What is your favorite engineering project you've worked on?

My favorite projects have always been the ones that I truly believe in the technologies or the ideas. And the least favorite are the ones that I didn’t believe in the technologies but tried to stubbornly move them along instead of stopping the projects at early stages. If you or your team don’t believe in the technology, the project cannot be successful.

I have learned that if there is an unknown reason why I don’t enjoy the project, I need to ask myself why and be very honest with myself. If the issues are solvable then try to solve them as best as possible. If not, it is better to stop the project early and spend your valuable time on another project and/or the next project.

My favorite engineering projects are Interdisciplinary projects. Learning other people’s language and approaches to the same problem but from a different perspective is exciting and helps to broaden my own perspective.

When there is a project I don’t like, it is mostly because of other people working on the same project but with less excitement or engagement. When I experience that, I try to focus on the exciting parts of the project and do my best to deliver my part of the project as quickly and well as possible.

My favorite engineering project was when I was in the Navy 1996. Most of you will not even think this is impressive due to technology today. This was before everyone had a cell phone and computers were monstrously heavy. I was deployed to Whidbey Island Naval base (Washington State) along with 2 civilian employees and 4 other Navy sailors for 3 months.

I didn't engineer the project we did, but it was the catalyst that peaked my interest in engineering. We pulled 5 miles of fiber to various buildings around the base. We ran electrical lines and I learned how to bend conduit. We set up a LAN system on the base and a video conference center for the Admiral. Remember this was before Zoom, SnapChat, and FaceTime.

Days were long, but we were in an apartment style hotel. So evenings were cooking on the grill or eating out at the local restaurants as we were not near any common restaurants. I forged lifelong friendships and experiences in those three months, and I learned about all different types of technology, both hardware, software, and security.

Upon completion all the Navy personnel were awarded a Navy - Marine Corp Achievement Ribbon and recognized by the base Admiral. The civilian employees who led us all got a $10,000 bonus. On that day, I decided at 10 years I was done with the Navy and going to pursue a career in Telecommunication Engineering.

This is a tough one with so many projects with so much variety. I’d say one of my favorite projects was the Thaden Field House in Bentonville, AR. The reason I enjoyed it was that the architectural aspects of the building really challenged us structurally to find solutions for their vision. Additionally we incorporated a large variety of materials. The roof structure is large glulam beams, the 2nd floor included steel and concrete with large interior and exterior cantilevers. The foundations are all concrete and we had miscellaneous light gage and concrete masonry throughout the project. It’s a beautiful building and a great community building for the area to enjoy.

I’ll be honest there aren’t really any projects I don’t like, there are just some that are more difficult than others. This is typically due to poor communication between the design team and the contractor. The only thing you can do is work hard to be a team player despite the challenges to achieve the ultimate goal for the owner.

I changed the ‘favorite’ to ‘most rewarding’ project. For me, my most rewarding project was the one that challenged me the most, had full support of the leadership and the team, and made me most humble. I was a leader of the 787 Avionics Team; this was most rewarding and difficult job I had.

I read an article in HBR that discussed types of jobs that women apply to compared to men. Women apply for jobs that they are fully qualified for. This makes things stagnant, and it could even get boring. It is difficult to get the next promotion since additional skills are not acquired through the process. Make sure to look for a position/projects that can showcase your abilities as well as give you an opportunity to acquire new skills (technical or soft).

We don’t always have a choice in the projects that we work on. If you don’t like a project, try to really understand what aspects of it you don’t like so you can articulate it in the future. With that, I truly believe that there is something to learn from each project; I certainly feel this way about all the projects I have been engaged in for the last 30 years. Find something you can contribute, practice, and/or learn from the project. It could be technical and/or soft skills. Be intentional. This will give you needed motivation and look for a positive outcome.

My favorite project was engineering the first long distance Fiber Optic cable which included an underwater fiber optic cable crossing. It was the very first long distance fiber optic. I had to do the research on the properties of the fiber and the electronics to determine the loss at each splice, as there were no guidelines at the time. It was exciting to work with environmental protection organizations for the underwater crossing, sending the cable out to prepare it for underwater installation, and watching the ship and divers place the cable - from the ship.

I will try to look for a learning opportunity on a project that I don’t like. Every engineering project is different. You may have challenges because there are no published guidelines and you have to do a lot of research, you may run into teams, organizations, or people that doubt your skills/designs. You learn how to overcome either challenging designs or people. Just remember, every project is different and every project has a learning opportunity.

A favorite engineering project of mine was trying to figure out how to use a biodegradable polymer (plastic) that my company produced in biodegradable packaging peanuts. My company’s polymer was a biproduct for a main product produced and my team was trying to figure out if we could use this polymer biproduct somewhere else to make money for the company instead of burning it in a waste stream.

I was charged with figuring out if our polymer would work to make biodegradable packaging peanuts and if so, what the recipe would look like (how much of our polymer would be needed in the ingredients) and what would the process be (temperature, pressure, etc. for manufacturing the packaging peanuts). I got to work with all kinds of different potential customers across the country, try out all kinds of different recipes and processes, and figure out a testing method to determine if our polymer produced usable and biodegradable packaging peanuts.

Turns out our polymer did not work well in this market and the project ended up getting canceled. I loved the process of figuring it all out and problem solving throughout the project, even though it failed in the end. I got 2 patents for our work on the manufacturing process and learned a lot about the trial and error engineering design process when exploring how to use a product in a new market or system.

If you have to work on a project you don’t like, there is still likely some skill or knowledge you can gain through the work. It is hard to find a job or a college major or a classroom or work experience where you love 100% of everything about it. Sometimes you just have to power through and get it done.

But if you can find that one positive thing or future benefit to focus on, that can help if the rest of the project or work. For example, perhaps you don’t enjoy writing but your project requires writing a report. Maybe focus on concise writing as a skill to improve or focus on figuring out your best process or time of day or technology tools for writing so that you can more easily tackle writing projects in the future. Figure out one thing as a current or future positive for you and then press on to get it done.

From aircrafts to spaceships, I’ve been fortunate to work on various projects throughout my career. My favorite engineering project has been designing the cabin and crew windows for Virgin Galactic’s next-generation Delta spaceships. From early concepts, my team and I worked on determining the shape and size of our spaceship windows, and how to place the windows within the cabin for our customers to have the best view of space! This project was one of my 1st projects that I led from early stages of concept to finalizing 3D models used for manufacturing and final assembly for the spaceship. It’s allowed me to work with so many great engineers along the way and truly has been a blast!

My favorite engineering project was associated with my graduate research. I was trying to improve the accuracy of aircraft models under failure conditions (like if one of the control surfaces on the airplane would get stuck and no longer be able to move). My goal was to develop more accurate models that could be incorporated into what are known as fault-tolerant flight control systems to improve flight safety of both crewed and un-crewed aircraft.

This project was my favorite for several reasons. First, it was my first independent research project where I was responsible for ultimately determining the right path forward and executing. Second, it was my first opportunity to conduct flight testing with unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), which allowed me to work with both hardware and software and experience the challenges you face when conducting experiments. And finally, it was all about the why for me. The goal of my research was to continue to improve the safety of air travel, which was why I became an engineer in the first place – to have a positive societal impact.

Since then, I have worked on projects I have absolutely loved and some that I have not enjoyed as much. If you are on a project that you do not enjoy, I have found it is important to understand what you do not enjoy about it. Is it the technical area you are working in? Is it the project cadence? Something else? Are there opportunities for changes where you might enjoy the project more? This information is useful as you determine your next steps on both the project and what you would like to focus on in your career.

It is also important to consider how long the project is and how long you expect to be working on it. All of this information is helpful as your next step should be to socialize this with your supervisor. If it is a relatively short project (say, 3-6 months), are you able to complete it and move onto other projects?

If your role was intended to be longer-term or you need to transition off of it more quickly, I would work with my supervisor to see if there might be an opportunity to train someone else on the project and for you to transition to something else. Communication is key here - it is important to work with leadership to help train someone else up and transition you off. Additionally, by understanding what you do and do not enjoy about it will help your supervisor align you to work that might be a better fit in the future.