Tag Archives: context

Episode 132 — By Any Other Name

June 5, 2017 Jeff Shelton 1 Comment

We discuss the case of an Oregon man fined for “practicing engineering without a license” in this episode of The Engineering Commons.

Both Jeff and Adam have attended a few plays authored by William Shakespeare.
A line from Shakespeare’s play Romeo and Juliet is often used to assert that names do not change what something actually is: “A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.”
In this episode, we discuss the case of Mats Järlström, who was fined $500 by the Oregon Oregon Board of Examiners for Engineering and Land Surveying.
Licensed engineers are known as “Professional Engineers” or “Registered Engineers” in the United States.
Most engineers are able to work without a license due to an “industrial exemption.”
In the course of his career, Brian has never interacted with a professional engineer.
A large fraction of all applicants taking the PE exam in the U.S. are civil engineers.
Many licensed mechanical engineers work in the field of Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC).
One requirement for licensure is that a candidate document a substantive period of supervised engineering experience.
Brian investigated the Fundamentals of Engineering (FE) exam, and found the questions to be non-trivial.
An interesting summary of how Mats Järlström came to be fined by the Oregon Oregon Board of Examiners for Engineering and Land Surveying can be found in the article “Engineering and yellow lights,” from the “And now it’s all this” blog.
Adam suggests interested listeners read the Law Enforcement Committee meeting minutes issued by the Oregon Board.
Mats Järlström has sued the State of Oregon on grounds that his 1st Amendment rights have been violated.
Jeff cites a forum discussion about the case from the ENG-TIPS website.

Thanks to Rick Ligthelm for use of the photo titled “light pink rose.” Opening music by John Trimble, and concluding theme by Paul Stevenson.

Podcast Episode

Episode 131 — Five Years

May 22, 2017 Jeff Shelton 1 Comment

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Chris Gammell returns to The Engineering Commons to discuss how his views on engineering education (and the engineering profession) have evolved over the past five years.

Jeff is coming to appreciate that learning is a social event.
Massively open online courses (MOOCs) were once thought to be the next “big thing” in education.
Our guest for this episode is Chris Gammell, former co-host and founder of The Engineering Commons.
The first episode of The Engineering Commons was posted on April 5, 2012.
Chris recently returned from a trip to Australia, where he was able to meet Dave Jones, his co-host of seven years on The Amp Hour podcast, for the first time.
Our guest is a member of the Chicago workspace known as mHub.
Having co-hosted 25 episodes of The Engineering Commons, Chris stepped away to start Contextual Electronics.
Carmen attended a short course on power electronics at Virginia Tech over the summer.
Brian broaches the subject of how veteran engineers avoid burnout.
Chris tries to maintain a “beginner’s mind” (shoshin) as he prepares study materials for his Contextual Electronics members.
“Manfacturing isn’t glamorous,” says Chris in a recent blog post for Supplyframe Hardware.
Chris and Carmen both wrote posts for Engineer Blogs, a website that has unfortunately been inactive since 2012.
Interested in writing about electronics manufacturing? Chris is willing to pay for quality blog posts!
We’re pretty sure Chris is pulling our leg when he says his favorite beer discovery in Chicago is Old Style.
Our guest can be reached on Twitter as @Chris_Gammell.

Thanks to squidish for use of the photo titled “5.” Opening music by John Trimble, and concluding theme by Paul Stevenson.

Podcast Episode

Episode 43 — Context

November 28, 2013 Jeff Shelton 1 Comment

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We talk about context and learning with Chris Gammell, founder of the Contextual Electronics series of instructional videos.

Adam’s favorite lab course in school was Bituminous Materials, which investigated the properties and characteristics of asphalt.
Our guest, Chris Gammell, recently tweeted about Christmas Ale from the Great Lakes Brewing Company, and we inquire about his affection for this particular beer.
Chris took a few photos inside the brewery during a recent tour:
A list of Christmas beers (from a few years back) can be found on the Draft Magazine website.
Jeff mentions a cooling jacket for brewing lagers that he originally saw on Kickstarter.
Chris has recently launched a venture, Contextual Electronics, which aims to teach practical skills to those interested in electronics.
An interactive teaching method, known as Peer Instruction, was created by Harvard Physics professor Eric Mazur to overcome the difficulty that experts have in teaching concepts to beginners.
A book titled How to Teach Adults provided our guest with some insights about how to organize his instructional material.
Chris surveyed listeners of The Amp Hour podcast to determine what subject matter should be included in his instructional videos.
Some existing online resources, in the area of electronics, include Dave Jones’ EEVblog, the Curious Inventor website, and videos by Ben Krasnow, Jeri Elsworth and Alan Wolke.
Conceptual Electronics is using the open source program KiCad for designing printed circuit boards (PCBs).
Massive open online courses (MOOCs) are currently a popular topic in the education community.
Chris has been working with a beta-test group of students to smooth out the rough edges of the course.
Our guest took inspiration from instructional programs such as Destroy All Software and cadjunkie.
Fedevel Academy offers a training program for Altium Designer.
An introductory video program titled Getting to Blinky is available on the Contextual Electronics YouTube channel.
Chris is quite pleased with his experiences using Vimeo for video distribution. He has already produced 150 videos for his instructional program.
On a monthly basis, Chris gets together with the Charged Conversation group, comprised of electronics professionals from the Cleveland, Ohio area.
One of our guest’s sources for marketing ideas is Seth Godin, who often talks about the power of story-telling.
A project dedicated to creating all the tools needed to build a small village is Open Source Ecology.
More information about Chris’s instructional program is available on the Contextual Electronics website.
You can follow Chris on Twitter as @Chris_Gammell, and can listen to his weekly podcast with Dave Jones at The Amp Hour.

Thanks to Chris Gammel for allowing us to use a screen grab from one of his introductory videos as the main image for this episode. Podcast theme music provided by Paul Stevenson

The Engineering Commons Podcast

Tag Archives: context

Episode 132 — By Any Other Name

Episode 131 — Five Years

Episode 43 — Context

Practical insights for the engineering crowd