Engineering?

[Sac Arrow]

Is this engineering?
I know a person who worked for the army. They wanted to have a trailerable device that would accept sewage (ie a privy chamber) in one end and deliver potable water at the other end.
She did it. It involved bacteria, chemicals, energy inputs.
Makes sense despite the initial aesthetics concerns.

That is nothing new. Very new anyway. Particularly with the advent of membrane bioreactors, which can treat sewage to near drinking water quality in one step.

MBR membranes are typically ultrafilters and sometimes microfilters. You could drink the treated effluent but there is still the issue of endocrine receptors and hormones. RO will knock those out.

 

[wilkersk]

My dad was an electrical engineer. He had over 20 years as an engineering officer in the Navy, then worked as a field engineer on substation construction projects, then wound up working on real estate acquisition and utility right-of-way. After he retired, he wound up working as a consultant for a power consortium into his '80s. He always told me the degree was "just a way to get your foot in the door; an engineering degree just gets your foot in the door in a better neighborhood." ---- After a lot of hard work, scrimping and saving, I wish now that I'd listened to him back then.

 

[Half Fast]

I graduated in 1975 with a BSEE degree. Worked in engineering for 40 years before retiring in 2015 (about 2 1/2 years early, but it was that or move and I wasn't about to move). Still do some consulting work and am involved in national and international standards committees in my area of specialty - electromagnetic compatibility (EMC). .

Interesting. You might know an EMC buddy of mine, Briand Lessard. Briand has also served on E3 standards committees.

 

[patrick wentworth]

38 years in evaporated/sputtered thin film coatings. Think mirrors for copiers, laser fusion, satellite solar cells, ink for color changing anti counterfeit on your greenbacks, hologram on your credit card, hellfire IR, B52 flir.
Never did we get rid of good manufacturing process engineers, and they always ate well. Manufacturing engineers came from a wide variety of disciplines, enjoyed working with those who lay hands on parts, pay attention to detail.
Consider looking around an area you would like to live in for shops (large or small) that need to Improve.

 

[Rcmutz]

What did you do on the F22 and F35? I've had a little involvement with the EO stuff on those platforms.

I worked for the government program office. I was the flight control system lead for the F-22, and the IPT Lead for the Integrated Flight and Propulsion Control System and Flying Qualities lead for the JSF during the two company competition in the late 1990’s, up to the selection of LM.

 

[Half Fast]

I worked for the government program office. I was the flight control system lead for the F-22, and the IPT Lead for the Integrated Flight and Propulsion Control System and Flying Qualities lead for the JSF during the two company competition in the late 1990’s, up to the selection of LM.

Cool!

During the F22 competition, my division was part of Martin Marietta, and we developed an IRST for the F23 which of course lost to the F22. We then got a separate AF contract to adapt our system to the F22, but during budget battles the IRST was dropped to maintain funding for the airframe.

So today the company is Lockheed Martin and the F22 still has no passive search & track system. Seems dumb for an LO airplane, but c’est la DOD.....

We do make the threat warning system for the 22,though, and the EO targeting system for the 35. I’ve had a little involvement with both. The F35’s EO system is derived from the Sniper targeting pod and I’m one of the original patent holders for it.

 

[flyingcheesehead]

I graduated in 1975 with a BSEE degree.

And, in EMC I have never been unemployed or laid off. The last full time gig lasted just over 20 years with Intel.

There's a reason for that. I have a BSEE too, and I think EMC is &*()ing hard.

 

[Half Fast]

There's a reason for that. I have a BSEE too, and I think EMC is &*()ing hard.

Like I tell my guys, if EE design were easy they wouldn't call it hardware. They'd call it software.

 

[Sac Arrow]

BSME and MSCE.

 

[Ghery]

Interesting. You might know an EMC buddy of mine, Briand Lessard. Briand has also served on E3 standards committees.

I left the aerospace world back in 1983. The name doesn't ring a bell.

There's a reason for that. I have a BSEE too, and I think EMC is &*()ing hard.

I use this as an example when teaching a seminar every year at WSU. Can you predict what you will be doing in 5 years? If someone had told me when I was taking EE 331 (Fields and Waves) that I would have been using this for the vast majority of my career, I would have told them they were nuts. Yet, a year after I graduated I wound up in a corner of the EMC world and EMC has been my professional life ever since. It may be hard, but it is interesting and it certainly has paid the bills (and retirement) for 42 years and counting.

 

[Checkout_my_Six]

So....your world has been in a state of flux?

 

[slacktide]

If you took away everything in the world that had to be invented, there'd be nothing left except a lot of people getting rained on.

Tom Stoppard - "Enter A Free Man"

Graduated as an Aerospace Engineer, but the industry was in the dumper when I was job hunting. Took a couple different contract jobs... Did a UL certification program for a manufacturer of industrial gate actuators, built a -60F climate control chamber for a company developing a waste fry-oil management system, spent some time designing heat exchangers and fuel tanks for a liquid natural gas semi-truck fuel system. There is always someone who needs engineering done for some purpose.

Finally got into aircraft engineering in 1999. I have parts and systems flying on the 737, 747, 777, 787, P-8, KC-46, and will soon add VC-25B to that.

 

[slacktide]

Downturn in space biz a couple of years before my retirement almost led to me being transferred to the 767 tanker effort.

You dodged a bullet right there. I was loaned in for what was supposed a two month detail design effort on one specific part. Somehow I ended up owning the detail (re)design, flight testing, and certification deliverables for the whole affected subsystem... I was stuck there for 2 years.

 

[wanttaja]

Downturn in space biz a couple of years before my retirement almost led to me being transferred to the 767 tanker effort.

You dodged a bullet right there. I was loaned in for what was supposed a two month detail design effort on one specific part. Somehow I ended up owning the detail (re)design, flight testing, and certification deliverables for the whole affected subsystem... I was stuck there for 2 years.

Yeah, the bad vibes about Tanker made it all the way down to Kent. Wasn't eager to go there; my commute would have tripled and they were supposedly working an insane amount of overtime.

Rumor was that Boeing had bid the program based on the engineering workforce consisting of level 1 engineers (e.g., lower-paid, right out of college) with nearly no senior engineers for technical leadership. Managers were supposed to take that role as well as their traditional management tasks. While many Boeing managers are fine, capable engineers, a good number are ambitious and concentrated on moving up the ladder instead of learning the subtleties of their craft. Basically doubling their workload, with many not really qualified to handle the tech lead assignments.

Ended up staying, becoming the lead engineer for a new small satellite system. Contract award to delivery in 13 months!

Ron Wanttaja