Chemical Engineering Overview - Overview PDF - PowerPoint - Podcast

Todd Edgington

Systems Engineer
Genentech
San Francisco, CA

	B.S. - Chemical Engineering, University of California, San Diego
	Automation Engineer
	"Learn how to write clearly. Also, public speaking is something you'll need to learn how to do."

"What an automation engineer does is the design of those computer systems to control manufacturing process. I spend most of my time documenting requirements. You have to put in words how a certain system works. You have to write down you should do this at this time; you should open this valve at this time. When the temperature hits this point, you should open this valve and begin cool down and you need to transfer products to this vessel."


Q: What is an automation engineer?
Edgington: At Genentech, we tend to automate our manufacturing processes, to a large degree, to enhance consistency and yields. What an automation engineer does is the design of those computer systems to control the manufacturing process.

Q: How is a chemical engineer involved in all this?
Edgington: What makes good control is determined by the process. So an understanding of the process is necessary to design a good control system.

Q: How did you get interested in chemical engineering?
Edgington: I took my first chemistry class when I was a junior in high school and I enjoyed it. I wanted a degree that was in engineering and that involved chemistry. So, naturally, when I looked through the catalog, I chose chemical engineering.

Q: What classes did you take in college that help you the most now?
Edgington: I have a bachelor's in chemical engineering. The classes I took in college that I'm using now are fluid dynamics-because how you pump fluids around is basically most of what Genentech does-as well as mass transfer, heat transfer, and a little bit of thermodynamics. On the electronic side, more towards electrical engineering processes would be C programming, real-time programming and concurrency, and basic electronics. Probably the most important classes I use right now are my philosophy classes. I took a lot of philosophy in school. The thing it teaches you to do is write well, and that's very important for engineers. Too many engineers I know do not write well. It makes interpreting their ideas somewhat challenging.

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