Being an Engineer
Episodes
375 episodes
S7E33 Sam Thomason | The Black Magic of Nano-Machining
Sam Thomason’s career sits at the intersection of technical sales, manufacturing automation, Japanese business culture, and advanced machining. With more than 14 years of experience in CN...
S7E32 Steven Szymeczek | From Taking Things Apart to Teaching Engineers How to Build
Steven Szymeczek joins the podcast to share a career shaped by curiosity, hands-on learning, and a willingness to explore new opportunities. He traces his path from taking ...
S7E31 Stanley Leong | Engineering Your Finances: A Former Electrical Engineer’s Guide to Building Wealth
Stanley C. Leong brings an unusual and highly relevant perspective to the world of engineering career development: he started as an engineer, then built a second career helping engineers...
S7E30 Steve Riley | Small Improvements, Big ROI: Lessons from the Factory Floor
Steve Riley brings a unique perspective to Being An Engineer because he is not an engineer by title, but he has spent his career working directly in the environments where engineer...
PDX 2026 Tickets Are 50% Off August 3–7
PDX 2026 is October 20-21 in Phoenix, AZ. Attendee tickets are 50% off August 3-7 only. Learn more and register at https://pdexpo.engineer/
S7E29 Heylands Lowry| Building an Engineering Culture of Continuous Improvement
Heylands Lowry is a globally experienced continuous improvement and operational excellence leader with deep expertise in Lean manufacturing, Six Sigma, and organizational trans...
S7E28 Justin Rittenhouse | What Engineering School Doesn’t Teach You About Industry
Justin Rittenhouse is a mechanical engineer, educator, and industry leader whose career sits at the intersection of advanced engineering analysis, manufacturing innovation, and ...
S7E27 Daniel Kurnianto | The Engineering Journey Behind the World's First Electronic Coffee Tamper
Daniel Kurnianto has built his career at the intersection of mechatronics, lab automation, product management, and hands-on mechanical design. With more than 19 years at Formulatrix, he...
S7E26 Paul Vizzio | From Prototype to Product: How Paul Vizzio Engineered RemieDog Into a Real Hardware Business
Paul Vizzio is a seasoned hardware engineering leader with deep expertise in building complex electromechanical systems and scaling them from early prototypes to full production. Currently...
S7E25 Yesenia Avellaneda | Engineering, Medicine, and Manufacturing Leadership
Yesenia Avellaneda is an engineering leader whose career sits at the intersection of innovation, operations, and impact. Currently a Senior Project Engineer within Global Operations ...
S7E24 Larry Copponi | The Most Important Skill To Get Hired As An Engineer
For more than 40 years, Larry Copponi has been working at the intersection of engineering talent and product innovation. Today, he serves as Vice President of...
S7E23 Jordan Kapitanoff | Screw Manufacturing, LEAN Processes, and Investing for Engineers
Jordan Kapitanoff is a mechanical engineer by training and a transformation leader by practice. A graduate of Kettering University with a BSME and an MBA from Aurora Universi...
S7E22 Amelia Howe | Developing Medical Device Injectrodes for Pain Reduction, & Project Management Best Practices
Amelia Howe is a biomedical engineer and R&D project manager whose career spans startups, research labs, and established medical device companies. She currently leads cross-functional d...
S7E21 Rod Scholl | Pro Tips from 30-Year Analyst For Accurate Simulations (FEA & CFD)
Rod Scholl is the Founder and Principal Analyst at Epsilon FEA, an engineering services company he launched in 2008 to specialize in advanced numerical ...
S7E20 Mahantesh Hiremath | How to Influence Public Policy As An Engineer
Dr. Mahantesh Hiremath has built a rare engineering career at the intersection of deep technical rigor, systems thinking, leadership, and service. Across more than three decades, h...
S7E19 Ryan Schoonmaker | How to Take A Structured Approach to Solving Engineering Problems
Ryan Schoonmaker has spent roughly two decades in medical device product development, building a career around solving hard engineering problems in high-stakes environments. T...
S7E18 Aaron Moncur | Building Pipeline, the Being An Engineer Podcast, and Engineering Communities
In this special role-reversal episode of the Being An Engineer podcast, longtime host Aaron Moncur steps into the guest seat while previous guest
S7E17 Joe Couitt | How to Design for Swiss Machining
Joe Couitt is the founder of JMC Swiss Solutions, a Phoenix-based consulting firm dedicated to CNC Swiss applications and machining opti...
S7E16 Chad Walters | Constraints, Iteration, & Industrial Design in Product Development
Chad Walters is an experienced product design leader with more than two decades of experience developing complex products across healthcare, life sciences, aerospace, defense, and commerc...
S7E15 Mustafa Poonawala | Diagnostic Clinical Trials, Prioritization, & Decision Latency in Engineering
Mustafa Poonawala is a globally recognized leader in medical device and diagnostics innovation, known for his ability to translate strategy into execution across R&D, clinical operations, a...
PDX Webinar Trailer, Engineering for Success: Making Product-Market Fit an Actionable Design Goal
Watch the webinar here!Great engineering alone does not guarantee product s...
S7E14 Brad & Aaron | How To Accelerate The Speed of Engineering (Episode 3 of 3)
In this final episode of the three-part series on accelerating the speed of engineering, Aaron Moncur and Brad Hirayama zoom out to focus on the organizational and cultural levers that compound over time.While earlier episodes explored h...
S7E13 Brad & Aaron | How To Accelerate The Speed of Engineering (Episode 2 of 3)
In part two of this three-part series on accelerating the speed of engineering, Aaron Moncur and Brad Hirayama shift the focus from individual habits to team workflows. Drawing from patterns that have surfaced across 300+ Being An Engineer inte...
S7E12 Flash Training: Design for Assembly: Why Fewer Screw Lengths Makes Everything Easier
Watch this flash training here: https://youtu.be/QCy9i4TB2b4When engineers design parts in isolation, it’s easy to unintentionally introduce dozens of slightly different fastener lengths into an...
S7E11 Brad & Aaron | How To Accelerate The Speed of Engineering (Episode 1 of 3)
In this special kickoff to a three-part miniseries, Aaron Moncur and Brad Hirayama explore one of the most important—and often overlooked—skills in engineering: how to accelerate the speed of engineering work without sacrificing quality. Drawin...