News from Our Graduates

Two Mechanical Engineering Technology (MET) students who graduated in May 2008 are working for the Wood Group, an international energy services company with approximately $5 billion in sales; 26,000 employees worldwide; and operations in 47 countries. The alums are two of just six graduate trainee engineers hired for the Graduate Trainee Program worldwide by the Wood Group last spring, and two of just three hired in the United States. Neil Patel and Jillian “Jill” Calderone began their training in Aberdeen, Scotland, last week. Neil is now working in the Gas Turbine Services section of the company here in Connecticut for six months, after which he will rotate into another six-month training position, this one in Cumbernauld, Scotland (just east of Glasgow) where he will work in Heavy Industrial Turbines. Jill is also currently working in Connecticut before rotating into a position in a Wood Group subsidiary in Dubai.

Neil’s assignment at the Wood Group Power Technology Center in East Windsor, Connecticut, involves learning how each department operates and how the various operations function together to overhaul gas turbine components such as the fan blades that draw in and compress air, veins that exhaust emissions to be recycled for other uses, liners that combust the compressed air, and rotors that drive the generators to produce electricity. The components may be overhauled or even redesigned and manufactured if such work will make a more efficient product. His first project after training will involve a coating qualification for New York Power Authority’s two generators at their Queens, New York, power plant. The coating protects blades and veins from external elements, and Neil will be analyzing the coating for defects, proper mix, and thickness.

Jill is currently working in fuel systems and accessory repair service, specifically in the repair and overhaul of fuel nozzles, injectors, starters, actuators, and other similar components. Once she finishes her basic training, her first project will be to develop a repair process for a common part regulated by the FAA. Jill will be developing and writing procedures involving a machine (an induction brazier) that hasn’t been used in the process before.

Before arriving in their assignments, the two spent a week in Aberdeen learning about the company, meeting various corporate personnel including the others in the training program, and getting the big picture on the corporation and their own positions.

The two both agree that the MET program here in CETA prepared them for their work, and not just in their technical classes. For example, after each rotation, the grads will have to make a presentation, either in Aberdeen or the U.S. headquarters in Houston, about the work they performed and what they learned. Neil is thankful that both Professor Milanovic and Professor Segal prepared him to make presentations “so it’s not so totally nerve-wracking!” And Jill comments that since she’ll be writing work instructions for repair of the part, as well as instructions and training documents for using the induction brazier, her technical communications classes will “come in handy here.” But “labs, writing lab reports, and training my mind to think mechanically” really helped her to feel confident in her new job.

We wish Neil and Jill continued success in their careers.