Adam, Brian and Jeff discuss highlights and back stories from episodes of The Engineering Commons podcast released in 2015.
Brian started work the Monday after he graduated from college, and now wishes he had taken a little time off before beginning his professional career.
Listener Joel suggests we invite Karl Stephan to participate in a conversation about engineering ethics. Dr. Stephan joined us for an episode titled “Ethics” back in 2012, but we hope to have him appear again in a 2016 episode of The Engineering Commons.
Joel also suggests an episode on patent, trademark, and copyright law, which might add to the discussion we had with Dave Gevers in a 2012 episode titled “Patents.”
Listener Peter suggests we include an occasional book review; Brian recommends the bestselling Neal Stephenson book Seveneves to our listening audience.
Several guests have been suggested by listener Alex… thanks, Alex!
A second listener Peter suggests we offer a “War Story of the Week.” Do you have an engineering “war story” you want to share? Bang the “Contact” link above and send it our direction!
Multiple episode topics have been suggested by listener Frederick; thank you for the ideas!
Based on our survey data from a couple of years back, Adam estimates about a third of our listeners are located in Europe.
Listener Mike suggest we answer questions from our podcast audience during future episodes. Good idea, Mike!
We’ve received a request from listener Merrill that we add our podcast to the Stitcher service. How many other listeners think this is a good idea?
In “Ideas Without Words,” we talked with Bob Schmidt about communicating and generating engineering concepts using graphical tools alone.
Herb Roberts shared his stories of developing a jet engine for the F22 fighter in “Vectored Thrust.”
In mid-February’s episode “Creative Diversity” , we talked with Kathryn Jablokow about creativity along Kirton’s Adaption-Innovation continuum.
Elecia White joined us to discuss embedded systems in an episode titled “Remote Host Toast.”
Brian highly recommends the “Embedded” podcast Elecia produces with her husband, Chris.
Pros and cons of pursuing a graduate engineering degree were covered in the episode “Grad School.”
We talked about tools we enjoyed using, whether engineering related or not, in “Tools of the Trade.”
Brian continues to taunt chemical engineers, hoping one will rise to the challenge and agree to discuss chemical engineering with us on a future episode.
It is suggested we introduce canon for our podcast, so as to keep track of “reality” for those multiverses in which our errors aren’t really errors at all, thus helping us maintain retroactive continuity (retcon) across our episodes. 🙂
We’re always looking for new guests to discuss their adventures in engineering, so if you’d like to join us (or you want to suggest a colleague), you can fire off an email to admin -=+ at +=- theengineeringcommons.com.
“Product Development” was the topic of our next episode, which featured guest Dave Young.
We published our episode about “Engineering Pranks” on April Fool’s Day.
An interview with Carmen will appear in an upcoming issue of Circuit Cellar.
“Storytelling” was the subject of our conversation with Craig Sampson.
Our next episode featured Kai Zhuang, talking about how engineers frequently feel they are perceived as nothing more than a “Brain on a Stick.”
We welcomed Clay Coons back to the podcast in mid-May to talk about “Engines.”
Todd Nelson regaled us with stories of the analog semiconductor industry in an episode titled “Analog Footsteps.”
We discussed essential elements of engineering in our next episode, “What Engineers Do.”
Due to having a guest bow out at the last minute, we produced a very off-the-cuff episode that we called “Miscellany.”
Jeff recounts (once more) the central plot to Fredrick Pohl’s short story from 1954, “The Midas Plague,” in which the rich consume less, while the poor are forced to consume the glut of goods and services produced by robots.
Carmen is hoping that when he moves into his new house, and can convert the Dr. Suess bedroom into a office, he will be able to avoid snarky comments about his audio quality!
Jeff is a mechanical engineer from Indiana, Adam is a civil engineer from the Northern Midwest, and Carmen is an electrical engineer living in North Carolina. Brian, who could not join us for this episode, is an electrical engineer from Minnesota.
We talked about “Time” in Episode 21, focusing on ways to save time, and considering how seasonal and calendar events influence engineering operations.
We introduced three new co-hosts (Adam, Brian, and Carmen) in Episode 25, titled “Spark.”
Ann McMahon was our guest for the episode titled “Elementary Engineering,” in which we talked about programs that introduce engineering to elementary, middle school, and high school students.
We considered how engineers acquire their “Skills” in the following show.
In a light-hearted episode titled “Sanity,” the four co-hosts (Adam, Brian, Carmen, and Jeff) talked about the activities they enjoy when outside of the engineering office.
For Episode 29, titled “Intuition,” we considered how engineers use their intuitive senses.
Guest Clay Coons talked about some of his adventures traveling abroad in the episode “Travel.”
We discussed how “Crowdfunding” might influence engineering development and scientific research in Episode 31.
Jeff references a Forbes article about hardware becoming the new software.
Carmen mentions the CastAR project being developed by Jeri Ellsworth’s company, Technical Illusions.
In our episode “Fitting In,” we talked about how engineers and non-engineers can better work together in a harmonious manner.
Our journey through past shows is compared, by Carmen, to the American Top 40 music countdowns once hosted by Casey Kasem.
Sebastion Alstrom was our guest for “Civil in Sweden,” an episode in which we discussed engineering education in Europe.
The group expressed concern over whether instructional episodes like “Accounting for Engineers” are too dry for most listeners.
We reviewed the need to share our engineering insights during an episode titled “Knowledge Network.”
In “Ham Nation,” guest Alan Wolke regaled us with stories of his engineering career, and his adventures with amateur radio.
David Goldberg was our guest for Episode 37, titled “Emergent Expectations.” In that show, we discussed the ever changing roles that engineers are expected to assume in society and business.
Guest Bill Porter returned to the podcast for a second time, talking with us about his experiences building robots that are designed to go “Underwater.”
We attempted to talk about “Ambiguity” in our next episode, which turned out necessarily vague in its generalizations?
In the final episode of 2013, we talked with Anthony Fasano about achieving “Success” in one’s engineering career.
We learn that Carmen bought some broccoli and a chocolate bar when he returned to Wegmans, his favorite grocery store in Buffalo, New York, over the holidays.
Adam and Jeff talk about preparing for the professional engineer (PE) exam.
Books mentioned on The Engineering Commons in 2013:
Adam, Brian and Jeff discuss highlights and back stories from episodes of The Engineering Commons podcast released in 2015.
