 Jeffrey P.
Martin, P.E.
Product Design
Engineer
Ford Motor Company
Dearborn, MI
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 MS, Mechanical
Engineering, Washington University
BS, Mechanical
Engineering, University of Illinois
BA, Physics,
Augustana College |
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Product Design
Engineering, developing computer-based design tools used in
various Ford vehicle development programs; works in a team of
CAD specialists and engineers. |
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To broaden his
education, Jeff majored in Physics in a 3/2 engineering program,
transferring after three years into a mechanical engineering
program. |
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"A lot of the
courses that you have to take in school prepare you for thinking
about problems in a certain way even though you probably suspect
while you're in college that you're never going to use that
stuff. And some of it you won't, but problem-solving skills, you
always use those." |
Martin:
"I work on a
team that's about 15 people and it's made up of engineers and designers,
guys who are good at using CAD tools and regular engineers. If you're on a
vehicle program, you're generally working on a small part of the car. You
have to work with other people to make the whole car."
Q: Could you tell me a
little bit about what it's like to be a design engineer at Ford Motor and
what does your day consist of?
Martin:
Well, I guess you're part of a
team and usually your group is like ten, fifteen people. And you work on
various projects. You might be part of a vehicle program which is what I
did for the first two years here. And right now, I'm working in a group, a
core group, where we work with tools, helping the vehicle programs to do
their design work.
Q: Who makes up this team?
Is it all engineers?
Martin:
I work on a team that's about
15 people and it's made up of engineers and designers, guys who are good
at using CAD tools and regular engineers.
Q: How long do you work on
a project in general, years, months?
Martin:
It can be years. One of the
projects that I've been on since I came off the vehicle program that I was
on prior to this, I've been working on that project for about a year and a
half now.
Q: On this team, do you
work separately for a little while, then come together with them for ideas
or constantly work together? During the day, I mean, do you sit by
yourself on the computer? What is it like?
Martin:
It's a mix. I have to confer
with other group members to try and figure out how to do things and I'm
always working with the vehicle programs and the guys that are actually
designing the cars to help them to do their job better.
Q: Do you all work on a
whole car, or are you working on a specific part, and then each of you
works on a little part of that?
Martin:
If you're on a vehicle program, you're generally working on a small part
of the car. You have to work with other people to make the whole car. In
the area that I'm in, what we're working on are design tools to allow
general-vehicle design to be done. We are working on the program to
generate what's called a tire envelope. We follow the motion of the tire
as it goes into a turn, as it bounces up and down, and as it goes down the
road. We're simulating that to be used in design.
Q: When you say simulate,
are you doing all this on the computer or do you work with prototypes?
Martin:
In the past, it's been done
experimentally and what we're trying to do is develop the tools so that we
can do it all on the computer. And so it will be a lot quicker when we can
do that. We actually have programs in place on this project that can do
this right now. What we're trying to do with this project I'm on right now
is be able to simulate the movement of the wheel totally on the computer
without having to do testing to see whether or not the wheel will actually
interfere with the body structure.
Q: What's it like -- you
talked about your working on a car two years ago that will be out way in
the future. What's it like working on something so far in advance? I mean,
is it real to you?
Martin:
Sometimes you are totally
bound up in the world of your design, you know, it's all only on the
computer, and it takes a little while for the reality of it to, to come
on. It's a while in the vehicle program before they actually start making
parts that are car parts. The things that we see on the tube -- generally
it's a bunch of numbers or it's these simulations that are only lines or
presenting center lines of parts -- so sometimes it is pretty far from the
real thing.
Q: How did you get into
this? When you were studying engineering, did you always want to be in
this type of design or did you fall into it?
Martin:
Well, I've been in three
different areas. I was in actual design on the board for three years and
then I was doing testing for four years. And then I kind of got into this
computer-simulation area of engineering and that's what I'm in right now.
Q: Did you always know you
wanted to be a mechanical engineer?
Martin:
I kind of figured that out, I guess, when I was in high school, that I
wanted to be an engineer.
Q: What do you think about
engineering as a career?
Martin:
It can be really an
interesting, satisfying job. I've worked in design and I've worked
closer to production. And I think it's probably most satisfying to
be a little closer to production. That's probably what I'm going to
get back into eventually.
Q: You're speaking
directly to mechanical engineering students right now, what could
you tell them now that you wish you knew when you were in school?
Martin:
Well, a lot of the
courses that you have to take in school prepare you for thinking
about problems in a certain way even though you probably suspect
while you're in college that you're never going to use that stuff.
And some of it you won't, but problem-solving skills, you always use
those.
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