are there any ‘rites of passage’ an engineer should go through?

The most important lesson I ever learned was "how to solve problems" - any problem. When I finally realized I could apply the same general method to solve any problem, it gave me confidence to tackle anything. I no longer needed to wait for inspiration, I no longer needed to know the answer in advance, I could just apply my method and grind through any problem.

What advice would you give to any budding engineers?

First of all, you need to understand the magic of how to solve any problem. Actually there is no magic to solving problems, the magic is when you finally "get it" that is just a straightforward process. Then you need to realize the main cause of failure is when people give up. If you simply assume the solution exists, you will become much more tenacious and successful. After a few successes due to pure tenaciousness, you will start to truly believe in your abilities.

Do you communicate and network with other engineers? How?

Good mentor relationships can be fantastic for your success and your career, but after you get good at your field, it becomes increasingly difficult to find technical mentorship since you will know more than anyone around you. The internet provides a fantastic opportunity to provide and receive mentoring with a much larger population that have similar technical interests, some of whom are absolute gurus. This is what I use element14 forums for.

Do you have any stories to show what being an engineer is all about?

Engineers are characterized by being proud of being engineers - they had to go through a gruelling course load to become engineers and their jobs by definition have to constantly deal with problems. Unfortunately, non-engineers will not generally understand what being an engineer is all about, so it is important to develop interests outside of engineering to have meaningful interaction with others and fully enjoy the rest of what the world has to offer.

As an engineer I have had quite a few "eureka" moments that provided such powerful rushes, I still get highly pleasurable flashbacks. Some of my patents were a result of these flashes of inspiration, but some of the most satisfying moments have no permanent record, just great memories. Most would require a long story to explain, but one that occurred before I was an engineer happened when we moved to Canada for a couple of years when I was 6 years old. We had an Electrolux vacuum cleaner that you could connect the hose either to the air inlet or outlet. After discovering the air coming out was quite warm, it dawned on me that hooking the hose to the blower end would allow it to be used to melt the troublesome ice build-up inside our poorly insulated door. (I had never even seen snow before that winter). My mother caught me messing around with it and making a puddle on the floor, and I thought I was in big trouble, but she recognized the ingenuity and I got positive reinforcement instead of punishment. Great Mums help to make great engineers.

RE: What does being an engineer mean to you?

michaelwylie — Tue, 24 Jun 2014 19:20:18 GMT

What characteristics do you feel determine you as an engineer?

Problem Solving. That’s essentially what you are as an engineer, you’re a professional problem solver. Ever have a friend who’s always trying to come up with a solution to some problem? It doesn’t have to be a technical issue, it just has to be a problem in need of a solution. That’s the dominant engineering characteristic. This characteristic fills up and overflows into the other characteristics that make a good engineer. You want to find a solution to the problem, so you study the appropriate materials (Studious). You want to find a solution to the problem, so you begin to experiment with the problem (curiosity). See where I’m going here?

How did you come to the realisation you wanted to be an engineer?

Warning: Long story approaching.

When I finished high school I immediately entered university to study Electrical Engineering. I hated it. I mean, I really hated it. The morning commute to the school was enough to ruin my day. I didn’t understand why I had to learn more chemistry, physics, and math. I just wanted to study electrical engineering. I wasn’t getting poor grades, but I was really unhappy. Much to my parents dismay I left university. My parents never really voiced a major concern, but later they told me it was quite hard for them to accept my choice to leave university. I was 19 years of age at this time, and I decided to study music full-time.

I studied music full-time for a year and went for my audition and exams to enter university. I aced the aural (listening) part of the exam, but I had never played in front of anyone before and I did very poorly at my audition. In the meantime my parents had relocated as per my father’s retirement plans, and I relocated with them. For the summer I got a job moving boxes at a courier company, and I realized I didn’t want to move boxes for the rest of my life. I enrolled in an Electronics Engineering Technology program at my local community college. It was only a two year program that resulted in a technologist diploma (midway between engineer and electrician).

It was at this point that I met the man who changed it all for me. It was, in all seriousness, the math instructor. I remember the first day; he came into the classroom, drew a right triangle on the chalk board, and wrote down the famous trigonometry relationships. I forgot to mention, when he came into the classroom he was pushing a cart with a piece of equipment on it I had never seen before. So, when he finished writing on the chalk board he asked everyone something like this: “Why is it important to learn trigonometry for your field?” I had no idea why, and neither did anyone else apparently because this classroom full of pupils went quiet. Up until this point I had no idea how trigonometry was actually used in the “real world” except for determining the angle at which a ladder is placed against the side of a house. You know, those classic, useless homework problems which lead you to question who actually goes up a ladder without someone at the bottom holding it anyway. He then turned on the piece of equipment, which he called an oscilloscope, and explained that it is used to monitor time-varying voltages. Then, he took the probe of the oscilloscope and connected it to the wall socket, and this beautiful sine wave was displayed on the oscilloscope screen. His next words went something like, “If you can’t do trigonometry, then you can’t figure out anything that’s going on with our power grid.” Something inside clicked and I finally understood why it was important to learn this subject they called math.

This instructor opened my eyes over the next two years and I became addicted to learning. When I finished my diploma I got my Bachelor’s degree and kept going until I got a Ph.D. The learning journey continues, even today.

Are there any ‘rites of passage’ an engineer should go through?

I’m not sure there are any that pertain to being an engineer specifically. There are a few in life in general, but I wouldn’t presume to limit them to only engineers.

What advice would you give to any budding engineers?

Everyone has a different life story that led them to being an engineer. There are a few common themes like taking things apart as a child and being enthralled with how things work, but we’re all just trying to make a living. In recent years there has been a lot of this talk about life being too short to waste, and do something you love. If you’re really an engineer, you’ll love problem solving and the rush that comes with finding a solution. It doesn’t matter what engineering problem I am given I always see it as a problem solving activity. I program embedded systems every day. I don’t love programming, but I do love problem solving and the satisfaction that comes from creating the solution. So my advice is: “If you’re an engineer at heart you don’t have to like the problem to love the solution”.

Do you communicate and network with other engineers? How?

Mostly online these days. It allows quick and painless access to other engineers. Plus, we’re mostly an antisocial bunch anyway. O.K that’s not entirely true. I attend conferences and workshops, but mostly I view webinars and use online social media to communicate.

Do you have any stories to show what being an engineer is all about?

If you’re an electrical engineer I can almost guarantee you’ve heard the expression, “The most common failure of all electronic components is that they have no power”. This, surprisingly, includes not being plugged in. I can vividly remember doing an active filter lab as a young student and thinking, “These active filters aren't very active”, only to find out I did the entire experiment with the power turned off.

I went to a family vacation at a cabin one year. There were a lot of people in this cabin and once we settled in we all sat down in the living room area and started having a conversation. One of my sister-in-laws mentioned that the washer was broken. My problem solving characteristic kicked in and I asked, “Is it plugged in?” It was at this point that the barrage of snarky comments came about. “No, Mike, I didn’t check that! (sarcastically)” “Oooh, Mr. Smart Electrical Engineer and his degree says check the plug.” I’m pretty sure my brother-in-law shouted “Bazinga” and “Oooh, SNAP!” as well, but as you can imagine the barrage was relentless and all in good fun. I was a little shocked, but not enough to stop me from venturing down towards the washer, my brother-in-law in tote behind me. I turned the dial for the washer, popped in the knob, and nothing happened. I looked behind the unit, and it was plugged in. I spotted a fan oscillating nearby and asked my brother-in-law to grab it for me. I plugged the fan into the same wall socket as the washer and the fan didn’t turn on. I looked over at my brother-in-law and said, “The breaker for the washer isn’t turned on”. Now this is the interesting part, because my brother-in-law was the one who turned on all the breakers. So I walked down to the breaker box with him and he examines it. I could see everyone in the living room from where I was standing, and after a click from the breaker box the sound of the washing machine filling up with water could be heard throughout the cabin. It was my most gratifying feeling ever as an engineer, and my wife was pretty proud as well.

RE: What does being an engineer mean to you?

baldengineer — Tue, 24 Jun 2014 11:02:13 GMT

How did you come to the realisation you wanted to be an engineer?

Back To The Future came out when I was in elementary school. Like most kids I was fascinated by the movie and by time travel. Doc Brown was my hero. His entire workshop was filled with all of these cool inventions that he made. That's when I knew I wanted to be an inventor when I grew up. In fact, at the time I made two life goals: 1) Work for NASA and 2) Invent something sold in stores.

So, since I was barely old enough to do division and multiplication, I knew I wanted to be an inventor. It wasn't until high school I realized that meant "engineer".

As for my goals, I never took a job for NASA but I did get an offer for a position at Goddard. I've also consulted on a number of satellite projects. #2 happened during my first internship.

I should point out that Doc Brown made me want to be an inventor. And now, I'm an application and technology expert at a Capacitor company...

RE: What does being an engineer mean to you?

Instructorman — Mon, 23 Jun 2014 21:25:07 GMT

What characteristics do you feel determine you as an engineer?

There are several. First, there is a comfort with things artificial - machines, devices, systems, infrastructure - that not all people seem to have. This comfort seems to grow out of an innate ability to see how technology integrates with human enterprise and a proclivity for applying technical and scientific principles to the solution of certain human problems. Deciding which human problems may benefit from a technical or scientific solution, and which may not, is a type of wisdom that all engineers, I believe, should work to develop.

As mentioned by DAB, mathematical skill is necessary, but I think not sufficient, to determine your engineering character. Honestly, I'd classify my math skills as a little above average, but not stellar. In my experience there are two types of math knowledge or skill required. First, a solid understanding of key concepts - what is a derivative, what is an integral, what is standard deviation, what is a logarithm, how are systems of equations solved, et cetera. Second, a working competency with numbers, over an enormous range from very large to very small. Can you estimate the value of common physical quantities in specific situations? Can you judge if a number presented by a calculator, computer, fellow engineer, sales rep, or test equipment is reasonable or not?

A mentioned by John Beetem, obsession with problem solving is necessary too. I don't like to think of myself as obsessed, but when I step away from my bench and consider what I do dispassionately, yeah - it kind of looks like obsession. What other descriptor should be used for someone that expends substantial resources, some non-renewable like time, as in swaths of your lifetime, toward achieving something as tenuous as merely solving a problem? Often these problems are not big picture epic scale problems, like climbing a mountain, getting an astronaut to the moon or addressing climate change. They are often nit-picky scale problems like making a button cell battery last longer, or keeping noise from clobbering a low level signal, or bullet proofing a user interface. Solving these problems, however small and nit-picky, can help a team climb a mountain, or get an astronaut to the moon, or address climate change. If the idea of attaching yourself to a problem, including non-glamorous problems, and being dragged through a labyrinth of mystery and adventure does not appeal, then you may not have an engineer inside you.

How did you come to the realisation you wanted to be an engineer?

When, in the spring of 1968, my father bought a vacuum tube radio kit and let me assemble it. I remember feeling an odd comfort and realization when assembling the resistors, capacitors, wires, tubes and sockets. These things, these colourful, delicate and clever things, when assembled correctly, were the portal, the interface, the technology that bridged the realm of invisible radio waves to the realm of intelligible sound waves. It was at this time I realized that if other humans could master these things and make them do wonderful things like convert invisible waves into music, that I could learn to do the same, and more. I find it a little odd that when introduced to the technology under the hood of the family car I did not sense the same wonder. I thought "dirty", "smelly" and "dangerous", but electronics at that time was none of those, until I got my first 300 VDC shock off a plate supply, seared my flesh on a soldering iron and choked on the rancid smoke pouring out of a seriously overloaded resistor.

Are there any ‘rites of passage’ an engineer should go through?

You should take something apart, actually, many things, and read the insides like you are reading a good mystery novel. Try to predict how the story will end.
You should build things, many things, and make mistakes. Some things should work when you are finished, and you will be proud, but you will learn more from those that do not work, and be prouder when you do not accept defeat and figure out what went wrong.
You should experience failure and hit the limits of your ability. Sometimes you will not have the ability to solve the problem. Take risks and discover where your walls are then learn how to reach out to others for help.
Spend time working with others. Learn to say what you mean and mean what you say and realize that many people you will have to work with don't follow this maxim. You will more than once be in a meeting where something like this will happen. Be patient with others, learn to listen deeply, learn to scaffold upon the knowledge of others and fulfil your role as liaison between the unaware and the magisterium of technology.
Estimate a project incorrectly and realize when the job is done at triple the time you promised that you worked for less than minimum wage. You will be a better estimator afterward.

Mark

RE: What does being an engineer mean to you?

johnbeetem — Mon, 23 Jun 2014 19:08:24 GMT

From what my parents told me, I was a born engineer. When I was about 3 or 4 years old, they took me to the UC Berkeley Botanical Gardens so I could look at all the pretty trees and flowers. Instead, I was fascinated by the irrigation system and went running around to see where all the pipes went. Good practice for tracing signals on multi-layer PC boards [View:/resized-image/__size/16x16/__key/commentfiles/f7d226abd59f475c9d224a79e3f0ec07-708deee4-028f-4d8a-b6c7-2da811da62f0/contentimage_5F00_1.png:16:16]

I grew up in a neighborhood with practically no other children, other than my big sister. My mother was worried that I wasn't getting enough interaction with other children, so she enrolled me in a nursery school. This was too late: the teacher reported that instead of playing with the other children, I had discovered the school's collection of jigsaw puzzles and I was methodically putting these together, showing unusual focus for a boy my age. What was most alarming is that I would store the puzzle away when I was done instead of leaving them out. Maybe this is why I don't need automatic garbage collection. [View:/resized-image/__size/16x16/__key/commentfiles/f7d226abd59f475c9d224a79e3f0ec07-708deee4-028f-4d8a-b6c7-2da811da62f0/contentimage_5F00_1.png:16:16]

So I had important engineer characteristics from an early age: obsession with solving problems and the ability to focus on them.

Rites of passage: I don't know what schools are like nowadays, but I remember always being a social outcast. This really didn't bother me, because I had plenty of interesting problems to work on. I went to a high school that had strong math and science, so there were enough geeks to form a critical mass. For example, we had a top-notch math team.

Advice to budding engineers: Try not to worry about being a social outcast. It will give you more time to learn neat stuff. Don't wait for people to show you neat stuff -- find it for yourself. My early knowledge of computers and electronics all came from going to the library and reading books. Nowadays you have amazing resources like Wikipedia, so you don't even have to find physical books. Also, you can often get used books for very cheap. You don't need the latest and most expensive books to learn engineering: the fundamentals change very slowly, so get cheap used books.

This is a great time (technically) for budding engineers: you can get cheap boards like Raspberry Pi and Papilio FPGA boards to play with things and see them working. My first computer was an Heathkit H-8, and that cost big bucks compared to a RasPi. So did my Heathkit top-of-the-line 15 MHz dual-trace sillyscope.

On the other hand, nobody knows what sort of job prospects budding engineers will have. It's no longer the case that an engineering degree is automatically a ticket to a long, well-paid career with a comfortable retirement. In a way, this is good because people who want to become engineers only because they think it will pay well are probably going to be unhappy. People who are obsessed with problem solving and understanding how things work (and fail) are the ones who are going to enjoy the work needed to become an engineer -- indeed, all those problem sets are going to be a fun adventure, not a burdensome chore. As with most professions, the best and happiest are usually those who can't imagine being anything else.

I'm currently working as an independent consultant, so my day-to-day interaction with other engineers is e-mail with clients and sites such as this one and Geek Times. To get a periodic "fix" of feeling like a real engineer, I go to physical conferences in SillyIcon Valley twice a year: the Embedded Systems Conference (aka Design West aka EE Live!) and the ARM TechCon. I get the cheapskate "exhibits-only" badge and generally just go one day. ESC has never disappointed, but lately ARM TechCon has become more ARM MarketingCon. ESC this year was quite different from the others: usually I'm more interested in the new technology and tech talks. This year I met face-to-face a number of people I enjoyed interacting with at Geek Times and that was what made this year's EE Live! most interesting.

RE: What does being an engineer mean to you?

DAB — Mon, 23 Jun 2014 18:55:47 GMT

I always liked to figure out how things worked and applying technology to solve problems, so being an engineer was a natural choice for me. I initially became an electronics technician, but found that the real fun was doing the planning and design. I started as an Engineering Physics degree, but then changed to Computer Engineering as a more natural fit.

If you want to be an engineer you have to immerse yourself in the job. If you think you will make a lot of easy money, then you should not go into engineering. You have to keep learning everyday, especially with the rate at which the technologies are accelerating.

If you want to be an engineer then you have to really apply yourself in the tasks that matter the most in school. That includes math, science, and most importantly, COMMUNICATING! That's right, you need to read and write at a high level and absolutely need to be able to communicate your ideas to your peers and your less technical bosses. Take a public speaking class, you will greatly advance your career if you do so.

When I began there was no internet. We communicated with the other engineers at work and at collage. Remember, I said you have to learn constantly. Now I used Element 14 and Linked In to communicate with people world wide. Really fun actually.

Probably the best feeling an engineer can have is when you take your prototype to the field and let the users test the device. When you see them come back with a grin from ear to ear, then you know that you met or exceeded their wildest expectations. I have not found many things in life that gives you that feeling of well done.

DAB