The Engineering Commons Podcast

In this episode, Adam, Carmen and Jeff talk about engineering skills, and where they are obtained. Adam has used “soft” skills more than “hard” skills thus far in his engineering career. On the other hand, Carmen makes heavy use, at least on occasion, of the “hard” skills he learned in his engineering education. Adam notes … Continue reading Episode 27 — Skills →

Brian and Jeff talk with Ann McMahon about sharing one’s passion for engineering with pre-college students. Brian has experienced the glassy-eyed look of others listening to his engineering stories. Our guest for this episode is Ann McMahon, an aerospace engineer who advises educators on how best to share science and engineering with K-12 students. Ann … Continue reading Episode 26 — Elementary Engineering →

Jeff talks with his three new co-hosts about what sparked their interests in engineering. Co-host #1 is Adam, a civil engineer who works for a Department of Transportation in the Upper Midwest. Co-host #2 is Brian, an electrical engineer who has spent a good deal of his career doing hardware design for the aerospace industry. … Continue reading Episode 25 — Spark →

Chris and Jeff discuss leadership issues with Jim Stroup, author and management consultant, in this episode of The Engineering Commons podcast. Jeff and Chris didn’t receive much leadership training in their engineering classes. Jeff picked up his knowledge on the job, while Chris benefited from some training in high school, and a program offered by … Continue reading Episode 24 — Leadership →

Chris and Jeff discuss priorities and burnout, and we learn a thing or two about Chris’ future plans. Chris isn’t sure what he’ll be doing in a month, but says it probably won’t include hosting The Engineering Commons podcast. (A collective gasp rises up from the audience!!) Jeff quizzes Chris for a bit about his … Continue reading Episode 23 — Priorities →

Chris and Jeff discuss why engineers are sometimes seen as cold, heartless bastards who refuse to be team players. Oh yeah, and how that might be linked to a lack of empathy. A recent journal article claims that engineering students have less empathy than students in other fields of study. Chato Rasoal, Henrik Denielsson & … Continue reading Episode 22 — Empathy →

This episode covers a few of the various ways in which time influences the work of engineers. Chris has been busy refactoring electronic schematics; Jeff is preparing for a mechatronics course he will be teaching. Despite our perceptions of time being quite variable, we often talk about work we need to do, or the distances … Continue reading Episode 21 — Time →

Chris and Jeff review the episodes of 2012, and share some of the background stories that didn’t make it to the original podcasts. Chris enjoys the lack of interruptions that the holiday season brings to his workplace. From Episode 1, “Jumping Off,” Chris took away the notion that engineering is messy. Jeff harped once again … Continue reading Episode 20 — A Year in Review →

Engineers bring economic benefit to their employers. In this episode, we talk with Professor James Trevelyan about the value of engineers in the workplace. While the word “value” has many meanings, Chris has an immediate desire to interpret it in terms of dollars and cents. Engineers obviously provide some economic value, as employers continue handing … Continue reading Episode 19 — Value →

In this episode, Chris and Jeff discuss the role of failure in advancing engineering knowledge. All things fail at some point. Engineers advance their own knowledge, and that of the profession, by analyzing these failures. As a guideline for our discussion, we reference the book, “To Engineer is Human: The Role of Failure in Successful … Continue reading Episode 18 — Failure →