NREC Celebrates National Engineers Week

The National Robotics Engineering Center observed Engineers Week by celebrating individuals, internal projects, and the collective spirit of engineering ingenuity.

This year’s Engineers Week theme is “Reimagining the Possible.” Throughout its 25 years, NREC has redefined applications for automation by pushing technological boundaries and making robotics a reality. The brains behind NREC technology and solutions our clients implement in thier operations are an unparalleled team of researchers, technicians, and engineers, collectively creating a culture of expertise. 

Engineers Week, nationally observed from February 20-26, 2022, presented an opportunity to recognize the innovative talent housed at NREC and acknowledge the great work teams consistently accomplish through creating robotics systems. Senior Engineering Manager, Leanne Lisien took charge of organizing the various events throughout the week. 

"This week was important for us to pause and celebrate each other and our groups, taking the opportunity to connect with the entire NREC team, learn what folks have been creating and take a look at where we're headed. It's exciting to be in that collective creativity and problem-solving mode together," said Lisien. 

The week’s activities kicked off with Bagels and Brainstorm, a come and go event Monday morning where both in person and virtual participants contributed to thought prompts exploring what it means to be an engineer and what makes NREC a great place to do engineering. Utilizing various channels, from rough whiteboard sketches to an interactive digital presentation, contributors’ expressions merged to create a collage of responses while enjoying a bagel for breakfast. 

On Wednesday, a lunch and learn seminar was held for NREC engineers to learn more about discipline focused groups, formed to encourage collaboration within fields of concentration across various project teams. At least one senior member represented each group to share their vision and goals for their respective discipline teams while describing areas for overlap and fielding questions about involvement and implementation of the initiative. 

Throughout the week, informational sessions familiarized various internal NREC projects through short briefings and Q&A discussion. Each at varying stages of development, presenters and participants engaged in dialogue about potential use cases, improvements, and modifications resulting from previous applications. One development tool for internal data management is already being utilized by several project teams to streamline the process of quickly storing and properly cataloging multiple versions of dataset types (collected either from the field, or provided by sponsors and similar outside sources).

During Engineers Week 2022, we are reminded that engineers everywhere make a difference in the world. We’re especially proud of the impact NREC engineers make in the local Pittsburgh community, within their respective fields of concentration, and for customers located around the world.

Founded by the National Society of Professional Engineers in 1951, Engineers Week is dedicated to ensuring a diverse and well-educated future engineering workforce by increasing understanding of and interest in engineering and technology careers.