Joseph La Fiandra

CPSP339P Final Reflection

July 10, 2020

This summer, I interned at Potomac Photonics: a for-profit, micromanufacturing

engineering company in Halethorpe, Maryland. At Potomac, I shadowed the research and
development team led by my direct supervisor, Mike Davis, the Vice President of
Manufacturing. These two closely related, yet extremely distinct aspects of Potomac’s business
allowed me to view the company through different lenses. With R&D, I saw the company from a
purely innovative standpoint: customers approach R&D with a problem and ask them to find a
solution. Predictably, the majority of my experience with R&D involved scientific problem
solving. My experience with Mr. Davis, however, allowed me to see the company through a
leadership lens. As the VP of Manufacturing, Mr. Davis is essentially responsible for the
day-to-day operations of the company; most employees report directly to him and he manages
most projects. Fittingly, I witnessed the careful choreography required to keep Potomac
logistically operational, especially during COVID-19. These two distinct experiences allowed me
to get a glimpse into the world of the profession which I ultimately intend to pursue,
bioengineering, while also informing me of how integral competent leadership is to maintain an
organization of this size.

At the beginning of this experience, Mr. Davis and I developed a list of learning
objectives as the basis of my internship. The following is a reflection on those learning
objectives.

Equipment Operation
Equipment operation was one of the first skills I learned at Potomac. Because learning
equipment usage is relatively objective, Mr. Davis used a brute-force teaching strategy. While on
the more specialized pieces of machinery I did receive formal training, for most machinery I sat
down at the workstation for a few hours, read the manual, and played with the machine until I
had a foundational understanding of its operation. The reason why this strategy works is because
even if somebody had shown me how to use the equipment, it is extremely difficult to grasp its
functionality until you try it out for yourself. I did, however, ask plenty of questions to the
engineers around me to fill in the blanks. Nonetheless, the majority of my learning on the
machinery was independent.
While available machinery at every step of my career will most likely vary, the teaching
strategy Mr. Davis used to get me to learn how to use the machinery reaffirmed to me my ability
to learn fast through experience. It was, frankly, very difficult to learn this way. However, after
having a contrasting experience with formal training on specialized machinery, I can affirm that
it did take less time and my learning curve was in fact less significant than the later.
Process Approach and Development for Prototyping and Production
As the sole purpose of the R&D team, I was able to learn a lot about this skill. While it
definitely incorporates creative and abstract thinking skills, process development and prototyping
is largely technical and, if anything, is the marriage between abstract thinking and engineering.
Here, I got to see how the R&D team integrates their problem solving abilities with their
technical expertise. This process is not particularly linear; there is rarely ever a quick, first-way
to do anything of this scientific magnitude. Even as a shadow, I found this part of the job
particularly tedious and, at times, frustrating. The engineers I worked with showed me that
patience and unemotional thinking are key to their job. They showed me through practice that if
you approach a problem scientifically you are more than likely to find a solution, even if it does
take days or weeks to troubleshoot.
Beyond problem solving, I also learned a great deal of Computer Aided Design (CAD)
software, a tremendously powerful tool with many engineering applications. While the resources
are available to learn this software suite independently, my observation of CAD in the workplace
allowed me to understand its practical applications. On a broader scale, my usage of this
software showed me the true extent of how technology makes some of the most complex tasks
relatively simple and effortless. Programs like AutoCAD and Fusion360 give engineers so much
power. By actually seeing how this software is used, I am better informed as to what tools are at
my disposal when designing prototypes in the future.

Project Management
As a student, I am very used to managing deadlines for assignments. However, with the
exception of projects, the stakes have never affected anybody but me, nor have these deadlines
been particularly difficult to achieve. This is the antithesis to the majority of Potomac's business.
Therefore, project management is paramount to the success of the company. I learned at Potomac
that this ultimately falls upon management’s shoulders, as everybody integral to a project works
individually under them. Still, there is a lot of coordination between engineers and staff that
takes place to ensure success.
Since Mr. Davis is responsible for delivering the vast majority of these projects, I got to
see how he manages his staff when faced with a deadline. He did a really great job of being
communicative and thorough, yet non-confrontational and welcoming to questions. While this
may just be, plainly, good management, Mr. Davis expressed to me that it is important to him
that the staff feels comfortable asking questions, as he most likely has the answer to it (he has
been doing this for 25+ years) and would rather have them take a few extra moments to do things
right the first time than take a gamble.
Creative and Abstract Thinking Skills
Potomac instilled in me a very practical sense of the implementation of abstract thinking
and why ‘thinking outside of the box’ matters. By the nature of their business, Potomac requires
abstract thinkers in order to do what they do. There have been times during my internship that
customers will approach the company with a problem they know very little about solving.
Therefore, as mentioned earlier, it is up to Potomac to investigate, ideate, and eventually solve
their problem. Every problem that walks through the door is different, requiring new ways of
thinking and research to be done in order to hone in on a solution. The engineers tasked with
these problems have shown me very practical applications of said thinking. While I have taken
classes that ask you to take a non-linear approach to a problem, the instructor has already devised
a solution and how the students should arrive at a predetermined conclusion. This was the first
time that I believe I was given full creative license to independently come to an unknown,
organic conclusion. As an engineering student and an employee, this gave me a great sense of
pride. It felt like not only was the work that I was doing accurate, but it was important to those I
report to.
Abstract and critical thinking have many applications that extend far beyond engineering.
This internship showed me how important thinking ‘outside the box’ is to leadership as a whole.
In order to be a leader, especially in a STEM field, you must know how to innovate fast.
Decisions need to be made and leaders have to know how to make a qualitative, holistic analysis
of a situation, arriving at a conclusion with relative ease. I have no doubt that this is something
that will come easier with experience. Nonetheless, this very hands-on internship has shown me
the importance of knowing how to analyze problems abstractly. Even more so, this internship has
shown me that the benefits of knowing how to do so extend much further than intellectuality; it
may actually increase your worth. Employers are always looking for creative thinkers who know
how to analyze complex situations. These individuals increase the brain power of an
organization, increasing their own individual monetary value.

In Conclusion
Potomac has truly given me a very well-rounded internship experience, allowing me to
apply myself as an engineer while also observing the implementation of leadership in a company
that tackles such technical and scientific complexities. What astounds me is how Potomac has
integrated all attributes I have listed above into an effortless workflow. Perhaps it is just good
business practice but at Potomac, all of the aforementioned skills are utilized by engineers and
managers everyday, often simultaneously or consecutively. Nonetheless, when I tell Mr. Davis
how amazed I am at his team’s effectiveness, he reminds me that everything I see has taken him
decades to perfect and took time to grow into. While I can only strive to be the kind of leader Mr.
Davis is, the practices I have observed at Potomac have informed my career as an engineer while
also teaching me practical applications of effective leadership in this field of work.