My road to becoming an engineer

Nicholas VickersCalifornia Polytechnic State University

9/10/08

My Educational Path• James Logan HS

2000-2004

• Chabot College 2004-2007

• Cal Poly 2006- …….

04/21/23 2Chabot Engineering Guest Talk

Why Chabot?

• Cost effective• Has Engineering• Close to home• I could work part time to help pay for school• Could finish General Education easily

04/21/23 Chabot Engineering Guest Talk 3

What I did at Chabot

• Competed two seasons on the Swim team

• Played one season of waterpolo

• Joined EAC (Engineering at Chabot club)

• Finished half of my GE and most all of my Pre-reqs

04/21/23 Chabot Engineering Guest Talk 4

Transfering

• Used www.assist.org

• Called transfer counselor at Cal Poly

• Took the required classes to transfer to Cal Poly. (Math 1-6, Physics 4a,b,c, Engineering 45)

04/21/23 Chabot Engineering Guest Talk 5

Cal Poly• Best in the West for`

undergraduate engineering

• 3rd in Forbes “Top Public Colleges for Getting Rich”

• Small student to teacher ratio• “Learn by doing” hands on

approach to learning

04/21/23 Chabot Engineering Guest Talk 6

What is Materials Engineering?

04/21/23 Chabot Engineering Guest Talk 7

physicsChemistyEngineering

Structure

Properties

PerformanceProcessing

Me and Mat.E.

• Found out about Mat.E. from physics professor at Chabot

• Researched the field– Starting salary, and mean salary– Types of jobs– Types of fields within Mat.E.

• Also talked to other MatEs and guest speakers to get an idea of what its like

04/21/23 Chabot Engineering Guest Talk 8

Materials engineering jobs• Metallurgist• Ceramicist• Polymer engineer• Design engineer• Testing engineer• Advaced R&D• Failure Analysis• Corrosion engineer

04/21/23 Chabot Engineering Guest Talk 9

• Microsystems engineer• Nanotech engineer• Biomedical engineer• Composites engineer• Process designer• Structural Engineering• Optical and photonics • And many many more….

Some Projects

• Solar water heater at the Scitechatorium

• Optical filter measurement system

• Total Lumbar disk Arthroplasty

• Phase change computer memory

04/21/23 Chabot Engineering Guest Talk 10

Solar water heater• A real client

• A real need

• Many real solutions

• One final design

• One built system

04/21/23 Chabot Engineering Guest Talk 11

The user

04/21/23 Chabot Engineering Guest Talk 12

The need

04/21/23 Chabot Engineering Guest Talk 13

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

9:30 10:16 11:06 12:30 1:30

Water Usage(L)

The system

04/21/23 Chabot Engineering Guest Talk 14

• User needs

• Functional Requirements

• Design

• Manufacture

Filter measurement System

04/21/23 Chabot Engineering Guest Talk 15

Riser

Pour Cup

Total Lumbar disk Arthroplasty

• Need

• Requirements

• Design

• Test

04/21/23 Chabot Engineering Guest Talk 16

Phase Change Memory

• Honors Research project

• Worked with graduate students on fabricating and testing a new technology

• Went to Chicago to give a poster presentation on the research

04/21/23 Chabot Engineering Guest Talk 17

How it works

04/21/23 Chabot Engineering Guest Talk 18

Technical Conference

• Society of Vacuum Coaters 41st annual conference

• Won best poster of the Techcon

• Made some connections, got job offers

• Walked all around down town Chicago

04/21/23 Chabot Engineering Guest Talk 19

04/21/23 Chabot Engineering Guest Talk 20

Thank you!!!Any Questions?

04/21/23 Chabot Engineering Guest Talk 21