- [Narrator] Funding for, "STEM Works," is provided by.

- [Narrator] Support for PBS Reno comes in part from the William N. Pennington Foundation.

Bill Pennington was an entrepreneur, philanthropist, and gaming pioneer who built a legacy of community service in Nevada.

- [Narrator] And by Bank of America and US Bank and by these funders.

(upbeat music) ♪ Hey ♪ (upbeat music continues) - Hi, everyone.

I'm Hana Altenburg, and this is, "STEM Works," the show where we celebrate the love of science, technology, engineering, and math, by introducing you to the fascinating careers that our friends and family enjoy and the companies where they happen.

First, we'll visit a company called Breadware.

Now, that might sound like a bakery, but they make a very different kind of goody.

We all have our favorite gadgets, maybe a gaming console, personal fitness tracker, or perhaps a smartphone, but have you ever wondered how these electronics and toys are made?

Who decides how big your screen should be, how to make the battery last as long as possible, or how big the buttons on your gaming console should be?

Well, these are just some of the day-to-day tasks usually reserved for engineers who are responsible for answering all of these technical and design questions.

Let's meet with some of the staff at Breadware and find out what it takes to research, design, and build the latest tech toys.

(upbeat music continues) So, tell us, what do you do as an engineer at Breadware?

- My job on a day-to-day basis usually involves working with a team of engineers to help solve problems for our clients, and specifically, we help them figure out the electronics that are needed to develop their product.

- What type of sensors a product needs to be able to work well, whether it's wireless technology, like cell signals or Bluetooth or WiFi.

- Designing a board or figuring out how much it might take to develop something.

- How to optimize this thing so that the battery life lasts longer or so that the function is easier for the user.

- We also use a lot of equipment that helps us take measurements on specific requirements that we're trying to find, and we use those measurements to make decisions about what we need to do to move forward.

- Maybe I'll need to test something, turn something on, take some measurements, see if I can adjust something to make it work better.

- So, if you're walking around with an iPhone or an Android phone, you need to know how long that battery might last during the day, and we use equipment that'll help us predict how much usage you might get out of that phone.

- [Hana] Why is engineering important?

- We really wouldn't have the world that we live in today without STEM and engineering.

- Physics, engineering, all this stuff, you can use those tools to explain why the lights are this color, how to design something like a phone, so you can call somebody on the other side of the world.

- We work with a lot of clients that are trying to make a product themselves, but they don't maybe have all the right tools to do that, and we can come and step in and help them accomplish their goals, which makes us feel really good at the end of the day.

- Say you design something for your mountain bike, and you're halfway through a ride and it breaks off, and, well, yeah, it broke, that's bad, but, you know, that gives you a chance to see why it broke, and then you can go in, you can beef up that part, and it's stronger the next time.

- People are always looking for the next newest, best thing, whether it's a better camera on your phone, whether it's a fitness tracker that can tell you you need to be healthier and go work out more, I can use my skills to design these products to help improve people's lives.

- [Hana] What do you love most about your job?

- At the end of the day, when you see a product really come to life, and you get to hold it and touch it, it really shows all the work that you put into it.

- I'm always building something new, and I always come back to like, "Let's just go build something."

That's what's fun for me.

Visualizing the product before we even really start building it, how the product's going to work, what it's going to look like, and then to see that come to life is really cool.

- Every day, there's more people that want to build something new, and they're going to need engineers to help build it.

- [Hana] What are some of the most important skills an engineer needs to have?

- The ability to be able to solve problems and take information and make decisions based on that information.

- Whether it's a data sheet or an academic paper, being able to combine that into a new and novel solution is a really, really valuable skill.

- Sometimes, you have to think outside the box about what the best way to go about getting to the solution is, and sometimes, the problems that we have to solve are very challenging, and there might not be one way to solve it, so you have to kind of weigh the options and just make the best decision with the information you have.

- Engineering always takes multiple iterations to figure something out, and it's almost more important that things fail, so that you can figure out how to make it better, and another aspect to that is the software portion of it.

You know, now software's in everything, and learning how to write software and how to code could be one of the most important skills you learn.

- There's a lot of companies that need engineers for a variety of reasons, and the sky's the limit in terms of what you can do with your career.

- That is way cool.

You can find out more information about Breadware at their website, breadware.com.

Next up, we're headed to Google.

We've all gone online to find an answer to a question, right?

Chances are, you've used one of Google's many services, such as Google search, to find what it is that you're looking for, or maybe YouTube, TikTok or Facebook are more of your thing.

Well, it turns out that Google has a helping hand in these and many other online services, as well, keeping them running and ready for you to use all day and all night.

Google maintains these services at their data centers, where every search, social media posts, and all those cat videos are never lost and always there when you need them and need the most.

Who keeps these data centers up and running?

Let's find out.

(upbeat music) So, tell us, what is your job here at Google?

- We are the foot soldiers, basically, that keep track of all these machines, making sure they're working.

- I am basically a doctor for the data center.

A data center is comprised of quite a few number of computers, network switches, and things of that nature.

My job is to make sure that those computers are healthy and happy.

- [Victor] We work on racks, which are just like big cabinets of just computers and computers and computers.

- I work on all the systems that heat and cool the building, so the computers can be running at the optimum temperatures.

- Disassembling the server, replacing the hardware, place it back into the rack, and then you just wait to see if it fixed the problem.

- Computers like to eat electricity for power, so I ensure that we have the right power at all times, so the computers can work to their best ability.

- The easier repairs are the ones where the system already tells you what's wrong.

"Hey, this computer's you know, not working properly.

"Go and figure it out," and it'll tell me, you know, a computer at specific location needs to have stick of ram or a hard drive swap or what have you.

- If for some reason we lose power to some computers, we have to make sure that we've got some backup power or things available so those machines keep working and running.

- There's different servers that use different parts, and that's when we have to put on our thinking caps and be like, "Okay, well," you know, "Let's start from the very bottom.

"Does it have power, components, "does everything look good, cables," what have you, making sure the computer's back up again and the Internet's up again.

- Pumps, motors, things that run your refrigerator, your air conditioner at home, we'll be looking at systems like that.

I might have to look at the mechanical side of things, things that are rotating.

"Wait a minute, my elevator broke.

"How do I repair it and make it run again, "so we're not climbing stairs?"

- When it comes down to it, if you don't have the data center technicians, the people to replace the parts and give maintenance to the machines, eventually, the users are going to start noticing the effects of the machines not working.

- Once the machines stop running and working, you're losing your ability to use the Internet.

You won't be able to see a YouTube video, your Google search wouldn't work for you.

- It might be as little as, you know, just someone saving a picture on their Google Drive, versus, you know, essential services, like police departments and hospitals, and if there's no one like me to do the job, you know, there's no Internet, there's no YouTube, there's no Gmail, there's no Google search, right?

That's the big one.

- Every day people are using smartphones, computers, tablets to access information that they didn't have before.

That's the basic purpose of my job here, is to maintain this center, so we can keep all those services working.

- Being part of Google means we're part of the next generation, right?

We're part of the future, and we're dealing with cutting-edge technology.

We're the first ones in, and there's no guide, really.

We're the ones making the guides for these technologies, right?

- And that's the fun in all of this, and that's the best part of this career if you like to tinker with things.

Even if it's a routine procedure, I'm always thinking about, "How can I make that better?

"How can we be more efficient, "and how can we have more fun at what we're doing?"

The most exciting thing is a challenge day to day.

When I walk in here, it's always fun, because the atmosphere is great, the different challenges, to work on something electrical one day, something mechanical the next day.

I might get into the programming of the software.

You're never going to sit here and just do the same redundant thing over again.

You'll be challenged all the time.

- Not only does it provide financially, but it also provides, you know, a certain feeling of fulfillment, and when I open YouTube, and it's working, I'm like, "Yes, I'm doing a good job," you know?

- [Hana] What advice do you have?

- Work has to be fun.

If you enjoy your work, it'll be easier for you, and you'll have more fun doing it every day.

- Google it, find it on YouTube, find someone that knows, a subject matter expert that knows, and learn from them.

- Just don't quit.

Always be curious and always try to learn more about everything that you see any way you can.

- You learn by by making mistakes, so don't be afraid to, you know, to break something, to make a mistake, to learn by experience.

- Technology is expanding by leaps and bounds, and the opportunities are unlimited, and it's for young people to get in a career field like this and make the changes.

You're going to change it for the betterment of yourself, but potentially, with technology and people that want to have fun with it, you could change the world.

You could change people's lives for the better.

- Thanks to John and Victor for keeping us online.

Now, then, these devices and search engines we use every day are only available to us because of electricity.

In Nevada, most of the energy is produced and distributed by NV Energy, a power company that serves thousands of customers' energy needs, either through electricity or natural gas.

In fact, there are thousands of miles of power lines and gas pipes all across Nevada, helping to keep us warm in the winter and cool in the summer.

All of these power lines and pipelines need to be maintained and kept in safe working condition, and we met two engineers at NV Energy who are dedicated to doing just that.

(upbeat music) So, tell us, what do you do as an engineer at NV Energy?

- A cathodic protection engineer basically deals with any sort of steel or metal pipeline or vessel, or anything like that, that might rust over time, and so my job is to prevent that from happening.

- I oversee the Electric Meter Operations group here with NV Energy.

We program and install commercial and high-end metering for customers throughout the state, and we communicate with customers while we're out on site.

- Some days, I get to go out to the field, where I spend time with field crews that are constructing new pipelines, spend time with our different surveyors and operators that operate rig stations and do maintenance on meter sets.

- We get our hands dirty, so to speak, with getting into the programming of the meters.

We program all of these parameters into the meter so that it's registering the power correctly, so that we can provide reliable service for the company and the customers.

Power is just an essential service that everyone needs all the time, to allow people to charge your phones, play your video games, be on your laptops at home.

Think about what doesn't need power.

Our hospitals, restaurants, schools, everything that we do requires power.

I'm part of the process that makes sure that that happens.

- Natural gas is what we use to heat our houses, to do different industrial big processes.

Living in a cold climate, like we do here in northern Nevada, it's really important that we're able to keep our houses warm in the winter so that way we can live comfortably, and it's really important that we don't have leaks or issues on our gas system, because natural glass is flammable.

- [Macy] We have the ability to see the majority of our infrastructure at a time, and that's very useful for our troubleshooting, because if there's a power outage, we have the ability to see if it's one home, two homes, a whole neighborhood, you know, multiple neighborhoods, and then we can diagnose and troubleshoot which circuits that's affecting and be able to send someone out to troubleshoot and fix the issues.

- If cathodic protection isn't implemented correctly on steel pipelines, those are at a risk to then leak and cause significant damage to the environment, the ground, and potentially be hazardous to people in the area, and so that's what my job is to do, is to make sure that doesn't happen.

- Just seeing how much the community relies on our power and our service provided makes it very important that we do our job correctly and accurately in order to get that power to our users.

- What I love so much about my job is just the variety in it, and that I get to spend so much time with people in the field and people in the office and get to see all these different little issues and things that I've never seen before, and that I'll come back to the office and go, "I didn't even know that was a thing that could happen."

- Troubleshooting and that fixing and getting your hands dirty and figuring everything out before it becomes a problem, so that you have the the reliable service that's provided to the customers.

- Knowing that I'm directly involved in work that's impacting our community and providing safe gas, probably something that somebody uses every single day in their home, and they might not even realize it.

Problem solving and creativity I think are something that people don't always realize are a really big part of engineering.

When I go out to a field site, and I find that my cathodic protection isn't really working on that pipeline, then I have to figure out, "Okay, what's the best way to fix this?

"Should I try to replace this main, "so that way we don't even have this issue anymore," or, "What other little things could I do or figure out "that will help fix that issue?"

- The most important skills in my current position include critical thinking and communication.

When I sit behind my desk every day at my computer, a lot of it has to do with emails and communicating with coworkers to update on projects and status of where we're at on different tasks, but that communication is key.

- Collaboration is a huge part of engineering, and especially in my position, because I have to work with field crews, with customers, making sure that they're happy and that they understand what's going on, because sometimes, it can be kind of scary if you see a whole bunch of NV Energy employees all outside your house, and you're going, "Oh no, is something wrong?"

- I think a lot of times, people go into engineering thinking that you're just going to sit behind a desk, and while there are those opportunities out there for people who really want to just do that, more times than not, you have to actually interact with different people, different skill sets, different technology levels, so you have to be able to explain a complex technical problem to someone who has no understanding of what's going on.

There's just so many opportunities available in this career field, so if you are going into an engineering degree, you can choose many, many different majors or emphasis that you want to focus on.

- If you're not sure about STEM, if you're thinking, "I'm not that good at math, "I'm not really sure if that's for me," that's not the whole point of STEM.

The whole point of STEM is to be curious, to be solving and finding new things.

Just because you think, "Oh, I'm not so good at math," don't just count STEM out just for that.

Like, STEM has a whole variety of different careers and options, and it really is a broad field and something to look into.

If you're interested and you want to learn about something, like, just dive into that and learn about that, and if you put that work into it, that's really what's going to make the difference of whether it's learning more about coding or that sort of thing.

- You can find out more information about NV Energy at nvenergy.com.

We used to think of robots as science fiction, but more and more, they're becoming a part of our real lives.

Businesses have taken advantage of robotics to incorporate these new tools.

SNC, located in Sparks, Nevada, is a super innovative company that makes all kinds of cool technology, including these cute robots.

You know, they even built some parts that are on NASA's Mars Rover.

We visited SNC to find out more about how they build robots and what other cool toys they play with.

(upbeat music) So, tell us, what is your job here at SNC?

- So, basically as an intern, my primary job is to just learn.

(laughs softly) - So, a lot of my job is trying to figure out how we can use robots to kind of benefit people who would want to be able to use it in different applications they might fit into and then try to help develop those technologies.

- A lot of the work that I'm doing is a lot of rapid prototyping.

So, I do a lot of 3D printing work, and that requires wiring and a lot of CAD modeling.

- I work with software that's used on helicopters or navigation systems.

- If you can imagine a pilot flying into an environment where they can't see very much, and you start having the helicopter kicking up dust and those types of things.

- A lot of times, when a helicopter crashes, it's because they lose track of their horizon, and a lot of times, they get just a little off, and their helicopter propeller will hit the ground.

- Even though when he looks out the window, it might be entirely dust, and he can't see anything, through the visualization that we're providing, by fusing all those different sensors together, similar to how we're doing it on the robot, you can actually see perfectly clear everything that's in front of you and around you.

- And it uses various sensors, radar and LiDAR, among other things, to put together an image for the pilot, almost like a video game screen.

- So, you're not going to run into any obstacles, you're not going to hit anything, and the pilot can land safely in virtually any environment that they're flying.

- [Hana] So, Alyssa and Andy, can you tell us how you build robots here at SNC?

- I do a lot of the modeling of the entire system, so that these electronics and mechanical components can fit together in this robot in a way that looks good and is super solid.

- You've gotta have some way to move the robot around, be it propellers or wheels or motors, and how to plan pass through the environment and react to changes in its environment.

We have two visible light cameras, which are kind of used to help identify things in the environment, and then we also have a thermal camera in there, because as we all know, if you go into a dark environment, especially in a search and rescue scenario, where might not have reliable power, you can't depend on it being well-lit.

So, in that case, having the IR camera as a backup is a big help.

- So, there is a LiDAR and a thermal camera on that robot, and we're using these cameras and devices to kind of detect obstacles.

So, if the robot senses an obstacle, it's going to change its course away from it.

- You got to have some way to hold all the stuff inside it, so it's got to have some type of frame that's strong enough to go through the environment, like if you're operating a subterranean environment or responding to a natural emergency.

- So, if it's going into, like, a super dusty area or an area that's going to be seeing a lot of rain, I need to make sure that these boxes are going to be dust-proof or rainproof or waterproof, all of these factors need to be implemented into our design.

- So, the mechanical side of it is pretty complex to make sure the robot's actually able to perform in all these different environments we want to go into and still be able to handle all the data that we're bringing into it.

- [Hana] But wait, how do you control the robots?

- So, in order to get a code to mechanically move a robot, that's a very specific subset of programming.

A portion of it has to do with controlling the robot.

- We approach this problem very similarly to how you would do it if you were doing exploration.

If you find yourself in a spot you've never been before, you look around the room you're in, and you look, "Where haven't I been yet?"

And you just kind of go look over there.

You have this robot that's navigating through its environment, and it has these sensors that allow it to know where it is and what's around it.

- [Hana] That's way cool.

How can we learn more about coding and programming?

- Programming for robotics is a different challenge every day, and everything is going to require a different skillset, and there are just so many resources, not only online, but the people that I work with have all of these resources that I could look to and ask about, and it's been super for me to learn as an intern.

- There are so many resources out there, there's clubs, reach out to your teachers, reach out to your parents.

A lot of people, like me, I love to mentor kids, so I know a lot of adults would be interested in helping out kids.

- There are a lot of, like, these college courses that are published for free online, like, these entry-level college courses that have been really useful for me.

- There's a lot of different programs that help you when you've misspelled something or when you've forgotten a certain thing.

It's almost like having a partner there with you.

- [Hana] What do you love most about your job?

- So, I didn't realize how much fun it would be, and it's so much fun.

I feel like I'm playing games during the day sometimes.

- I get to work with robots.

It's a lot of fun, I get to work with good people.

- I love working with the people that I do.

They're incredibly smart and knowledgeable, and it's fun to learn from new people.

- That's one thing that's been an outstanding about SNC, is we branch out into so many different areas that one day, we're working with these gigantic helicopters, sometimes it's robots on the ground, sometimes it's robots in the air.

- I really love my job, doing stuff that's new and something that I've never really done before, and I've done, like, electrical work, and I've done computer science work, and it's because I've found that traditional mechanical engineering for me, personally, like, just isn't enough.

Like, I want to do more.

- If you are similar to me, and you like robots, and you like engineering, and you like problem solving, and you like doing all these creative skills, where you need to solve a bunch of problems and bring all these skills together to create a solution, then I would highly recommend going after a job like mine.

- One of the main things I like about my job is it's constantly changing.

I feel like it keeps me excited about what I'm doing.

I'm always learning something new.

- I've done work at SNC that I've never done before.

The work that I've been doing in robotics is something that I've never imagined myself doing before.

Like, I did a lot of welding in high school, so to be thinking that I'm doing a lot of computer programming now is completely different.

- [Hana] What are some of the most important skills in your job?

- These engineering soft skills are really critical to develop those interpersonal relationships and be able to communicate things is important.

- Being interested in why things work and the little bitty parts of everything, not just the big picture, and to never give up.

Having that perseverance to keep trying, just keep trying until you can figure it out.

- I think what people don't realize in engineering is it's art, right, and being creative, because the reason why engineers kind of exist now is to improve on how things have been done before, and in order to do that, you have to be creative.

- [Hana] How can we get started in building our own robot?

- Coding is actually one of those things that you can learn a lot on your own.

There are a lot of resources online.

- I started being interested in robotics by, like, watching YouTube videos, and being like, "Wow, I want to do that."

- If there's a club that's available to you, join the club.

Lots of things out there to teach you how to jump into these programs and projects and start exploring them.

- Starting out with small things, like a Raspberry Pi or an Arduino, those are super cheap to get, and kind of finding that pipeline of, like, how to get started on, like, a small scale.

- You're not made of glass, the world's not made of glass, you can go out and try something that's seems bigger than you are.

- Try taking a class on engineering or robotics or whatever might be interesting to you, because I don't think you would really, you don't really know until you take that first class if you're going to like it or not.

- Just having the confidence to start and understand you're going to fail, especially at the start.

You're going to fail a lot, and that's fine.

- Not being afraid of doing new challenges and taking on new projects that you may have never done before.

- So, the biggest thing I would say is find whatever your passion is, whatever excites you, and really go towards that, because that's where you're going to be really successful.

- And I think it's really important that there should be more girls and more women in engineering, because I think women are very powerful, and I think there needs to be more representation of women, especially women of color.

- A lot of people are scared of it, because they think it's hard.

They think it's going to be, you know, they're not going to be smart enough, or they're not going to understand, and that's not true.

You can do anything, if you put your mind to it.

- Yeah, everyone can do it.

Engineering is for everyone.

- There's so many women in this industry, and we're really successful at it.

- It's just, like, a different lens to look through things, and everyone's life experiences are going to bring a different set of things to the table.

- I find the work they do to be fascinating.

I hope you did, too.

You can find out more about SNC at their website, snc.com.

Thanks to Alyssa, Andy, and Terri for sharing their passion with us.

For more information on the careers we profiled and others, visit pbsreno.org/stemworks.

And thank you for joining me for this episode of, "STEM Works."

See you next time.

(upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) - [Narrator] Support for PBS Reno comes in part from the William N. Pennington Foundation.

Bill Pennington was an entrepreneur, philanthropist, and gaming pioneer who built a legacy of community service in Nevada.

- [Narrator] Funding for, "STEM Works," is provided by Bank of America and US Bank and by these funders.

(upbeat music) (light music)