Global Automotive & Manufacturing Engineering MEng Online & On Campus

The flexibility of taking multiple courses across different schools during my master’s really provided me with a variety of skills. With such a breadth of knowledge, I was able to leverage my projects at CoE and Ross Business School efficiently when I made the transition from school to my current job.

How does your Master’s degree differentiate you from others?

My current role at Rivian is under Product Planning, which enables me to work with engineers, designers and manufacturing teams. With the technical and manufacturing concepts I learned from College of Engineering (CoE) courses and strategy courses at Ross, I was prepared for my job at Rivian from Day 1.  The MEng degree in GAME is pragmatic and useful.

Reflection on Time Spent at U-M

I co-founded the ISD-GSAC, a student organization within the newer academic division in the CoE which was a huge achievement. I was also a part of the Ross Auto Club and CoE’s student committee.  

Advice to Students

Explore multiple fields, be it on the design side, mechanical side, controls side, or even business management side. This will help you understand where your interests and passions lie. I always thought I wanted to be on the design side but only when I took a few business school courses, I realized that my actual passion is more towards strategy and planning. Hence, my final semester classes helped me land my current role at Rivian.

Overall, in your early years at school (for undergrads), or first couple of semesters(for grad students), go out and take multiple courses across different fields to get more insight outside your chosen domain. This will also help you step out of your comfort zone and learn new things which will always come in handy in real life in your future job roles.

My Master’s degree from the University of Michigan has given me a multidisciplinary approach to my day-to-day activities as a mechanical engineer. I serve an automotive market that adds convenience, safety and security to passenger access and my design fits into at least half a million cars on every project. I engage with engineers from various backgrounds such as Testing, Manufacturing, Operations, Development and am constantly required to make decisions that drive the design from concept to final production. I credit my proficiency in my job to my course work at the U-M which was carefully structured to help me  learn to work effectively in teams and provided exposure to various systems in automotive engineering.

How does your Master’s degree differentiate you from others?

My Masters curriculum had a structured distribution of courses in business and systems which has become the underlying necessity for every organization that looks to recruit a prospective talent. Beyond this, the flexibility of my program allowed me to further specialize in the interdisciplinary areas of engineering such as Manufacturing and Mechatronics systems. This gave me a leading edge in decision making and helped me to effectively collaborate with various teams.

Advice to Students

My advice to aspiring engineers would be to stay curious and take programs that push you out of your comfort zone. Participate in co-curriculars and have a collaborative approach. The formula for any successful organization is having a great team, and you can learn to be an effective team member through team-based projects. Go Blue!

I began my career as an intern working in the Body in White Department at General Motors. I worked in the plant installing body shop tooling. I then developed in non contact measurement and spent some time operating and developing standard work for white light and laser scanning. After that I took ownership of the Interior and Exterior Quality of the vehicle during the pre production phase. During this time I ran build events and trained teams in dozens of plants in the US as well as long term assignments in Thailand and Mexico. Following a 2 year assignment in Mexico I made a career change and joined Advanced Vehicle Development as an integration design engineer. As an IDE  I am working in the Cadillac Design Studio on projects that will raise the bar for the future of mobility. 

How does your Master’s degree differentiate you from others?

I have no doubt that the GAME MEng degree I earned through GM’s Technical Education Program at U-M helped me make my career change as personnel moves from Manufacturing to AVD are not common. The courses in the program enhanced my problem solving acumen and added context to many aspects of the automotive industry to which I had not been exposed.

Advice to Students

One piece of advice I give young engineers interested in the GAME degree is to not be afraid and dive in. Many young engineers I speak with are worried they won’t have the time for the kind of commitment required. I reassure them that it can be done, as I completed a large part of the program while living and working on an international assignment in Mexico, with my wife and two kids with me. So if I could find the time and balance between work, life and study, you likely can too. 

As part of the MEng program I had opportunities to directly engage with the automotive industry as part of my capstone project. Based on those experiences I decided to pursue a PhD program in Mechanical engineering with a focus on collaboration with the industry partners on the advanced topics. Later I joined the research faculty at the mechanical engineering department as assistant research scientist and continued fostering the collaborations with the national labs and industry partners. Through one of these collaborations I was offered an opportunity to join Bosch’s Advanced System Engineering department and I am currently the manager of System Engineering in the Powertrain Solutions division at Bosch.

How does your Master’s degree differentiate you from others?

The overview provided from various perspectives of Automotive and Manufacturing sectors connected me to the industry and provided opportunities to work on topics with real world impact.

Advice to Students

I always enjoyed the guest lecturers from industry or national labs who shared their experience. Student organizations such as Baja, Solar car, and SAE provide excellent opportunities to work on team projects. Beyond the technical aspects, they provide a platform for teamwork and collaboration.