Minnesota Power - Laskin Energy Project

Yesterday, the Laskin Energy Project team had a design review with our client. The client contacts present were Kristopher Spenningsby and Eric Kunnari. In the design review, the team presented the progress made on the project, the next steps, and then worked through a couple hang ups. After showing the work accomplished on the user interface, efficiency calculation and corresponding instrumentation tags, components where discussed and a few changes made. Overall, the client was satisfied with the work accomplished, provided feedback on a couple components and stated the direction that they would like to see taken. The project is on track to finish November 24, 2010 one week ahead of the due date.

Paula Jackson

Last Thursday for the lunch speaker, we had Paula Jackson from BARR come and talk to us. Unlike the other speakers that we have had up until this point, she is not an engineer, but rather works in the HR department. In my opinion, she is the best speaker that we have had here. I learned a lot about the interviewing process, resumes and cover letters. Here are some things that we went over.

First, she told us that the slogan at BARR is "Solving clients' problems as if they are our own." This seems simple, but it gave me something to think about. Some of the projects that we have aren't the greatest projects and some people don't enjoy certain parts of the project...but then I thought of putting myself in my client's shoes. They gave us a problem to solve and they are relying on us to solve it. Even if it isn't the greatest or most interesting problem, it's still one that they need solved. We will run into these projects throughout our engineering careers, but we should put our best foot forward and do our best on these projects, regardless of our interest level.

Nick Esler volunteered to do a very short mock interview with her. She asked him a question about a group project that he worked on and how the project went. Once he told her what the project was, she continued to ask questions about the same project. After, she asked us what we thought the interviewer would've learned by asking the questions they do. Most of the time, they are looking for how well the interviewee works on a team, what parts of projects they are good at or enjoy the most. She also told us that the best way for them to predict future behavior is to look at the behavior. So BARR typically avoids asking "what would you do if.." type questions, and ask more of "tell me about a past experience that involved..." type questions.

Biggest Interview Stumbles:
1) Answering the question you wished they would've asked, instead of the question that they did ask (advice: if you know they won't like the real answer, tell them what you learned from the mistake or mishap)
2) No goals, visions, or job career plans when they ask (if you don't have any, just tell about classes/leadership/experiences that you do enjoy...they are usually looking for where you may end up in the company)
3) Not having specific questions about the company (good question is asking about the company structure like who is your direct boss)
4) Telling them you want the job for convenience of location
5) Don't assume you know which interviewer has "the power" (share attention/eye contact equally among the interviewers)
6) Don't portray yourself as an expert in something you have no knowledge
7) Poorly written/generic cover letter
Address the cover letter to: [company's] Hiring Manager or call and ask who to address it to
Use the cover letter to put resume in perspective
How it fits into the job description (this shows you've done some research about the job and company)


These are the main points that I learned from Paula Jackson.

I think these are key points that everyone should keep in mind when applying and interviewing for jobs.

Proofed By: Erin Lamke

Time Recording

One habit I've gotten into at IRE is recording what I do throughout the day. A lot of the responsibility of learning is put into our hands. It can be easy to lose track of what I need to do, or what I've been doing. If there is no rigid schedule, it's difficult to determine if enough work is put into concepts each day. With our ever-changing schedules, I don't work on the same things from day to day.

Shortly after we began learning our concepts, I started recording what was done and how much time was spent on these things each day. This has helped immensely in determining whether or not I've spent enough time towards my learning or if I've truly spent 40 hours a week working. This is also helpful to see how many hours I spent learning each competency, so I know how much more work to put into each subject before the end of the semester.

At previous schools, I never considered the importance of time documentation. This is just another example of how IRE has helped me develop new work habits that I wouldn't have practiced at other colleges.

Proofed by Matthew Korpela

Lean Production

All of us working on the GE project are down in Mankato this week at Midwest Electrical Products. It is the last week at the plant and we are to move a wire production line that will put it closer to its associated assembly and sub-assembly stations to help speed up the production flow while eliminating unnecessary inventory.

Throughout the process at our previous week here, we were asked to come up with different plans using lean production tools which are basically used to produce more and not waste. These tools developed by Toyota throughout the years include things such as:

· Value Stream Mapping

· Value and Non-Value added work

· Current State inventory/production

· Future State Inventory/production

· Spaghetti Diagrams

· Paper Doll Layouts (floor models)

We were given the opportunity to work with employees and management in more than one area of the plant and were faced with various decisions to make for the final move which will commence tomorrow AM.

Also included in our project is a possible design that will justify the elimination of an overhead crane used for loading wire cable spools on to feeding trees (first step before straighten/cut process). Although we have come up with a few different designs out of many ideas, it has for me personally become more apparent the best method is the crane that is currently used. We will all have to see what happens with that because moving it to the new production area is not an easy or cheap thing to do in a plant while it is operating.

Road side clean up

Two weeks ago on Tuesday, September 28th, 16 of us drove up to Gheen, MN to pick up the trash on our section of Adopt a Highway. All that participated, watched a mandatory safety video before we drove up there. The clean up went down without a hitch and was completed very quickly due to good planning and execution. It was a profitable trip for me since I found a dollar on the side of the highway. Why someone threw a dollar out the window of their vehicle is beyond me but I am not complaining. It was nice to get a chance to do something for the the community because they have done so much for our program. We plan to continue our volunteering and community service efforts through adopt a highway and other venues.


Proofed by: Matt Hudson Tyler Bartek

Is the glass half full, or half empty?

Well it's midterm time which means we are halfway through another semmester here at IRE. This can be seen as both a positive and a negative. On the bright side, we are halfway through another semester! That means eight weeks closer to graduating....(knock on wood). On the slighty not so bright side, we as a group only have eight weeks left to both learn a majority of our competencies and complete our projects. That is a scary thought. I personally am sitting around a learning completion percentage of around 30. That means I need to get moving in the near future. As the weather gets colder and colder, I realize I should take the helpful tip and stay inside to study more. I would just love to keep adding to this blog, but I should really get to studying heat transfer.

Proofed by: Carson Krueger

IRE Update 10-10-10

First off, sorry to all of our blog followers for the recent inactivity the past week. IRE students have been extremely busy and plan to be updating the blog daily again starting this week. Over the past week and a half students have had a tour at Caterpillar Paving Products Co. factory, enjoyed a Minnesota Twins game against the Blue Jays, completed a series of labs in Mankato, and been busy with project work.
The Caterpillar tour was given to us by Jeff Woelz. We toured their factory which produces over 55 models of road construction equipment. There were many engineering applications we saw at the tour. For example, Cat employees have Six Sigma Training and the plant has Lean manufacturing processes. What Lean manufacturing at Cat means: 1. At every station make an improvement 2. Move it in the straightest path possible. We were also told the fundamental engineering skills the company sees in good engineers. They included good communication skills, the ability to use computational data resources, projects and experience.
The Twins game was kicked off by a group meal at the Hard Rock Cafe in Minneapolis, which was within walking distance to Target Field. The Twins lost that night, but it was still a nice night to watch outdoor baseball. The highlight for the home team was a homer hit to center by Delmon Young.
The past week students participated in a labs with Dr. Tebbe in Mankato. The labs consisted of a pressure lab, heat transfer lab, pump lab, flowrate lab, and thermocouple lab. They dealt with the use of labview, a computer program used to collect data. Students are continuing to work on projects, with the GE team being down in Mankato at General Electric's plant.

proofed by Erin Lamke