February 18-24, 2024 is Engineers Week.
This year’s theme is “Welcome to the Future!” and a large part of this year’s theme involves engaging children and students. In honor of Engineering Week, I decided to take a few minutes to look back at my personal Engineering journey and to ponder: How important is it to engage children in science and engineering at a young age? Will they follow through if you do?
If you have ever spoken with anyone involved in Scouting (Scouts BSA) they will proudly tell you that a significant number of adults started down the path toward their career, or a lifelong hobby, because of the Scouting Merit Badge program.
From the earliest days, one of the most recognizable elements and integral parts of Scouting is the merit badge program which exposes youth to a variety of hobbies, sciences, and vocations. And yes, Virginia there is an Engineering Merit Badge. For anyone interested in becoming an engineer or considering a STEM-related field, this merit badge program helps to introduce and encourage technical exploration. Scouts who complete this badge learn about physics and technology and have the opportunity to create a few gadgets along the way!
According to Van Auken (2022) “…the Scouts’ BSA merit badge program… (is) a viable extracurricular option to aid in youth career development.” And because of the merit badge program “…scouts scored higher on this scale (Career Maturity Inventory) than the others.” In my case, as an adult I was able to help a number of Scouts earn the Engineering Merit Badge unfortunately, I did not earn it in my short stint in Scouts as a youth.
My experience really began when I was around 10 years old, my parents gave me a Lafayette Electronics kit. The kit came in a wooden carrying case and offered 150 experiments. The kit included a solar battery, CdS sensor, telegraph key, relays, and various transistors, capacitors, inductors, and resistors. I spent many enjoyable hours experimenting with that kit and building various projects. From this kit I graduated to Heathkits, breadboarding circuits, and eventually a professional career in Engineering. I guess it would be safe to say, I knew from an early age what I wanted to do.
As an Engineer, back in 2006, I received an “Energy Harvest Grant” to design and install a rooftop Photovoltaic (PV) Solar project, which at the time was one of the largest in the state. Were the roots of the desire to get involved in solar technology kindled by the solar battery in that ancient wooden electronics kit? I will let you decide butu I had been reading about and studying advancements in PV solar technology as far back as my earliest teenage years.
In my career, I’ve been a Plant Engineer, a Facilities Engineer, a Design Engineer, Senior Electrical Engineer, Project Manager, and in various Engineering management roles. My engineering involvement has included Design/Build and Turnkey projects, commissioning, upgrades, installation, finding, developing and creating unique solutions, analyzing and solving harmonic problems, retrofits and retrofills, technological investigation and implementation, and exploring many other areas in a wide variety of Commercial, Industrial, Manufacturing, Institutional, Utilities, Government sectors and critical environments. Projects have ranged from small tens of thousands of dollars to $60M multiyear endeavors. Some of the most memorable projects were in the $100K-5M range due to unique constraints and technology challenges. Many of the most rewarding projects were due to the people involved and the bonds that we built.
What I love best about my career is the places I’ve been and the behind the scenes experiences I’ve had. I’ve been in cookie factories (sadly none of them were in a hollow tree), and chocolate plants (although I never had the opportunity to meet any Oompa Loopa’s), I’ve seen electronic semiconductors manufactured and glass laminated. I’ve worked with industrial robots, programmed PLC’s, worked on CNC and machine tool applications, been on ships, worked on and under locomotives and on top of container cranes. I’ve worked in tunnels, data centers, utility plants, weapons factories, chemical and paper plants, and military bases. From subways to high rises, I have had the opportunity to work with both old and cutting-edge technology. I’ve been inside hydroelectric and generating plants built in the 1920’s and worked on new computer systems in their early alpha stages prior to their beta release. I’ve worked in rail years, on electric and diesel trains, gas, fossil, hydo, and nuclear plants, and in companies that manufactured and tested parts for airplanes and helicopters. One company I worked for was involved in supplying materials for the now retired space shuttle program back in its heyday. I still find technology and production fascinating and I love to see how "things" get done and how "things" get built!
After all that pondering, I guess the moral of the story is: Be careful what you expose your kids to…it might become their career!
Van Auken, Todd R., "The Boy Scouts of America Merit Badge Program and Career Development" (2022). USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations. https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/etd/9490