High-Performance Buildings & Automation

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In order to make effective recommendations for your customers related to selecting systems, components, and processes, a project should be grounded in three principles.

We are starting a new year, and I believe the HVAC consulting engineers responsible for design engineering need to make a change in 2019 as to how HVAC systems are engineered to be safe.

This spring, the staff at Engineered Systems began kicking around the idea of honoring the women of engineering.

When did you fall in love with engineering? I decided to become an engineer during my second year of college. At that time I did not know what an engineer truly was but soon realized the match with my natural skills of science and math, and, frankly, I was also attracted to the published earning potential. I remembered taking an aptitude test in the fourth grade and being told that engineering was an ideal career for me.

When did you fall in love with engineering? I remember taking my first HVAC class in college and learned about building loads and thermal comfort, thinking, yes, this is it. I want to do this. I was intrigued by how a building used energy to heat and cool the space, and how the systems you put into that building affected the energy performance.

When did you fall in love with engineering? When a high school teacher first suggested engineering to my parents, I wasn't entirely sure what it was, but I figured that if it involved math and science, I was in. Over the years I've found that though math and science are at the core of engineering, the skills and aptitudes needed for success are much broader. Written and spoken communication skills, empathy, teamwork, creativity, and sales abilities are all extremely valuable for success.

When did you fall in love with engineering? In ninth grade, while attending an all-girls boarding school, I would sneak out of my dormitory at night to rebuild the engine of an old Studebaker car in a nearby barn.

When did you fall in love with engineering? Growing up, I was interested in math and science as well as creative arts. I have exceled in both areas through school and figured that architecture is the career path that combines my two areas of interests. Later, I realized I would prefer more mathematical and analytical tasks presented in my career path, and right there I found architectural engineering.

When did you fall in love with engineering? I fell in love with engineering through an internship at a pulp mill after my junior year in college. I climbed inside a 10-story boiler during shut-down, watched contractors weld and install stainless steel piping in a caustic heating system I designed, and solved a pumping problem that had been shutting down the plant repeatedly. It was cool stuff that mattered.

When did you fall in love with engineering? When my dad would help me with my elementary school math homework, he said it was important to learn math, so I would be ready to take thermodynamics when I was in college. For many years, I believed him and worked hard in my math classes all the way through high school knowing that someday I would need to be ready for my college thermodynamics class. It wasn't until I was thinking about what I would study in college that I learned only engineers take thermodynamics.