Attention engineers...What type are you and why?

[Richard Wallace]

Most of what I believe on the subject of 'who is an engineer' was well covered by others in this thread, many months ago.

I have been an engineer in training for about thirty years now. Timeline:

1972-1976 HS nerd in South Carolina (when nerds weren't cool)
1976-1977 freshman at Furman University (where there was no engineering department)
1977-1983 co-op student at Georgia Tech (during this period I worked as a 'co-op student engineer' for a total of 27 months)
1983 Bachelor of Electrical Engineering, Georgia Tech
1983-1985 member of technical staff, TRW Defense Systems, Redondo Beach (never mind what I did during this period)
1985-1990 graduate student at Georgia Tech (during this period I taught classes in electromagnetism and electric machinery, completed an NSF-funded research project under direction of my thesis advisor, and published three articles in refereed engineering journals)
1990 Ph.D. Electrical Engineering, Georgia Tech
1991-1995 Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering, University of Missouri (during this period I taught classes in electric machinery and power electronics, co-directed a research center in power electronics, and advised and supervised eleven graduate students through their MS degrees)
1995-2006 Chief Engineer, Emerson Motor Technologies (during this period I have originated, managed, and reviewed the electrical and mechanical design of new electronically controlled motor products for a variety of applications, including several for automotive components; I have also been an engineering mentor for FRC teams in 1996-1997 and 2002-2006)

Along this path I've encountered many difficult problems, and more often than not, my attempts to solve those problems have forced me to learn things about engineering that I didn't know before.

As Al wrote earlier in this thread,

Originally Posted by Al Skierkiewicz

... a person who loves what they are doing never has to work a day in their life.

I have yet to work a day as an engineer.