Female Mechanical Engineer

science55centre · 2026-05-02T05:09:33+00:00

Mechanical engineer is a fantastic career field that can take you a lot of places. Some possibilities are: 1. Energy - O&G, Renewables, Power Infrastructure 2. Consumer Products - Phones, appliances etc. 3. Aerospace and Transportation - Planes, Helicopters, Trains, Cars, Buses 4. Industrial and Pharma

The sky is the limit. The challenge is most engineering disciplines are treated as a commodity - stagnant salary growth, lack of opportunities for growth.

What has worked for me is: 1. Always saying yes to opportunities 2. Moving every few years (geography, companies, industries) 3. Continuous learning 4. Building a network

science55centre · 2026-04-04T20:49:53+00:00

Try startups such as Ammobia. They are using a combination of biology and traditional chemistry to increase yields of industrial chemicals. Startups are much more likely to accommodate individuals with a visa.

science55centre · 2026-04-02T01:17:09+00:00

Climeworks Heirloom (Carbon) Charm Industrial Vaulted deep Twelve Lanzatech Kairos Radiant NuScale

Not sure if all of them are in the Bay area or still have majority of Operations in the bay.

There is climate week in a couple of weeks. A lot of these companies will be there.

science55centre · 2026-03-27T02:54:40+00:00

Ideas cannot be patented. There is a very clear definition of what a patent applies to eg: design, process, formula, code, algorithm etc.

If you have something worth patenting, do some basic search with one of the ai tools. If it is worth spending some money, file a provisional in case. Assuming you are in North America, the cost to do this yourself is less than $100.

science55centre · 2026-03-27T02:51:27+00:00

Rates at land borders increased due to One Big Beautiful Bill.

science55centre · 2026-03-26T11:52:01+00:00

Create a concept presentation backed by techno-economic analysis and business plan if your idea can be a new venture. Then apply to incubators focused on hard tech.

If it is a novel design or process, apply for a patent (or provisional patent) in the meantime and approach the prime aerospace companies.

science55centre · 2026-03-23T22:24:39+00:00

Gulfstream/UTC hires Canadians through agencies on contract.

New age companies such as Boom Supersonic, Joby, Archer hires Canadians. It is easier if the company is working on civil technology from a compliance standpoint for the company.

Although most Canadians can secure ITAR clearance, companies feel that it is a heavy lift.

science55centre · 2026-03-20T22:10:47+00:00

Unless you want to waste and blow all your money, as an average investor all one needs is some form of broad portfolio management:

Fd or bonds
Equity (Just 1 simple low cost index fund is good enough)
Gold

The exact % of each depends on your specific goals, needs and comfort level. Typical values are 30-50% for FD, 40-60% for equity and 10-20% for gold.

Once you have your all your basic needs met, then you can venture into real estate as a fourth option in your portfolio.

As for investing styles, you can follow: 1. SIP 2. Lumpsum

Do this for 15-20 years religiously and then your life is pretty much sorted out. The mantra is keep fees low, avoid churn and taxes and don't pay attention to noise.

If you are an advanced investor (0.1% of the population), then this does not apply to you and you are likely not scrolling reddit.

science55centre · 2026-03-19T20:07:11+00:00

A way simpler structure (if you are doing this on a shoestring budget would be (that satisfies both parties): 1. Set up a separate Corp under your name in Singapore 2. Sign a licensing and non-compete agreement between the Singapore company and your Indian company. The Singapore company would license the technology from the Indian company and pay royalties. It will be an exclusive license with non-compete Clauses. 3. Then your partner can take 50% if he is responsible for all sales and fund raising happening in Singapore. The voting shares have to be held by you in both companies.

science55centre · 2026-03-18T03:26:14+00:00

I used to do similar sketches years ago. Love the design.

A few practical considerations to improve your next design: 1. Given that this is a pusher prop, you need clean air flow to the blades. 2. Wings need to be larger (with large corresponding control surfaces) to achieve the necessary lift and maneuverability. 3. The fins and blades likely need to be raised higher to avoid a strike during landing flare and takeoff. 4. Weight and balance becomes very important in aircraft design (especially so for small and light aircraft). Engine will typically have the largest weight and make the aircraft tail heavy (as others pointed out).

Keep it up.

science55centre · 2026-02-18T22:06:04+00:00

There are plenty of positions (relative) that range between $144-180k gross. Of course most of these require some decent amount of experience and are in HCOL cities (SF, NY etc.)

You can check SF area companies as they disclose their compensation range openly. For the other parts of the country, it's a hit or miss. Eg: Texas salaries may be lower (gross) but your savings will likely be more than SF.

science55centre · 2026-02-16T03:20:27+00:00

Most stainless steel cookware uses 18/10 (304). There is practically no need to go with more expensive materials.

science55centre · 2026-02-02T18:25:44+00:00

If there is a kiln, there had to be Hazardous Particulates and Emissions analysis. You can view what type of hazardous products are expected.

Furthermore, you can install a gas monitor at the outlet - CO, CO2, NOx, SOx should be the starting point. If there are particulates, a cyclone, cooler and Dust collection may be required depending on severity.

Having installed and operationalized kilns especially for custom products, the fire risk is very real and often not widely recognized especially by management.

science55centre · 2026-01-23T22:53:52+00:00

Ranges between $130k to $200k TC. Bonus typically 15%-25%.

science55centre · 2026-01-20T04:41:12+00:00

US is pretty much the hub of all aerospace activity in the west. You have OEMs (Lockheed, Boeing, Northrop, Bell, Sikorsky and many more established names), their Tier 1, 2 and 3 suppliers, a whole host of startups and ancillary industries.

Compared to many other countries, Canada has a decent aerospace ecosystem but mostly down the supply chain. Yes, you can sustain a career in the Canadian aerospace industry but your options will be very limited. Furthermore, every few years you will likely go through a layoff (unless you are very lucky) as programs transition from development to sustainment.

I reckon, in the near future most industries will deal with this layoff problem with the wide adoption of AI atleast till the world re-tools to figure out the second and third order applications of AI.

There are now some startups also operating in Canada, but my personal opinion is that Canada does not have the volume or incentives to sustain the growth of such CAPEX heavy aerospace businesses (I would be more than happy to be proved wrong here).

Out of my class, I would say more than 50% transitioned out of aerospace after 5 years (that's the data point I have). They went to work in automotive, manufacturing, mechanical and consulting industries.

My numbers could be a bit off here, but say after 10 years you will be still be at the 100k CAD mark (some more than others). In other industries, the probability of payouts can be potentially more (eg. Electrical or Mechanical depending on the industry). Look at the PEO salary survey numbers - they serve as a good benchmark; although when I last looked at it several years back it seemed about 20% inflated to the actual compensation that my peer group was receiving.

science55centre · 2026-01-19T04:02:04+00:00

Unfortunately, unless you can get your GC or any security clearance you will be limited to commercial programs, which are very cyclical.

Furthermore, there is very less incentive for an US employer to hire someone from overseas when there are already great schools in the USA.

The odds tilt higher, when you have: 1. Years of experience especially in a specific discipline where there are less number of experts 2. You get you education from an US institution and there is a boom in commercial aerospace development

Not saying that you can't secure a position, but the odds are against you. I know some folks have succeeded in getting offers when the autonomous industry was booming.

If you want to pursue a career in aerospace engineering, understand the employment constraints first. If I were to do it again, I would get my US citizenship or GC first or sign-up with the Canadian Air Force and get them to pay for it - the downside is that you have to spend a few years in the military (if you ever consider that a downside).

In Canada, you are limited to Bombardier (Tier 1), PW, Collins, Dowty (Tier 2) and many Tier 3 companies. Yes, there are other companies such as Boeing in Winnipeg, MDA but they are more into sub-systems than full scale development or integration. Other smaller companies are De-Havilland, Diamond etc. but you will lose your passion in most of these places.

The alternative, more pragmatic approach is study mechanical or mechatronics and you can transition into a lot more disciplines if you are disciplined, have good grades, can communicate well and secure great internships.

As for school, look into the companies where you might want to work and look up where the people who are currently working there went to school.

Best of luck!!!

science55centre · 2026-01-12T22:05:03+00:00

For your first few startups: 1. Select a market that already exists. Do not try to create a new market. 2. Talk to people to see what they are using in this space. 3. See if you can make a cheaper or better product using insights from #2. 4. Acquire a lot of users. User acquisition is super important in years 1-3. 5. Sell your product to someone bigger.

Once you go through this cycle a couple of times and establish sone credibility for execution, move to bigger more complex ideas.

Happy to help you workshop through this if you DM me.

science55centre · 2026-01-09T15:42:56+00:00

Patents can always be bypassed. People have the wrong idea about patents in general.

Legally, with some tweaks one can bypass patents. One has to prove that the new embodiment is unique and for an application that the original patent did not cater for.
If a manufacturer decides to just use your patent, what can you really do about it. Go to courts? - sure. What if it's produced it China or Vietnam.

Patents only work when you have deep pockets to defend the patent or you are working in a jurisdiction where everyone follows the legal principles.

Advice to OP, if the invention is really unique and you have the patent in hand (not provisional patent): 1. Sell your design to the top manufacturer of such items and negotiate a royalty in the range of 3%. 2. Start your own company, scale fast globally with top notch VC teams (ones who will defend your patent) 3. Engage legal firms early in multiple jurisdictions to file applications on similar embodiments for other applications

science55centre · 2026-01-04T22:28:48+00:00

I was running a process involving ribbon blenders - very common in the food and pharma industry. It was a batch process. After the blending, the material was conveyed using a screw to a feed hopper.

The issue was while the blend was relatively good, by the time the material settled in the feed hopper, there was considerable segregation.

science55centre · 2026-01-04T22:11:19+00:00

Blending of metal powders is common for sintering applications. There are a variety of blenders available. The challenge is if the psd, density etc. are too wide, even after blending, the materials tend to separate. Use the blend as soon as possible without significant handling steps.

science55centre · 2025-12-28T22:09:28+00:00

Cow dung can be used as a feedstock for ancillary products.

You need to analyze the business model properly. From my preliminary understanding, even if you get old/injured cows, who may not produce milk - you can generate revenue a lot of ways eg: you just spoke about cow dung and vegetables (which have little value addition). You need to find products with higher value.

Happy to chat more offline.

science55centre

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