Senior Engineer, Westinghouse Electric Company

My name is Leanne Lisien. I am currently working as a Senior Engineer at Westinghouse Electric Company in the field of nuclear technology.

Getting Started in Engineering
My dad is a chemical engineer, and most of his siblings are engineers. From the time I was about eight, I wanted to become an engineer. I saw his professional engineering license on the wall and the P.E. after his name on correspondence, and I thought it was really cool. I did not understand what being an engineer meant, but I knew it had something to do with solving problems and making things, both of which I loved to do.

My first job was with an engineering consulting firm in Alexandria, Virginia, which I got through the career fair at my university. I had been looking at that company for a couple of years and even recommended it to a friend who ended up getting a job. My first assignment was completely outside of my expertise. I had to do a simple calculation for a crack growth problem. I had never done anything like that, but the company’s philosophy was to hire bright and talented engineers, capable of solving all sorts of problems. With a little bit of guidance, I completed the short assignment and moved on to next task.

My Current Life as an Engineer
I have been alternating between design and analysis work and project management focused activities.  As a project manager, I led a project to design and fabricate a Temporary Reactor Vessel Cover for a nuclear power plant. The project was completed on schedule to an aggressive deadline, and successfully deployed at the plant, saving the utility customer multiple days in their plant outage, and millions of dollars in replacement power costs. I enjoy both management and the technical sides of my job. I have demonstrated my technical expertise through the design and analysis of cooling systems for nuclear reactor control rod drive mechanisms using state-of-the-art computational fluid dynamics programs. My scope on those projects included the design requirements development, conceptual and detailed design, airflow analyses, and procurement.

I also mentor new hires and interns, where I plan and coordinate various activities for their professional development, and improve employee retention and recruiting. In the nuclear industry, we are beginning a “renaissance” and getting the next generation up to speed is going to be critical to our success.

Lessons and Disappointments
My experiences on the job have taught me: never take shortcuts, especially due to scheduling and exhaustion. I was working with a team of colleagues one late night at a vendor’s facility on a critical project. We had all been working long hours for many weeks and were tired. We decided that the night machinists should proceed with the next critical step in the process, but bypassed the proper pre-job brief. I received a call at 4am; one of the machinists had made an error. For the next several days, we went through a formal root cause analysis process and had to develop a recovery plan. Although there were many contributing factors for the error, the lack of proper pre-job brief was a major task that could have prevented it. I could have made sure it happened, but did not. I developed an extreme respect for using the tools that help prevent errors, and I try to pass that respect on to everyone I work with. Sometimes it is difficult, but it is always better to be a few hours or even days late than to risk quality or the overall success of a project.

My Connection to Engineering
The best thing about being an engineer is making a difference in the world. It often isn’t glamorous, but my work is satisfying and makes life easier and safer for people. Being an engineer is ideal for me, it requires knowledge that helps me to expand my overall abilities, including technology, economics, environment, business implications, management, and communication, but most importantly to serve my customers well. I like the challenge of working within all of these areas and developing the best solutions.

I was recently elected as the president of our local Pittsburgh chapter of the North American Young Generation in Nuclear (NA-YGN). As an organization, we are working to help our member companies recruit and retain talented employees, provide our members with opportunities for professional growth, encourage networking, and also outreach to our communities to let people know that the nuclear industry is alive and kicking. It is an industry that has been misunderstood, and I am trying to help turn that around. Between NA-YGN and my day to day job, my work is something that I really look forward to doing.

I have had a wide range of opportunities early in my career. My accomplishments include successful project management, obtaining my Professional Engineering license, providing onsite personal customer care at vendor facilities, designing and analyzing complex nuclear component cooling systems, and participating in broad industry wide programs designed to develop and mentor new employees.

Outside Engineering
There are plenty of projects around the house where my engineering skills come in handy. My husband is also an engineer (although is now working to become a high school physics teacher). We spend countless hours discussing the best way to make home improvements or for him to explain some physics concept to his students.

I try to keep up my artistic side in my hobbies since I am not currently working in the theater. I make pottery, paint, and scrapbook. This past year my hobby was baking cakes; I made my sister’s wedding cake. I approached the task just like any other design problem. I researched the subject, made some prototypes, modeled the cake in a 3D modeling software to help finalize the design of the structure, calculated the weights and center of gravity, and finally constructed the custom support structure, baked and decorated the cakes, and got them to the reception, just in time.

Final Thoughts
Have a vision, and just constantly do things that get you a bit closer to that goal. Take on tasks that will build skills you will need for your ultimate dream. Get assigned to projects that will allow you to see all aspects of your company’s business and give you visibility. For instance, if you work in isolation most of your day, see if you can have more interaction with customers, or develop a proposal for a project and/or process improvement. It is extremely valuable to have a broad picture of what the company and industry does. It can really help you to refine your goals, and to find ways to position yourself to reach them.