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Yeah, I'm kind of all over the place.
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I always am like, is mechanical engineering best for me?
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'Cause then I get into electronics and I'm like, this is kind of fun, but then it's also the manufacturing side kind of all over the place.
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But I think the best for me would be mechanical because it's such a broad basis and I can go different places with a mechanical engineering degree
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Hello, and welcome to the Being an Eng- Engineer podcast.
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Another exciting episode for you today.
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We've got Jacob Evink, who is a mechanical engineering student at Western Michigan University, going into his sophomore year.
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Jacob has a background including mechanical design, CAD prototyping, injection molding, electronics, and robotics, along with engineering internship experience supporting product development and design validation.
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Jacob also shares what he's learning with a growing online engineering community, documenting both the successes and failures that are shaping his path into engineering.
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Jacob, welcome to the show.
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Thanks for having me, Aaron
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All right, so usually we have engineers who have been out there in the field for many years on this show.
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And, and today we've got Jacob, who I'm excited about, our special guest here, and he is, uh, going into his sophomore year of engineering, so younger in his career than, than most of the guests we have.
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And I thought it would be fun to have the perspective of a, uh, a student in the engineering program who hasn't quite entered the work field yet, just to hear about what you're doing and what you're learning and how you're preparing.
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And I was particularly impressed with Jacob because he's doing a lot of, let's say, extracurricular activities outside of the, the demanding coursework.
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We all know how demanding the engineering coursework is out there.
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So to be doing these extracurricular kind of, uh, passion projects, personal projects on the outside, I thought was really impressive.
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And, and he's doing some cool stuff.
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So, uh, without further ado, Jacob, what made you decide to become an engineer?
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So for me as a kid, I was big into Legos.
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I know a lot of engineers start out with liking Legos, but it was more than Legos to me.
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big into like making sure everything's perfect, everything's the right color, even.
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There's a lot of little details to me that if something wasn't right, would throw me off and mess everything up.
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So I think that's kind of what sparked me wanting to become an engineer.
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And then throughout high school, I did a lot of CAD and, uh, manufacturing classes with like mills and lathes.
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So that kind of sparked even more to really tell me that that's what I wanna do.
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That's awesome that you had mills and lathes in high school.
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We had nothing like that.
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Were, uh, uh, were… Did you go to a high school that had some kind of emphasis on engineering or manufacturing, or you're just lucky to be in a place that, that naturally had those things?
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We just, it was just normal public school.
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It was a pretty big school, but we had a big shop, so there was probably seven, five to seven different mills.
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There was like probably eight lathes,
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Wow
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saws, horizontal band saws.
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We had a lot of different tools, so got to learn kind of hands-on with that through high school
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That's amazing.
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Do you remember anything in particular that you made in those classes that you really liked?
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Yeah, so I kind of started to outsmart my teacher towards the end of my high school career, 'cause was b- focused on teaching the class, and I kind of realized that's what I like, I kept going farther and farther.
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So I think it was my junior year, kind of just made a simple steam engine like a piston and, we could never hook it up to steam 'cause we couldn't have a fire in the shop, but we just hooked an air compressor to it and it worked perfect
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Nice.
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Super cool.
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And how did you even come up with the, the plans for this?
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Did you find drawings online or someti- something like that?
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So I kinda got the idea in my head that I wanted to make a small motor of some sort, and I knew that, like, making an actual motor was gonna be too complicated.
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So then I was like, steam engines.
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I looked at different designs and I'm like, "That's doable." So I drew it all out.
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I think I started with paper, brought it to Inventor, then machining parts
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Wow, so you designed it yourself.
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This wasn't a de- design that you just found online somewhere
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I kind of used like reference images I found, but overall the design was me
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Load full transcript
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Super impressive, man.
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Very cool.
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All right.
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Well, maybe it's that one, maybe it's another project, but what's, what's a project that you've done that, uh, like a hands-on project where you, uh, you learned significantly more than, than you, than you expected, and what are some of the things that you picked up?
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So my recent project I've been working on is, like, a four-axis robotic arm, I'm been mainly with 3D printing and making parts with not a lot of um, components involved.
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And with my robot arm, I learned a lot of r-electronics, and I didn't this with, like, a teacher or anything.
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It was all trial and error.
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in the process of that, I have different stepper motors in it, so that involves stepper drivers, which involves a lot of wiring a lot of different voltages going to different things.
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one problem I faced was accident-- or I don't know exactly how it happened, but I short-circuited a little converter, and it blew up, and it started smoking everywhere in my room.
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The magic smoke.
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yeah, very good smell too
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Nice.
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Uh, did you figure out what you did wrong so next time hopefully that doesn't happen?
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N-- I never, never found the first, uh, error what happened, and then got a new converter for it.
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I put that one in and I accidentally, uh, reverse wired that one, so I knew the exact cause of that one.
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That was just me going too quick.
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But the first one I could ever figure out
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how funny.
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All right.
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Well, third time's the charm, I guess, huh?
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Yeah
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Um, tell us more about your robotics project.
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Uh, where did this come from?
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What, what was the inspiration?
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Yeah.
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So I think it was kind of going into my freshman year of college.
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I always got, uh, seen on social media different robot arms and stuff like that.
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So I kind of designed like a quick hour pr- uh, model of just ser- different servos, like little servo robotic arms.
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And I printed out, took a couple different prints figuring out what fits where and whatnot, and I kind of stopped that to an extent and then went through college.
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And then this summer I was like, all right, I need a good project to work on kinda gonna teach me a lot of
stuff.
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So I came up with making this four-axis robotic arm because I didn't wanna quite go to six with my electronical knowledge at the time, I was like,"Let's do it." So I've worked on it for probably two or three months
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And you're doing mechanical engineering, right?
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Yes
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Um, where did the idea come from to do a personal project at all?
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I, I love the fact that you're doing this because that is really where all the learning comes from, right?
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You, you go to school, you take the classes.
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It's all important foundational knowledge, but you don't really get the, the, the practical experience until you start building something and, and failing and learning from that.
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So what… Did you have a teacher or a mentor who suggested that you start doing these personal projects, or was this just something that you always wanted to do?
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I follow a lot of different engineers online in different companies, and a lot of, lot of what I was seeing was your grades matter, but when it-- at the end of the day, when you start doing these personal projects that give you the trial and error mistakes, but you learn a lot, that's what helps.
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Um, I'm always pushing for, like, a goal, and I'm always myself towards that goal.
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So I always like… I set a robotic arm project as a goal, and I worked on it and worked on it and worked on it, and finally, I have a robotic arm sitting on my desk next to me
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Good for you.
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What, what did it feel like when, uh, all the different joints started moving and you could control it?
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It took a minute for sure.
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had a lot of different wiring errors, but as soon as I got that first base, uh, stepper motor working and being able to move under my control, it was like I was so happy.
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I was showing my parents, I was showing all my friends.
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I was like, "Look at this."
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That's awesome.
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Yeah, look what I did.
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Um, how did you do the programming?
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What, what are some of the components that you used, and, uh, how did you figure out the programming?
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Because your background is mechanical, not electrical.
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Yeah.
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So um, I have three or four different stepper motors along with drivers, as I said earlier.
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I have a buck converter 'cause I have a 12-volt DC jack going into it.
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So the s- the drivers need the
12 volts.
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Everything else, I'm using a ESP32 microcontroller to control the, um, everything else.
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So that obviously can't have 12 volts, so that's why the converter comes into play.
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have a, a ground rail, a 5-volt rar- 5-volt rail, and a 12-volt rail to power each of those components.
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And inside of the base, it's a-- somewhat like a mess, but when I look at it, I understand exactly where everything's going and what needs to be attached to where
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You're doing something I think is very smart.
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You're, you're documenting a lot of these projects.
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You're getting some video and pictures, and you're putting them into an online portfolio.
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When you start applying for jobs, that's gonna be so valuable.
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I can tell you, as an employer, I hate looking at resumes.
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I almost refuse to do it at this point.
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But when someone comes to me with a portfolio and can show me pictures and video of things that they've built, even just CAD screenshots, it's so much more powerful and compelling than someone who just shows up with a paper resume.
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So keep that up, and what, what is the platform you're using?
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I know Instagram, is that the, the main one?
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Yeah, mainly Instagram, and then I post occasionally on LinkedIn trying to do like project updates, I'm get-getting better at making sure I'm posting more on that.
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But mainly Instagram I do of the projects I'm working on, the trial and errors,
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Ja
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just overall like stuff like that
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Yeah.
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Keep, keep using Instagram.
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That's where the professional network is, the people who ultimately are probably going to help facilitate, uh, jobs or different connection, connections within the industry.
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Um, uh, what was I going to say?
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Oh, I just, I lost the thought.
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I had something, but it's gone now.
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Anyway, um, how long have you been working in CAD?
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I think you started in high school.
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Is that right?
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Yeah.
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So year in high school, I took STEM.
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So that started out with getting a big old drawing board out and drawing out prints.
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Then halfway through the year, I started using AutoCAD, and I picked that up really quick.
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And then by the time
I was a sophomore, I took a class called CAM/CNC.
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So we did, uh, AutoCAD and Inventor, so I learned 2D and 3D.
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And then we actually started making the parts with simple parts with mills and lathes.
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then in my junior year, I took advanced CAM/CNC, which was kinda like the step up from CAM with using a automatic CNC machine.
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We had three of those in our shop, which was pretty neat.
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And like I learned a little bit of writing G-code out for those, along with just uploading a program and making it cut out a part
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It seems like you're almost as interested in manufacturing as you are in engineering
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Could you say that again, please?
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I said, "It seems like you're almost as interested in manufacturing as you are in engineering."
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Yeah, I'm kind of all over the place.
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I always am like, is mechanical engineering best for me?
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'Cause then I get into electronics and I'm like, this is kind of fun, but then it's also the manufacturing side kind of all over the place.
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But I think the best for me would be mechanical because it's such a broad basis and I can go different places with a mechanical engineering degree
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Yeah, I, I'd say that's 100% accurate.
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Get that foundation in mechanical, and then like you said, you can branch off into so many different things with that, that foundation.
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Hmm.
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Uh, what have you learned about the difference between what it looks like in CAD versus how it actually looks in, in real life when it's, when it's manufactured?
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So, I mean, I'm currently working at an injection molding factory, so I look at prints and then there's so many different factors that tu- tune into different tolerances and so many things that could mess a part up, and that's just with injection molding.
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I know with like CNC machines, there's a ton of different factors as well uh, the s- simplest, slightest little tolerance issue could be part that you can't even use anymore
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Yeah.
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What are, what are you doing with the, at the injection molding company?
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Are you actually running the machines?
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Yeah, so a lot of-- Some of the machines are automatic machines, so you just have to make sure the parts come out all right, check a couple different key dimensions.
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Some of them are semi-automatic, so we actually gotta take the part out, look at it, trim up some of the trailers where the mold goes in or the
plastic goes in.
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And it's a lot of measuring and making sure parts are coming out to the right, uh, dimensions, 'cause little dimension could throw off parts from the last hour
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Yeah.
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What are some of the, the process parameters that you found make a pretty big impact on the final geometry of the part?
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So like we have hourly checks, so each machine that's running in the whole factory to be checked every hour of a shot of the, uh, parts.
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So that helps narrow down like, all right, are the parts coming out good for the last hour, this and that.
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And then every three hours on some of the machines that are producing a lot of different parts, we do like a box check.
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So a box of the parts, and we go through each of one of them one by one, making sure they're all lining up, making sure everything's good, there's no errors at all
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Nice.
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How about documentation?
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This is something that especially younger engineers maybe don't have a lot of visibility on, right, until they get into the field.
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I know when I was going to school, the only engineering documentation in the form of, of, uh, 2D manufacturing drawings I ever did was because of a capstone project that we worked on, and we just happened to get lucky on this capstone project that required us to, to create drawings.
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But outside of that, there wasn't, like, a class on it or anything.
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But working in a manufacturing facility, this injection molding place, I imagine you're exposed to drawings quite a bit, and the tolerances, and various documentation
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Yeah.
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So each, each part that's running at the time, there's obviously a drawing.
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There's key dimensions that are highlighted, like this needs to be between this tolerances.
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Other ones are important, but they have a wider tolerance.
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And for documenting, we have check sheets, a lot of them.
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So going through writing out, all right, this section is this dimension, this section is this dimension.
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So you kind of see, all right, from this past hour, this part's coming this big, but this hour it's significantly bigger, so you gotta out what's going on with that
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And what are some of the, uh, parameters that you change if you see parts start to drift out of tolerance?
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How do you… What's the, the high-level troubleshooting process that you go through more than specific p- parameters that you're looking at?
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So with the molds, you gotta look at how fast the plastic's going in, how hot it is, how long it's cooling.
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Like it's simple things like that that will completely throw off a part.
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Or if it comes out too hot and then gets instantly stacked with another part, it'll mold or bend or flex to that part, and part's unusable after that
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Yeah.
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Um, what's the… So you just finished your freshman year.
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Um, did you take many engineering classes that first year, or was it mostly like, you know, general, uh, general courses?
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It was mostly general courses only because I did, uh, dual enrollment in high school with another, uh, CAD class.
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I took pretty much just another CAD class like I did in high school, but more advanced a community college near me.
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Okay
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So I would've had to take that at college, but since I had the credit already, I didn't.
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did have technical writing so far, so that kinda helped me.
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And it was kinda funny, one of my final essays I wrote in that class was about injection molding and the to how important it is with tolerances and everything, and then I got the job at a injection molding place.
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Oh, wow.
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The universe was listening, huh?
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Yeah
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Um, okay.
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So you're going into your sophomore year.
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What, uh, what CAD programs have you worked with?
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You mentioned, I think, Fusion 360.
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There was AutoCAD.
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Were there any others?
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So in high school, I was taught AutoCAD and Inventor,
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Veteran, that's right
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I kind of taught myself Fusion just with my Inventor knowledge.
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And then I'm kind of in the process right now teaching myself SolidWorks, so I have a basic knowledge of it, but I don't really have a teacher.
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Like obviously at school there's teachers for everything, but I'm kind of just doing it on my own, it, figuring it out
00:19:12.498 --> 00:19:13.428
Well, that's a big one.
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I definitely encourage you to keep learning SOLIDWORKS, because that is still, I'd say, the industry standard right now, the most, the most common CAD platform that's used, although Onshape is definitely up and coming.
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Um, and then there's, like, PTC Creo and, uh, NX is out there, and of course, like you mentioned, Inventor and Fusion 360.
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But
SOLIDWORKS is still king, so, so keep learning that.
00:19:39.448 --> 00:19:57.018
Um, speaking of the extracurricular learning that you're doing, what, what are some of the resources that you've tapped into to learn a little bit about, uh, electronics and, um, CAD and anything else that you've come across so far that you didn't learn in school?
00:19:58.603 --> 00:20:01.182
A lot of it is for me, it's just trial and error.
00:20:01.182 --> 00:20:03.482
But then I also am a big believer with AI.
00:20:03.563 --> 00:20:15.042
I know it's kind of like a topic if we like it or not, but I use it beneficially to help me figure it out and troubleshoot things, along with just looking at like YouTube tutorials.
00:20:15.042 --> 00:20:20.623
Like I come across an error, it's like, all right, how do I not-- how does this not happen?
00:20:20.623 --> 00:20:21.742
Or how do I fix this?
00:20:21.742 --> 00:20:23.113
Or how do I do this?
00:20:23.482 --> 00:20:24.932
Usually I can figure it out right away
00:20:25.064 --> 00:20:25.433
Yeah.
00:20:25.493 --> 00:20:26.263
Yeah, it's huge.
00:20:26.584 --> 00:20:33.013
Uh, I c- I've been obsessed with telling people lately about the, the new Sites feature in ChatGPT.
00:20:33.443 --> 00:20:37.384
I played around with it a couple weekends ago, and it was mind-blowing.
00:20:37.433 --> 00:20:38.334
I, I don't code.
00:20:38.374 --> 00:20:39.923
I'm not a programmer at all.
00:20:40.403 --> 00:20:43.644
Um, so I don't know how to, you know, build a website from scratch.
00:20:43.673 --> 00:20:56.423
And I used the Sites feature in ChatGPT and gave it, like, a paragraph and said, "Go build me this website that does A, B, and C." And it took, like, 45 minutes or so, which is a long time in, in, uh, AI hours, right?
00:20:56.423 --> 00:21:00.624
Usually ChatGPT or Claude, whatever, you get a, a response in a few seconds.
00:21:00.624 --> 00:21:02.183
This one took, like, 45 minutes.
00:21:02.624 --> 00:21:03.973
But it was incredible.
00:21:04.013 --> 00:21:10.443
It built this brand-new website from scratch that was not only functional, but it was beautifully designed.
00:21:10.453 --> 00:21:16.493
It looked like, uh, you know, I, I had some graphic artist who helped create all, all the graphics for this thing.
00:21:16.903 --> 00:21:23.844
Uh, and it had, like, a back-end functionality, admin privileges, different membership tiers, and all kinds of things.
00:21:23.844 --> 00:21:26.503
I was, I was floored with what this could do.
00:21:26.503 --> 00:21:28.604
So, uh, yeah, you're right.
00:21:28.604 --> 00:21:33.473
I think AI is still kind of, um, what's the word?
00:21:33.554 --> 00:21:42.945
Uh There are different camps for sure, but it is so productive.
00:21:42.986 --> 00:21:43.415
You know?
00:21:43.445 --> 00:21:44.405
You can be so effective.
00:21:44.405 --> 00:21:48.746
You can be like a… It's like a superpower having AI in your pocket
00:22:32.365 --> 00:22:34.044
Yeah, I'd, I'd have to agree with that.
00:22:34.094 --> 00:22:39.115
I-- I know some people think of AI as just, do I do this?
00:22:39.115 --> 00:22:40.714
Or like, write this for me.
00:22:40.724 --> 00:22:43.754
Like simple task that you could do that you're lazy.
00:22:43.754 --> 00:22:45.804
I mean, that's at the end of the day, it's what it does.
00:22:46.094 --> 00:22:54.064
But like when you kind of abuse the privilege, but in like that scenario or like how I use it, kind of just like your sidekick on the side.
00:22:54.064 --> 00:22:59.365
Like if you ever come across something, you quick shoot a quick text and you know what, you know what to do next
00:22:59.689 --> 00:22:59.990
Yeah.
00:23:00.039 --> 00:23:03.509
Yeah, it's like your own private executive assistant, right?
00:23:03.569 --> 00:23:10.379
It, it can take notes for you, it can do research for you, it can write code for you, it can give you advice.
00:23:10.379 --> 00:23:11.909
It's pretty amazing.
00:23:12.349 --> 00:23:16.159
Shouldn't make it a crutch for sure, but there's a lot that you can do with it.
00:23:17.219 --> 00:23:17.709
All right.
00:23:17.730 --> 00:23:24.359
Um, what, what led you to make the decision to share some of these projects publicly that you're working on
00:23:26.807 --> 00:23:39.956
I guess I always see people on social media, it's always perfect and how… Like, I look at these robot arms, for example, and everything is, like, perfect, and it doesn't look like it was even made by a person.
00:23:39.966 --> 00:23:41.536
It was, like, just perfect.
00:23:42.576 --> 00:23:52.216
I don't think some people realize that you can do that kind of stuff yourself, and you can, work through it, and eventually it'll turn out to be like that.
00:23:52.216 --> 00:23:56.926
But it's not just gonna happen after a day of working on something like that.
00:23:57.164 --> 00:23:57.264
Ja,
00:23:57.436 --> 00:24:02.966
So just seeing other people's perfections and how it's-- you're gonna start somewhere
00:24:03.657 --> 00:24:05.217
It's not like in the mo- movies, right?
00:24:05.217 --> 00:24:11.017
Where, uh, tell Jarvis to do something and two hours later you have a brand new Iron Man suit.
00:24:11.017 --> 00:24:26.548
It takes a lot of time, lots of failure before you get to the end How has sharing these projects online and explaining them, how has, how has that helped you understand engineering principles at a deeper level?
00:24:28.524 --> 00:24:41.764
Sometimes if I come across an issue, uh, kind of post like, "Hey, does anyone know this?" And I'll get some good feedback in the comments of like, "Do this, do this, do this, check this," stuff like that.
00:24:42.474 --> 00:24:56.625
it's also given me resource- to other people with other engineers or just hobbyists in my area that have kinda helped me and taught me different things, like random things I would've never thought of that now I know
00:24:56.745 --> 00:24:57.065
Yeah.
00:24:57.355 --> 00:24:57.675
Yeah.
00:24:58.076 --> 00:25:05.955
Well, you're still young in your, your journey even as a student, but what are some of the things that you hope you will learn in school?
00:25:05.995 --> 00:25:22.935
And do you have any ideas about, uh, maybe, uh, not shortcomings of education, but have you seen anything already that makes you think, "I wish they would do more of this or, or less of that in, uh, formal education for engineers"?
00:25:24.628 --> 00:25:30.578
I mean, ultimately, I wish there was just all in all more hands-on stuff.
00:25:31.009 --> 00:25:35.918
'Cause like I know some people are better with taking notes, like just paper and pencil all day.
00:25:36.398 --> 00:25:47.188
Like I know there's a lot of people, especially me, that you could tell me something and it'll go in one ear, but unless I'm actually doing it, it's just not as beneficial to me.
00:25:47.638 --> 00:25:57.248
So like working with little projects like a robot arm or it doesn't even have to be that intense, just using simple like that, I think that'd be very beneficial
00:25:57.513 --> 00:25:58.653
Yeah, I agree.
00:25:58.693 --> 00:26:07.833
Uh, I, I've used the phrase for a long time, "Doing is better than learning about doing." And it's exactly what you said, Ry.
00:26:07.833 --> 00:26:08.683
I'm the same way.
00:26:08.713 --> 00:26:11.293
It, it'll go in one ear, out the other, and I won't remember it.
00:26:11.293 --> 00:26:15.963
But if I do it, then it takes it to a whole new level of understanding.
00:26:15.963 --> 00:26:22.884
There's so many little nuances that you figure out when you actually do something that you just don't, you don't get when it's all theoretical
00:26:27.212 --> 00:26:27.962
You say that again?
00:26:28.163 --> 00:26:29.092
You cut out a little bit
00:26:30.299 --> 00:26:33.509
Oh, we might have a little trouble with our, our connection here.
00:26:33.939 --> 00:26:39.250
Um, what are… Do you have any other personal projects that you're looking forward to?
00:26:39.250 --> 00:26:42.659
Anything that you're planning on in the next, you know, six months or year?
00:26:44.076 --> 00:26:50.296
So I actually just, I'm always looking for something else to do, whether I finish the current project I'm working on or not.
00:26:50.656 --> 00:27:00.826
But right now I'm kind of doing research and starting some files of making a little five-stage manual transmission, like a little model of one
00:27:00.935 --> 00:27:01.375
Cool
00:27:01.496 --> 00:27:07.856
I'll be able to put on into like a little casing I'll make, and it'll read out the RPMs.
00:27:07.876 --> 00:27:10.626
You'll be able to see the gear shift and all that.
00:27:10.769 --> 00:27:11.339
Wow.
00:27:11.636 --> 00:27:12.896
that's my next project
00:27:13.099 --> 00:27:13.799
That's awesome.
00:27:14.219 --> 00:27:17.250
Um, if you could learn anything, what would you learn?
00:27:20.908 --> 00:27:22.158
Well, this is kind of a fun one.
00:27:22.158 --> 00:27:32.128
I wish I could like, completely learn all of like the coding, like knowing exactly what each code does and like just in general, all of it.
00:27:32.278 --> 00:27:42.218
'Cause I feel like many of my projects involve code, and a lot of the times it's just, "Hey, ChatGPT, I have this plugged into this, this plugged into this, and I want it to do this.
00:27:39.208 --> 00:27:42.218
Can you give me a code for that?"
00:27:44.209 --> 00:27:45.599
And it'll do it these days, right?
00:27:45.789 --> 00:27:46.619
Most of the time.
00:27:46.676 --> 00:27:47.076
Mm-hmm.
00:27:47.139 --> 00:27:47.519
Yeah.
00:27:47.919 --> 00:27:56.399
Yeah, it's, it's almost like you don't-- You… Not knowing how to program is not the limitation it used to be because of AI.
00:27:58.529 --> 00:28:04.639
Have you used, uh, ChatGPT and Claude Code for programming or just one or the other?
00:28:06.238 --> 00:28:08.598
I've stuck to only ChatGPT for now.
00:28:08.598 --> 00:28:18.388
I know there's a lot of different AIs, and then I've also heard more and more about Claude, I just haven't really gotten into those 'cause a ChatGPT by heart.
00:28:18.418 --> 00:28:19.588
I, I love it.
00:28:20.288 --> 00:28:20.778
So-
00:28:21.401 --> 00:28:23.101
Uh, yeah, me too.
00:28:23.141 --> 00:28:27.821
I started with ChatGPT, and I've kind of just stuck with it, and I really do love it.
00:28:28.151 --> 00:28:37.041
Um, the people who I know who, who are programmers say that Claude Code is probably the superior AI for writing, for writing code.
00:28:37.361 --> 00:28:48.231
And actually, we just started, um, experimenting with it internally and, and our, our, um, controls engineer has, uh, uh, shared some very promising things about it.
00:28:48.241 --> 00:28:53.721
So I guess if you are getting into code, uh, Claude Code does a pretty good job.
00:28:53.731 --> 00:28:58.961
But, you know, to be honest, I don't really know what the differences are between it and ChatGPT.
00:28:59.041 --> 00:29:04.911
I imagine they both do a great job All right, Jacob.
00:29:04.911 --> 00:29:10.511
Well, um, what else do you think that people should know about you and your journey through engineering?
00:29:10.521 --> 00:29:14.481
How are, how are you thinking of, like, what does being an engineer mean to you?
00:29:14.551 --> 00:29:15.692
Do you have any thoughts about that?
00:29:17.420 --> 00:29:23.250
For me, I'm always thinking about how can I automate things, which is another kind of engineering.
00:29:23.250 --> 00:29:24.280
What engineer am I?
00:29:24.640 --> 00:29:28.360
But I always look at things about how they're made, how can I make this better?
00:29:28.670 --> 00:29:36.180
Especially with just my simple injection molding factory, how could I automate some of these machines to where you don't need people sitting behind them?
00:29:36.640 --> 00:29:45.310
And like engineering to me is just making people do less and different automated things do people jobs.
00:29:46.185 --> 00:29:53.885
So what happens when people don't have to do as
much because engineering has taken over those, those roles?
00:29:53.945 --> 00:30:04.795
Uh, how do you think that changes people's lives, es- especially engineers who were doing all this technical work and now, you know, maybe AI grows and takes over some of that?
00:30:04.815 --> 00:30:07.855
Uh, how do you think that changes the, the industry, the profession?
00:30:10.028 --> 00:30:20.928
For AI in the future, I still think that whether it does a lot with the environment and everything, we're still gonna need people checking it just to make sure that what it's doing is right.
00:30:21.818 --> 00:30:35.338
if we have AI working with machines and getting parts coming out, we're still gonna wanna have people checking those parts to make sure, 'cause we don't know everything about AI yet, it could still make a lot of different mistakes.
00:30:35.878 --> 00:30:37.769
So people are still gonna be needed.
00:30:37.798 --> 00:30:41.358
I, I feel like people are still gonna be needed in the, in the near future.
00:30:41.368 --> 00:30:51.668
But eventually, once we know more about AI, I think event- yeah, people might lose some of their jobs, but then it might grow opportunities for different types of jobs
00:30:52.339 --> 00:31:05.799
I was talking with my father-in-law recently, and he's a, a software developer, and he was talking about how some of the large tech companies out there had, had, uh, let go a lot of their programmers because of AI, right?
00:31:05.799 --> 00:31:24.059
How good it is writing code these days, and how it turned out to be a mistake letting all these people go because competitors, other companies out there, instead of letting their software developers go so that they could cut headcount, reduce expenses, they kept those people who are all now just turning out a lot more work.
00:31:24.089 --> 00:31:31.639
So instead of, you know, saving money on, on headcount, the number of, of salaries you're paying, these companies are just doing a lot.
00:31:31.639 --> 00:31:42.149
They're advancing their product, their service a lot faster because they still have the same number of engineers who are writing code, but they're all, uh, amplified, right?
00:31:42.149 --> 00:31:49.709
One, one engineer now can do the work of, I don't know, five engineers before because of the advances of, of AI and writing code there.
00:31:49.969 --> 00:32:04.799
And so some of these other companies who have let go all of these software engineers have had to scramble and, um, rehire them so that they can keep up with the companies who have kept everyone and are, are just moving at a, a much more rapid pace than they were before.
00:32:04.799 --> 00:32:11.500
So I, I think that trend is probably going to be true across all industries in-including hardware, mechanical.
00:32:11.669 --> 00:32:19.679
You know, eventually AI's gonna catch up to, uh, us in mechanical engineering as well somehow, whether it's humanoid robots or, or whatever.
00:32:20.019 --> 00:32:33.459
And as opposed to, uh, people losing their jobs, I think that we're all just gonna be a lot more productive, and, um, uh, co-companies aren't going to, I don't think, long-term gonna let people go.
00:32:33.459 --> 00:32:34.949
They're just gonna move faster.
00:32:34.949 --> 00:32:40.329
They're gonna do more with the resources they have, which is a really exciting prospect for the future, right?
00:32:40.339 --> 00:32:45.569
I mean, think of all the, the progress that humanity has made in the past, just the past 20 years.
00:32:45.679 --> 00:32:47.230
All, all the new things that have come out.
00:32:47.240 --> 00:32:47.969
The iPhone, right?
00:32:47.969 --> 00:32:48.609
Smartphones.
00:32:49.000 --> 00:32:51.579
20 years ago, they kind of started just barely.
00:32:51.919 --> 00:33:01.069
Uh, and what, what do the next 20 years hold with the, the rapid acceleration of progress and technology that AI is allowing us?
00:33:01.069 --> 00:33:03.049
I, I think it's gonna be a really exciting time.
00:33:09.072 --> 00:33:10.382
Cut out on that last part again.
00:33:10.472 --> 00:33:11.102
Can you say it again?
00:33:11.539 --> 00:33:13.849
No, that was a long rant, a long diatribe.
00:33:13.849 --> 00:33:16.409
I don't think I can even remember everything I said.
00:33:16.469 --> 00:33:20.789
But anyway, Jacob, anything else that you wanna go over before we sign off here?
00:33:24.630 --> 00:33:37.920
I think that for any young engineers listening, I'm going through exactly what you are, and school is gonna be rough just because you're not gonna be always doing things that you like, like taking gen ed classes or doing hands-on stuff.
00:33:38.410 --> 00:33:44.451
But use what you learn for that hands-on stuff because it's very beneficial
00:33:45.969 --> 00:33:46.809
Amen, brother.
00:33:46.899 --> 00:33:54.000
I remember going to school and thinking it was so hard, and there were a couple of times I can still remember where I thought I was gonna give up.
00:33:54.000 --> 00:33:56.419
I just wanted to quit because it was too hard.
00:33:56.919 --> 00:33:57.539
But I didn't.
00:33:57.709 --> 00:34:00.869
Kept, kept pushing, kept moving, and I eventually made it through.
00:34:00.869 --> 00:34:13.059
And I can tell you, at least in my experience and in the experience of many people I've talked to, the actual job of being an engineer is more fun and less hard than being a student in engineering
00:34:20.242 --> 00:34:21.242
Cut out again at the end.
00:34:21.972 --> 00:34:22.233
Can you
00:34:22.237 --> 00:34:22.677
Gosh.
00:34:24.597 --> 00:34:32.697
Executive summary, what I said was it is easier to be an engineer than it is to be a student in engineering.
00:34:34.708 --> 00:34:35.048
Yeah.
00:34:35.947 --> 00:34:36.568
All right, Jacob.
00:34:36.568 --> 00:34:40.117
Well, all, uh, technical difficulties aside, it was great talking with you.
00:34:40.117 --> 00:34:44.208
Thank you for being a guest on the Being an Engineer podcast today.
00:34:44.617 --> 00:34:50.487
And, uh, I look forward to seeing more about what you're doing online in LinkedIn and in your Instagram
00:34:52.438 --> 00:34:53.208
Thanks for having me