***Editor’s Note: The “I Became An Engineer” blog runs every Friday. To share your story email jennifer.delaosa@advantagemedia.com***
This week’s story comes to us from ECN reader Kevin Keryk, Engineering Manager, Avnet.
I spent a lot of my childhood with a screwdriver in hand, determined to take anything apart to learn what made it perform its “magic.” Imagine my delight at a young age to find out that our living room electric fan was powered by a set of magnets and wire windings, rather than a poor hamster confined to a life of perpetual labor within the fan housing, making the blades spin for our comfort.
I really enjoyed science classes, and it turned out that my favorite class in high school was chemistry. I was really hooked by the order of the periodic table and the finite manner in which valence electron configuration arrangements dictated molecular structure via bond types. However, it seemed to me that science was too pure of a study for someone who simply envisioned a career of taking things apart to see how they work.
My chemistry teacher stopped me in the hall on the last day of my junior year and asked me what I planned to do for college. At the time, I really wasn’t certain and, upon being dismayed at my uncertainty, my teacher asked me, “Have you ever considered becoming an engineer? The world will always need more engineers to make it a better place to live.”
I sheepishly admitted to my teacher that I had no idea, outside of operating locomotives, what engineers actually did. He pointed out that scientists laid the foundations of knowledge that enabled the creation of things that we use every day, like bridges, automobiles, and even electric fans. It was engineers who came up with the ideas on how to build and produce these in an effective manner. I spent my summer vacation researching the various fields of engineering and settled upon electrical engineering as my new field of study and later moved into computer engineering.
The combination of the sciences and the art of balancing design tradeoffs fascinated me, and I was entranced by the idea that engineers could create new things by using the rigor of the engineering process. Turned out, I worked as a product design engineer on several projects and got to experience firsthand the thrill of breathing life into new products by applying those principles of scientific knowledge.
One of the things that is most rewarding working as a design engineer for Avnet is that I work with countless customers, mostly engineers, around the world. By helping our customers learn more about new development tools and integrating emerging electronics into their designs, I get to be a part of creating new embedded systems that impact everyday lives.
If I were to sum up the field of engineering into one quote, it would be from my favorite writer: “Science can amuse and fascinate us all, but it is engineering that changes the world.”—Isaac Asimov
Read other stories, here:
- A Note From The Editor: An Engineer’s Story
- I Became An Engineer: Because Of A Small FM Radio
- I Became An Engineer: Because I Loved LEGOs And Tinkertoys
- I Became An Engineer: Because I Grew Up In Kenya
- I Became An Engineer: By Just Being Myself
- I Became An Engineer: Because Of The Cool Jackets
- I Became An Engineer: Because My Dad Said Not To
- I Became An Engineer: Because I Couldn’t Stop Tinkering
- I Became An Engineer: Despite Being Bad At Math
- I Became An Engineer: Because Of Christmas Lights
- I Became An Engineer: Because Of Uncle Chet
- I Became An Engineer: Because I Can’t Stop Asking ‘Why?’
- I Became An Engineer: Because Of Star Trek (Specifically Montgomery Scott)
- I Became An Engineer: Because I Was A Really Lucky Nerd
- I Became An Engineer: But ‘Nobody Knows’ Why
- I Became An Engineer: Because I Couldn’t Be An Astronaut
- I Became An Engineer: Because Of Nuclear Submarines
- I Became An Engineer: Because No One Was Hiring Shoe Salesmen
- I Became An Engineer: Because Of Mr. Kenny, The TV/Radio Repair Man
- I Became An Engineer: Because Of A Book (And My Mom)
- I Became An Engineer: Because Of A Cattle Ranch
- I Became An Engineer: Because Of A Wise Father And The Possibility Of Death
- I Became An Engineer: Because Of An Evil Mastermind
- I Became An Engineer: To Get Off The Tractor
- I Became An Engineer: Because Of My Rodeo Coach