Recently I have been in close contact with many engineering, architecture, and construction hiring managers. The communication has revealed much and disappointed me on a number of occasions as [...]]]> I want to clear the air about something that has been problematic for years. I do not have the standard degree in my field.

Recently I have been in close contact with many engineering, architecture, and construction hiring managers. The communication has revealed much and disappointed me on a number of occasions as I seek a new employer.

It’s the BSME. Employers are fixated on this credential. Filtering talent based on the degree-type parameter is not always justifiable. The filter does not do justice to the tremendous personal capacity and energy I bring to help make things happen. I have not been lucky in my search, anyway.

There is a serious shortage of good engineer talent. I bring a capacity to handle and coordinate many varying and complex issues of building design and making them benefit all.

MEP design is complex, no doubt, and a great degree of trust and reliance is placed on the project engineer. I am intimately familiar with the design process. I know how to make a design constructable. I promote and enforce high efficiency (LEED certification and Energy Star rating), and otherwise, I always strive to deliver “high performance” solutions.

Experience is the great leveler. I want to make this perfectly clear. My 30 years of practical HVAC and electrical design and build experience is at least EQUAL to the knowledge gained from a 5-year BSME. I bring a lot more than a general engineering knowledge to the table.

So how did this happen? A: In my life, engineering curriculum’s were not available to me when I was ready, willing and able.

I went to college after high school expecting to be an architect. When I attended Miami U, the world was changing and so was I. I was not as great an architectural designer as I thought I was. By the time I graduated, many opportunities and assumptions that seemed inevitable at the beginning had vanished. After I graduated and took my first job as a controls design /draftsman, the path was clearly leading toward consulting engineers, HVAC and electrical design.

When I decided to go back to college for a second degree, in 1996, the electrical engineering (only) curriculum at University of North Florida was small, and seemed stifling. After much deliberation, I concluded that a wider study of information science was more relevant to my future. So the die was cast.

Certain states will not approve my application for licensure, citing my education not being adequate. I do not have a BSME (BS Mechanical Engineering), and my degrees are not both [...]]]> Stymied by details of education again!
I have devoted 30 years… to this field and still the issue of education comes up again and again.

Certain states will not approve my application for licensure, citing my education not being adequate. I do not have a BSME (BS Mechanical Engineering), and my degrees are not both accredited by the correct (EAC) commission of ABET(Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology). My first degree, a 1977 B.S. Environmental Design is not ABET. Ok, understood. On the other hand, my second degree, a 2000 B.S. Computer and Information Science, is ABET accredited, but by the OTHER [read: WRONG] commission (ABET/CAC), which someone decided, in a place far far away, a long time ago, was not an acceptable education for licensing a professional engineer.

NOT FAIR!

Being NCEES registered is not enough, to the surprise of many people.

Many companies need a professional engineer. I am available and ready sometime the question of location comes into play. 30 years of devotion to HVAC engineering counts for nothing in some states. Shame on them.

Here we see a big disconnect between the real world and the rules. The regulations and these firms that blindly follow, would rather have an individual with a BSME and 6 years of experience (to mess it up) than having one with (2) related science degrees and 30 years of directly relevant and professional engineering experience. Even with a superb resume.

Here I stand again, rejected one more time for this sorry excuse.

Building design and construction requires cooperation between a dozen or more actors.

There is an architect designing the overall [...]]]> A repeat/revisiting of The DEC 16, 2007 Blog entry. This one bears repeating because in this difficult economy, it is important to keep a perspective on the teamwork necessary to execute and implement a building.

Building design and construction requires cooperation between a dozen or more actors.

There is an architect designing the overall building. Another firm may do the mechanical, electrical, and plumbing design. Another firm does the civil design and still another firm does the structural.

5 design disciplines by 5 different designers.

Each one working on a separate set of documents.

Theoretically in synch.

We are committed to following and coordinating with the architects. To the nearest half inch, with the owners needs the priority. Nothing new there. Given schedule and productivity demands, it is good and necessary to design aggressively and quickly. Without knowing all the details. AHEAD of the architects design process. It is a designing with the end in mind, a a kind fast track, if you will. Often it seems to put the cart before the horse, but using experience and cooperation, we can and often do anticipate the architecture and the appropriate MEP solution ahead of time. I find this gains better agreement. But it certainly is a challenge.

The building design as a product. It’s a set of plans for a ‘thing’ that one can stand back and look at, an edifice; a concrete and steel object. But design occurs as a sequence of events or milestones, of course.

The architect must design with M/E/P spatial requirements already accounted for, because we tell them ahead of time. The early incorporation of HVAC mechanical and electrical needs are necessary. As the design progresses, all the pieces and details are accumulated and, hopefully, incorporated into the coordinated design. While we know the scale of needs almost from the git go, we must discover the optimal details as we go. Optimal equipment selections, piping and ductwork, so vital to constructability, only occurs AFTER a process of sharing information and coordinating between the disciplines.

This process, which is iterative, (known commonly by their names as schematic design, design development and construction document phases), increases the complexity of the design as it approaches the final state. The various disciplines refine their connections and physical placement more and more. Finally the result is the “construction documents”, a complete design. It must fully describe a biddable, constructable and functioning building. If we have correctly envisioned the product ahead of time we have successfully “designed with the end in mind”. However, we will often find out just how well or badly we did this during the construction phase, but thats a subject for another day.

Communication between the different players, especially when they are in different physical locations or different firms is a challenge. With the power of technology, such as the internet and CAD, we like to think progress has been made. However, in my opinion, nothing has really improved much since drafting pencils, mylar and blueprint machines were de rigeuer. As much as we would like technology to be an answer, its really about the people involved.

Sometimes I feel like MEP design is ignored, relegated to the back of the bus if you will. (Why is that MEP spec sections are the 15th, 16th and 17th sections in the old 18 section specifications book? A subject for another posting)

In the rush of reaching the construction document phase, the various players, architects and engineers, do not always stay in synch. How to make them tighter and resolve this issue?

A THEORETICAL APPROACH and SOLUTION

Commitment reinforced and Win-win results

Stephen R. Coveys book, The 8th Habit (Free Pess, 2004 ), in my opinion, is required reading for the design team. He said that successful team work includes of the following in the left side, with my reaction on the right.

 

Successful team work includes	What we can do to implement the left side
Focus on the wildly important	We do this already, under time demands. Now we just have to promote it.
Create a compelling scoreboard	Milestones come and go, the trick is to maintain it
Translate lofty goals into specific actions	Where leadership says "make it so".
Hold each other accountable all of the time	Need to work in tandem with mutual respect and commitment

Further, Covey says that a win-win agreement consists of several simple things.
In the context of multi-discipline coordination and integrated design, building
design should focus on these as well:

1. Desired results
2. Guidelines
3. Resources
4. Accountability
5. Consequences

(p. 286, ibid)

So what do we apply to the design team? All of the above. How?
Salemanship and persuasion of course. THAT is the challenge.

Sensorineural hearing loss occurs when there is damage to the inner ear (cochlea) or to the nerve pathways from the inner ear (retrocochlear) to the brain. Sensorineural hearing loss cannot be medically or surgically corrected. It is a permanent loss. Sensorineural hearing loss not only involves a reduction in sound level, [...]]]>

Sensorineural hearing loss occurs when there is damage to the inner ear (cochlea) or to the nerve pathways from the inner ear (retrocochlear) to the brain. Sensorineural hearing loss cannot be medically or surgically corrected. It is a permanent loss.
Sensorineural hearing loss not only involves a reduction in sound level, or ability to hear faint sounds, but also affects speech understanding, or ability to hear clearly.
Sensorineural hearing loss can be caused by diseases, birth injury, drugs that are toxic to the auditory system, and genetic syndromes. Sensorineural hearing loss may also occur as a result of noise exposure, viruses, head trauma, aging, and tumors.

Courtesy of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association web site.

This is an eye opener. At age 55, I am still learning about my hearing. I inherited my hearing loss. I have uncovered things on the Internet that I only suspected were possible about my hearing. I thought that a major part of my communication problems were a defect of character, and that my hearing aids were doing the job they were intended to do: “correct” my hearing. But it has also impacted on my relationships and defines who I am.

Now I know that hearing loss has impact way beyond the sound level or ability to hear the sounds of speech (called phonemes). Those are the consonants and vowels that make up word syllables. My hearing loss, like most, mainly cuts into the reception of consonants.

My wife says I have gone an amazing distance to get to this point. A little like Tiger Woods being a blind champion golfer.

AUDIOGRAMS
FYI, my audiogram has a common sloping loss that declines from -40 dB @ 60 Hz to -70dB @ 2000 Hz and higher

This means I can hear vowels decently, because they reside in the lower frequencies. But consonants are in higher frequencies. The F and the S sound are almost impossible to tell apart anymore, hearing aid or no. Many other consonants are equally tricky.

image courtesy of this blogger, Abbie, http://contradica.blogspot.com/

Hearing loss impacts understanding.
I had suspected this, but did not think that this was true in my case. But why, when I am alone with a few people or when I listen to the TV or radio, I can always hear and understand every word. I often struggle to hear with more people in the room. (Most public speakers or professional announcers do, in fact, speak and enunciate much better than the average Joe, which may explain this.

I am extremely intelligent, say those who know me and have met me. I know I can do most anything I set my mind to.

But no amount of intelligence can make up for the listening, hearing and comprehension handicap. Hearing aids are overrated. I was taught early on to believe that my disability was well resolved by the hearing aids. (Brainwashed is the word my wife uses)

I have my first audiogram from 1961, where a note says: “Patient is eager to wear the hearing aid, and no difficulty in adapting is foreseen.” At age 7, that may have been the last time I believed that a hearing aid would give me the ability to hear normally.
For years I have accepted what I was given. But I have gradually learned about my hearing through the Internet that hearing and hearing aids are generally problematic. I think many, if not most, people want to believe that hearing aids are a panacea.

If Wall Street bonuses totaled $18 billion but the industry showed a net loss of $35 billion, …[in New York]… does that mean bonus payouts will double next year if the industry loses $70 billion?

I suspected that they didn’t live in the same reality that we do, but now I know [...]]]> On Marketwatch.com, David Weidner asks:

If Wall Street bonuses totaled $18 billion but the industry showed a net loss of $35 billion, …[in New York]… does that mean bonus payouts will double next year if the industry loses $70 billion?

I suspected that they didn’t live in the same reality that we do, but now I know THEY ARE LIVING IN AN ALTERNATIVE UNIVERSE! They get a bonus for losing money?! WOW!

The higher the price, obviously the larger the financial incentive to save energy. Hardly an original concept. But prices have shot up so much that the finances have become somwhat more compelling [...]]]> Its amazing to see energy prices lately. Crude oil is twice what it cost one year ago.

The higher the price, obviously the larger the financial incentive to save energy. Hardly an original concept. But prices have shot up so much that the finances have become somwhat more compelling than the need for environmentally sustainable building.

Cutting energy use to conserve our environment is but one side of the green coin.

Many people do not know this and the media is still quite stuck on the pollution and global climate change issues. But the fact is, the financial incentive to save energy is going to be bigger than ever before.

I for one, have been expecting and waiting for this for 20 years. The lower energy prices of the last 20 years surprised me more than this does. Finally, we HVAC engineers will get some respect!

I am working on a short paper regarding the use of building information [...]]]> I have been very busy designing a 2000 horsepower high pressure steam plant and an 8 megawatt emergency generator plant for the new Fort Belvoir Va hospital project. I have also been busy taking care of my wife and my horses.

I am working on a short paper regarding the use of building information models and 3D CAD. The differences are not fully appreciated by the AEC community as a whole. BIM has made a lot of progress for architectural application but for mechanical there isnt much of anything, especially for equipment. We MEP (mechanical, electrical, and plumbing) engineers are concerned with equipment becuase that is what makes the systems go.

Alas, the only building items truly becoming integrated with MEP engineering is the energy model aspects regarding building envelope. Virtual models of equipment? Its going to be a long time before we see working computerized models of mechanical and electrical equipment. I’d like to invest in something like this, but I dont see any movement coming from the established software or hardware manufacturers. Not enough demand- perhaps like Rodney said,

“we ain’t getting no respect”

I will share the big DIFFERENCE by next week, April 10. See you then.

A case of “no respect’ for what is the hidden the walls and ceilings.

While I am on the subject of architectural design: [...]]]> 10-13% of the worlds energy. Why does the media pay so much attention to gasoline prices for transportation and not the electric prices used to heat and cool our buildings?

A case of “no respect’ for what is the hidden the walls and ceilings.

While I am on the subject of architectural design: some architects usually do not want to discuss HVAC until it really hits them in the face, after the design fails the energy conservation test.

Why is it that the press seems to focus on appearances rather than the substance?
We got our leaders, George Bush and the current no-substance congress: we chose our leadership on the basis of appearance, not substance. (I wonder what could have been if McCain had won in 2000?)

How about energy conservation? Lack of knowledge, lack of education, and a lack of true appreciation for the real costs. Why do the press write way more articles mentioning the price of gasoline compared to mentions of the price of electricity?

“No respect
Ignorance is bliss
Lets do as little as possible
to make it look good”

The price of natural gas is twice what it was 2 years ago. The bill is now like a slap in the face. Ignorance is expensive too!