Would you say that you work harder or smarter?
I would like to think that I work smarter but there have been many times that I am slaving away at a job and then I say to myself, there must be a better way to do this. So, to answer this question, there are times that I do things the hard way, but I won’t do that for long before I stop and figure out a smarter way to do it.
What education or training did you need to gain to do your work?
Because most of my work has been mechanical engineering with an emphasis on thermodynamics, a bachelor’s degree in Engineering has been fine, but to truly get into the physics of thermoelectric alloys, I would have greatly benefited from a graduate degree in physics with an emphasis on quanutum mechanics.
I did get a graduate degree in Engineering focusing on manufacturing which is tremendously helpful at this point in my life as I am trying to commercialize a thermoelectric smoker.
Just for the fun of it, I do intend to go back and get a PhD in physics.
What knowledge did you learn on the job that you never expected to learn?
I fully expected to learn and have learned every technical thing I possibly could on the job, but a skill that I never thought about, or expected to need, is how to manage people. I didn’t even realize how much I had learned until I was in a management class in graduate school and the professor gave us a scenario where we have a problematic employee. We all reviewed the case study, and then he asked the class, “would should you do with this employee?”
The entire class was a bunch of young college students with no real world experience and they all said he needed to be fired. I raised my hand and said, “you can’t just fire someone in California, you need to sit him down and review the problems and give him a chance to change. If he doesn’t change, you need to sit him down again and warn him of the consequences if he doesn’t change. After you’ve done that at least three times and documented the discussion well and you have his signature on all the documents, then you can fire him and pray he doesn’t try and sue for wrongful dismissal.”
List some of your most significant accomplishments in your career.
Sadly, I haven’t designed anything that is currently in use. I have designed many things that could potentially become popular, but Hi-Z never had the resources and/or courage to commercialize them. There are probably many more than this but I will just list a few.
1) A generator that fits on the exhaust of a semi truck that can replace the alternator and increase its gas milage by a couple of a percent. That is huge.
2) A generator that is currently used on a ship owned by the “Main Maritime College”. Also on the exhaust and increases its milage by several percent.
3) A Stove Top Generator.
4) A 40 mW generator that will eventually make it into space. I couldn’t find a picture of it, but this is a model of an early version.
5) A battery designed for cell phones that can be universally used in many different phones without the need for customization. I designed and patented this very battery.
6) A generator on an Orlando City bus.
7) I added a 130 watt thermoelectric generator to a wood pellet stove to generate electrical power. I won 2nd place in a contest sponsored by the Department of Energy. I was the only stove in the contest who actually powered something.
Do you like my string of lights that I am powering?
This is my trophy. The only trophy I have ever won. They didn’t have “participation” trophy’s in my day.
10) An improved version of #9. I am about to test the first prototype of this smoker.
I have actually designed many more systems than these but these are some of the ones that came to mind and that I could find pictures for.
I would like to think that I work smarter but there have been many times that I am slaving away at a job and then I say to myself, there must be a better way to do this. So, to answer this question, there are times that I do things the hard way, but I won’t do that for long before I stop and figure out a smarter way to do it.
What education or training did you need to gain to do your work?
Because most of my work has been mechanical engineering with an emphasis on thermodynamics, a bachelor’s degree in Engineering has been fine, but to truly get into the physics of thermoelectric alloys, I would have greatly benefited from a graduate degree in physics with an emphasis on quanutum mechanics.
I did get a graduate degree in Engineering focusing on manufacturing which is tremendously helpful at this point in my life as I am trying to commercialize a thermoelectric smoker.
Just for the fun of it, I do intend to go back and get a PhD in physics.
What knowledge did you learn on the job that you never expected to learn?
I fully expected to learn and have learned every technical thing I possibly could on the job, but a skill that I never thought about, or expected to need, is how to manage people. I didn’t even realize how much I had learned until I was in a management class in graduate school and the professor gave us a scenario where we have a problematic employee. We all reviewed the case study, and then he asked the class, “would should you do with this employee?”
The entire class was a bunch of young college students with no real world experience and they all said he needed to be fired. I raised my hand and said, “you can’t just fire someone in California, you need to sit him down and review the problems and give him a chance to change. If he doesn’t change, you need to sit him down again and warn him of the consequences if he doesn’t change. After you’ve done that at least three times and documented the discussion well and you have his signature on all the documents, then you can fire him and pray he doesn’t try and sue for wrongful dismissal.”
List some of your most significant accomplishments in your career.
Sadly, I haven’t designed anything that is currently in use. I have designed many things that could potentially become popular, but Hi-Z never had the resources and/or courage to commercialize them. There are probably many more than this but I will just list a few.
1) A generator that fits on the exhaust of a semi truck that can replace the alternator and increase its gas milage by a couple of a percent. That is huge.
This is my trophy. The only trophy I have ever won. They didn’t have “participation” trophy’s in my day.
8) A new design of a wood pellet heater intended to power a home. I couldn’t find an investor to commercialize this generator but I will commerciaze it some day.
9) A self powered wood pellet smoker. This smoker is computerized and does not need to be plugged in because it makes its own electricity.--------------------trivia--------------------
A humingbirds heart beats about 1,060 times a minute
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