[Peter Matteson]

To start off I am an Engineer in training in the State of CT. I have not been praticing long enough to sit for the PE exam, need about another year. My father and my uncle are both PEs and have been working in nuclear power where they need their licsences for over 30 years. As such I never felt comfortable calling myself an engineer until I had a degree in hand. Many times when I have pointed out to others that legally you are not an engineer without a liscnce even degreed engineers are offended. With a licsense you obtain the right to be recognized by a court of law as an expert and will not be recognized as engineer without one.

Now to answer the original question:
I am a Mechanical engineer. I got my degree from Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) in 2001. I went for an ME degree becauseI have always been good with mechanical systems. Taking things apart to see how they worked and putting them back together. However like Andy electricity and I don't get along, getting through "Volts for Dolts" was painful to me.

After two years of school my brain was fried and I was frustrated. Engineering schools can do this to you. My basic feelings about engineering had not changed but life can get in the way as many of the other mentors know. For this reason I took a semester off from school to co-op. This was the best thing that I could have done for myself. I worked at Pratt & Whitney, aircraft engine manufacturer for those who don't know, where what I learned in eight months eclipsed two years of college. I got to see every make and model of commercial and military engine while done investigation work there. That refocused me and made the remaining two years of my education breeze by because I knew where it would get me in the end. I'm sharing this part with you in high school or college who at one point feel the same way.

When I graduated I took took a job at International Fuel Cells where I had interned before my senior year in college and another division of the same company where I co-oped. The name switched UTC Fuel Cells my first day of work, I soon learned name changes were a common thing in this business. I have worked as a design engineer on fuel cell power plants. I have been a manufacturing engineer on fuel cell stacks and prototype power plants. Most recently I am a mechanical components engineer. I select and test mechanical components for use in CHP (combined heat and power systems) power plants for the UTC Power side of the company. I wear many hats here because I get moved where the work is. Nothing however has been more humbling than having to be the manufaturing engineer on my own design. That is where you learn a lot.

Pete