SHAN ISLAM

Writing for Engineering

ENGL21007

Fall 2018

The impulse in making the Difference:

An extensive glance in the life of “Granville Parker”

 

“Seeing the changes happening around and the difference you are making in it can actually change the meaning of your life.” This is something that I have been holding on to from my high school year and was totally shocked when I heard Mr. Parker having the same aspirations. Mr. Granville Parker is the ‘Test enabling Hardware consultant’ at the Ge Aviation, a world-leading provider of commercial, military, and business and general aviation jet and turboprop engines and components as well as avionics, electrical power and mechanical systems for aircraft. As cool as the work sounds, his position is of crucial importance in the Mechanical Engineering and the Aviation industry. When asked about his interests in the field and how he came up to it, his answers were quite simple. He was particularly good at math and wanted to join the financial field. Later, during his high school year, his teacher introduced the geometric and mechanical drawings where they had to draw crank shanks of different machines. This gradually made him lean towards the mechanical industry where he found his passion and as well as his desires to create a difference.

In this vast world of exponential growth, things are happening so fast that you cannot be anything else other than to be motivated. With that in mind, Mr. Parker has some unobstructed vision for the future. He knows that with passing days, industries need to come up with more accessible materials to improve manufacturing processes. Metal parts are to be replaced by more composite materials, especially in the aviation industry. He sees a future where automation will make things easier for all industries and with more composite, light materials in the market and with indisputable improvements in the 3D- printing mechanisms, creating a difference will be merely an understatement. These words of his reflected some of my passion and seeing his undeniable motivation towards his goal was somewhat thrilling as well. I could clearly see that Mr. Parker has been upholding all that passion and inspiration that I have been holding on to for as long as I remember. Seeing him actually doing the things that I hope of doing in the future, made me actually reflect back to my passion and my love for Engineering.

Coming from a non-resourceful position from Jamaica, Mr. Parker believes that Engineering was something for him that was not limited by any aspects. He believed in his passion and that kept him moving forward even in the hardest days. This was something I could relate to, coming from a competitive country with few resources where my family is working hard, even to the present day, just to see me getting my education and fulfilling my dream. When asked about his motivations for Engineering and the factors that drove him to this field, his answers were so clear and astounding:

With all the changes that are happening today, it’s really fascinating when you see your work coming to life. This is what drives me, especially when I see my design put into work and getting results that contributes to making things happen faster and more efficiently usually on a shorter time scale. For instance, it’s pretty cool to see a jet engine fire up with its massive body of 18ft by 15ft and its low-pressure part of the turbine and you know your contribution makes the turbine operate more efficiently than ever.

As an engineer, there are countless instances where Mr. Parker had to demonstrate leadership qualities. Mostly these would come when putting ideas from juniors into actual designs and communicate back to them to improve or work on multiple aspects of the designs. As a team leader, he would be assigned projects to work with different interns and co-workers and given a timeline to finish the project. Sometimes during that period, he would have multiple issues with designs and productions where he would have to take actions to make things right and on time. Not only that he would be responsible for the output of the assignments, there would be times where he would have to take account for the failures as well, which according to him, was the most challenging part of being a leader. When asked for suggestions on how to develop such skills from an early stage, his answers were quite profound and to the point. “Take each assignment seriously, even if it’s a college assignment. Try to understand everything to its core details and do more research than you have to because at the end its your knowledge that will separate you from the others.”

Mr. Parker was also clear about making connections in the engineering world as well as in the other fields for as he said, “you never know what department from what field you might end up working with for a project. It’s crucial that you can work with people of all professionals and communicate efficiently not only in the working fields, but also outside the work force.” His advice for me was to a build good communication with all the departments of the workforce and to volunteer to know more about the departments and their progress in order to understand the arena and build long term relationships. Furthermore, he said, “Better collaborative work between peers is the key to developing your career.”

On further inquiring about communications between departments and workforce, he said that most of his communications are though design reviews, emails and presentations that would comprise of 2-3 forms of reviews, lots of presentations, typically 3-4 times a week, and meetings where he would have to debrief his colleagues and his assignment leaders of the progress and problems relating to his project. Moreover, presentations mostly comprised of AutoCAD and simulations results, and design works presented through PowerPoints and Excel spreadsheets. According to him, writing is critical for his work and even more crucial is to keep it sharp and professional

“Life as an engineer could be challenging, but when you start enjoying your work everything seems all too exciting.” On a typical day, Mr. Parker works from 9AM – 4PM, where he has to go through a lot of emails between departments while also working on his project progression and the designs for new ideas to be implemented. On the most demanding days, he would be spending 12 hours in the office trying to debug problems while communicating with different departments to get the task done. He would take some work to his home as well where he would work on it the entire night to get the things done. It’s not every day you see an engineer as passionate, motivated and dedicated as Mr. Granville Parker. Its takes true passion to get to that point, and as he says, “Life seems unwarranted when you don’t have true passion and determination to make a difference.”