Inventing. Innovating. Creating. Conceiving. Problem solving. Engineering.
The Super Bowl is in the books (won by our local Denver Broncos and their “Orange Rush”) and the next big thing on the calendar is, of course…National Engineers Week. Yes, this week is “EWeek”, the week where we celebrate engineering accomplishments and the engineers behind those accomplishments.
As history has shown – especially over the last century and a half – many things once considered impossible are now part of our daily lives. Flight. Space travel. Global communications. Those “giant leaps for mankind” are inspiring, for sure, while being mixed in with millions of smaller steps along the way.
One of those smaller steps was the pioneering release of AFT Fathom which is now on version 9 thanks to our many customers around the world. This was followed by pioneering releases of our other software products all of which were the first of their kind.
One of the many cool things about engineering is when the products you create are used by others to create highly innovative things. For AFT that includes Fusion Energy Research and Space Travel. It also includes impacting more mundane things like providing water supply after earthquakes, energy reduction/climate change and plant safety.
One of the legendary engineering inventors was Thomas Edison. The company he founded, General Electric, has a long history of innovation. Edison’s company has been part of our discussion here at AFT recently after GE hosted an AFT training class earlier this month at one of their offices.
General Electric released two highly amusing and thought provoking videos on (their) engineers accomplishing “the impossible”. They called them “Unimpossible Missions”. If you watch these videos, who can argue with the conclusion that engineers can indeed accomplish the impossible?
AFT President & Founder | ASME Fellow - Trey founded AFT in 1993. He was the original developer of AFT Fathom (including the GSC and XTS modules), AFT Arrow and AFT Impulse. He was active in software development until 2011 and still works with the development team in addition to managing AFT. He has taught hundreds of training classes on AFT’s software products in twelve countries across every populated continent. He worked previously for General Dynamics in cryogenic rocket design and Babcock & Wilcox in steam/water equipment design. He holds a BSME (1985) and MSME (1986), both from the University of California, Santa Barbara. He is a registered Professional Engineer.