Tag Archives: practical

Episode 131 — Five Years

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.