Terry Tales

Engineering Efficiency

I started dating the lovely young Debbie Bartell in the spring of 1977, and we had a June wedding the following year. Married life presented new complications and challenges for a 21 year-old who hadn’t even finished school yet. First and foremost was the need to make some money. My college adviser at Montana State, John Hanton, suggested that I apply at Summit Engineering, a small electronics company where he had personal connections. Summit was conveniently located just three blocks south of campus in a new manufacturing facility.

Professor Hanton’s recommendation did the trick and I got the job. My position as an engineering support technician paid $3.71 an hour that summer, and Deb was getting $3.37 as a nurse’s aide at the hospital. It seemed like plenty, at first, but then I had to go back to school in the fall. Deb’s income wasn’t enough to pay our $180 rent, buy groceries, and also cover tuition, so I continued to work afternoons at Summit.

I had to work especially hard as a senior because I’d fallen behind with my coursework. I got tired of school during junior year and my motivation dropped off. At the lowest point, I even considered joining the Navy instead of finishing college. Fortunately, the navy recruiter was out of the office that day and I got a sales pitch from a gung-ho marine instead. That guy was nothing but motivated. He explained that the first three years of ROTC weren’t a big deal. I could attend a four-week ‘summer camp’ at Quantico and catch up. He got hold of my mailing address and continued to woo me for more than a year. His final offer dismissed ROTC entirely. As a college graduate, I could spend a mere eight weeks at Quantico to earn my commission as a second lieutenant in the Marine Corps. I filed the letter appropriately.

The marine recruiter was scary enough to send me back to class, but I still completed only 42 credits that year. That meant I needed another 50 to finish my electrical engineering degree. Getting married gave me a new sense of purpose and a determination to provide for my wife and family. Professor Hanton did his part by cheerfully offering to kick my ass if I failed to graduate on time. With that kind of support, what else could I do?

So, I rose to the occasion. I carried a full class schedule my entire senior year, and worked 20 hours a week at Summit as well. To further complicate our lives, my new bride worked second shift, and we saw each other only at night and on weekends. My typical day would start at seven am with a quick bite and a fifteen-minute walk to campus for morning classes. I’d eat a sandwich at the student union building, and then move on to Summit and work until five pm. A twenty-minute walk home, supper that Deb left in the oven, and studying occupied me until eleven-thirty when my love came home from work. We’d do what newlyweds do, get a few hours of sleep, and then do it all again. I definitely had a full plate, so I needed to prioritize. It was difficult to find enough credit hours, and especially difficult to get them all scheduled into my mornings. Something had to give, and that something turned out to be an industrial engineering class, I & ME 325 Engineering Economy.

The course was organized on a contract model with a textbook and optional lecture, but no homework. Instead, we had fifteen pass/fail units that could be completed at any time. Credit for each unit was earned by passing a test administered by a teaching assistant. Ten units were required for a C grade, twelve for a B, and all fifteen for an A. No homework and optional lectures fit perfectly into my busy schedule, and it was easy to put more difficult coursework first.

The course material was based on the ‘time value of money’ equations that are used for everything from calculating car payments to comparing investment strategies. Math always came easily to me, so I was able to follow the textbook and work on my own. I started out with good intentions and completed the first unit immediately. But a heavy course load makes it easy to procrastinate. So, on the Monday before finals week of spring quarter, I went to the TA for only the second time and asked to take the test for unit 2.

“Dude! What’s the point? this is the last week!”

“Yeah, I know. Just gimme the test.”

He graded me on unit 2 while I waited and shook his head again when I asked for the unit 3 test. I’d crammed hard the day before and I passed that one too. I found a nearby bench in Roberts Hall to study unit 4 for a couple of hours and passed that test as well. The TA was impressed that I did three units in one day, but he was still skeptical.

“Dude, it’s too much. You’re not gonna make it.”

I crammed again that night and passed units 5 & 6 on Tuesday. The TA was on my side by that time and seemed eager to see me pull it off. He looked disappointed when I slowed my pace on Wednesday, completing only unit 7. But then I rallied on Thursday to complete units 8 & 9.

“Dude! Way to go!” he grinned enthusiastically.

On Friday afternoon I passed unit 10 and triumphantly celebrated a hard-earned ‘C’ with two full hours to spare. That’s how close I came to not graduating on time.

“Dude, the Prof wants to see you,” the TA said after giving me a high-five.

I knocked on the Prof’s door, wondering, what’s his problem?

“Mr. Fisher, I understand that you’ve completed this entire course in one week?”

“Well, almost, I did 9 units.”

“Why didn’t you begin sooner?” he demanded. “You could easily have earned an A.”

“All I need to graduate is a C,” I shrugged.

He gave me a rather disgusted look, muttered something about ‘engineers’ and waved me out.

My last-minute dash through I & ME 325 gave me just enough credits to graduate and saved me from the wrath of my advisor, but there was one hurdle left. I had 193 credits and they all had to count, because 192 applicable credits were required for my EE degree. All courses earn college credit, but the engineering department is a bit picky. They don't accept just any courses. For example, the Math 110 algebra series didn't count, so I started with Math 121 calculus as a freshman. My electrical engineering degree required an acceptable mix of core classes, professional electives, and personal development.

Luckily, I took EE 415 Power Systems Analysis from the Dean of the EE department my senior year and we got along well. All of us were in that class for the same reason. It counted for a professional elective and it was a relatively easy intro class about power plants and transmission lines. My classmates found the subject of electrical power generation to be deadly dull. Computers were the future and they were all competing for interviews with Intel, Hewlett-Packard, and IBM. Nobody wanted a boring old job with the power company. I showed genuine interest and supplied much of the student/teacher interaction that boosts an instructor’s ego. So, Dean Durnford was sympathetic when he reviewed my application for degree. He gave me the benefit of the doubt by approving my technical writing course as a professional elective and I squeaked by. He even approved a credit for MUS 480 Beginning Guitar. My only ‘wasted’ credit was PE 118 Bowling Competition.

And that’s what I call engineering efficiency!