Nate Harvey: NASA Family Member Inspires Aeronautics Industry Career

What led you to pursue engineering at Anderson University? 

I was looking for engineering programs in the state. I wanted to work in aeronautical engineering, and mechanical engineering ties right into that. I found AU’s program. I liked the small class sizes—that's something I need, particularly, because I ask a lot of questions. I just know those class sizes would be huge (in other engineering programs), and I wouldn't feel like I could raise my hand and ask a question like I could at Anderson. 

What was your favorite part of your program at Anderson?  

I think it probably had to be the connection with the professors. I still have regular conversations with one of them, but throughout all four years, it was just really easy to find them. They were all very nice and incredibly smart, but they also were understanding when you didn't understand something, if that makes sense. There are a lot of smart people in engineering, and they can't always grasp why you might not understand something, and our faculty wasn't like that at all. They would sit down and work out problems with you if you needed it and were willing to stay late, working with you as much as they could to help you understand. So that was probably my favorite part. I got to know them a little bit. I went to Dr. Ojo’s church a couple times. And Dr. Rodakohr led a Bible study for everybody. It's just cool stuff like that I don't think you'd get at a different university. You get to make the personal connection as a friend, then that kind of makes the teaching a little easier, too.  

How long have you known that you wanted to get into engineering?  

A very long time. My great-grandfather on my mom's side lived in Arab, Alabama, just outside of Huntsville and he worked for NASA. And so, that engineering kind of trickled down all the way through my mom's side of the family. I've got uncles, a couple of second and third cousins, and there's just a ton of engineering on that side. But I always grew up around it. We have property in Alabama—80 acres of woods—and they would just build fun things, fun toys to go enjoy the woods. And so it just always seemed fun to me. I was always interested in aeronautical engineering. I always remember from a very young age, that's always what I wanted to do.  

Just curious about the toys here. What sort of toys are we talking about?  

We're talking some modifications to tractors. It's my great-grandfather's house, and he saved up enough money... and we haven't put a single dollar in, it's still all his money, which is just crazy. There's a ton of trails around there, and so we have to keep the trails up. We've got a four wheeler and kind of an excavator tractor... we keep adding different attachments to it. We had self-made drones are flying all over the place. I get to learn from them, but, yeah, they love their toys. 

Tell me how you connected with Agilis. 

That actually kind of ties back into the connection I had with professors. One of them went to church with someone who worked Agilis. They had been on my radar as soon as I heard that, because it seemed like exactly what I wanted to do, so he set up a meeting with his friend and I. He talked about the company for an hour, what they did and the sort of things that I would be doing early on. I applied, got a few interviews, and was able to get the job. 

Is there such a thing for you as a typical day? 

We have four main types of engineers. We've got the design engineers, the heat transfer and secondary flow (thermodynamics) theaerodynamic engineers, and then us structural engineers.  

And so it's not too different from what other structural engineers would do in construction or any other application. It's just applied to our turbine machinery. I'm looking at life limiting characteristics that would be in pretty much any piece of machinery that's going through a cycle. We'retrying to determine why failures would exist and when they would pop up.  

What type of equipment are the turbines used in?  

They are gas turbines. We primarily work in aviation, power generation and marine oil and gas industry.  

Is this the type of engineering you envisioned early on in your life? 

I didn't really know the specifics of what I wanted to do early on. I knew I wanted to work in an aeronautical-based field. I thought failure analysis would be really cool as I was going our statics and dynamics courses—looking at something that's broken, figure out why it was broken and figure out how to prevent it in the future.  

What gives you the greatest sense of accomplishment at the end of the day?  

I think knowing that I put my best effort forward. The Bible says we should do everything as unto the Lord... I really try really hard because I appreciate the opportunity that God gave me here, because this wasn't the first job I had out of school. The other job was great, but it wasn'texactly what I wanted to do, and God gave me this opportunity and I try not to take it for granted.  

What advice would you give someone who is interested in a career in mechanical engineering? 

I think you just have to be willing to push yourself to learn. Mechanical engineering splits off into so many different things, and that's what I was really excited about when I started going through pursuing my degree... just looking at the classes, seeing what I might get to learn. You really have to be open to it, because some of it gets really tough, and it's not always going to be what you're interested in. For example, I was always looking forward to fluid dynamics class. When I got in it, it was very interesting, and I loved it, but also on my schedule was engineering economics—that didn't really interest me as much, but once you get into it, you have to be willing to push yourself as hard as you would for fluid dynamics, even though you don't enjoy it as much. It's not as easy, not as natural, because you learn very quickly just how important it is. When I went into our statics course, I really wasn't looking forward to it. I wanted to do aerospace applications, so I was big into aerodynamics, but statics ended up being my favorite course in the program. You just have to be willing and open to learn and understand that you don't know everything—you just have to be willing to admit that.  

What does career advancement look like down the road? 

I'm very new, but I've gotten to shadow quite a few people that are above me. Technically I'm a structures 1 engineer, so I'm on that low rung, and these guys with 10-15 years of experience are just genius. I hope I can get to that place one day. There are good avenues for upward growth, for sure.