| Free Column |
| From Geneva to San Diego / by Dr Martin Kugler | ||
We are happy to give you some news from Martin Kugler, MaNEP's former KTT manager. In his usual humorous way, he gives us a taste of his new life in a Californian company... One year ago I left MaNEP and Geneva's STM group for San Diego, California, to work in the R&D team of Quantum Design (www.qdusa.com) and this has been and still is a crazy experience. The R&D department is the only place which looks like our familiar low temperature labs, with numerous dewars getting babysitted with the good old routine of cryogen transfers and the background music of screaming leak detectors and pumps. At the heart of the company building, a polyvalent mix of engineers and physicists is tackling various projects ranging from improving existing products to developing new ones. |
Here the focus is the product, not the understanding of a fundamental physical phenomenon. This latter part is left to you, the end users... Take a look at the new MPMS SQUID VSM system which has been introduced at the APS conference in March. Having been in charge of the knowledge and technology transfer activities of MaNEP for several years, I was interested to learn more about know-how transfer on the other side, the industry side. In a medium size company like Quantum Design, fresh know-how is typically acquired by hiring new employees with the appropriate profile. From there on, most of the knowledge transfer is internal. It is stunning how challenging it is to design a complex instrument in a way that it can actually be reproduced reliably and furthermore to then transfer the tips and tricks from the R&D floor to the production department. This requires a tremendous effort in coordination and communication. As a 'Gedankenexperiment', take the most complex instrument of your lab and teach a few random friends you have met in a bar a few |
days ago to manufacture exact copies... I bet that you will need to go back to the bar more than once ! Doing science and engineering within an economical reality is truly fun eventhough you have milestones to reach on time, that you need to take risks and that the future of the company highly depends on what is coming out of R&D.  [ click to enlarge image ] Another discovery is of course the Californian way of life. San Diego is a great place to live. The permanent sun and mild pacific breeze have a great impact on people's minds: no stress, no worries, always smiling and a joke ready ! There is no doubt, if you are interested in discovering what science looks like from within a high tech company, California has a lot to offer... |
| Go to... | |
| Cover | 1 |
| MaNEP news | 2 |
| Free Column | 3 |
| Publications | 4 |
| Reading tips | 5 |
| Agenda | 6 |
|
Are you willing to share your own views and /or new experiences in this column ? Contact the editor ! |