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Being an Engineer

Aaron Moncur of Pipeline Design & Engineering talks with engineers and engineering leaders about mechanical design, product development, medical devices and what it takes to grow in an engineering career.

385 episodes · 292 hours · since 2020

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Being an Engineer is filed under engineering, product development, mechanical and interviews. Its most recent episode published on , so it is still actively publishing. Listeners have left 61 ratings on Apple Podcasts, averaging 4.8 out of 5.

Latest episodes

The 10 newest episodes of Being an Engineer, each with a summary and chapters.

  • · 45m

    Elad Einav | How To Engineer Covered Medical Device Stents

    Elad Einav, Co-Founder and CEO of Medibrane, a medical device CDMO specializing in polymer covers for stents, explains the engineering challenges of attaching membranes to metal scaffolds. He details the tradeoffs between traditional sewing, ePTFE sintering, and adhesive-assisted lamination, emphasizing that the covering process must be treated as a composite material design input from day one rather than a downstream manufacturing step. Einav shares examples of field failures, such as stent fractures where the covering remained intact, to illustrate why early integration of material selection, manufacturing processes, and regulatory strategy is critical for clinical success.

    Materials & manufacturing processesDesign for manufacturing & NPI
    6 chapters

  • · 1m

    PDX 2026 Starts Soon—Get Your Ticket Now

    This episode is a brief announcement for the PDX 2026 conference, scheduled for October 20-21 in Phoenix, Arizona. The host promotes the event as a practical training opportunity for engineers working on physical products, featuring hands-on sessions and technical conversations. The episode also encourages listeners to explore the podcast's archive of over 300 episodes for relevant engineering challenges.

    1 chapters

  • · 58m

    Matt Ketterer | The Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Episode

    Matt Ketterer, a Principal Controls Engineer at Pipeline Design & Engineering and a second-degree black belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, discusses his 20+ years of training with host Aaron Moncur. They explore how BJJ teaches that technique overcomes strength, the importance of tapping early to avoid injuries like torn ligaments and ACLs, and the psychological benefits of managing claustrophobia and stress through the sport. The conversation highlights the strong community bonds formed through shared struggle and the realization that narrowing focus to a few key moves accelerates learning and mastery.

    Industrial & consumer product designMechanical engineering
    11 chapters

  • · 43m

    Dakota Welker | User Needs, Design Inputs, Verification & Validation

    Dakota Welker, founder of Think MedTek, explains his four-phase product development methodology for medical device startups, emphasizing user needs, design inputs, verification, and validation. He details how he rescues stalled projects by clarifying scope and documentation, and describes a specific case where bringing manufacturing in-house and negotiating with multiple vendors reduced costs by 50%. Welker also discusses his transition from automotive and pneumatics to medical devices, his focus on CFD tools like Simscale, and the importance of balancing engineering rigor with client communication.

    Validation & product-market fitMedical & health devices
    8 chapters

  • · 54m

    Elif Miskioglu | The Science of How to Build Engineering Intuition

    Elif Miskioğlu, an Associate Professor of Chemical Engineering at Bucknell University, discusses her research on engineering intuition, supported by a $650,000 NSF CAREER Award. She defines intuition as the subconscious leveraging of prior experience and explains that it requires six to ten years of domain-specific expertise to develop reliably. Miskioğlu highlights the critical role of metacognition—knowing what you know and don't know—and the importance of psychological safety and reflection in accelerating this skill. She also warns against cognitive entrenchment, where experts might miss anomalies due to overconfidence.

    Careers & educationAI & machine learning
    7 chapters

  • · 1h 06m

    Antonio Valadez & Nate Post | Building Better Engineers Through Better Leadership

    Nate Post, Director of New Product Introduction at Edwards Lifesciences and founder of Blue Collar Blades, and Antonio (Tony) Valadez, founder of Nexcellence Engineering Solutions, discuss their mentor-mentee relationship and leadership philosophies within the medical device industry. They explore how Tony helped Nate refine his authentic leadership style rather than copying his own, emphasizing the importance of psychological safety, vulnerability, and shielding teams from upper-management stress during critical production phases. The conversation highlights specific decisions, such as shutting down a production line to fix procedural safety issues, and the value of providing constructive feedback that helps engineers grow without discouraging them.

    Leadership, teams & cultureCareers & education
    10 chapters

  • · 36m

    Jacob Evink | From CAD to Mechanical Curiosity: Student Engineer Spotlight

    Jacob Evink, a mechanical engineering student at Western Michigan University, discusses his journey from high school manufacturing classes to working in a high-volume injection molding factory. He details the design and construction of a four-axis robotic arm using an ESP32 microcontroller and stepper motors, highlighting the trial-and-error process of electronics integration. Evink also shares his perspective on using AI tools like ChatGPT for coding assistance and the importance of documenting failures publicly on Instagram to build an engineering portfolio.

    Prototyping & iterationMicrocontrollers & dev platforms
    9 chapters

  • · 47m

    Robert States | How Engineers Can Thrive in Corporate R&D

    Rob States, Vice President of Technical Services at Cormica and founder of AccelaTech, discusses how engineers can thrive in corporate R&D by understanding the business realities of risk management, budgeting, and layoffs. He contrasts the innovation-focused but process-light environment of startups with the risk-mitigation and scaling capabilities of large corporations. States advises engineers to build a personal brand and identify high-value patterns in project failures to become indispensable 'heroes' who can recover fast when things go wrong. He also outlines his vision for replacing paper specifications with physics-based digital models to predict recalls and reduce development time.

    Leadership, teams & cultureDebugging & failure analysis
    10 chapters

  • · 48m

    Michael Brooks | How BayCath Medical Is Rethinking Catheter Development

    Michael Brooks, founder and CEO of BayCath Medical, explains how his contract manufacturing company helps startups and R&D teams accelerate catheter development by prioritizing collaboration and rapid iteration over rigid, high-volume processes. He details the manual nature of catheter manufacturing, the importance of planning for scale from the first prototype, and strategies for managing material selection and design transfers. Brooks also discusses the challenges of lead times, the 'cat and mouse' game of device reprocessing, and his approach to maintaining calm under pressure by drawing on his background as an EMT.

    Manufacturing partners & offshoringDesign for manufacturing & NPI
    13 chapters

  • · 1h 11m

    Tony Kelbert | Authenticity, Engineering, and the Business of Manufacturing

    Tony Kelbert, a mechanical engineer and manufacturing strategist at AeroGrowth, discusses his career path from defense vehicle design at Oshkosh Defense and medical oxygen systems at Gulfstream Aerospace to his current work helping precision manufacturers win aerospace and defense contracts. He shares insights on the challenges of small machine shops, the importance of diversifying customer bases to avoid reliance on single large OEMs, and the cultural differences between engineering firms and family-run manufacturing businesses. Kelbert also explains his approach to LinkedIn content creation, emphasizing authenticity and humor to build genuine professional connections, and discusses his interest in open-source hardware and community-driven engineering education.

    Leadership, teams & cultureManufacturing partners & offshoring
    9 chapters

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