1. What is your title?
Senior Customer Support Engineer
2. How long have you been working for Invensys?
6 years
3. Where did you go to school and what degree(s) do you have?
Rowan University (Glassboro, NJ) – BS Chemical Engineering 2006, BA Music 2006, Math Minor
4. Why did you choose to go for those degree(s)?
I started off as a piano performance major. When I realized that I would struggle to live and support a family working as a musician, I decided to double major. I had an interest in genetics and genetical engineering, and got into chemical engineering thinking it was the closest thing to that which Rowan offered. I was obviously misinformed, but I grew to love chemical engineering and decided to stick with it.
5. Why did you come to work for Invensys?
I was fresh out of college and mainly just looking for someone to give me a chance. I liked the position of technical support because it offered me a chance to interact with customers of many different backgrounds, use my teaching experience as a piano teacher, and I always had a knack for simulation software in college.
6. Tell us about the toughest case you ever handled.
The toughest case I ever handled was a PRO/II case where I had to upgrade the file from an older version of PRO/II to a newer version. The model was extremely complicated with about 25 columns and several controllers, and everything was perfectly tuned such that individual tolerance values were fine tuned to specific values. Because of how finely tuned the model was, it was extremely sensitive to any changes in the program or the model, so upgrading from one version to another and having nothing change but defaults within the program and internal changes to thermos and other methods caused the model to no longer converge. After weeks of troubleshooting and a lot of help from some colleagues, we got the model converged, but it was no easy task and this was just one of many files that needed to be upgraded.
7. What is one common error that people can avoid making in their simulation?
Double check everything you enter into the program. The most common error in process simulation is when a user enters the wrong value or an incorrect unit of measurement. Always double check your work.
8. What is your favorite part of your job?
Helping people out. When a customer says “thank you” because I helped him with a problem, it makes it all worthwhile. Teaching is also part of this. When I can teach a customer something he didn’t know before and they feel better knowing that what I taught them is going to make their life easier, that’s a great feeling.
9. What would you say to someone considering Chemical Engineering?
It is extremely tough to be a chemical engineer, but the reward is worth it. If you like a challenge, this is the job for you.
10. What do you like to do in your spare time?
Everything! I spend a lot of time with my family and friends, including my two dogs. I play piano professionally part-time. I like to work out and I play several sports, my favorite being soccer. I enjoy a lot of hobbies, including archery, cooking, fantasy football, sailing, scrapbooking, and video games, to name a few. I love following the entertainment industry and am known for watching just about every major TV show or movie that comes out.
11. Tell us something interesting about yourself that others may not know.
I am a member of Phi Kappa Psi fraternity and I am President of my chapter’s housing corporation. I also serve the fraternity on a national level as the Director of Scholarship.
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