Beers with Engineers

#B5 – Josh Weaver: Engineers/Christmas

• Josh is Bert’s nephew for this Christmas themed podcast
• Josh is drinking a Bell’s Lighthearted IPA.
• Bert is enjoying a Bailey’s Irish Cream.
• One semester as a computer science major.
• A few years as a commercial painter but did not see it as a long term thing.
• Started working for his step-father’s manufacturing company.
• Forgive the dog sneaky toy in the background.
• Josh “sequestered” the d...

#53 – Stan Leong: Engineering Your Finances

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• Stan is a Buffalo Bills fan, like Bert.
• Electrical engineer from Cornell
• Likes how the simple things of electronics build into complex things.
• Was laid off the week after he bought his first house.
• Saw a financial job on Monster.com (remember that?)
• Got all his clients through cold calling
• So miserable his wife handing out resumes to enginee...

#52 – Therese Miclot: The Engineer Whisperer

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• Drinking a Spotted Cow, available only in Wisconsin.
• Observed her mom who struggled with pad bosses.
• Got intrigued by the psychology of work.
• First job at a heavy engineering company – Rockwell
• Found leadership and communication skills lacking in engineers.
• But both are important even if you don’t want to go into management.
• “The Trusted Ad...

Show Notes

#51 – James Kell: Seven continents without trying

• James lives on the beach in Bondi, Australia
• He could be a wedding crasher without making up occupations
• Likes to do fasting 36 – 72 hours
• Studied engineering in Germany but went into construction
• He eats Vegemite and teaches the secret of eating it.
• Australians also check to see if water swirls the other direction in the toilet when crossing the equator.
• Won an Aust...

#50 – Charles Gillis, P.E.: Engineering and art

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• Drinking a Start Line IPA in honor of his hometown, Hopkinton, where the Boston Marathon starts.
• His mom knew he would be an engineer long before he did.
• Has an interest in art, but isn’t an artist
• Artist and engineers both combine existing things in new and interesting ways.
• Worked controllable pitch propellors
• First job at Gillette.
• Ev...

#49 – Scott Bruneau: A traditional non-traditional engineer

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•  an engineer is somebody who makes precise guesswork based on unreliable data provided by people with questionable knowledge.
• Studied nuclear engineering in high school. Yes, high school.
• Buuuut, got his engineering degree late in life.
• An early position was in quality – to get to know the parts – because that group knows the...

#48– Bob Bouthillier: Innovation Requires Disobedience

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• Like father, like son. His father was an electrical engineer.
• But started college as a pharmacist
• Did quality inspection of guns – including a Howizter cannon.
• He can assemble guns fast – not quite as fast as Forrest Gump.
• Inspecting ball bearings – stains vs pits.
• His podcast summarizes books on innovation.
• Just as generals are w...

#47 – Jordan Poots: He’s good at maths.

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• Mechanical engineer from Northern Ireland
• Who quickly went into software.
• Maths or math? Well, it is mathematicS.
• UK still has a mix of English and metric
• He was into AI before it was cool.
• Studied vehicle on-ramp merging
• Can change the car from altruistic to individualistic behavior
• Still interested in mechanical engineering...

#46 – Noel LaFlamme: Hammer and Forge Metallurgist

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• Always interested in how things work and making it better.
• Which led to blacksmithing - by way of archery
• Made arrowheads out of rebar.
  • Which (of course) led to a sword.
• Rules of thumb for temperature of steel.
• Blacksmithing is a hobby that makes a few bucks.
• Specialty is chef’s knives
• Good knives are t...

#45 – Dan Schreiber: Beer Flavored Ice Cream

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• Dan is an architect in Green Bay but had always wanted to be a farmer.
• Stroh’s was the local macro-brewery when Dan and Bert went to college.
  • They made ice cream, then and still do today.
• Do corn farmers put feed corn around the perimeter of their field?
• Bert and Dan rode a mechanical bull in Kentucky
• Felt li...

#44 – Caitlin Vaillincourt: How to avoid braking chip. The edible ones.

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• Pros and cons of longer or shorter college terms
• Played basketball in college and traveled abroad
• Part of global leadership development program at Avery Dennison and loved the experience.
• Interned at Frito-Lay reducing potato chip breakage.
• For now, she is happy with project management but miss...

#43 – Josh Tarbutton: Accidentally Awesome

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• Likes Sugar Creek Brewery in Charlotte, NC.
• They have a master cicerone (you’ll have to listen to find out)
• Started working at age 12.
• Got GED and went to Georgia Tech.
• PhD dissertation was on CNC machining software
• In the Army reserve in Iraq, he was a fuel specialist who actually knew about fuel.
• Bravo team name is parti...

#42 – Gretchen Gagel: Leaving the world a better place.

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• Likes beer from Boulevard Brewing in Kansas City
• In Australia, the living room is the lounge room.
• Went to SMU and saw Eric Dickerson play.
• Dad sold construction equipment and she played with Tonka trucks.
• Built Baltimore Ravens Stadium and many other things.
• Very little manufacturing in Australia, therefore m...

#41 – Wes Schwie: Porsches, patents, problems, and pigs.

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• Became an engineer to be like his brother.
• Became a patent attorney because his friend’s uncle drove a nice Porsche.
• He learned writing patents and claims as mostly on the job training.
• First job as an inside sales engineer – wasn’t that good at it.
• Firm’s name of Gallium Law was proposed by a friend.
• Gallium...

#40 – John Clarke: Don’t be a cow on ice

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• Found morel mushrooms in his yard and ate them. And ventured into others.
• Hunting wild berries
• Drinking Little Willow beer – tired it because his daughter is Willow.
• Tried numerous manual labor jobs in high school – which convinced him to go to college.
• Manager to engineer to manager.
• Worked at a high tech textile company
• A ...

#39 – Kyle Smith: Engineering knowledge and wisdom

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• Kyle saved Bert’s butt by modifying parts overnight
• You tend to repeat small mistakes, but not big ones.
• Another engineer who started with Legos
• Self-taught on an early computer animation program – Maya.
• Which led into SolidWorks
• Got a mill for cheap and converted to CNC
• Kyle and Bert both use Send Cut Send – not s...

#38 – Seth Greenwald: Engineers are storytellers, too.

• A teller of “good” stories
• Active in toastmasters
• Soul Brewing Company
• Attended Cooper Union to be an architect, but….
• First job was as a furniture designer.
• “Serious Creativity” by Edward DeBono – lateral thinking
• You need to know when to be logical and when to be lateral
• Divergent thinking before convergent thinking
• Toastmasters help you to speak and to lead
• Gives worksh...

#37 – Larry Bridge: Sustainability is good business

• Built the pedestrian bridge over Sycamore St in Cincinnati.
• Bert wants to use nitinol someday. It is super-elastic and has shape memory.
• Larry’s dad was called Mr. Steel and his uncle worked on submarine propellors.
• Thought about being an actuary
• Quickly moved into project management – lots of capital products
• HVAC in an R&D building is huge expense
• Kosher surfactants are...