2 interviews down, one more to go! After talking to Mr. Montoya, a college professor, and Mr. Lakdawala, an electrical engineer at Raytheon, I think thoroughly enjoy interviewing professionals. It feels as though I'm learning 10 times as much while doing 10 times less the amount of digging for information.
As I began to search for engineering professionals to interview for research, I thought it best to call the nearest college’s engineering professors. Of the dozen, Mr. Rodrigo Bernal Montoya was the only one to readily respond and was delighted to schedule a virtual interview. Though I hadn’t gotten a chance to meet him in person, I gained much more knowledge about the topic of nanotechnology than I thought I would regarding how Mr. Montoya specializes in the mechanical properties of nanomaterials and multiphysics phenomena at the nanoscale. Overall, speaking to Mr. Montoya opened my eyes to this specific area of mechanical engineering and a viable research process when problem-solving this area.
Mr. Jigar Lakdawala is an electrical engineer at the local Raytheon which is a large engineering company that produces military weapons to sell to the United States military. Being involved in federal affairs, Raytheon employees cannot discuss or share their current products and projects. I inquired as much as I could about his current job without breaking his silencing contract with Raytheon. Firstly, Mr. Lakdawala’s favorite project in all his years had been building a drone with a camera to be used for surveillance. He was most intrigued by this due to the chance to use the product he designed. That led us to talk about the different parts of engineering one could immerse themselves into. There is designing where one would create models of products digitally and then there’s manufacturing where the engineers physically assemble the product. Mr. Lakdawala is more interested in manufacturing, but I found myself unsure which side I enjoy more. It also brought up the point that most engineers never actually get the chance to see their products flourish but when they do, it is beyond rewarding.
I had a lot to learn from Mr. Lakdawala and Mr. Montoya but I absolutely cannot wait to meet more professionals and learn from them as well. I feel confident and ready to tackle 'em head-on. Cheers to learning from more people!
P.S. If you found a football reference, write it in the comments!
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