Power Engineering

Power engineering is a class of engineering that I really have never heard about before. I don't particular have any interest in pursuing a career in this type of engineering, but I thought it would be good to watch a short film about it and expose myself to a subject that I'm not too familiar with. The documentary focused on various plants in Canada and the day-to-day tasks of some of the employees.

Power engineering is made up of a few different classes based on your level of training and education. The most basic is a fourth class power engineer. They typically will have very little experience and they work with a lot of hands-on operations within the plant. This is where almost every power engineer starts off, but they do have a tremendous amount of responsibility. 

A majority of power engineers deal with steam and pressurized water energy that, in turn, produces fuel such as natural gas and oil through various mechanical processes. Fourth class power engineers, specifically, have to maintain the boilers and make sure the pressure throughout all the machinery and equipment remains stable. They have to learn how to run practically all the machines in the lab and all these processes ultimately generates the power and electricity necessary for entire cities and sometimes larger areas than that. 

Boiler

First, second, and third class engineers start reaching into plant management positions. They deal with energy on a much larger scale and processes that are more complicated than the ones dealt with by entry level engineers. As you move up the ladder, the salary increase is significant. It may take decades to progress and earn the certificate necessary to become a first class power engineer, but the salary for top companies can reach up to $250,000.

I thought the documentary was very informative. It's always good to learn about new career possibilities. I never realized how important power engineers are in our lives. Their work truly makes a difference and affects almost everyone worldwide. Still, I don't feel I'm cut out for that kind of work. It definitely peaked my interest, but I don't think it was enough to get me to pursue a career in power engineering. Regardless, the video was definitely beneficial for me to watch and I encourage anyone who reads this to watch the short documentary.

-Danny

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dlA-FU4zyW4

Prompt #8

Almost every freshman within the engineering field has to take a course called EGR 100. It has both a lab and a lecture portion to it. We haven't gotten into specifics much in the lectures, but we have begun to experiment with some basic engineering principles in the lab portion using an NXT robot kit, allowing for some hands-on experience within all the groups. Our first project involves building and programming it to perform certain tasks. The only one we've got to so far is using a light sensor to get the robot to follow a black line.

Testing the Robot allowed all of us a simple real life exposure to the scientific method. Though an extremely simple topic discussed in middle school science, the scientific method is vital to engineers in their work. The lab this week was dedicated to programming the robot and we still haven't really learned exactly how the programming software works. Some groups already have programming experience, but unfortunately, no one in my groups does. Regardless, the only way to achieve the goal is through running multiple experiments. Using the programming software, each group has three values to input and program the robot to get it to work. Personally, I had no idea what any of the three numbers meant in terms of how they affected the robot, but we still input multiple different values until we found a combination that worked. 

We tested our robots by running it through a course with a winding black path for our robot to follow. This simple example of the scientific method process was definitely a good starting point for our engineering lab as the concepts become more and more difficult. This example might seem like a repetitive and boring trial and error process to some, the scientific method is really at the heart of any engineering occupation that you could think of and it's good to be exposed to the process. The great part about this hands-on experience is so that students can figure out whether or not the experimental process appeals to them moving forward. 

Though they deal with much more complex and significant world problems, real engineers do have to engage in this process every single day. With that in mind, I think this was a very important experiment for many freshman looking to observe what it is that engineers actually do on a day-to-day basis. For some, the prolonged repetition and testing process might seem like quite a boring career. For others, the end result of achieving your goal is ultimately worth the struggle.

There are plenty of students that solely focused on the academic aspect of engineering. Their love of math and science led them to choose it as their declared major. To those, I’d say this class is very beneficial to them. It allows them an opportunity to truly grasp what a career in engineering looks like. The hands-on experience is so unbelievably different than sitting in a lecture or studying a textbook. For many, a simple task such as programming and testing a Lego robot is enough to dissuade them from pursuing a career in the engineering field, and honestly, that’s not a bad thing at all. It’s better to realize your passion early rather than late. Personally, I don’t mind the struggle and I think it’s important that people feel the need to persevere in order to find solutions to some of the world’s greatest problems. Regardless, the class is a great way for engineering students to figure out if the next four years of their lives is going to be worth it. But, it’s very obvious that a hands-on experience differs completely from just learning academic material.

-Danny

The Engineers Achilles Heel

For anyone interested in becoming an engineer, or anyone who already is, they should be prepared for one question when they pursue their career, and enter the job market. One of the most popular, as everyone will know, is the "Where do you see yourself in ten years?" question. While this may make your palms sweat, its not the most popular, or the most important question in the interview. Instead, based on research, this question is more about your confidence level in your attributes, or a test of ego. In other words, it tests your ambition. This is by know means a question you should blow off, but again is not the question you should prepare for.

Assuming you hit the books in college, and didn't sleep through class, you should be able to nail the next set of questions as well. These are straight out of the textbook, and are asked for the exact reason that you think; to see if you are a bonehead or not. After nailing the question about internal combustion engines or how a battery works, you'll stand up, shake hands, and be done with your interview. "What?!" you ask. "I thought you were going to tell us the most important question an engineer can poss-". Stop. You've already answered it. It was the first question when you walked in the door and sat on the office chair, shaking uncontrollably. "Hey, how are you doing?". Yup, that one. A stereotype among engineers is that we are awkward, quiet, nervous, edgy... nerds. Thats not true for everyone, but it is something that is widely looked an by interviewers. A calm, collected, confident answer is what the interviewer is looking for. An engineer with people skills, and confidence is the only engineer they will hire.

Writer: Pat Wilkinson