Engineers work in a variety of industries

For many years in the Corridor, the word “engineer” has typically been associated with Rockwell Collins - and for good reason.

The avionics and communications equipment giant, with manufacturing operations in Cedar Rapids and Coralville, employs more than 8,000 people in the region, many of them electrical, software or systems engineers. The northeast Cedar Rapids company annually hires more graduates of the University of Iowa College of Engineering than any other employer.

The city of Cedar Rapids on its website touts the community as having “more engineers per capita than any other city in the United States.” Many of them are graduates of the University of Iowa, Iowa State University or the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana.

While Rockwell Collins is primarily responsible for the Corridor's reputation for a high number of engineers, there are many other companies that employ electrical, software or systems engineers - businesses such as Cerner, ESCO, Intermec, KJWW, RF Micro Devices and Wabtec.

The same is true for biomedical and chemical engineers (Cargill, Civco, Genencor and Integrated DNA Technologies), civil, environmental and mechanical engineers (Foth, Hall & Hall, HR Green and Shive-Hattery), industrial engineers (Accenture, HNI and John Deere), and sales engineers (many of the above).

Matt Banowetz, an electrical design engineer with Skyworks Solutions, works on integrated circuits found in many of the world's cellular phones. Many are less than the size of a small fingernail, but allow cellphone users to move seamlessly from one cell tower to the next.

“The challenge is to make more functions fit in a smaller space,” said Banowetz, a graduate of Iowa State University. “I've been with Skyworks for almost four years, and it's been amazing to look back and see what customers were requesting and how many additional functions have been added in less space during that time.”

From cars to customization

While Banowetz works with integrated circuits that improve communications for people, Lance Wilshusen works with people and manufacturing processes at Apache Hose & Belting.

“As an industrial engineer, I'm interested in the processes and the systems needed to make the parts,” Wilshusen said. “I tend to look at all the systems needed from the time a customer places an order until when arrives at their door.

“While I am primarily interested in improving and optimizing the manufacturing process, the same tools can be used to improve other business practices.”

Wilshusen, who came from the automotive industry in Michigan where he worked on next year's cars and trucks, had to make an adjustment when he arrived at Apache Hose & Belting.

“I had to go from automotive, which has a lot of high volume production, to Apache with a lot lower volume that is very customized,” he said. “Apache also has a warehousing and distribution network, which was not part of what I was involved with in the automotive industry.”

Tim Kortemeyer, president of Penford Products, enjoyed math and science in high school, which led him to consider another profession instead of engineering.

“I initially thought that I would go to college and become a doctor, but had a change of thought after my first year of college,” Kortemeyer said. “My dad was a high schoolteacher and administrator. I gave him a call and told him that I was no longer interested in medical school and that I was going to become a high-school science teacher.

“He responded that I should strongly consider other options where I could use my math and science skills. I enrolled in the college of engineering the next semester.”

Penford Products processes 30 million bushels of corn each year to make specialty starches and biofuels in Cedar Rapids. Kortemeyer said the plant employs project, process, maintenance and safety engineers, and operations management with degrees in engineering.

Problem solving

While math and science are important perquisites for an engineering career, the ability to solve problems is more critical, according to Keri Hornbuckle, associate dean for academic programs at the UI College of Engineering.

“Engineering is not about fixing things, which was what I thought when I was 18,” Hornbuckle said. “It's more about solving problems, working in teams and collaborating across multiple disciplines to develop solutions.

“You have to understand what everyone else is doing and what it contributes to your end point.”

“We also work quite a bit with human factors issues, how humans interact with technology and design,” added Katie Coates, manager of manufacturing programs at Rockwell Collins and a UI graduate. “As our fast-paced world progresses at an increased rate, we will continue to be intrigued with how to improve on each and every situation - environmental effects, production processes and technological design.”

Coates, who initially wanted to become an architect, changed her mind while job shadowing an architect in her high school years.

“I was very impressed with what the architects were doing, but found myself asking, ‘What are they doing over there?'”