Being an Engineer
Being an Engineer
S5E50 Roopinder Tara | Timing, FEA, & the Beginning of CAD
In this episode, Roopinder shares his fascinating journey into engineering and publishing. He discusses his early struggles with math, the serendipitous path that led him to become an engineer, and his transition into the world of technical journalism. Roopinder provides insights into the evolution of CAD technology, the challenges of integrating AI into design tools, and the power and responsibility of journalism in shaping the engineering industry.
Join us as we delve into Roopinder’s insights on content creation, engineering trends, and his journey in becoming a pivotal voice in the engineering community.
Main Topics:
- Roopinder's background and journey into engineering
- His experiences in the publishing industry and the differences between engineering and publishing
- The history and advancements of CAD technology
- Roopinder's vision for the future of CAD and the role of AI in engineering design
- The influence of journalism on the engineering industry
About the guest: Roopinder Tara is a trailblazer in engineering publishing and content management with over two decades of experience shaping how engineers engage with technology and industry trends. Currently serving as Editor in Chief at EngTechnica, Roopinder has a proven record of launching innovative platforms, including EngineersRule.com, and growing audiences to unprecedented levels. He’s an expert in building editorial teams, connecting industry experts, and driving content strategies that balance business needs with editorial integrity.
Roopinder’s background spans leadership roles at engineering.com, TenLinks, and IMSI, where his strategies boosted revenues, readership, and brand recognition. He’s also a former professor of design and engineering, who tripled class engagement during his tenure. With degrees in Mechanical Engineering from Drexel University and Penn State, Roopinder bridges the technical and creative worlds with precision and passion.
Links:
Roopinder Tara - LinkedIn
EngTechnica Website
Aaron Moncur, host
About Being An Engineer
The Being An Engineer podcast is a repository for industry knowledge and a tool through which engineers learn about and connect with relevant companies, technologies, people resources, and opportunities. We feature successful mechanical engineers and interview engineers who are passionate about their work and who made a great impact on the engineering community.
The Being An Engineer podcast is brought to you by Pipeline Design & Engineering. Pipeline partners with medical & other device engineering teams who need turnkey equipment such as cycle test machines, custom test fixtures, automation equipment, assembly jigs, inspection stations and more. You can find us on the web at www.teampipeline.us
Hi everyone. We've set up this being an engineer podcast as an industry knowledge repository, if you will. We hope it'll be a tool where engineers can learn about and connect with other companies, technologies, people, resources and opportunities. So make some connections and enjoy the show.
Aaron Moncur:Hello and welcome to the being an engineer podcast
Roopinder Tara:Hi, Aaron. Great to be here. Honor as well. today, we're joined by Roopinder Tara, a visionary leader in engineering publishing with a career spanning over two decades, currently the editor, editor in chief at EngTechnica,
Aaron Moncur:So this is this is going to be a fun episode, Roopinder, has launched and grown platforms like because a little bit of background for the listeners. engineersRule.com and lead content strategies@engineering.com and 10 links with a background in Mechanical Engineering and a passion for connecting engineers with cutting edge content Roopinder has shaped how Roopinder and I connected what three, four months ago, technology and trends are communicated to the industry. Roopinder, welcome to the being an engineer podcast. something like that, yeah, and he had found an episode of the podcast where I interviewed Jon Hirschtick, founder of SolidWorks and Onshape, and wanted to transcribe it for his website, and Technica and we just started talking and realized that we had a lot in common, similar philosophies in the engineering world, and kind of hit it off. And a couple months later, we decided, decided to partner up on the wave dot engineer so Roopinder and I are working together now, building out this community on the wave and the being an engineer podcast. So it's cool that we get to do an interview together, because that's how we first connected, and it feels like it's come full circle. Now,
Roopinder Tara:That's right, it is official. Now
Aaron Moncur:it's official. Yes, I always tell my wife, we're a real family. Now, after any you know, silly little thing happens, like on the outside of our house, we have this one light that has never quite worked, right? And last night, my wife installed some new type of light bulb, and all of a sudden it worked. And I was like, Oh, we're a real family. Now, this is great, you know. And so you and I, we're on the podcast now. We're real partners. Now, you know, doing a show together. Here it is.
Roopinder Tara:I think one day our wives are going to have to be have to beat as well. Because I found one of the most interesting podcasts that you had done, Aaron, was one where your wife talked about what it's like to be married to an engineer. Every time my wife puts something together, I have to say, well, you're an engineer by proximity,
Aaron Moncur:by by osmosis, maybe Nice. All right. Well, this podcast is not about the lights outside my house, so let's, let's talk about you. Roopinder, how did you get started in engineering, and then how did you ultimately end up in publishing, in journalism?
Roopinder Tara:Boy, that's a that's a good question. I asked that myself to myself many of time, how did I end up in publishing? Because that is not a route that most engineers take. But let me start a little bit at the beginning, if you'll permit at the very beginning, it took me the longest time to even realize I was going to be an engineer. Fact, it's a it was very murky beginnings from the beginning, because as a child, I had no idea what an engineer was. I don't think many children do, but was growing up in India, and India went to my my mom took me to market with her. And Indian markets not like any other market. You can imagine. It's got everything in it. It'll be people that will clean your ears, people that will do dental work that we found amongst everything else, the groceries and everything that my mom was trying to get, was a fortune teller. But again, not a fortune teller like you would. You would think of this was a fortune teller that and had a used a budgie, a budget, a little bird, and the bird would climb across a box of cards, kind of like tarot cards, and it would pick the box out. They would pick a card out of the box, and it would the fortune teller would take the card and look at it, and he just handed it back to my mom. My mom never said a word, and I was just one. Wondered what that was. Was all about I had no idea what's going on, and it didn't occur to me till much a couple years later, many years later, that my mom had asked what I was going to be when I grew up and had the card had said he's going to be an engineer.
Aaron Moncur:No way. Okay, what was this after you had already started going to school to be an engineer? Or was this, oh, that is wild, well, tortuous
Roopinder Tara:past, because, you know, since I didn't have the bird's advice on hand, I I'd wandered all over the place. I went through my cod I went through chemistry courses, which I failed at, which was a big embarrassment, because my father was a research chemist, right? So I failed chemistry. They had dropped out of business school, went to work, had a lot of fun, did anything but college for a couple of years, until finally I went to this back into college, because I felt like, Hey, I wasn't going anywhere, getting anywhere, doing anything. Went back to college and then discovered, hey, I was good at math, right? Which math, again, was something that eluded me in my early days. But when I went to college, something just clicked. I found math was something I was reasonably good at, and from then on, it was like, Well, if I could do math, well then I then I could be an engineer. I didn't feel like I could be an engineer if I didn't get the figure out how to do the equations, which, like I said, eluded me in high school, but college, somehow I just got it. So I don't know what happened. It's
Aaron Moncur:funny how that happens. I have had very similar experiences. Yet another similarity between us. I remember I did not understand algebra at all, like I would go after class and get extra help, and I just, I didn't get it. And then a year later, I retook it, and it all just clicked. It just made sense. And I did. I did great with meth after that. I think sometimes our brains just need a little time to get used to what we're trying to teach it. Yeah,
Roopinder Tara:absolutely, absolutely. And I, I still don't know. I can't I wish I could bottle out, bottle that Optus to and give it to people, what I, what that, whatever that was, because I've tried to teach math to other people right because, because now I get it right. And this happened to my sister. My little sister was trying to teach math to it's a quadratic equation. I was trying to explain it to her, like, Hey, this is the easiest thing you could do. And, and she like, I think I made her feel so stupid that she She gripped out of a started crying. So I realized, Hey, I'm no good at teaching which. I may get stuff, but I can't teach it. That was but somehow, I don't know why. There's another crazy thing. I ended up actually being a teacher, actually ended up, ended up teaching, beginning into engineering classes at a community college. And by that time, I think something else had clicked, because I didn't get too many complaints about my teaching. They're very fine in my class,
Aaron Moncur:that's a success right there, when you can say, Nobody cried that day. So what were you doing in the during your hiatus from college, and then what was it that prompted you to go back to school?
Roopinder Tara:Oh, okay, so in my hiatus, now, my hiatus was based on, I wasn't making any money going to college, and I was around, let's see 1819, and that was a time where I just wanted to, you know, drive around cars and parade my car down the street and go to go to clubs, as we call them, Milwaukee clubs, were the nightclubs. That was a good life, and I was able to get jobs at a chemical company where my father worked. Didn't end well, because that's another story, but I won't go there at the boot. You'll have to buy me some drinks first before
Aaron Moncur:all. Right. Time for another Yeah. But
Roopinder Tara:that as I was making good money, and I was good making good labor wages as it were, right? I was making at that time, I forget what it was. This was 30 years ago. I was, it was good money. It was better than any of my college buddies were making. I felt like I was the big man, so that that was that for two, three years, I do three years I did that work second shift of the kennel company, weighing bulk chemicals into smaller bottles. And after a while, it just that got to me. I didn't feel like I thought I was doing pretty good. But then a good friend of mine. And that, she said, worse to me, that just changed everything. He said, even though I thought I was, I was hot property. I had a cool car, and I had, you know, leather jackets, and it was, you know, I was making good money, I thought. She said, you're just in a rut. She said,
Aaron Moncur:I was hoping that those words were going to be I will, and it was going to be a reveal. Oh, she became my wife, and I realized I needed to shape up.
Roopinder Tara:Yeah, really. And I gave it a critical time. That was a time where my parents were moving, and all through my life, I moved from one place to another with my parents up until I was 1819, and then my father got another a job from that made us move from Milwaukee to the Philadelphia area, and then I had to make our choice. I could either stay here with my life as it were, my good life, right? Or I could move with my father, with my family once again, and start anew. And if I started anew, I could leave my party friends behind and get out of my rut, as my friend called it, and start going, doing, making something of my life. Yes, right. Who you engineer it's right, something I didn't know that at the time. I took another took another three or four years of wandering around community colleges, get finding the right courses, and then I realized, oh, I can do math. Be an engineer.
Aaron Moncur:Nice. All right. So you went back to school, you got your degree in engineering, and then what happened?
Roopinder Tara:Oh, so right away. Then once I got my job in engineering, I realized I was a good catch, shall we say, for to as to be a husband, right?
Aaron Moncur:So, so I did say, I do, yeah.
Roopinder Tara:I as soon as I got the offer letter, I got an offer letter right away from a company that I was co Oping with. That's, that's a program they had in Drexel, where they work for six months and you go to school for six months. They call the Co Op program. And I ended up working. I got an offer from the company that that had hired me for the co op. As soon as I got the letter, I said, Hey, there, we're good. You have to get married. It was the worst, most unromantic proposal they could advance you. I don't let you did, Aaron, but you know that, and I regret to this day, I didn't do something more romantic than say, Hey, there. We have to get married. And I shadow the I showed her the afro letter. I like. I see so many movies where now I say, Oh, damn, I wish I had done that. Yeah. Couldn't have hidden this ring in or something that she would fight out, or see it a oyster or who knows what? Yeah, I'm
Aaron Moncur:sure you've made up for it since then,
Roopinder Tara:I like to thanks. You'll have to ask her
Aaron Moncur:when, when my wife and I got married, the single request that I had for the wedding was that we not dance because I just hate dancing. I'm no good at it. I look like a complete fool. I feel like a complete fool. And so I said, Please, can we just not have any dancing at our wedding? And she was a little bummed by that, but she was also very gracious and agreed to it. So that's what I feel guilty about, is not having dancing at our wedding.
Roopinder Tara:Oh, here we are. Okay. We are like twins separated at birth, because I am same thing. I feel so self conscious that I won't and I won't step on a dance book. I'll shy away from events where I know there's dancing and and then my wife still manages to, however, do a slow dance. I could. I could do a slow dance that I can.
Aaron Moncur:I can do that. Yeah, yeah, yes. I can rock back and forth slow that's about the limit of my capabilities when it comes to dancing. Oh,
Roopinder Tara:yeah, I appreciate the poll and see if this is true of engineers, because I'm not yet seen how did I think about it? I can't think of any type of see an engineer on the dance floor that looks like they should be on the dance floor.
Aaron Moncur:Yeah, I can't say that I've seen anyone myself either. Perhaps the intrinsic limitation of engineers
Roopinder Tara:might be up.
Aaron Moncur:All right, so how Tell me about your your entrance into the world of publishing? Oh,
Roopinder Tara:okay, so, yeah, so it was actually. Channel. I was started. I was working in engineering. I did. I started to write. I approached a magazine with an article idea. I was learning how to use finite element analysis, and in the process, I was coming across a lot of things that people don't learn in school or at I thought, hey, you know, I should tell other people some of the practical aspects of FEA, because I I was doing it the hard way, and I was making mistakes. I was cracking mistakes. I should tell other people about this. And I at that time I was I was working as a engineer at a electronics firm, defense electronics were so i k, I said, I had just approached the biggest magazine at the time in CAD and it was as right away I thought, no, they're not, they're not going to be interested because they're doing, they're doing design work, CAD work, but they won't want to want a article about FEA. Why would they and at but I was very surprised when that article, I saw that article, it's on my wall. It's that first article I ever submitted, and they next thing, you know, it's on the cover of the magazine.
Aaron Moncur:Wow, yeah, first article ever, and it made the cover page. Yeah. Jeez,
Roopinder Tara:it might have been extremely best. Well, they
Aaron Moncur:had. They had probably heard from that bird that, hey, this Roopinder guy, you better watch out for him. He's the real deal.
Roopinder Tara:Yeah, and there's nothing. I don't think it has anything to tell it's no, it's always timing, and it's always and I found out that, you know, they had, they had, I don't want to say, been criticized, but they had been sort of sensitive to the fact that they weren't doing too many technical articles. And the people there weren't really into they weren't users of CAD or FEA, especially on FEA, but they weren't users of CAD, so they were on a on a quest to step it up a bit of technology. So I think what happened was I, as an engineer, not a writer, submitted an article, however poor it was, I got lots of credibility, because I had an engineering degree, which they hadn't had up until this point. I don't think any, well, not many, if any writers had been engineers. So that gave me a special ticket, as it were. So yeah, ended up there, and then, then, oh, so what led me into publishing? That was just a initial start into getting published, but I started writing other articles for them, and they also were very, I don't want to say popular, because you could never tell if something was popular those days. It was magazine. Couldn't tell how many people read it, but apparently the publishers liked it and and I think they just liked anybody who could fill the pages honestly, right? But, but I got a few of these in, and so I was in the area. I was consulting for a cat company at the time. Ended up in San Francisco. The publisher, the editor in chief at that point, said, Hey, how would Why don't you come and visit us at the office? Because the office, or the magazine, was in San Francisco. She said, come and visit me at the office. Let's go out to lunch and but it was a trap. So she they had wanted a new editor in chief, she was resigning, and I said, I don't know what is. What is that Editor in Chief? What is exactly? Is that mean? I had no idea. I did not know how to spell it even like I was offered the top job as editor in chief. It's still to this day, I don't know if I was deserving of it or or but, but the money was good, right? The money was was much better than I was making. I think at that time I become a instructor. So as teacher, I was an instructor at a college, and the job was great. I think the job was probably the best job I ever had. I worked three days a week, right? I had the whole summer off. I could write articles, but here I got into publishing, and it was, this was like, oh, you know, 50% more money. So I thought, I've got to be a fool to turn this down. This is was good money, right? So, well. Story short, I still think best job I ever had was not publishing but, but I can't, I can't get away from it. It's like, and the way I rationalize it to myself is like, Oh, well, I can teach a lot more people now than I could in a classroom. I could teach instead of, now with the internet, I can teach instead of 100,000 people with a magazine, I could reach 10s of 1000s, or I can reach even a million people.
Aaron Moncur:When you when you first started that role as editor in chief, presumably, you didn't really know what the job entailed. You're probably learning some things on the job. What was it like in the beginning? Like, what were a few of the first activities that you participated in or LED what were some of the things that you learned really quickly on the job?
Roopinder Tara:Oh, yeah, working with people in publishing. It's, it was a radical, radically different environment. As soon as I got in, I realized I was out of my league. I was not. I was among different people. At first place, it was everyone was dressed differently. Everyone was a woman. Many people were women. An engineer, you know, at our time, and still, I think to this day, it's been predominantly male. Well, here in publishing, it was, it was very much a woman led business. So that was, that was odd. I didn't have a problem with it. I even, you know, how should I say some of my best friends were with me, but, but, but then, and also, they were very non technical. I went to a magazine thinking somebody here must, must be somewhat technical, because you're dealing with a technical subject most of the time, and even if you weren't educated in it, you would be now you'd acquire knowledge in it, but that just wasn't the case. So it was difficult for me to convey how important it was to learn technology by doing it, because there were people that were happy enough to not have to learn it deeply at all, right? So that that was bit of a problem. And I think also they had, they had that problem in in opposite of me, I think I was too technical, but for them, I demanded too much from that to to learn, to learn what they wrote about.
Aaron Moncur:So over the years, it seems like you, maybe you started there as well, but if not you, you kind of naturally gravitated towards an emphasis on CAD. Is that accurate? Yeah,
Roopinder Tara:yeah, yeah. CAD as my, probably my first when I started in CAD. CAD was very young. CAD was AutoCAD was just starting to come out. They were workstation, big workstation and mini computers. I think you're too young for this, Aaron, but do you remember facts, deck facts, or intrograph, appliqu, see McDonnell Douglas, those are all the systems of the day, and they were,
Aaron Moncur:this was pre electricity, right?
Roopinder Tara:Yeah, almost definitely. So that many the IBM PC was just coming as I was leaving entering the workforce. The PC was just happened to come along, but that time we were into I'd call it, let me call it big time CAD it was the old workstation that cost $25,000 each, just for the hardware and the software, was 10 or 20,000 per year. It was big money had, but that's where my I actually will, became the CAD manager of the systems that that was be CAD was being used at. So I was kind of, I'd say, modernized our drafting department and our engineering division into computer aided design. I
Aaron Moncur:have a question about that. So 25 grand for the hardware, another 10 to 20 grand per year for the software. How did companies justify the ROI? Were you just able to do things that you simply couldn't do without CAD? Or was the productivity enhanced so much that companies could justify spending that kind of money on CAD?
Roopinder Tara:It was sold that way, or it was a it was definitely sold that way that we would be the figures. Quote. It were ridiculous, like you would be 10 times as productive. And to this day, I don't know what that was based on, but a lot of us swallowed that and we bought it for that reason. It was, I don't know what it was at that time, it was almost a fever or FOMO, no fear of missing. Get that word cutting edge. So companies did buy the big stuff. And there may be, in all fairness, there may be some truth to that 10x productivity, because it, you know, rather than revise it, redraw a whole drawing, you could just change a line. It was done with electrons, rather than starting over, that changes were easy to make. So there was some justification of it, but, but, but it existed. That sentiment that these big, big CAD these big machines and expensive software could exist existed for, I'd say, five to 10 years, and that that was just because it was so expensive, it didn't last. As soon as PC driven, PC based CAD came up, it was just wiped out very quickly, because the productivity just wasn't there to justify that big of an expense, and only a few engineers were allowed to have those workstations. We had to share ours between, oh, I think five CAD stations, workstations for maybe 25 engineers. Was
Aaron Moncur:it fairly prestigious if you were a CAD engineer, then,
Roopinder Tara:oh, yeah, yeah. You had to, you had to really be, you had to be, really be worthy of of your equipment. There's a market distinction to be a CAD savvy engineer, or a simulation, simulation, I would say, is probably what, what sold a lot of computers too, because that was something you just couldn't do manual. You had you wanted to do FEA or CFD or even a electrical simulation, You couldn't, you couldn't do that manually. If that was so there, the productivity was,
Aaron Moncur:I'd say infinitely even, yeah, okay, okay, what are, what are some of the biggest changes that you have seen in CAD over the years and and Have they all been for the better, or have there been changes that You think have even been detrimental to the industry.
Roopinder Tara:I think the by big straw with CAD is that, how, how it plateaued after its initial, initial entrance into the into the mainstream. You know, there's been a few you could stretch the word revolution to include a couple of things a CAD has done. CAD itself was maybe a revolution because I replaced the crafting board. There was another one where 3d came about. There's another one where 3d became mainstream. It became inexpensive. Could be used like SolidWorks, could be used on under regular on PCs. Say that was a revolution, but then escape the curve sort of flattens out, and for a longest time. I think my biggest problem with cat is it's not changing fast enough, right? I don't like initially, cat, cat stands for, basically computer it's stands for computer aided design, right? And I thought it's not helping you design, it's, it should have been by not helping me design, helping me make an object more accurately, right? It's, I'm, I'm still designing on paper, and I'm still designing in my head, right? And that I'm hoping, I'm hoping to capture it exactly as geometry. It's not helping me design and and now, lately, when AI comes in, now it's like, bad, it just got, like, so much more exciting. What baby CAD could really be computer did design now, right? Maybe this is what we've been waiting for, like, and I, and I begging the industry, right? That's that's finally make cats be worthy of its name, right? Maybe you could now actually make it Help. Help. You could have it designed now not not just document draft. So I think this is the, probably the most exciting time it's been in my in all my years.
Aaron Moncur:How close do you think we are to? Had being deserving of its name, and what are some of the companies who are at the forefront of that advancement?
Roopinder Tara:Is there anyone?
Aaron Moncur:Or yeah, maybe that's the question. Is there?
Roopinder Tara:I find myself impatient with companies because, okay, so in the last few years, last two years, where AI has become a thing and it's on everyone's lips, it, it, it's my my impatience is starting to show more, because they're not. I don't think any company is adopting fast enough, not fast enough for me. I want things to change in my lifetime, right? So I want to be able to say, hey, hey cat, make me. Make me something to fit this motor on this chassis, right? Instead of trying to make the bracket, I want it to be able to do that right? Big picture, let's say I want to make this a can make this car electrified, right? So that that, to me, is like what CAD should be doing, right? But let's go. Let's go step smaller. Let's say, I say, I just want people a CAD to help me make a part that's maybe somewhat optimized and and I know CAD companies, I've been trying to sell not just me but the whole industry on, hey, we make lightweight parts. For like, 10 years, we've been hearing about light weighting parts by, uh, topology optimization. And they are, yeah, they are. Those are the lightest parts you could imagine. But they don't work. But they don't work, and they look goofy, and they can only be made in 3d printing at all the time. I'm thinking that's not really an optimized parts in all respects. So please don't try to sell us as sell that as computer design either. I want. I want when I make a part, let's say a bicycle frame, I I know that the that the the that its members ought to be too blue, they ought to be, because tubes just work. Tubes are great in torsion. They're great in progression and tension, right? There's a reason why bicycle frames are made out of tubes, right? But if you give this job to a topology optimization program or generative design program, it, it comes out with this awful blobby, ugly shapes or, and, well, I've issued a challenge to these CAD companies to say, Hey, make AI work for us. Don't try to give us topology optimization or gender design. Blobby shapes I can't use that don't work. How about if he just helped me position the tubes in a way that I think is the lightest frame could couldn't I get it to do that, right? Could I have what would you call it, parametric optimization, right? They change some parameters, and it's the best arrangement of those members, right? Or if I'm making if you apply it to another discipline, hey, if I'm making a wall, why don't you understand that it's our I'm where I live. You have my position, right? You know the codes that are in place. You know what? Which how the two by four should be spaced? Know all that? I'll just draw the line. Why don't you figure out everything else, right? Fill in all the details for me, the details, right? Yeah, that's the kind of thing that I hope the industry will like, realize engineers don't need we no engineer is going to say, build me a house or build me a car, right? Engineer just says, Hey, give me some help along the way. Don't make me do the Drudge work. Don't make me do 100 permutations of different geometry so I get it just perfect, right? Do that part. I'll do that big system approach. I'll, I'll make fun product, right? Give me, give me some assistance. So I'm working with a few trying to advise them, right, that this is how CAD should work. Because I honestly, I think that they're having a difficult time with all the pressure they have to, like, make use AI. Everyone's telling them, Hey, use AI, their their See, their CEOs are saying, hey, hey, programmers, coders, put AI in the program. Their public is saying, hey, I want AI in here, because I heard it's great. And their investors are saying, Hey, I have chat. GPT is making a ton of money, right? Billy. Is, why don't we use stuff like that, right? So they get pressure from all sides. But I'm trying to play engineering engineers advocate and say, you know, this is what I really want engineers to to. This is what engineers really want in in design products, design assistance, not essentially for self driving, for soft design, right? Yeah, incremental
Aaron Moncur:steps, because let's go back to publishing real quick. Just a few more minutes, and then we'll wrap it up. As a journalist, you have inherently a lot of power and responsibility, because the things that you write can really influence and shape industries. How did you decide what to write about during your your career in technical journalism?
Roopinder Tara:Yeah, that's that's a good question, and that's a it's in publishing. You asked me before what, what was difficult to deal with in publishing. And one of the things that you thought about now, because you asked the question, one of the things I I sort of, or should I say, became disillusioned with publishing for, was that you couldn't always write about things you thought were important, right? I felt like I had an intrinsic knowledge of what engineers wanted to read or hear about. Because I was an engineer, I had this misconception, or should I say, conceded view, that if I wanted, if I was interested, other engineers are going to be interested. And I sort of took that to to the publishing world. I said, Hey, this, let's write about this, because it's, it's interesting stuff that is cool stuff engineers are going to read. We'd want to read about it. But that wasn't always coming. What came out, what came out was be right about this, because this is what our advertisers are doing, right and and there was a lot of this has been, I think traditionally, business to business. Publishing is one may be too strong a word, but is influenced quite a bit by advertisers. So editors, no matter how principled they are, have to sort of be knowledgeable of that pressure, and sometimes succumb to that pressure they don't write whatever they want. It's like if, if Company X is a big advertiser, you have an obligation to them because of that advertising, to cover their products. So you might want to write about an up and coming CAD company, for example, but your publisher may not like that, because you have to. You have a big CAD company that I won't mention any names here. You have big cat company that's advertising with you. So yeah. So that was it. But now I honestly feel like I can write about things that I want to do that, because I don't accept advertising so, so that can now decide, and again, it's based on if I if I think it's cool, right? If I think it's interesting. Other engineers here too, not sure that's working with, but
Aaron Moncur:Well, let's, let's, um, let's wrap it up on that point, and maybe you can tell us just a little bit about where can we go to see what Roopinder thinks is cool and is writing about, we talked about the wave already, but you have another platform that you're working on. Right?
Roopinder Tara:My new platform is, and it's only three less than three months old. Is EngTechnica so E N G for engineering and Technica technical So, EngTechnica.com that's my latest state partnering with you are that's also this, this new, this new venture.
Aaron Moncur:Awesome. All right. Well, everyone check out EngTechnica, and, of course, the wave as well. We hope to see you there. Roopinder, thank you so much for being a guest on the being an engineer podcast. What a pleasure it was to have an opportunity to interview you and bring your story to the community of engineers that listen.
Roopinder Tara:Thanks, Aaron, thanks for having me.
Aaron Moncur:I'm Aaron Moncur, founder of pipeline design and engineering. If you liked what you heard today, please share the episode to learn how your team can leverage our team's expertise developing advanced manufacturing processes, automated machines and custom fixtures, complemented with product design and r&d services. Visit us at Team pipeline.us. Today. Join a vibrant community of engineers online visit the wave.dotengineer, thank you for listening.
