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Josh’s Quotes #19

[88-100] I think I had difficulty with Solid Edge because it was probably the biggest project I think I’ve worked on in my time. I was given a drawing that was made in 2000 of what’s called a discharge ring. It’s a roughly 140-inch diameter ring that goes out at the bottom of the turbine as the water is discharged, hence the name. I had to model the whole thing. Without getting too intricate, the way it was modeled has to follow a guideline by the company. Of course, this is in an effort to make it more standardized and make it easier for people to look back on what was done moving forward. Because I had to do it a certain way, it took a little longer. Then, when there were issues, I would have to lean on my co-workers to help me.

The company actually assigned me a mentor. I meet with him weekly to discuss anything I’m working on, any questions I have. He usually tells me a few things just in general about powerhouses. He’s like, “I remembered this thing that happened, and I wanted to share it with you.” I can go to him anytime.Then, we also have certain people in the office who are, it’s called key users. One of my co-workers was the key user for Solid Edge. He was the person who taught me how to use it, led me to the tutorials that I had to complete. Then when I had questions, he was most of the time, the person I went to.

[134-157] I should clarify, the discharge ring […] When I say design project, I mean in the sense that I have creative input into how it is designed. With the discharge ring, I was given a drawing and they said, “It’s got to be the same, so make it.” Then I had to use the existing drawing to make a drawing with the right dimensions. But with the design project, one of the types of turbines has blades that can rotate. Inside the hub of the blades there are links that move with the motor to cause the rotation. In assemblies, these links themselves can weigh about 200 pounds. The problem becomes, what you have to do is you have the shaft that the blade is on and then you have a shaft that you have to connect the links with. Basically, you put the pin through the links and then you have to set the links somewhere so that you can put the next pin through. Because they’re obviously pretty heavy, you can’t just hold them with your hand. We don’t want to let them just rest on the parts because they could cause damage and it’s a very tight tolerance. What we need is something that can hold the links up. What was already in process was the design for what they call the link holder. Where it takes two holes that bolt in on the outside of the hub. Then, it’s basically shaped like an L and you have a stud of sorts coming out of it to […] It’s just a screw, a soft screw so that it doesn’t maybe dent the metal on the link, and then the link just sits on it. I mean, I can talk about it more. There’s a lot more to it. But basically, I was given the design that we had, I was given a list of concerns and what to do about them. I was given also some specific things like, “We need this to be changed to this.” Then I came up with some ideas on how to change it.

After talking to my co-worker who gave me the project and then going to his supervisor who the project is for, they both liked the idea and they said I could roll with it. Along the way, they helped me with the actual modeling and figuring out how I could make what I wanted to make, and giving me tips. If I have my design, they said, “Well, we really liked this design. Here’s something that we’d like you to roll with, with your design and tell us how it turns out.”

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Josh’s Quotes #20

[162-182] Unfortunately, we were getting towards the final stages of modeling right when I had to go home because of COVID-19. Basically, what we had done is, I want to say, counting from the first design I was given, I think there were probably one, two, three, maybe four more designs before we landed on the final design. Some of them were my designs, some of them were my co-workers design. But a lot of it was, we sat down together, and we said, “Would this be a good idea? Yes or no, maybe. Let’s try it.”

I made what’s called an involute profile, which is usually the profile of a gear tooth. To do that, it takes some complicated geometry and it’s not something that I could do by hand, it’s not something you can calculate. It took us a while to figure out how to do this because we were basically designing a gear from scratch. A lot of complex curves and faces and we weren’t really sure where to go. It took about two or three weeks to get that figured out. I should add, this wasn’t a priority project, so it didn’t get a lot of time. I had a lot of projects they were giving me and said, “We need this this week.” This is what’s called modularization, so it’s desired to make our lives easier. But after the design, like I said, we were coming close to finishing the modeling. We had figured out, “All right, this model is good. Everything should work the way we wanted it to. Let’s double check a few things and then we can start putting it on a drawing.”

Then once we have a drawing, we send it out to a company that’s going manufacture it for us and send it right to us. Like I said, unfortunately we didn’t get to actually finish it. But the co-worker that I was working with it on, I’m close to and he did tell me, we had a conversation before I left and I told him, I said, “If you guys figure out what you need here and you’re going to finish it, just do it. Don’t wait for me because I don’t know when I’ll be back.” But they did express their thanks with the project. It felt like my input was appreciated and my time.

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Josh’s Quotes #21

[468-495] For the most part, I had positive experiences with the people at work. However, I also worked with an individual who wasn’t as helpful as others. For the discharge ring, I worked with, not a lead engineer, but I think he’s an engineer too. But he’s a lot older than me. He’s probably in his late 50s. He might even be 60. I’m not sure. But that’s very different than talking to my mentor who’s five years older than me. There are times when I was doing that, like when I was modeling this discharge ring, I kept running into problems because I didn’t know the software. I wasn’t sure if I was doing this math right or something, and I would go to him. Sometimes I’d go to him and most of the time he’d be like, “Just do this and that.” It was very easy said and done. But sometimes I would say something and he’s like, “It’s pretty simple. You just got to figure it out.” It was times like that where I got frustrated because I’m like, “Well, I’m kind of asking for help. I don’t think I’d ask if I didn’t need it. It’s obviously not that simple.” But that’s one thing. Like I said, that wasn’t all the time. It was just sometimes.

But then I did have interactions with my mentor. There were a lot of other people that were around that age that were hired around the same time. When talking to them, it’s a lot more nonchalant. They sit down and they want to have a conversation with me as well as do the work or tell me what I need to do. We have Skype for Business in the office. I can send them a message or I can walk to their desk or I can send them an email. But I mean, sometimes we have a conversation on Skype. I might text them and be like, “How do I do this?” They’ll tell me and then they’ll say something and maybe I’ll make a joke and we’ll have a back and forth while we’re working. I don’t know. But it varied a lot. I had both ends of the spectrum. I had, “You’re a kid. I’m an adult. Let’s be sure that you’re the intern here.” Not in a sense I felt like, “Man, I got to get out of here.” Just I was like, “All right, you just got to stick up your butt and I’m just going to do my job anyway.” But I had that end and I had the end of the spectrum where the people were willing to be patient and learn with me.

There were some things where we had a problem and I was able to figure it out. Or I found something in Solid Edge for example. There was a shortcut button. I don’t remember what it did, but I found it and I started using it. The keys user for Solid Edge was like, “I didn’t even know you could do that.” He’s like, “That’s really interesting.” He’s like, “I’m going to remember that.” A lot of spectrums, I guess, crossed in the interactions with my co-workers.

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Josh’s Quotes #22

[500-526] When I experienced difficulties with the lead engineer, at first, I would kind of just go back to my desk, look at it again, and then I’d have to go to a different co-worker. Because if I can’t figure it out and I got to get it done, and I have to do something. I would tell him, I’d be like, “Yeah, I asked him this and this is what he said.” They would give me … If they could, they’d say, “Well, let’s try this and see if that works.” Or they would go and ask him themselves after they tried it and they couldn’t fix it. That happened.

But we had another project, I was working with the same guy and it was the same powerhouse. It’s a part that’s attached to the discharge ring, but a different model, a different drawing. I was looking at the drawing he gave me and I made a model and then I made a drawing, and the dimensions didn’t match up. Yet when I checked it, everything should have been correct. Then I found that there were […] I kept trying to change the models. I changed a lot of things and then I sat down and I did the math again. I realized that there were dimensions on the drawing that either the way they were rounded or the way they were put on the drawing, they conflicted. They weren’t possible dimensions to make what was on the drawing. In that case, when I started having issues, I didn’t want to go to him right away because I knew I was probably going to get a, “Figure it out.”

I went to my co-worker and he looked at it and I told him, I was like, “I’m not going to go to him first. I want to make sure this is wrong before I say something.” He took a look at it himself. I did those calculations. I took a lot of pictures exactly where the problems were. I just went up to him and I started to tell him, I was like, “Look, I’m …” I kind of mentioned it before and I had gotten the like, “Use this dimension.” He told me, “Use this dimension and it’ll work out.” Now that it didn’t, I told him, I was like, “I’m still having trouble with this.” He’s like, “Well, you just got to look at the drawing and make sure the …” I don’t know exactly what he said. But basically, the thing that I didn’t want to hear. I kind of said, I was like, “I tried that, but actually I found this.” Then I told him and showed him what I found. Then he was like, “Let me take a look at it.” In 30 minutes, he was like, “Just do this instead.” Thinking back, it’s just a waste of time. I don’t think I […] I shouldn’t probably have to have those interactions. I shouldn’t have to make a case just to ask a question. But most of my co-workers I could just go to and they would fix it right away or help me right away. But with him I had to really make my case and double check that I wasn’t incorrect when I went to go ask him my questions.

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Joy’s Quotes #12

[159-164] The first thing that was kind of unique about this experience was that I was the only female in their company. So, at first, they didn’t really know what to do with me, so to speak. For example, I would walk into the room, and they would be talking, and the assembly technicians would be talking, and they would cuss or something, and then, they’re just like, “No, no, no. You can’t do that. Joy’s here.”

[166-170] But, as the summer went on, it was a lot of fun to get to know them. And, because they were between 35 and, I would say, 55, it was a lot of fun to work with them and hear about, I don’t know, their life experience in the different companies that they’d worked at over the years, and just kind of getting the insight into what’s it like to work in a company.

[171-178] Then, another part of that was they were kind of intimidated by the fact that I was in college. And I didn’t understand that, because I looked at them as, “Wow, they’re just full of wisdom, and I have so much to learn from them.” At the beginning of the internship, in addition to when I would walk in, they would just kind of stop talking and be on edge. If I was working in the same room around them and not with them, they would first just say things like, “I wish I was good at math,” or “Guys are supposed to be better at math than women.” And I was like, “What? Why are you trying to purposely talk loud so that I would hear them say these things?”

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Joy’s Quotes #13

[179-189] So, it was a little bit weird at first. But, yeah. I don’t know. I would say, after the first of two weeks, I started working with them as opposed to around them. And so, talking with them while mounting things and asking them for help on, I don’t know, operating machinery that I hadn’t seen before. It was a great teaching experience for them and learning experience for me. They liked the way that I was organized. So, any time something went missing in the shop, they never pointed a finger at me, because I had a reputation of, any time I would get a tool out, I would organize the entire drawer when I put it back. Cause, I mean, all the tools would be everywhere. They joked that they could figure out where I had been, almost like they were detectives, because anywhere there was clean paths, it was because I was there.

[190-195] So, the assembly technicians, it was, honestly, it was just really enjoyable, as opposed to them mentoring me in an engineering sort of way, because I don’t think any of them went to college. It was like they had a high school degree and they’d worked in factories their entire life. And so, that was the kind of experience they were teaching me and telling me about, or their family dynamic, and just that kind of stuff.

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Joy’s Quotes #15

[196-201] When I wasn’t in the shop, I was working with the engineers and the other interns. There were three other interns. Also, the owner of the company also worked in the offices. So, that was really cool. And the founder; he’s the owner and founder. So, that was where I learned a lot about what’s this going to be like to be an engineer later on.

[207-216] So, my supervisor would give me a task. For example, he said, “Make the forklift operating station,” and then, sent me the documents, and then, said, “Email this other person,” who was a project manager, but he has an engineering background,” to get the schematics for the dimensions of human arms, including the radii in which the elbow and wrist rotate.” So, my very first mistake was that I did not clarify. I don’t know if this was a mistake on my part or their part. But I did not clarify what radius they wanted me to make this off of, either the elbow or the wrist. And I assumed it was the elbow. I designed the whole thing in CAD, and even made a prototype, and I give it to them, and he goes, “This is not comfortable.”

[217-224] I was like, “Oh, my goodness. I am in so much trouble.” And I was kind of concerned, cause I’ve never been given a responsibility in any of my internships so far, in which me making a mistake actually impacts people. And so, it was really weird to be the only person on this project. And, basically, until I get it done, I don’t have to report to anyone. But, no, that was very interesting. They weren’t upset with me. They didn’t blame me for that. They were just like, “Yeah, this is a learning experience, and this is why you make prototypes. Also, you’re an intern. You are supposed to be learning.”

[225-236] Then, they went through the process of explaining to me why you’d want the elbow radius versus the wrist radius. Oh, actually, sorry. Reverse that. I made it off of the wrist radius first, and it was supposed to be the elbow. Which means, it was a much tighter radius. It was more arched, as opposed to flat. And so, he explained to me, “On an airplane, you need to have very precise adjustment abilities. And, therefore, you should just be moving your fingers and your wrist. Whereas, if you’re going to be sitting and operating a heavy piece of machinery, like a tractor or a forklift or something like that, for hours on end, you do not want to have to hold your wrist at the perfect angle. It’s more comfortable to just kind of rest your elbow on the chair and hold the trigger down for multiple hours in a row than just running it back and forth.” So, it was really interesting to hear the science behind why you’re making a simple decision like that.

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Joy’s Quotes #16

[237-242] The engineers were very kind, and I learned a lot from them. And I’m more confident in my ability to go through the engineering process of, “We have a need. How do we solve that need,” and how to get from Step A to B to C and finally putting it on the machine. Because it was a small company, I was able to actually see the very start all the way to actually shipping it out on the unit that the customer was going to use.

[137-152] Then, at the end of the internship, I worked on modifying one of their vehicles that they had to accommodate a fifth wheel. So, I researched what kind of fifth wheel we would want. And a fifth wheel is something that’s on the back of a trailer, or, sorry, on the back of a semi that the trailer hooks into. So, it has the kingpin from the trailer that goes in, and it latches into the fifth wheel. And that’s what allows a trailer to rotate on the back of a semi. I worked on that, changing one of their pre-made units that they keep in-house, and they don’t sell, to be able to have a fifth wheel that they can then haul their semi-trailer with. Because, they need to use that trailer in order to haul some of the units that they are shipping to the companies. Cause, right now, we ask our trucking company to come and take our vehicles. Cause, you can’t ship these things on a plane. They are way too heavy. So, we hire a company to pick up the unit and drive it to the west coast. But we would like to use our own trailer from now on. Then, when we’re moving stuff around our plant, it’s nice to have our own way to move our unit from one end to the other without having to drive it from down the property

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Joy’s Quotes #18

[261-269] So, it is kind discouraging to feel like I’m not good at this, and how am I going to make it through engineering? How am I going to make it once I get into the real world if, even when I get A’s and things, I still feel like I have no idea what I’m doing? So, it is really encouraging to talk to engineers and say, basically that, “Yes, your classes set you up with a foundation, but that’s not necessarily what you’re going to be doing. You’re not going to be applying the second law of thermodynamics, necessarily, on every single day of your life. You don’t have to have that memorized and understood perfectly and be able to implement every equation you ever learned in that class. Because, girl, you know you’re not even going into something that requires you to use that class.

[270-273] Or, I mean, differential equations. You’re not going to be using differential equations every day. It’s just like a foundation. And, because we live in a world with technology, and you can Google things, and you have mentor, senior engineers around you, you don’t have to have all this stuff memorized. It’s all about learning.”

[274-289] I think the process of having this internship and just the number of times that I went through designing and implementing small projects just made me realize that’s where I was. I would go to the senior engineers and be like, “I’m not sure how to solve this.” And they were like, “Yeah. Me neither. That’s why we asked you to do it.” We don’t all have the answers. The whole point of engineering is not that you go to a textbook and suddenly have the answers. That you figure it out. It’s made me realize I enjoy figuring things out. Whereas, academically, it’s not really about figuring it out. It’s about, you better know this on the exam and be able to regurgitate everything, and perfectly. Whereas, in industry, you’re able to make mistakes. Hopefully not big ones. But, make mistakes and you learn from those mistakes. So, it just gave me confidence in the ability to be an engineer. I think the people that I intern with said that they would love to have me back next summer, or even hire me while in term. And so, I was like, “Wow.” It was a success, and I was like, “Okay.” Engineering is not necessarily what college makes it out to be. And so, it’s just a nice reset button on my thinking of what engineering is.

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Joy’s Quotes #22

[580-581; 495-504] Overall, this year has been really great in my journey to becoming an engineer. I guess, just not being bothered by grades, and putting more of my identity in, I don’t know, just being confident in myself, and not putting my identity in my grades. That was the big thing. I’m like, “I am done putting my identity in my grades and I’m focusing more on myself and the relationships I have with people in my life who’ve influenced me to be better.”

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