The Engineering Commons Podcast

Guest David E. Goldberg talks with us about shifting expectations for engineers, and reveals the crucial skills needed by tomorrow’s engineering professionals. Listening and questioning are important skills for today’s engineer, but these subjects are rarely addressed in the engineering curriculum. Our guest is David E. Goldberg, who is the Jerry S. Dobrovolny Distinguished Professor … Continue reading Episode 37 — Emergent Expectations →

We talk about amateur radio with Alan Wolke, W2AEW, in this episode of The Engineering Commons podcast. Jeff got interested in amateur radio around the age of twelve or thirteen, while leafing through his father’s Heathkit catalogs. Amateur radio allows licensed enthusiasts to use allocated radio frequencies (RF) for non-commercial communications. The term “ham” was … Continue reading Episode 36 — Ham Nation →

We consider engineering as a knowledge network in this episode of The Engineering Commons podcast. Adam relies on his colleagues to help him coordinate his work, as well as to provide him with technical guidance–such as in conducting a Proctor soil compaction test. Carmen similarly has to share information within his office about running a … Continue reading Episode 35 — Knowledge Network →

This episode discusses similarities between engineers and accountants, and provides a brief overview of accounting terminology. Like most engineers, Brian has gone through the process of assigning his engineering costs to a seemingly endless list of expense accounts. Accounting is an important function in virtually every business. Today’s episode considers some of the similarities between … Continue reading Episode 34 — Accounting for Engineers →

We consider engineering education from a European perspective in this episode of The Engineering Commons. Our guest for this episode is Sebastian Ahlström, a civil engineer who is pursuing a masters degree at Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg, Sweden. Sebastian spent the past year working as an intern for the Minnesota Department of Transportation, … Continue reading Episode 33 — Civil in Sweden →

In this episode, we discuss working with those from other technical disciplines, and also touch upon the software skills that engineers should possess. Our guest for this episode is Paul Davis, a software engineer who currently writes jet engine control code. Although there is some dispute about the quotation’s origin, EdsgerDijkstra is frequently credited with … Continue reading Episode 32 — Fitting In →

We discuss how crowdfunding might influence the future of scientific research in this episode of The Engineering Commons. Adam is willing to fork over a few dollars to further scientific studies of the universe; how about you? Crowdfunding is a means for raising money that has recently been garnering a lot of attention. Websites that … Continue reading Episode 31 — Crowdfunding →

In this episode we discuss some lessons that our guest, aeronautical engineer Clay Coons, has learned while traveling abroad. Our guest is Clay Coons, an aeronautical engineer who currently works as an applications engineer for Cummins, Inc. Clay attributes a portion of his interest in aeronautical engineering to the 1960’s TV show, My Three Sons. … Continue reading Episode 30 — Travel →

We discuss how engineers use and develop their intuitive senses. “The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift.”
 — Albert Einstein We are looking for individuals willing to appear as guests on this podcast, … Continue reading Episode 29 — Intuition →

We discuss how to stay sane while dealing with the day-to-day stresses of being an engineer. Besides whatever form of music happens to pass through his headset, Carmen enjoys listening to numerous podcasts, including: Nerdist, with Chris Hardwick, and Roderick on the Line, with Merlin Mann and John Roderick. You can read about Carmen’s latest … Continue reading Episode 28 — Sanity →