Representatives from a number of local companies such as Swagelok, Moen, and others come to Benedictine to give presentations to students interested in Engineering, followed up with question and answer sessions. These discussions are priceless opportunities for our young men to network with real engineers in the Cleveland community. These connections can lead to incredible opportunities for Project Real experiences and eventually possible internships during college. Any student interested in a career in engineering is highly encouraged to take advantage of these and other opportunities in the building related to studying the STEM subjects!
To learn more about our Engineering program, email Mr. Rob Ryan at ry**@cb**.edu.
Engineers: Jacqueline Sotraidis and Patrick Harvey
The engineering club was fortunate to have a teleconference with Jacqueline Sotraidis, a Propulsion Engineer @ Virgin Orbit and Patrick Harvey, a Systems Engineer @ Virgin Orbit. The two engineers provided lots of information about opportunities in engineering, what Virgin does, why it is important and answered questions.
April 2018: Jim Kooser '74
Jim Kooser, ’74 was the guest speaker for the Engineering Club this month. He described his career path and presented an overview of his job as an ecologist. He explained the steps and concerns to fix Martin Luther King Boulevard. After questions and answers, he led the students through an experiment about erosion and contamination using soil, rocks, sticks and water to measure turbidity.
Turbidity is defined as the cloudiness or haziness of a fluid caused by large numbers of individual particles that are generally invisible to the naked eye, similar to smoke in air. The measurement of turbidity is a key test of water quality. The results were pretty visible but using a turbidity tube the students were able measure the water clarity.
October 18, 2017: Nancy Uridil
On Wednesday, October 18, 2017, the Engineering club was fortunate to have Nancy Uridil share her experiences as a Civil Engineer with Proctor and Gamble and Clinique and Moen with our group. Nancy’s career in engineering spanned forty years in many global cross functional consumer products. It also included quality and product development engineering and management positions. She currently sits on several Boards. It was clear that Nancy loved her jobs and that her degree in Civil Engineering from Purdue provided her with many opportunities. Engineering credentials opens many doors.
September 20, 2017: Mr. Gregory Kalata
On Wednesday, September 20, 2017, the engineering club was fortunate to have Mr. Gregory Kalata share his experiences as an Engineer with Swagelok with our group. Greg is a lead engineer and loves his job leading a team of cross functional engineers on multiple projects. Greg shared his perseverance with our group and explained his ten-year path to earning an Engineering degree at Cleveland State. Greg showed our students a video about Swagelok that emphasized Swagelok’s global reputation of Quality and Innovation. They have a lifetime warranty on their parts, have over 400 United States patents, and 290,000 unique end items.
November 9, 2016: Mr. Leo Adams
The Engineering club was fortunate to have Leonard J. Adams, (Leo) from Swagelok speak to our group. Leo shared his path and experience as a Mechanical Engineer, (ME), Technical Manager, and Business Leader with the group.
Mr. Adams earned his ME degree from Cleveland State University and his Masters of Business Administration from Indiana Wesleyan University. He is currently a Human Resource Manager at Swagelok and is transitioning to a Plant Manager position, here in Solon next month.
October 26, 2016: Dr. Majid Rashidi, P.E.
The Engineering club was fortunate to have Dr. Majid Rashidi, P.E., the Betty L. Gordon Distinguished Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Cleveland State University, (CSU) speak to the club. Dr. Rashidi shared his path and experience as a Mechanical Engineer, (ME), Technical Manager, Educator and Business Leader with the group.
Dr. Rashidi earned his ME degree, Masters in Mechanical Engineering and Ph. D in ME from Case Western Reserve University.
September 7, 2016: Mr. Nick Barendt
The Engineering club was fortunate to have Mr.Nick Barendt speak at our first meeting of the school year. Mr. Barendt is the Director of Studio and Labs at LeanDog; Founding Curator, Cleveland Hub of the Global Shapers Community and Adjunct lecturer at and a member of our extended Benedictine family. He shared with the students his path and experience as an Electrical Engineer, (EE), Technical Manager, Educator and Business Leader.
Mr. Barendt earned his Electrical Engineering & Applied Physics degree and Masters in Electrical from Case Western Reserve University. He works at Case as an adjunct professor, teaching EE & Computer Science courses and Introduction to C Programming.
He also shared the limitless opportunities and career options available with an EE degree, stressing the importance of math, computers, physics, communications and networking.
Mr. Barendt invited all to a “Meet-up” to “Make-on-the-Lake” hosted by LeanDog.
RSVP at: http://www.meetup.com/Make-on-the-Lake/
Event takes place on Thursday, September 22, 2016 at 5:30 PM
Let’s get together and *make* stuff. Make-on-the-Lake wants anyone who is creating and learning — hobbyists, makers, hackers, students, engineers, others. We play with Arduinos, 3d printers, Kinects, drones, Raspberry Pis, wearables, music, art, and whatever else we can get our hands on. We’ve got tools, we’ve got toys and we’re building weird stuff. Come down and build with us.
September 9, 2015: Joe Gorley ’89
Mr. Gorley is a 1989 graduate of Benedictine High School. He attended the University of Dayton where he received his Bachelor’s Degree. Mr. Gorley has over 20 years of experience working with Swagelok and there he has help numerous engineering and leadership roles.
October 7, 2015: Jonathan Taylor
Mr. Taylor works for GrafTech International, a global company specializing in the graphite industry. As an R&D Project Engineer with GrafTech, Mr. Taylor helps the company with development of applications for graphite in a multitude of industries.
Photo courtesy of Jeff St.Clair and WKSU
November 11, 2015: Erinn Fahey
On Wednesday, November 11, 2015 the engineering club was fortunate to have a local Holy Name graduate, Erinn Fahey came back to Cleveland to share her experiences as a Civil Engineer. Erinn works in Detroit Michigan at Wade Trim. She is a Loyola University Chicago (Physics) and Lawrence Tech (Civil Engineering) graduate with a passion for “caring for our common home”. Her field of specialization is Water Resources.
December 9, 2015: Stephanie Vivod
Stephanie Vivod spoke to the Engineering Club at Benedictine High School on December 9th, 2015. She is a NASA Scientist with a Chemical Engineering degree and is currently completing her Doctorate in Polymer Material Science.
She asked our students to challenge themselves. “Preparation meets opportunity”. You need strong science and math, an eagerness to learn, an appreciation of art and design and employability, communication and computer skills.
She also discussed opportunities for NASA shadowing events and summer internships for high school and college students.
January 20, 2016: John Kreft
The Engineering and Design Speaker series was honored to have John Kreft, the Director of Engineering and Product Development at the Gebauer Company speaks to our students about the opportunities in Packaging Engineering. He provided his perspective that education opens doors and that all engineers are responsible to provide safe products that solve problems.
He stressed that engineers:
- Are called upon to make things more efficient, quicker and cost effective
- Gain experience through on the job training
- Work hard to be a good communicators (public speaking and good writing)
- Understand that if it’s important to do it – It’s important to do it well
- Constantly learn – Education is a lifelong skill
- Understand how business works
- Face unexpected challenges
- Work in teams with Bright People
John’s final advice to our students was to go to college with their “eyes wide open”, be involved and learn CAD.
February 16, 2016: Dave Pierson
The Engineering and Design Speaker series was honored to have Dave Pierson, an Additive Manufacturing Expert from the Manufacturing Advocacy and Growth Network, (MAGNET) speak to our students about the field and opportunities of 3D Printing. The 3D Printing industry is a $22 billion dollar industry with growth projections in the 20-35% range.
Mr. Pierson addressed the students and provided a brief history of 3D Printing, explained the major types of 3D printing, the way things are built by layers, how 3D printing allows for mass customization, and savings potential for prototyping. He discussed the challenges of optimizing designs for an “Ideal Final Result”. The students had the opportunity to examine dozens of 3D printed parts of varied materials and processes.
He encouraged our students to be inquisitive, to always keep learning, to be good problem solvers. He stressed the opportunity to take advantage of the opportunity to learn CAD and design.
March 9, 2016: Tiffany Dux
On Wednesday, March 9, 2016, the engineering club was fortunate to have Tiffany Dux share her experiences as a Materials Engineer with a specialty focus in Metallurgy. Tiffany works at Alcoa Forgings ad Extrusions at Alcoa. She is a Purdue (Materials Engineering) and Case Western Reserve (Masters of Materials Engineering) graduate with a passion for breaking things and sharing her talents.
Tiffany shared her love of engineering, her path to a successful career and demonstrated the material principles of forging, extrusion and tensile strength. This was a great follow-up to the EDDS tour of the local Alcoa plant.
She answered many questions from our students and stressed the importance of finding something you are passionate about and direct your studies toward that goal. She also shared the importance of Problem Solving as a baseline for everything that is engineered, Decision Making, working hard with a Moral fiber, the sense of Teamwork and family in the manufacturing workplace, Communication and the ability to learn new skills and adapt.
She also shared a couple on interesting facts about aluminum:
- 75 % of all aluminum manufactured is still in use.
- The Washington Monument cap was made out of Aluminum. (The 1884 price of aluminum was approximately $1 per ounce, the same as the then prevailing market price of silver, which was considered a precious metal. In 1884 the wage of a laborer on the Washington Monument was $1 per day for 10 + hours of work. )
- The soda can in your fridge will return to your fridge in 30 days from the time you recycle it, so pitch in.