The Engineering Passion Express

Brandon Donnelly
  • 4.0 (4)
  • Technology
  • Semimonthly Series

Why does this podcast sound like a train name? When you were a kid, it wasn’t electromechanical devices that peaked your interest in engineering, it was boats, planes, cars, trains, or other big interesting things. Those items triggered a passion for engineering that led you to where you are today, but what is going to carry you further than that? Knowledge. Passion. Momentum.  Knowledge itself is like a train, with each discovery connected to those before it, the train grows longer.  Passion is the fuel of that train. A drive to understand, improve, and consider more than you could even perceive in the past.  And finally, as knowledge and passion grow, the weight and speed of that train increases and so does the momentum carrying us into a brighter future.  This is not a podcast about trains, but it is a podcast about engineering topics that increase knowledge or passion for engineers in a short and concise format, generally between 30-60 minutes. In every bright future I can envision, engineers play a role to make things better for people, so my hope is this podcast helps makes things better for engineers everywhere.  I’m looking forward to sharing with you, so please hop aboard The Engineering Passion Express to begin our journey.

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  1. Episode 1

    The 100-Year Journey From Surgeons with Reputations to Robots with Precision

    Send us Fan Mail If you're an engineer trying to figure out where you can create value, this episode shows you where to look: where values themselves are shifting. In this episode of The Engineering Passion Express, I take you on a 100-year journey from open surgery to surgical robots through three lenses: First, a sick man in 1910 traveling to New York to pick the right surgeon. Second, Dr. John Wickham, who coined 'Minimally Invasive Surgery.' And finally, Fred Moll, who founded Intuitive Surgical, who along with a team of engineers brought surgical robots to the forefront. Join me and learn how many times before an invention comes along, the values of an industry need to shift to make it the right time for the adoption of the technology to be a benefit.  Support the show The Engineering Passion Express is about growing knowledge and the passion for engineering.  If you are a conference organizer and are looking for an engineering or scientific speaker to inspire or educate in a keynote presentation, please reach out to me on LinkedIn. You can find my profile below.  Thanks for listening, Brandon Donnelly Please connect with me on linkedin @ linkedin.com/in/brandondonnelly

    The 100-Year Journey From Surgeons with Reputations to Robots with Precision

  2. Episode 2

    Companion Episode - The 100 Year Journey from Surgeons with Reputations to Surgical Robots

    Send us Fan Mail This episode is the companion episode to "The 100 year Journey from Surgeons with Reputations to Surgical Robots". It frames the value that you can takeaway for your engineering career.  In this episode we discuss things such as: 1. Industry differentiation and the pressures that force it 2. Where values reveal themselves 3. Industry recognition vs. customer recognition 4. Who is rewarded under different paradigm 5. The right champions matter for technological adoption 6. The need for champions Support the show The Engineering Passion Express is about growing knowledge and the passion for engineering.  If you are a conference organizer and are looking for an engineering or scientific speaker to inspire or educate in a keynote presentation, please reach out to me on LinkedIn. You can find my profile below.  Thanks for listening, Brandon Donnelly Please connect with me on linkedin @ linkedin.com/in/brandondonnelly

    Companion Episode - The 100 Year Journey from Surgeons with Reputations to Surgical Robots

  3. Episode 3

    The Journey to Making Sure Your Work Matters.

    Send us Fan Mail Engineers have no shortage of places to spend their time, or even places to spend their careers. In an ideal world, it would be clear what your company values, in reality it isn't. Rather than lament, working on understanding how you can work in the areas that you both like and is recognized as valuable is a worthwhile effort.  In this episode, I'll cover at an extremely high level how company executives look at things, so that you can do your best work AND be rewarded for it.  We'll go through what a company needs, why messages don't cascade down cleanly, how to get a pure signal about what is valuable and look at examples. The goal of this episode is to raise your profile, and your career by working on things that will be valued. It's an important topic, and definitely worth the 15-20 minute listen.  Support the show The Engineering Passion Express is about growing knowledge and the passion for engineering.  If you are a conference organizer and are looking for an engineering or scientific speaker to inspire or educate in a keynote presentation, please reach out to me on LinkedIn. You can find my profile below.  Thanks for listening, Brandon Donnelly Please connect with me on linkedin @ linkedin.com/in/brandondonnelly

    The Journey to Making Sure Your Work Matters.

  4. Episode 5

    The Loop Towards Mastery

    Send us Fan Mail Brandon has been chasing a strange question for a long time: why does he love engineering simulation as much as he loves cooking, storytelling, and bowling? The answer showed up while watching the show The Bear. Underneath all of it is the same pursuit, not perfection, but mastery, the kind of deep understanding that quietly makes every decision better. This episode maps out a "reversibility spectrum," from a CAD edit you can undo in minutes to decisions you can never take back, a bridge, an aircraft delivery, a medical implant, moments where reality only gives you one chance to find out if you were right. We revisit two stories already told on this podcast, Gustave Eiffel betting his fortune on a tower that might not stand, and Daniel Burnham racing an unmovable deadline to build the White City. Along the way, a quiet shift in thinking: experience doesn't build mastery, feedback does.  Join me as we explore: Why engineering has always been about decision-making, not perfect designThe four levels of the "reversibility spectrum," and why irreversible decisions demand the most masteryWhat Gustave Eiffel and Daniel Burnham's irreversible bets can teach us about high-stakes decision-makingWhy feedback, not experience, is what actually builds masteryHow simulation tools accelerate the feedback loop engineers need to build judgmentSupport the show The Engineering Passion Express is about growing knowledge and the passion for engineering.  If you are a conference organizer and are looking for an engineering or scientific speaker to inspire or educate in a keynote presentation, please reach out to me on LinkedIn. You can find my profile below.  Thanks for listening, Brandon Donnelly Please connect with me on linkedin @ linkedin.com/in/brandondonnelly

See All Season 2 (4)

Ratings & Reviews

4
out of 5
4 Ratings

About

Why does this podcast sound like a train name? When you were a kid, it wasn’t electromechanical devices that peaked your interest in engineering, it was boats, planes, cars, trains, or other big interesting things. Those items triggered a passion for engineering that led you to where you are today, but what is going to carry you further than that? Knowledge. Passion. Momentum.  Knowledge itself is like a train, with each discovery connected to those before it, the train grows longer.  Passion is the fuel of that train. A drive to understand, improve, and consider more than you could even perceive in the past.  And finally, as knowledge and passion grow, the weight and speed of that train increases and so does the momentum carrying us into a brighter future.  This is not a podcast about trains, but it is a podcast about engineering topics that increase knowledge or passion for engineers in a short and concise format, generally between 30-60 minutes. In every bright future I can envision, engineers play a role to make things better for people, so my hope is this podcast helps makes things better for engineers everywhere.  I’m looking forward to sharing with you, so please hop aboard The Engineering Passion Express to begin our journey.

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