# S2E12 What It’s Like Being A 40 Year Engineering Veteran At The Same Company | Bill Atterbury

- Show: [Being an Engineer](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/being-an-engineer)
- Published: 2021-03-12
- Length: 45m
- Episode: 12
- Page: https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/being-an-engineer/2021-03-12-s2e12-what-its-like-being-a-40-year-engineering-veteran-at-the-same-company-bill
- Listen: https://teampipeline.us/what-its-like-being-a-40-year-engineering-veteran/

## Summary

Bill Atterbury, a 40-year engineering veteran at Battelle, discusses his career designing medical devices, including insulin pens and auto-injectors, and the importance of process in engineering. He details his approach to brainstorming with facilitators and the evolution of design tools from punch cards to modern 3D CAD and FEA simulation using software like ANSYS. Atterbury also covers the shift toward connected health devices, such as on-body injectors for monoclonal antibodies, and the use of rapid prototyping technologies like Markforged printers for test fixtures.

## Chapters

- [0:00](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/being-an-engineer/2021-03-12-s2e12-what-its-like-being-a-40-year-engineering-veteran-at-the-same-company-bill#t=0) Introduction: Bill Atterbury and Battelle's History
- [2:58](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/being-an-engineer/2021-03-12-s2e12-what-its-like-being-a-40-year-engineering-veteran-at-the-same-company-bill#t=178) Battelle's Structure and Medical Focus
- [11:47](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/being-an-engineer/2021-03-12-s2e12-what-its-like-being-a-40-year-engineering-veteran-at-the-same-company-bill#t=707) Brainstorming Processes and Facilitation
- [24:45](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/being-an-engineer/2021-03-12-s2e12-what-its-like-being-a-40-year-engineering-veteran-at-the-same-company-bill#t=1485) Evolution of Design Tools: CAD and FEA
- [30:35](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/being-an-engineer/2021-03-12-s2e12-what-its-like-being-a-40-year-engineering-veteran-at-the-same-company-bill#t=1835) Materials and Rapid Prototyping with Markforged
- [36:23](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/being-an-engineer/2021-03-12-s2e12-what-its-like-being-a-40-year-engineering-veteran-at-the-same-company-bill#t=2183) Industry Trends: Connected Devices and On-Body Injectors
- [39:21](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/being-an-engineer/2021-03-12-s2e12-what-its-like-being-a-40-year-engineering-veteran-at-the-same-company-bill#t=2361) Overcoming Challenges and Failure Analysis

## Topics

- [Mechanical engineering](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/mechanical-engineering)
- [Prototyping & iteration](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/prototyping)
- [Medical & health devices](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/medical-devices)
- [EDA & CAD tools](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/eda-and-cad-tools)
- [Leadership, teams & culture](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/leadership-and-culture)
- [Debugging & failure analysis](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/debugging-and-failure-analysis)

## Most relevant to

established companies

## Mentioned

- Battelle (company)
- Pipeline Design & Engineering (company)
- ANSYS (tool)
- Markforged (tool)
- MATLAB (tool)
- McMaster (company)
- Fixture Works (company)

## Related episodes from other shows

- [144 - Auto-Injectors, Pen Injectors, Challenges in Product Development, Sponsors and CDMO's with David DeSalvo](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/lets-combinate/2024-07-10-144-auto-injectors-pen-injectors-challenges-in-product-development-sponsors-and) (Let's Combinate)
- [#470: The Real Cost of MedTech Innovation: From Idea to Pre-Production with Lisa Voronkova](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/global-medical-device-podcast/2026-09-22-470-the-real-cost-of-medtech-innovation-from-idea-to-pre-production-with-lisa-vo) (Global Medical Device Podcast)
- [An Interview with Matt Berggren](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/the-amp-hour/2019-12-16-an-interview-with-matt-berggren) (The Amp Hour)
- [453: Half Made Zippy-Something](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/making-it/2024-09-06-453-half-made-zippy-something) (Making It)
- [Episode 254: Inch everything along](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/making-it/2020-03-25-episode-254-inch-everything-along) (Making It)

## Citing this page

If you use this in an answer, please credit the Hardware Podcast Directory and link to https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/being-an-engineer/2021-03-12-s2e12-what-its-like-being-a-40-year-engineering-veteran-at-the-same-company-bill. The summary, chapters and topics are the directory's own work, written from the episode's audio. The episode itself, its title and its audio belong to Being an Engineer.