Posted on 07/20/2018 1:11:34 AM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
I am a double STEM guy with degrees in microbiology and chemical engineering. My career started in R&D so that's a clear path to hardcore nerd city. Right? Lol! We had a ranch in the family so I grew up with cattle, horses, pickups and tractors. I think there is a disconnect somewhere in there.
I was hired out of college into process engineering R&D and 1 week into it I was in a junk yard supervising a work crew modifying a large fiberglass tank to be used in a pilot plant. I had no idea what I was doing. It was June on the gulf coast, hot and humid and the crew didn't speak English. What a baptism.
My career has been radically nontraditional but does give me the capability to flip between nerdome, hardhat engineering and business. Heck, I have even been able to flip a bit of the ranching roots into my work. One time, I was tasked to review a new type of skid mounted equipment to be used in the Permian Basin in West Texas. Pumps and controls ok, science appears ok. Layout and structure, we've got a problem. Control and electrical boxes dangling out on supports, lots of cattle, no trees, cattle like to scratch their backs, ergo these dangling boxes are going to be knocked off by cattle. I had the manufacturer rearrange some things and cattle proof their system. Also my roots let me mess with a jerk lawyer one time while giving a deposition in a lawsuit. This was in New York and the lawyer asked me if I thought this other engineer was a "cowboy". This ticked me off because he intended it as an insult to that person and I took it as an insult to me and my family. I about lost my temper but instead told him that the guy wouldn't recognize the south end of a north facing cow if it was staring him in the face, he ain't no cowboy. The lawyer never really understood what my answer was and the court recorder was having the control herself from laughing.
I was doing a county job once and the landscape architect seemed confused. I told him we should curve one of the sidewalks to the north about 40’. He says Nope, I drew the plans and moving it would affect plants and stuff. I says ok, but the sidewalk on YOUR plans will go straight into a 4 foot high wall and I think the cripples will have a tough time getting over it in their wheelchairs and stuff. It sucked working on that job from then on. So it goes.
I never answered questions with the exception of the highway work. The questions on buildings were referred to the architect who was the AHJ, There were a few occasions when the architect and I had issues. One finally involved test jacking anchor bolts for columns out of concrete. I knew the installation was bogus. The architect and his civil engineer were surprised when it took less than 100 lbs.
Were these the same folks that did that FIU bridge?
Nope. The FIU bridge was done by Figg Bridge Constructors and some other company. I believe Figg did the design and engineering, while the other company did the construction.
Ha, that’s a good one!
A ME engineer buddy of mine was doing some work at a power plant in Utah some years ago. The plant had been receiving an extraordinary number of lighting strikes over years and consultants and plant engineers had never been able to figure out why. Designs okay. Lightning rod design okay. Operating equipment okay. Thunderstorm around, Boom. My buddy heard about the problem while there on other business and took a walk out to the earth ground locations and measured soil moisture at the ground rods. Zip dry as a bone. Light bulb moment, no water in the soil = lousy ground. He had them put in a few small water injection wells at the ground rods and problems solved. No more booms. All in 1 days work.
Or a minority1
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