Engineered Excellence: Practical Triumphs in the Real World

In this episode, we sit down with Alex O’Shaughnessy, M.S. ’23, a recent graduate of UMBC's Engineering Management Master's Program and Graduate Certificate in Biochemical Regulatory Engineering.

Exploring Real-World Applications: Alex shares insights into his journey from chemical engineer to process engineer, highlighting how UMBC's renowned programs became a natural choice for his continued education. Discover how the blend of theoretical knowledge and practical experience at UMBC prepared him for success in the competitive field of engineering management.

Hands-On Learning: Dive into Alex's experiences with impactful projects, such as GMP facility design, where he collaborated with industry professionals and even presented at the ISP Global Conference in Dublin, Ireland. Learn how UMBC's emphasis on real-world projects enriched his learning journey and shaped his approach to engineering and management.

Key Lessons and Skills: Gain valuable insights as Alex discusses the transformational impact of the program on his skill set, from technical expertise to presentation and communication skills. Explore how UMBC's curriculum provided him with a strong foundation to excel in his current role as a process engineer at TAI Engineering Bayer.

Advice for Future Students: Alex offers practical advice for new students entering the program, emphasizing the importance of organization, communication, and leveraging resources effectively to maximize learning outcomes and career opportunities.

Explore UMBC's Programs: If you're curious about UMBC's offerings in engineering management, biochemical regulatory engineering, or project management, click the links in the description to learn more.

Join the Conversation: Thank you for tuning in to this episode of UMBC's "Mic'd Up" Podcast. Whether you're a current student, alumni, or prospective learner, we invite you to explore the diverse opportunities available at UMBC and join us on our educational journey.

Transcript

Dennise Cardona  0:00  
Hey, thanks for joining us today for this episode of UMBC's Mic'd Up podcast. My name is Dennise Cardona from the Office of Professional Programs at UMBC. And today, I am here with a recent graduate of our engineering management graduate program, and also graduate certificate in biochemical regulatory engineering, and project management. I'm here with Alex. Welcome, Alex. It's great to have you.

Alex O'Shaughnessy  0:24  
It's good to be here. Thank you for having me. 

Dennise Cardona  0:26  
Yeah. So ,I love to just jump right in and ask, can you start by telling us a little bit about yourself? And what drew you to the engineering management master's program at UMBC? And the graduate certificates? 

Alex O'Shaughnessy  0:40  
Sure, sure. Well, I'm a process engineer with just eight years experience. Now, I graduated UMBC, in chemical engineer- in chemical engineering in 2016. So UMBC was kind of like a logical choice for me when I was looking at masters, of course, their programs, I was still in the area. And you know, they're prestigious university without being totally unrealistically priced. For, for me, in my case, my company budget, but in many other people's cases, their personal budgets for price per credit. But then, looking at the program, they definitely had a lot that appealed to me, you know, a strong program was presented.

Dennise Cardona  1:24  
Absolutely. Yeah. What is it about the field that interests you so much?

Alex O'Shaughnessy  1:29  
I think it's a logical course, for a lot of engineers to go into project management or engineering management, you know, if they don't want to specialize in one specific field and become a highly specialized, like Senior Process Engineer in like, a specific industry. So if you're looking to continue and still have like flexibility in the job market and stuff like that, you'll you'll either branch into project management, engineering management, or I mean, generalized consulting, but that can have its own challenges.

Dennise Cardona  2:00  
So what were some of the most impactful experiences or projects that you worked on during your time in the program?

Alex O'Shaughnessy  2:11  
There's definitely one, this obvious low hanging fruit stands out part of my NCH 666 course, which is GMP facility design, which is one of the biochem courses. I got the there's a semester long project, you know, it can do a capstone project, where you're just designing a facility for whatever modality to treat whatever disease, that doctrine were assigned your group, or you get to choose with him to assign your group. And that product and itself standalone was an extra, you know, having having industry professional experience doing that project is is akin to like an what's called an FTL one exercise, which is like preliminary engineering and costing that you actually do for a job for real work. So the fact that we have to do that over a long semester, specialized with Dr. Guerra, who's have an incredible resource to ask questions to was very valuable, you know, I consider that as valuable as any of my projects that I've worked on at work if not more valuable. Because we had access to so many people from the FDA from AstraZeneca, from the team we actually worked with was with Kite Pharmaceutical, Frederick, who does cell and gene therapy. And we just really got to dive as deep as we wanted. Dr. Moyer didn't limit us, you know, some groups, they, they kept it shallow, and they got their good grade. And they they kind of walked away, and some groups just kept going and kept going deeper. And the best group got to present at the ISP global conference, which this year was held in Dublin, Ireland. So I got to fly to Dublin and present in front of a lot of professionals, and, and network for my engineering firm at the global conference in Ireland, and that was an incredible learning experience and incredible life experience. I don't think I'll ever forget it. So, really lucky to have that opportunity. Absolutely.

Dennise Cardona  4:09  
Wow, talk about hands on application of exactly what you're learning in the classroom, bringing it to what you're doing out in the real world. And that it is priceless, when you can have that kind of opportunity to be able to roll your sleeves up and do the kind of work that is actually being done out in the fields. Because it's more than just being theoretical. It's actually applying what you're learning and seeing it firsthand how it works, how maybe how it doesn't work, seeing the many pitfalls, challenges, and also the strengths of what you're learning and how it can be applied in your day to day functions. Yeah, now how has the program and I would say even the the courses you took the electives that you took for the biochemical regulatory engineering and project management. How has- how have those courses and that experience shaped your approach to engineering and management?

Alex O'Shaughnessy  5:05  
I mean, they've completely reshaped it, it's a lot of engineers come out of school, and we're all very technical oriented, we all really just want to get the work done. Like we're very efficiency minded, like, for whatever reason that it is because of the quantity of schoolwork, because it's all math or whatever most of us are really concerned about efficiency, and like just getting everything done as efficiently as possible. And good management and good project management kind of goes under our radar in terms of, you know, appreciating that there's so much work and thought and effort that goes into managing an effective project or managing an effective team. You know, making sure that people are facilitated and able to just do their jobs is a very hard job. And I have a whole new level of appreciation for that, I think that by, I cut my managers a lot more slack, I cut my project managers a lot more slack when I'm not the project manager. And I don't know, I have a lot more background and knowledge and tools at my disposal when I am in that role of managing a team. And then trying to work with everybody

Dennise Cardona  6:22  
Sounds like a very valuable skill set to have, to be able to have that technical background, right. But also to be able to leverage that management background, being able to bring a team of people I mean, that's, that's a big challenge and skill in and of itself. You know, people are out there in MBA programs and things of that sort to learn that skill set. So to be able to have that coupled in with the technical experience that you have, that makes you a really viable candidate out there. Valuable, I should say,

Alex O'Shaughnessy  6:49  
yeah, yeah, yes, it's good to be well rounded, it feels good. But I don't know this, that all that that whole change of that background, definitely came from the program like that. I'd say the engineering management portions, you know, I wouldn't disparage them by saying they hit all the basics. Like that's a good thing that my biochemical regulatory engineering program really like blew me out of the water in terms of its quality, and its technical background and expertise and, and everything. And so like, to some extent, in my mind it overshadows that the the core courses that I took, I don't want to disparage them, they do, they do a really good job of hitting all the basics, which is what they need to do. Because in the real world, there's many different management and project management structures at different companies. And it prepares you to walk in and you have the tools and then know how to analyze them, and take advantage of them. Or change them if you need to be able to communicate to your bosses, how to change them, and why it's good to change them. Change is still a long process in the real world, but it gives you a good foundation.

Dennise Cardona  8:01  
Perhaps Absolutely. Foundation is key in everything. Could you share a challenging moment that you had during your time at UMBC, with the program or any of the courses, and how you kind of overcame though that challenge if you had one.

Alex O'Shaughnessy  8:16  
It's it's tough to pick a challenging moment, like specific moment, I'd say the biggest challenge for me is working full time and taking one or two courses at a time simultaneously. I also moved, bought a house got married. So like that's a lot. That's a lot. I think most people their biggest challenge was juggling real world with the course load whatever your course load was. And fortunately, I would be happy to report that almost every single professor, if you can communicate in advance that you have problems with work with real life, you're going on your honeymoon, you're going on another international vacation. Most of the professors are very accommodating, they'll give you a bare minimum and say like, please get this done. If nothing else, you know, I can move the date for this or I can you can turn this in early kind of thing. And as long as you communicate in advance, I avoided most of the really bad challenges other disasters. 

Dennise Cardona  9:21  
Right? The, the potential disasters that could have happened from such a busy life, personal life schedule. I mean, that's just Yeah, I think that's the biggest worry and concern of anybody considering going into graduate work is can I balance this with my full time job? I mean, I know when I went to my masters, that was the concern I had to is how am I going to juggle this plus that because both are very demanding things and I think you know, you kind of hit hit on this earlier. Were having that real world application having things that you can actually take and then bring into your your workforce. The next day is really to me the most, the best way to leverage that, that problem that may exist with a balance issue, because then now you're able to bring that value someplace someplace where it really matters. And that, to me helps to balance things out in my mind, it's if you're able to do work that matters, and then bring bring new ways of looking at that work, and maybe becoming more efficient as a result of the things you're learning, then that in and of itself is a tool to help balance, so.

Alex O'Shaughnessy  10:28  
Yeah, yeah, I mean, I don't know if it's because I have more perspective on what my work is now than I did when I was an undergrad. But it always felt like my work for the graduate school mattered, which was nice, like, it's very professional oriented, it's very practically oriented. Almost all the courses are where it's like, some of the engineering management courses, they have to get a little in the clouds to talk about management methodologies and team styles. But for the most part, all the project management, all of your electives that are going to be specialized, they have a real world product in mind. And they'll tell you at the beginning of the semester, and you can work towards like, it makes everything feel a lot more meaningful, like you said, like, it's very cool.

Dennise Cardona  11:15  
Yeah. What are some of the key skills or lessons that you gained from studying that you are applying now in your current role?

Alex O'Shaughnessy  11:27  
Aside from from like, generalized technical knowledge of like an experience to draw upon, like foundational experience to draw upon for like, project management methodologies and management methodologies, and then and then the regulatory structure of biochem. And that whole industry, I would say one of the strongest skills that was developed is almost every semester, you were, you were presenting your semester long projects to panels of professionals, that that weren't treating you like students, they were treating you like, this is a product that you have to present to us for, for doctors gentleman's introduction to the IND process, which is the investigational new drug process with FDA, he had us do a full ind application and present it to a panel of like someone who has colleagues, two of which were on the team at the FDA that actually does that review. So it was really fun to present to them and get feedback from them. And just like you would in a real workplace, like engineers come out of college, and I think we all maybe just me, but we all vastly underestimate how important presentational skills are like, you have to be able to sell. Like if you want to make changes at your workplace. If you're unhappy about anything at all, you have to be able to present it and convince people. And I think this master's program really gave me a lot of confidence presenting.

Dennise Cardona  12:57  
That's really great to hear. I couldn't agree more presentation skills, communication skills. That to me is like, to me, that's the most important part of a professional working out there with other people is being able to have a conversation and being able to steer that conversation in a way that's a win win for both parties. And it's a skill that can be learned and that should be learned. And so and having that opportunity to learn that as value is so valuable. Yeah, where are you currently working right now? Like what kind of role do you play? And how did the did the program help you secure this position?

Alex O'Shaughnessy  13:36  
So I'm still in the role I was in when I started my program. I'm a process engineer and product engineer at TAI Engineering out here in Owings Mills. We do engine consulting for the whole east coast for like a variety of industries. One of the things we're looking to grow on is our pharmaceutical work. So this was a very valuable program to me and to my bosses for... that as my wife sorry, for the for securing work and being able to execute it like in a to a professional standard. Like this master's program is a specific bullet that we list when when we talk about being able to fulfill a contract for validation or for process development for or like qualification for for a pharmaceutical client when we're bidding a job.

Dennise Cardona  14:38  
What advice would you give to new students who are entering the program or the the certificate program master's program to get the most out of their experience?

Alex O'Shaughnessy  14:52  
I would say I mean approach everything. Everything is being structured in such a way that there's always a professional product in mind, try to get as firm of a grasp on that product as you can and always relate what you're doing to the, to that product and to the real world. You know, listen to your professors pay attention. So many kids weren't paying attention. Sometimes it's frustrating. The professor's we had all worked really hard and really did a good job. And they deserve a lot of appreciation. But in addition to that, organize the research the resources that are being given to you, with a mindset that you will forget everything. And you need to be able to find it again someday. Because, I mean, I have the whole regulatory framework from the FDA now, now that's constantly evolving, and there's people that literally built their job upon understanding that regulatory framework and interpreting it for professionals. But I have such a good baseline now that I can use for the future. And it's all written down, all I had to do is open that document reference it. I have a handful of platform processes from pharmaceutical industry that has like, they aren't changing, they haven't changed in 60 years, if the fundamentals aren't changing, and I have 200 words, or 200 pages of, of solid technical resources about every single step in the process. And if you don't keep that organized, and keep it search friendly, user friendly, you know, type it in on your Google Drive or typing on your file explorer, and be able to find it within a minute. You're gonna find it difficult to access in the future, you know, people, people kind of overestimate how many resources their work makes available to them sometimes. And now that you're getting a master's program, and you're getting very particularly specialized, your work might not have this information, you might be the person that is providing it to your work, and to your team. So.

Dennise Cardona  16:57  
Yeah, that is so cool that you said that I just had a conversation yesterday with my director about the whole inventory file system. And she recommended a bunch of books I've read, and I'm going to because in my role just as a as a little going off tangent here, but in my role as a video producer, social media person, the content digital manager, there's so many assets that we deal with. And we have a whole team that needs to access these assets. And at any given time, including myself, like if somebody asked me to redo a video from five years ago, I need to know where the source files are. It's such a, it's such a skill to build. And it's it's so necessary for legacy reasons. Just to keep yourself organized and efficient. That is a big skill that I know I learned in my master's program, too, is knowing how to work, knowing where to go to find what you need to find is crucial. And you don't want to spend hours and hours having to do that. You just want to be able to organize yourself as you're going along. And that is a skill. Would you say that it's something you learned in the project management certificate program as well like being able to work around.

Alex O'Shaughnessy  18:10  
It certainly hammered it. I think I've always tended to be a big file structure and organization guy, and then going out in the professional environment. My past decade of experience has always been, boy, if we just had a really nice file structure, this would work out a lot better if everyone just actually use the file structures that were there. You know, when I asked somebody where this is, I don't have to ask them because it's actually just where it belongs. That would be really nice. But you know, you for the master's program, specifically. You're doing that, but for yourself. If you lose all that information, if you lose all that knowledge, you only have yourself to blame. And it only takes a couple extra seconds to put it where it belongs. 

Dennise Cardona  18:53  
So true. Now looking ahead, where do you see your career going? And how do you think that everything you just studied at UMBC is going to help to influence that path?

Alex O'Shaughnessy  19:05  
I mean, I see myself going into the pharmaceutical industry after taking this biochem regulatory engineering course. But we see I we we serve general industry, we are multidisciplinary. And, frankly, if I can't get work that's primarily focusing on pharmaceutical in the next few years, I'll probably go work for a pharmaceutical firm as project manager. change roles or go work for one of the big names that's in Maryland. There's so many companies down in Rockville, and I got to talk to a lot of professionals that were there that were from Rockville or from Frederick while I was at the, at the ISP conferences. I mean now I'm an active ISP member so I get to talk to them a lot anyway, which is fun. 

Dennise Cardona  19:53  
That is great. This has been a really great conversation. I'm so grateful for your time being with us today Alex. It was really great hearing your experience at UMBC with your certificate programs, your master's program. Really happy that you enjoyed your time here at UMBC. And that you know, go Retrievers! Thank you so much for being here with us. Thank you everyone for listening to this episode of UMBC's Mic'd Up podcast. If you'd like to learn more about our offerings in some of the programs that we discussed today, just do a good quick Google search for them, or simply click the links in the description below.