The CWB Association hosted this year's annual CanWeld Conference in Moncton, NB. Join us as we bring you special episodes recorded in person to keep our members on top of what’s new and exciting in the steel and welding industry.
Get ready for a riveting conversation with Eduardo Alvarez Rocha, a Masters student at the University of Alberta, who took a winding road from Mexico City to Canada. Eduardo's journey is one of passion, resilience, and unexpected turns, including a love for mathematics nurtured by his grandfather, and financial struggles during his high school years, that led him to discover an entirely new field - Welding! But that's not all, from a Welder to an Engineer, Eduardo's story takes us on a fascinating exploration of his research, which merges welding and machine learning. Tune in for a stirring dialogue on embracing challenges, pursuing passion, and the infinite possibilities that come with relentless determination.
Follow Eduardo on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/j-eduardo-alvarez-rocha-4015b264/?originalSubdomain=ca
Thank you to our Podcast Advertisers:
Canada Welding Supply: https://canadaweldingsupply.ca/
WeldReady: https://weld-ready.ca/
CanWeld Conference is all about bringing the welding, fabricating, and finishing industries together to increase the visibility of Canada's manufacturing heartland region and highlight different industries across Canada. Schedule the next event in your calendar: June 12th-13th, 2024 with Fabtech Canada in Toronto, ON! Are you interested in speaking at CanWeld? Check out the Call for Papers: https://www.cwbgroup.org/association/conferences
The CWB Association hosted this year's annual CanWeld Conference in Moncton, NB. Join us as we bring you special episodes recorded in person to keep our members on top of what’s new and exciting in the steel and welding industry.
Get ready for a riveting conversation with Eduardo Alvarez Rocha, a Masters student at the University of Alberta, who took a winding road from Mexico City to Canada. Eduardo's journey is one of passion, resilience, and unexpected turns, including a love for mathematics nurtured by his grandfather, and financial struggles during his high school years, that led him to discover an entirely new field - Welding! But that's not all, from a Welder to an Engineer, Eduardo's story takes us on a fascinating exploration of his research, which merges welding and machine learning. Tune in for a stirring dialogue on embracing challenges, pursuing passion, and the infinite possibilities that come with relentless determination.
Follow Eduardo on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/j-eduardo-alvarez-rocha-4015b264/?originalSubdomain=ca
Thank you to our Podcast Advertisers:
Canada Welding Supply: https://canadaweldingsupply.ca/
WeldReady: https://weld-ready.ca/
CanWeld Conference is all about bringing the welding, fabricating, and finishing industries together to increase the visibility of Canada's manufacturing heartland region and highlight different industries across Canada. Schedule the next event in your calendar: June 12th-13th, 2024 with Fabtech Canada in Toronto, ON! Are you interested in speaking at CanWeld? Check out the Call for Papers: https://www.cwbgroup.org/association/conferences
Alright, I'm checkin', checkin' good. So I'm Max Ron. Max Max Ron, SHITWB Association Welding Podcast. Today we have a really cool guest Welding Podcast. The show is about to begin.
Speaker 1:This episode is sponsored by our friends at Canada Welding Supply. They are a family owned Canadian business with an awesome customer support team that's there ready to answer any questions you may have. Canada Welding Supplyca offers quick Canada wide shipping, fair prices and a massive selection of welding supplies. They carry all the cool brands, such as ESAB, Lincoln Electric and Fronius, but also some of the very hard to find niche brands like Furecup, Outlaw Leather and, of course, up and smoke welding apparel. Best of all, they offer exclusive discounts only for our CWBE Association members. Check out Canada Welding Supplyca today to shop for all your welding needs. Remember that's Canada Welding Supplyca.
Speaker 1:Hello and welcome to another edition of the CWBE Association Podcast. My name is Max Ron and we are here in Moncton, New Brunswick, for Can Weld 2023. It has been a great three days. We have been going hard, the sessions have been fantastic and one of the presenters here at the conference is my friend, Eduardo, here already and we're going to be talking about some of the amazing things we're doing this week. So, Eduardo Alvarez Rocha, how are you doing?
Speaker 2:I'm doing great, fantastic, very glad to be here. We're uniting with all the community from across Canada, so very exciting.
Speaker 1:So you are a University of Alberta Masters student right now in the sciences. What is it exactly that you're working on in terms of your Masters?
Speaker 2:In terms of my Masters. Up to date, we've just been working on a voltage model for gas and arc welding, primarily in spray transfer, and now we're doing some work in conjunction with some students from Peru, so essentially developing a machine learning algorithm that can process high speed video to provide metrics for us to validate models, such as arc length, deposition rates, size of droplets, etc.
Speaker 1:So this work and we're going to get to this later in the show but what was the inspiration for you to follow this path?
Speaker 2:I think they follow the inspiration. The original topic obviously was pitched by Dr Mendez, patrice Mendez, my professor at the University. He essentially just said hey, ask the question. Hey, can you do this work?
Speaker 2:Tell me what the arc length is. Well, obviously, leveraging my experience as a welder because I was a welder before I was an engineer and yeah, I said, yeah, sure. So one thing led to another and I said, okay, well, I think we really need to look a little bit deeper into this. I want to do some experiments, process some high speed videos. Once I started processing the high speed videos and measuring by hand, I said, hey, you know what this is? Really time consuming and really labor, something to do it all by hand. Why don't we?
Speaker 1:leverage some new technology why?
Speaker 2:don't we try leveraging some new technology and see what we can do? And well, of course there's enough determination and perseverance. Sky's the limit. So far, the results have been pretty good.
Speaker 1:Awesome. So you alluded to being a welder previous, so let's go to square one. So where were you born?
Speaker 2:I was born in Mexico City, Mexico, Mexico. Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 1:And so you were born in Mexico City, which, if no one's ever been to Mexico City, it is the crown jewel of Mexico. It's beautiful. It's a wonderful city with great history. I've been there many times. I find that in Canada people are always like hitting the coast and don't check out the main DF right. So it's magical. You're born in Mexico City. I assume your parents are both Mexican.
Speaker 2:Correct yeah.
Speaker 1:How are you now at the U of A? You know like so there was. At what age did you leave Mexico?
Speaker 2:Yes, so maybe I should start just before that and how we ended up leaving Mexico.
Speaker 3:Okay.
Speaker 2:So my parents. I guess we'll start with my parents, so my parents from my mom's side. She was a professor at the University in Mexico, so the UNAM when University of Mexico and she traveled the world doing conferences sharing her research. She was a biochemist. My dad is a veterinarian. They actually met when they were in the university and, upon my well, in one of my your birth.
Speaker 2:No, no, no. In one of my mom's conferences they divorced when I was young. Okay, my mom traveled the world doing conferences. She went to Argentina and did a few trips to the States Often went to the States and in one of those trips she met a doctor that offered her hey, do you want to come do a research stand here at Oregon State University? So that's how we ended up leaving Mexico.
Speaker 1:And so it's you and your mom.
Speaker 2:Me and my mom at this time.
Speaker 1:Any siblings come with you.
Speaker 2:No, I'm only child.
Speaker 1:Okay, all right.
Speaker 2:So actually, and before we left, maybe six months before, no, probably about a year before we left, you know, it was in the works, the coals were in the fire, you know they're like okay, we're getting ready to leave and hold you at this point.
Speaker 2:At this point I think I was eight, okay, seven, or eight, eight, and it was one day. After school I said, hey, why don't you go run to movie? And okay. So we went to the movie store just a few blocks down from where we were living, close to the UNAM, and I saw the mighty ducks, the movie I think it was the second one and so I grabbed the movie. Hey, we put it in, and then it only took me one one try, or sorry, one one time to watch it and I completely fell in love with it. I was like, hey, I want to try hockey. Okay, kid from Mexico, do we even have a hockey rink in Mexico? So it turns out we had four. My mom quickly learned because she would drive me every day.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So I started learning how to skate and then my grandparents were always very supportive. Actually, my grandfather was like a father figure for me, because I pretty much grew up with him while I was studying, so anyway. So they would always encourage me. They would bring me my grandparents in the weekend, would bring me to the hockey rink. They even paid private lessons for me to, you know, learn Well, because I was so passionate.
Speaker 2:I just love the hockey rink. So I said, mom, you can go to Oregon with me, I will go with you, but I must be able to play hockey.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that was the deal that was the deal.
Speaker 2:So then she said okay, because I mean, we were so close to the hockey rink in Mexico and if we were moving to Corvallis, oregon, there was no hockey rink there.
Speaker 1:I was like, hey well, how's there no hockey hockey rink in Oregon?
Speaker 2:in Corvallis, Oregon.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:The closest hockey rink at that time in Corvallis, oregon, was in Eugene. So that's where the University of Oregon is, oregon State University in Corvallis. So I think it was about a 45 minute drive and my mom you know as supportive as she was she would drive me every weekend to Eugene. I'm lucky for me, in Corvallis there was a roller hockey rink, so when it wasn't raining. So for those of you that are listening and have been to Oregon, you know it rains a lot, it rains a lot.
Speaker 2:So if in this, but in the summertime it's very, very hot. So, summer times I was out in the roller hockey rink. In the wintertime, during hockey season, I was in Eugene and then we would travel around, you know, go to Portland and Washington and Seattle, and we actually came up one time to Vancouver to play against Vancouver. It was pretty entertaining because, well, they would skate around us, right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and then I said you know what?
Speaker 2:I think we need to move to Canada.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and like 20% of the players in the NHL are Canadian. Yeah.
Speaker 2:I was like well, what are we doing here? So, anyways, yeah, that's that's how we ended up leaving Mexico. After the research thing was done there, we ended up making some connections in Canada. So in.
Speaker 2:Edmonton and we had some friends, actually colleagues of my mom that you know, my mom that she knew from London, actually a visiting professor from Revelstoke that went to London. So she's like, hey, why don't we come visit us? Yeah, we have a house in Revelstoke. So we said, okay, you know what, why don't we just take some time? Because mom was taking a year off. So she's like, why don't we just go to Edmonton and on the way, let's stop in Revelstoke.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Stop in Revelstoke. Went to hockey camp there in the summer.
Speaker 1:Yeah, this is awesome, well, and that's a beautiful part of the country, right yeah?
Speaker 2:So we ended up going to Edmonton, and the rest is history. We fell in love with it and I was like you know.
Speaker 1:So how old are you? When you got to Edmonton 11. 11. So it was only in the States for three years, two years, yeah. So you end up in Edmonton, alberta, and it was like to live your mom's looking for work, it's yeah, yeah, so we ended up being able to immigrate.
Speaker 2:Canada is a wonderful place.
Speaker 1:A lot of opportunity. Lots of hockey lots of hockey and my mom with her background and profession, she was able to pick it up and essentially we were able to say yeah, now, as a young, as a young person, you know playing hockey and were you good Like I mean not to sound like a jerk, but like were you good enough that this is like you're thinking, like I might have a run at this you?
Speaker 2:know, I think when we first moved, I got, I got to see like where the caliber was at. And obviously I was. I was actually well, actually let's, let's start with this I came to meet my friend who we knew from my hockey team in Oregon and they were Canadian, or their mom was Canadian. So they said, hey, why don't you, if you guys are staying, why don't you go try out for his team? So I was okay, yeah, no problem, yeah, like of course that's awesome yeah.
Speaker 2:So I went and I think it was like they were trying out for like tier five or something like that. And I think I did pretty well, because the coaches from like tier two and three are like hey, why don't you come, like try out for tier two or tier three? I can't remember that time. So I made the team like the I think it was like tier three at that time. So I mean, coming from Mexico making tier three, I was like okay, this is not bad.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I got great mentorship from my coaches. And then they said you know, I like I was small I mean I'm not very tall- yeah. Why don't you go take like a hitting camp?
Speaker 1:Get more, get more buff.
Speaker 2:Yeah, learn how to move your body because I guess my skill, my raw talent was skating. Yeah pretty fast skater. So I ended up, you know, training and I ended up making to the Alberta Cup. So it's like the top 40 Edmonton players when I was 14, from Edmonton. So I would say I did pretty well coming from Mexico and learning to skate when I was in so yeah.
Speaker 1:And how was the transition to schools? Like you leave school in Mexico, it would have been like grade four or five, and then you get to Oregon. You're there for a couple of years, so I put you a grade like six or seven and then you're moving to Alberta. How were these changes for you as a young person?
Speaker 2:Oh, it was quite interesting. So when I was in Mexico, I went to a very good school. It was a private school. I was there from eight in the morning till five PM every day, and after three we were like swimming or doing some sort of sports. And when I went to the States, I was also in a pretty good school. But I was very frustrated because, even though I didn't know how to speak fluent English, I felt that you weren't doing as good I was a little bit higher, especially with math.
Speaker 2:So my, my grandpa, was actually a high school math student math teacher, so he would always mentor me and that's how I kind of grew to like math. So when I came to the States I was like I'm very frustrated so I ended up skipping a grade when I was in the States. So I did like five and six, like in one year.
Speaker 3:And then when I came to Canada.
Speaker 2:I started in grade seven, so it was. It was a very dynamic as a child. I was away from my grandparents, who had never left their side. Just with my mom. I hadn't seen my dad new school.
Speaker 1:You're the youngest kid in class.
Speaker 2:Youngest kid in class, but I was with my mom and I was playing hockey, so for me that was like you're good, number one, I was good.
Speaker 1:Yeah. And how would you find the education system in Canada? Did you still feel like it was like too slow or too far behind?
Speaker 2:No, I think I felt it was good. At the same time, I had skipped already a year. So I was younger, so I was. Yeah, I think it was good.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So now let's, let's start going through the timeline. You're graduating high school in Edmonton. You're, you know, top 40 hockey player. What's what's the plan coming out of high school?
Speaker 2:Mm, hmm. So I mean, after a few years of being in Edmonton you know as good as people might have it in their own country. Coming to Canada being an immigrant, you know tough times do come eventually. So we definitely went through some rough patch there, for sure, and I like we couldn't afford hockey anymore. So my last year I can no longer afford to play.
Speaker 2:So that was pretty heartbreaking for me. So I ended up working. I helped my mom at that time. She wasn't able to find a job as a professor in the university, so she she ended up starting a new degree. She became a nurse at RN. So while I was in school she was finishing her degree and I was, I was working at Chili's.
Speaker 2:I was in the back of a school I started playing guitar. Well, I had always played guitars since I was like seven years old. So I joined a band. I started playing lots of music and when I finished school I knew I wanted to do something with math. My grandfather instilled that into me. He also had a late career change in his life. He was a Lieutenant General.
Speaker 3:Lieutenant.
Speaker 2:Colonel in the military in Mexico. And he had a leg accident laden his career, so the army just paid for him. To you know, go retrain so then he became a math teacher in high school. So for me the plan for us or schools like hey, I want to do engineering, that was always my thing is something to do with math, either architecture or engineering. But money wasn't there and I guess my mindset wasn't that my mom had just finished school. So I was, I was just not there.
Speaker 2:So I said you know I'll take a year off and I'll save up some money and then I'll go do engineering and that is where welding steps into my life. Yeah, so that was. That was pretty much where I reached out. Some friends were working in a fab shop in Edmonton and they said hey, we're looking for people. It was 2005 at the time.
Speaker 3:Big oil boom coming.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So I said, okay, why not? Let's, let's do this. So I went in, I put my application and you know, just to bring things into perspective, how busy it was at that time the I literally dropped off my resume at the front desk and then I was stepping out and then the reception said, hey, like do you have time for an interview? So I went into the back. The shop manager said, hey, like, can you start on Sunday? I think it was like a Thursday and they're like oh, I just got to do this drug and alcohol test and then come in on Sunday. I was like Okay, so I went do the thing. I called him is like okay, start Sunday graveyard shift. I need you here at 12 at midnight.
Speaker 3:Wow.
Speaker 2:So that was the beginning of a whole new chapter for me.
Speaker 1:So how old are you at this point? At that point 17, 17. I graduated a year earlier, Right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I was 17. When that started.
Speaker 1:So you know, for a kid who has basically academic parents and family, you know people in academia and you you know you've kind of followed your mom as your mentor around with her profession and now you're going into welding in a fab shop as a 17 year old and so in Alberta there's a mandatory apprenticeship. So, like you're, you're signing papers. You're kind of signing your life away to go to go work as a welder. What did your mom think about this?
Speaker 2:She thought I was so brave, this is completely new, there's lots of opportunity here. She encouraged it. I think the summer before that, like right after high school, I started doing bridge construction and I was just like helping with like shovel and something. And she would come to me and say, hey, like this is just temporary, right, you are going to go to school or something I know you would want to, so just think about the future. So I told her I was taking a year off. So when I started the welding thing at first it was just a job.
Speaker 2:Yeah it wasn't even an apprenticeship at that point. Yeah. Two months later they came to me and say, hey, like you've shot, you sweep the floors really well for the last two months. Would you like to do an apprenticeship? So I said, okay. At that time we were just like recovering, like my mom had just finished university again. So I said, hey, like mom, like this is a pretty good opportunity, they're gonna pay for my apprenticeship, they're gonna pay me while I'm there and then when I come back, I'm gonna get a good erase.
Speaker 1:And while you learn, you know what.
Speaker 2:And I'm actually liking it. They're fabricating vessels. It's pretty exciting, like big machinery Welding looks very, very fun. So I think I'm gonna do it. And she's like, yeah, do it. Like, for sure, do it. And that's. That's where I started my apprenticeship.
Speaker 1:So you start on as a welder in a fab shop, which is a good place because generally the welding is new construction, it's usually pretty controlled environments and stuff like that. You know you said you looked at welding and it was exciting. What was what was exciting about it, you know. And then when you started, did you? Did you catch the bug right away?
Speaker 2:Yeah, okay. So I think what was exciting about it For me Very good question For me it was, since it was such a like big scale manufacturer what was exciting for me is seeing what, what was the input, what was the output? Raw steel, I mean, we were. We were bringing plate from just play yeah and it was just plate you know, yeah, quarter inch thick cut four inch.
Speaker 1:yeah, whatever, yeah.
Speaker 2:Then you see it get cut, then you see it get formed, yeah, then you see it get prospers.
Speaker 1:Well, did together.
Speaker 2:Yeah, join together and to me that was pretty amazing Right.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:It was very different from carbon tree.
Speaker 1:Right, because I mean, if you talk, about carbon.
Speaker 2:Okay, right, but for me that was, that was amazing and I had some exposure. In high school I took a fab shop class and I remember from my fashion days like I actually enjoyed it. Hey, like joined two pieces of metal together, it was awesome, and now I'm going to see in big scale. I said, hey, like this is really something.
Speaker 1:And now you're under the hood, you're getting your first gigs and you're you're needing to start burning right now. I mean, when you first start, you don't get to do those, those welds yet, right, did you? Did it feel like the right thing, like the right choice? You know, once you started staring at that little blue light?
Speaker 2:So the when I first started before they let me touch any singer I became really good at oxy acetylene cutting.
Speaker 1:Oh, good, good, that's a very important skill.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so we ended up at first you cutting scrap metal. And then you're cutting, you know, shells putting bevels on massive shells. Then, when I proved that, like hey, like, okay, we'll put you on the head trimmer. So then I started beveling heads, large, large heads, small heads, cladded heads, starting to use the plasma cutter. And I really enjoyed that because I was like, hey look, I will always, always look at the light, look at the cut, you know, look at the curve lines just that perfectionist, perfection, yeah, all of a sudden you start getting an area like okay, let's fine tune this.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And I would quickly be able to troubleshoot it. So I really like that aspect of it.
Speaker 1:And you know when did you do your first term of apprenticeship? I?
Speaker 2:think it was 2007. 2007.
Speaker 1:And you did it in Alberta or in Edmonton, yeah, nate. So how was that experience?
Speaker 2:It was awesome because, I mean, I had been at a school I graduated in 2005. So I had been a couple years out of school, so going back to the classroom felt nice for me. Yeah, I was like, okay, learning things again. And since I already had exposure to it, beauty, the beauty of the apprenticeship right. Yeah, you see things. And then you come to the classroom and you're like, oh, this is why.
Speaker 1:And then you want to learn more.
Speaker 2:So yeah, 2007 is when I first started, and then I went back to the shop and then, after I left for my second and third year, I said you know what I'm going to try to do those back to back or close to back to back. And once I finished my second, I'm going to go to the field. And that's when I started doing shutdowns. I think it was 2007.
Speaker 3:Okay.
Speaker 2:So I'm working maintenance work for mainly coal, coal, coal fire plants. Okay, and then I. That's when I got my first exposure to like tag welding. Yeah guys, literally just in the tightest spots, doing the toughest wells, like sticking their hands in between, like all elements. And I was like okay, you know what that requires skill. I definitely looked up to those guys and I said okay, I'm going to go back right away do my third year, and I want to come back as soon as possible doing that, because that looked really really fine.
Speaker 1:So I feel like at this point you're pretty good welder, like you're usually not having those thoughts unless you're pretty comfortable with what you know already. So you know, working in the in this shop, you know, sounds like you're beveling huge plates. That would equal welding huge plates. After you know what you know, your skill level, you know, are you top 40 welder now too? I mean you were pretty good.
Speaker 3:I was okay.
Speaker 2:I guess I used to get name hired from time to time.
Speaker 3:Good.
Speaker 2:I don't know if it was because I was a good welder or because I was skinny and short.
Speaker 1:I can fit in those tight spaces right. Hey man, skinny and short, I mean I was never that skinny, but in being short was beneficial for for work. For me too, it's like hey, you can get under there, You're not going to complain. Yeah, I can do that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, people will get mad at me, like, oh, why are you doing? Like I don't know, it's like a challenge.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so now you're welding, and is it not the career for the rest of your life? Is that's not what you're thinking? You're like this is going well, I got good money. Did you get your red seal?
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, I got my red seal. I got my B pressure. Actually, first time, first try, got my B pressure, which was challenging itself, but I think it came with a lot of preparation. I went through a good training course at the actually the Bullenmaker Union Hall in Edmonton, and I just kept practicing, and practicing, and practicing, and then I would come home and I would like dreaming about it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I would even tell my mom about it.
Speaker 2:And she's like, oh, you should make like like a. She's almost be like a ritual right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, your rods, like you know yeah and yeah, at the end of it I was like, yeah, I knew exactly how many rods they needed and I would just burn it out. I knew how long it took me and by the time I got to the test, you know you're nervous because, like very low pass rate at that time we were using 60 10 for the root pass. I think they took that away after after I did the test, but yeah, it was. I was honestly, to this day, if I think back, like what was one of your highs in your life is like passing my B pressure my first try.
Speaker 3:Yeah, for me that was like wow, right yeah.
Speaker 2:So that was pretty exciting.
Speaker 1:And you're still at this point, you're still thinking this is your career.
Speaker 2:So no at this point, because remember, welding was only like a one year thing. I was like I want to go back to university. But then I took the detour and I really enjoyed it. So once I got my B pressure, I said Okay, I got. I think the Monday after I think, if I got my B on on the Friday, on the Monday I was like I got to practice my take, I got to get my take on my small board, all that stuff.
Speaker 2:And at that time they were offering this $2,000 incentive through the hall to get your alloy, all your alloys.
Speaker 1:Okay take.
Speaker 2:So I said you know what I? It was just before turnaround time, there wasn't that much work. So I was like you know what? I'm going in the holiday every day. Anyway, I'll just keep that routine and see what happens. At this point I wasn't thinking of a date when I was going back, but in the back of my head I was like I do want to go do engineering. So when I started, when I got my all my alloy tickets, I went to work in the oil sands and I built a co gen, did a lot of the return bends and stuff like that. That was fun. I got to well and like reformer furnaces, do a lot of like heavy welding canal and like transfer lines, and that was awesome because it was like very, very detailed.
Speaker 2:Then you start dealing with like old material that that creep creep damage right. I remember actually one time I was I was welding on on a transfer line. It was 14 inches in diameter, was like four inches thick, and I remember we did this beautiful job and actually at that time I was welding with a Chilean guy from Chile who came during the boom. Great welder taught me a lot about welding for sure, so I welded with him for a couple years and I remember we welded this beautiful joint right.
Speaker 3:But it was old.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and we capped it and you know it took us a couple weeks because I think the pipe fitters cut it too short or something we had to like. Of course they had to do like 3d printing with TIG to build up the wall additive manufacturing. And we ended up welding the joint, and then we, we pt'd it and there was this perfect line, line, all the way around, but it wasn't in the weld.
Speaker 1:Look at that, and then over Parametal, yeah, and you know, so start digging it out.
Speaker 2:And then we went all the way. You had to get a machinist, we went all the way to the root and you know, we had to do metallography. And then at that point I was like you know what? I think it's time I go back to school.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I gotta figure out why this is so interesting, right? So?
Speaker 2:that's a picture of that year, so, as an 11 is when I went back, I got accepted to the University of Alberta and then I started my mechanical engineering degree in 2011.
Speaker 1:Awesome. Well, let's take our break now for for the suppliers, because this is the perfect time that, when we come back from from our, the message from our sponsors is that we'll talk about that journey into the? U of a and how being a welder affects being an engineer today, which I think is what a lot of people you know wonder. If that's like the perfect mix, right? So stay tuned, don't go anywhere here on the CWB Association podcast, we'll be back right after this message. Did you know that more than 80% of welders are unsatisfied with their current vendors? With exceptional customer service, weld Ready is here to help grow your business and expand your hobby with expert knowledge and the products you count on. Weld Ready is here for you. Weld Readyca is your premium source for in stock welding supplies, delivered to your door fast and I mean fast. Weld Ready offers the products you need, such as helmets, tig torches, welders, plasmas, fixture tables and custom starter packages for educational programs. We stock all brands your metal working heart desires, such as ESAB, miller, ck, worldwide Edge Welding Cups, optrell, 3m, speedglass and many, many more. Visit Weld Readyca now to get Weld Ready. And that's no bull. And we are back here on the CWB Association podcast here in Moncton, new Brunswick, during Canwell 2023.
Speaker 1:Today's special guest here is Eduardo. How are you doing, eddie? Great, thank you. So right before the break we were talking about you finishing up your red seal, getting your B pressure. Then your, so that's F3, f4, then you're off to the F5, f6 world and then you're getting your in canals. You're those with the 44s and 40s and now you're like okay, I want to go back to engineering and you look up the U of A's engineering program and you go sign up and September rules around, it's time to go. Did you talk to your mom and say look, welding is over, I'm quitting school, I'm going back full time and this is it Now. I'm going to be a student for the next four to six years.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So I guess like a year before getting admitted I already had the bug in my ear, really just a matter of going through the motions and applying. And I actually had a friend from high school that was in engineering and knew my current professor, professor Mendes. So anyway, I was introduced and I was like, hey, like U of A sounds pretty cool. So then I told my mom. Of course she was a static, so I was like I'm going to go back to university, I think I'll do mechanical, and I have some contact, I know there's a welding lab, so this is pretty, pretty good place. And at that time, yeah, obviously, after working for so long, it's definitely like hard transition.
Speaker 2:I had bought a house with my mom at that time, so it was close to the university. It was a good spot to be in and luckily, thanks to the boom, I was able to save enough money to support myself through university right. So obviously the first bit was hard because you're competing with kids that just got out of high school.
Speaker 2:You're fresh with knowledge, fresh with knowledge and you're sitting there, you know, welding for 10, 12 hours a day and then coming back and like oh, I have a steep learning curve to and it's hard to stay awake and start to stay awake in the beginning, because you're not used to sitting in a desk anymore, right yeah, and you know as you rolled into the program why mechanical engineering right off the top?
Speaker 1:Why not like a materials engineering, which so generally is closer to welding in a? Lot of ways. What was it about mechanical?
Speaker 2:It was a very tough decision. It was a very tough decision when I so when I started, I big competition. Obviously they're trying to weed people out. I think the first year that's like starts with 900 and right off the bat people start dropping right.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So I think, before even thinking mechanical, you're just like survival Am I going to survive or will I just become a statistic, right, yeah, so I think my focus at first was get through the first year and then, after the first year, you get to select whether you go into whatever discipline. Each discipline requires a certain GPA. Mechanical was one of the higher GPAs. To get into materials is a little bit lower, so everyone wanted to go into mechanical. I think everyone was excited about mechanical. For me, I liked the idea of mechanical because I had been working with you know, maintaining and building like stuff Mechanical equipment.
Speaker 2:So for me it was okay. Well, do I want to be designing the pressure vessels or, you know, looking at like piping repairs or vessel repairs, or do I want to do like more welding specific? You know things at work. So when I came to the decision I survived first year and I survived with a quite a good GPA. So after the learning career I kind of got my bearings and then I said, you know, mechanical is the thing I have.
Speaker 1:The muscle go there yeah.
Speaker 2:I'll apply it, but I put materials as a second.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And I got mechanical and then uh, yeah, I just uh just rolled right into it. I think actually one of the before I was signing my paper. I just remember, um, I think my grandfather would pass at that time and I was like like I wonder what he would say.
Speaker 1:Yeah, he would have been so happy. He was so happy, Right? So?
Speaker 2:um, I think I had like a dream or something and he said like just go into mechanical Right, it's like more it was sent, so I was, like you know, mechanical. Anyway. So that's, that's how that came about. Uh, luckily for me, like I did quite well, because I had already seen a lot of things, I had built a lot of things.
Speaker 2:Uh, and when I did mechanical, especially in the design, competitions um, like my team always came up on top, I think we won. Like the second year of competition, we actually had to build something. Uh, we won first place and that was awesome. Right.
Speaker 3:Like it was.
Speaker 2:That was another high. It was like okay, like being out in the field before doing engineering actually really does help.
Speaker 1:Oh for sure, Like I mean, in my experience I know it does. But you know as uh as as a welder. Now you're in the, in the college, now you're in the mechanical engineering world and you're starting to take your classes. I'm sure in conversation, in terms of like first day at school introductions, talking to the professors people are finding out that you're a welder, you know. So what was the attitude of perhaps the instructors and the other students when they found out? You kind of had this previous life.
Speaker 2:Well, I think it was. It was quite positive. I think in second year people wanted me on their team, but I think that the thing that mostly stood out was my current professor.
Speaker 1:Like professor, yeah, when I first started interacting with him.
Speaker 2:He's like oh, what? Like you have like real-world, like life experience, like in welding? Come to the lab, come check out the lab. You know it's very contagious Energy, right. So I in second year I quickly got drawn to the lab. I already had, like had acquaintance with him, so it was kind of natural, if they actually think, I ran into him in the hallway and I went into his office, like hey, like remember me. And then he's like oh, like you're back, okay, perfect. So anybody made to the lab. I ended up doing a couple of Deans research award projects, so undergraduate, undergraduate research in his lab, and I he invited me to do a masters right away after finishing, but at that time I was okay, I just finished school, like it kind of collected a bunch of debts.
Speaker 1:To get through school need to work for a little bit.
Speaker 2:I mean, I was also helping my mom. So I said you know, I feel like I need to like take a break here, mm-hmm. But during that time, before I graduated, I became a CWB level one inspector. Okay, in my, in, my. I think it was like after first year, because obviously you see the QC guys and they're just coming and look at your welds. Yeah, I think one time, when I was holding on the reformer furnace, I had this guy who had never touched a stinger or a rod in his life.
Speaker 2:Yeah he came to look at my weld. It was like a beautiful cap and I had like one. I wouldn't even call it like Arc strike. Yeah it was like a tail out.
Speaker 3:It was like a arc rub from my take and it was like a.
Speaker 2:Barely even an arc strike, he's. And he looked at it. He's like I don't know right, I smudged it, I fixed it with like the file or whatever. But he looked at the whole weld and then he turned at me. He's like, is this good? And then I was like, oh man, okay.
Speaker 1:So so slight shade to the CWB weld inspection program, but that's okay. That's okay because I Personally have never wanted to be a weld mark, but that's okay.
Speaker 2:Anyway. So after first year I was like you know what? I should just go do the See the level one, let's. I should be like I want to be inspecting because I'm sure I'll learn more.
Speaker 1:Mm-hmm, and it is a good course. You learn a lot, yeah, you learn a lot.
Speaker 2:So I did my level one and then that's actually what got me through second and well, third and fourth year, because for metal energy, I would start. No, I get financially financially as soon as I, I mean as soon as the classes were done. I was hitting a shutdown somewhere and I was able to, you know, learn there yeah.
Speaker 2:I learned a lot doing inspections, learning about quality programs and stuff like that said, learning what we're able to end E and then, after I graduated, that's when when the decision has to be made Okay, do you go straight into the masters or do you go?
Speaker 2:make some money for, make some money for, so I said okay, you know what, like I think I'm in a position where I need to just kind of capitalize. So I made a decision I'm just gonna go do my level two and and I, and maybe my API, give me like at least a year or two, just to get some codes under your belt.
Speaker 2:Yeah, get things get things going and I'll come back after. So one thing we have to another. Of course I was. It became like QC lead for a little bit, and then I got my API 510 and then I started doing QA, and then I started working oil sands and my manager In the world sounds who's very supportive, I might add said, hey, you also have an engineering degree. It's like, oh, come do engineering. So then I started doing like Working as an engineer. I eventually got my P N's doing that way, doing mechanical engineering work, which I found very, very fun, because it's like you actually get to design the repair Okay, something on the thing that's right there.
Speaker 1:I think that's right there, so.
Speaker 2:I love like okay, being able to go out, look at the thing that's broken. Oh, like, furnace needs a renew roof or something like that. This pipe is really messed up, or how can we? Redesign this pipe so that you know it works better.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I found that awesome because I was able to tie in my previous welding experience my mechanical engineering education and your inspection, and my inspection and I. It was kind of organic because I was able to communicate with all these different groups right. So then that led to the offer like hey, do you want to be a technical leader for turnarounds? So I say okay, well, yeah, I think it'll be fun. So then I kind of got a little bit more into the business side of things, but which is important because you learn how things move.
Speaker 2:You know how, how you scope a turnaround. Yeah how you make sure a plant is reliable for a mission run, that type of thing. So they're definitely definitely learned a ton. You interact with, with many groups, even like process automation, electrical engineering. You I learned a lot other companies.
Speaker 2:QA's yes, absolutely yeah you know, I have people from other countries. We had a company from Europe come over and they weren't familiar with our Alberta way of doing things or quality programs. So you get help them get up to speed. But anyway, once I I worked as a technical leader for a bit, covid happened and Professor Mendez called me up and said hey, are you interested in still doing a masters, because everything's online. Yeah, yeah, and at that time I was living in Fort McMurray, so I I said yeah, absolutely yeah.
Speaker 1:I better than sitting around.
Speaker 2:Yeah, although I really do like doing turnarounds and Shutdowns doing shut downs. Yeah, yeah, I call them turnarounds lately. But yeah, shut down. I said. Yeah, I honestly. I like to go back to the more technical Aspect of things. It's, I don't find it to be work.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean. So it's just fun.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's just it's just fun, right. So you know I'll do it self-funded, like for right now at least. Just to get things going. So I finished all my courses during COVID and then, since COVID, I've been still working full-time and doing my masters, part time, doing my research, which has brought Tremendous opportunities to collaborate with other people. We had some visiting students from Chile Back in 2021. I did a project with them. People that don't know anything about welding, yeah, yeah. So the programmers right. Programmers need a project right.
Speaker 2:Yeah and they need to be brought up to speed to that specific domain, right, right the note for the knowledge in that area. So I found that great being able to give back.
Speaker 1:You know, provide be a subject matter expert in my experience is something that could be much more right.
Speaker 2:So we ended up doing a project with artificial intelligence. It was for for his masters in Chile. It was just like analyzing voltage and average signals to Detect distinctly discontinuities in the world. And anyway, I kept doing my own research, which I briefly talked about and I'll be talking about in this conference, which is around the processing the high-speed videos and which surfaced another opportunity with these students from Peru To actually be able to process these images with machine learning so that we can get all sorts of data that validate equations that well, I guess, professor and he's been developing for for decades, right, so yeah, that's.
Speaker 1:Like this. This cycle here it's been super interesting because I've worked with an engineer. He was head of engineering at brand industries who had his level two inspection had there been a welder? But at least when guys level one did inspection for bit, then his level two, then he became an engineer and then he became like head engineer, senior engineer for brand industries Nick Coleman, if you're listening fantastic engineer and I. He was the first engineer in my professional career that I was like I like this guy Because he understood what I was talking about from the floor.
Speaker 1:It wasn't like oh, come sit in my office, show me on my computer what's not working. It's like no, I'll come down to you, show me on the part where it's not working. You know like, actually I want to see you know why this piece doesn't fit? Because you don't see that on the computer. I we always used to have that conversation. It's like well, the computer says it'll fit. What's the problem? You know and it's.
Speaker 1:And I actually took so much of what he taught me in terms of engineering that when I had to design courses for the engineering program in the in Regina that I took some real-life examples Into into some simple CAD work to show you know these CAD setups Actually are impossible. The computer will a hundred percent tell you yeah, yeah, this is a go with it, run, it's where it's all spacked out and it's actually physically impossible to make that a real part. You know what I mean, and that type of field experiences is crucial. How do you feel about that, like in terms of what you know in Real design, like in terms of building, and then in terms of design now in the, in the meta world? Well, not well, we'll go there yet.
Speaker 2:Well, I feel it's, I'm very thankful. Yeah experience that I've had and the the path that I've chosen, obviously. So, whenever there is an issue, my first thing is okay, let's, let's go look at it. Yeah yeah, let's get our hands on it. Or if we looked at it and it's still not making sense.
Speaker 1:Let's cut it apart. Let's look at history. Right, right.
Speaker 2:Let's talk to people, let's reach out Right if the people are still there. If not, you can have to call around World. I mean, it's happened.
Speaker 1:Yeah, find some collaboration. Yeah, that's a collaboration.
Speaker 2:Talk to the license owners of the equipment. Okay, you sold these reactors to other people in the world. Like have they had the?
Speaker 1:same issue. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:So things aren't making sense here.
Speaker 1:Yeah right.
Speaker 2:So I think If anybody has that, that opportunity to get that frown, hands-on experience, or even if they don't get it first, if they go to engineering first, it's, it's.
Speaker 1:It doesn't have a price to look at something and tie the two together yeah, and the, the education that you're doing now with your masters, with you still working full-time? You said so. Are you still full-time working right now?
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, but I'm looking to transition over, hopefully.
Speaker 1:In the near future? Are you working full-time as an engineer? Yes, it still has a technical leader for all right, right and Masters. Now, how far are you from completing your masters?
Speaker 2:Oh, great question because.
Speaker 1:I don't know. Well, obviously yeah, you, what's the goal?
Speaker 2:The goal. I would like to transition over to a PhD.
Speaker 1:Oh, here you go. You have been talking a lot to Dr man. Yeah, I think I was always the plan for the beginning.
Speaker 2:It's just finding the right time, and I think the time is coming where I will have a little bit more space. We move back to Edmonton. We're living close to the university, my wife and I and our son.
Speaker 1:Oh wow, all right, it's a good name, good name, right?
Speaker 2:So anyway, yeah we live close to the university and I just hop in and skip, in a ways, just the right time hasn't come yet, but I think it's coming soon, so when the time is right, I'll make the switch.
Speaker 1:How long do you think this is a master's project that you're working on in terms of thesis?
Speaker 2:I mean, if I'd say the master's, like I'd hope by next year.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah. And so what is a little bit of the presentation that you're doing today?
Speaker 2:A little bit of the presentation I'm doing today. I'll pretty much showcase the work that we've done today to measure arc length and distinguish the different characteristics within the gas mineral arc, welding arc in spray transfer for aluminum. We've been working a lot with 4043, primarily with 1.2 millimeter. 1.6 millimeter and just tying those the data that we can extract from those images back to a voltage model with the intent to help welding engineers when they're designing welding procedure, because this is another issue that I have encountered. You know, even as a welder, something doesn't work up five, down five.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you figured out, yeah if let's say, you don't have that experience and you're trying to design something for potentially new material an all material. What would be a good starting point? If you have an analytical solution and the data to back it up and validate it, you'd be able to have your starting points instead of up down five down five, 30 times. Listen to the yes, you know reduce your number of iterations to get to your desired parameters.
Speaker 1:So what's the end tool of this project? What is it you see as the implementation or implementation.
Speaker 2:For me, I think, in the long term, hopefully after the PhD, be able to come up with a practical set of equations to give to welding engineers, or even you know like welding, welding professionals and say, hey, like you're the voltage, we're welding this. Ok, well, if you want the bead to look like this, this is what your arc length will be. If your voltage settings and current settings are this, yeah right. If, with whatever machine you have, or if you're, if you're welding like and your welding leads are like 100 meters long, yeah this is things will change.
Speaker 2:Things will change right, but this is how you can approach it. Yeah, and instead of having 100 iterations or let's say, even 10, or Asian, maybe just up two or three right, and I think that in itself is is valuable because we run into a lot of troubleshooting, which is very costly in industry.
Speaker 1:Now, what about the new synergic systems in welding? Don't they kind of cover some of those bases in terms of they're monitoring the voltage internally in the in the welder's computer? They're adjusting voltages for you based off arc length and penetration Is. Is that sort? Is there going to be a compatibility with what you're saying? And what? Because in a synergic system you're not picking voltage at all, You're just picking, you know, puddle features. Basically, how does that fit in that world?
Speaker 2:I think I haven't looked too far into that, but I know looking at research presentations recently, this week or last month. Yeah, and they're talking about OK, for this puddle dimension we wanted we raised the arc or lower there. So I want to talk to them so how are you measuring there? Like how are you quantifying that? And they're like kind, of just eyeball it.
Speaker 1:I'm like.
Speaker 2:OK, so I think there's a contribution here.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and that's actually true, because you know, when it does come to Synergic, when I got trained on Synergic welding machines, they're like picture a baseline, your weld is a circle, or do you want to go up or do you want to go down? And you just dial up and dial down and I was like, OK, well, that's a really easy way to teach it to students and to get them to get nice bead results. But what's actually happening? Yeah, and now do you see this weld tool almost being like could, could perhaps it just be like an app? And I'd be like, hey, a half inch plate, one, four, five, LS 96, whatever. You know how long are your leads, what kind of torture are you seeing? And you should be around. You know 27 volts at whatever.
Speaker 2:And that will give you this bead, width or height and your arc length will be this long. I mean, I think arc length you can, when I think back of when I'm welding, we kind of just take, we don't quantify arc length as well. There's a lot we know qualitatively is like yeah, this is long arc, short arc.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Short arc, but you don't know how much, how long that is.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:You know it's good and you know it's bad.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you can hear it, you can smell how much is it? Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:So I think getting that granular to be able to say, hey, like this is 10 millimeters if you have shielding or this is one millimeter.
Speaker 1:Yeah. This results in this this is a negative millimeter. You're driving it into your puddle.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes, it goes out and that hey very dark.
Speaker 1:Mm, hmm, real thing, yeah, it is a real thing yeah.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, and I've actually started kind of looking at how am I? Going to quantify this.
Speaker 3:If I can't even see the arc.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you're going to have to like X-ray driven sensors or something.
Speaker 2:There's ways, yeah, there's ways.
Speaker 1:But you can just feed the you can. You can record the feedback loop on the voltage.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean cross sections, I mean we can get into this, but I think from a from a high speed video perspective is quite challenging To get the angle right and like, maybe look down. Well, cameras is tough.
Speaker 1:I think about all time We've worked with a few and as a welder and a person who loves the, you know also the science ends of welding. I've worked with cavatars, I've worked with Xiris, I've worked with a few ocular systems and at the end of the day, they all have their pluses, they all have their minuses and then I always feel like they're not exactly what I'm trying to see. You know what I mean. Like there's something like in maybe I watched too much Star Trek or something Like I want to put a camera to follow a weld and give me all the information I want. Like, can we just do that? I want heats, I want distances, I want to know, I want sharpness and clarity, I want to see penetration like an X-ray. I can't like we can put people on or machines on Mars. You tell me we can't do that. Like what do you think? Is it coming?
Speaker 2:Eventually All right.
Speaker 1:So we're getting, we're getting the nod here. To wrap up, let's talk about the conference real quick. How has this experience been this week at Canwell?
Speaker 2:I think it's been fantastic, I really like, in contrast to last year, when we had Fabtech and this just being an isolated event.
Speaker 1:Yeah, this is the. This is the close homie one, yeah.
Speaker 2:Absolutely not. Love seeing the progress from fellow researchers and fellow students from other universities that I met last year and get to meet with them. Obviously, like the keynote speakers, like the whole, the whole theme is very good and I like that. It's just us Right. It's not like the distraction of Fabtech, is you know if?
Speaker 1:you're here. You're here for well, at the big, at the big Canwell Fabtech, there's this, there's a lot of a sales component of all the machines and all the suppliers here. It's just like welders and engineers like let's just hang out and talk.
Speaker 2:Right, absolutely. Yeah, awesome, not to bash the other.
Speaker 1:The other, I mean, I'm not even 13th in Toronto.
Speaker 3:We'll see you, absolutely.
Speaker 1:It's a different dynamic it is, and then we don't want to ever get rid of it. People ask us are we going to just do maybe every two years is like no. I like the juxtaposition between the two of them. They're very different and I think they're both worthy for their different reasons.
Speaker 2:So absolutely, and at the same time, like as a student, it's a good goal for yourself, is like, hey, what are you presenting at Canwell? Right, okay, like, this is my goal. This is what I want to show.
Speaker 1:Have to have it ready by then, and it puts that stress on the community.
Speaker 3:Really.
Speaker 2:Because that's really if you put that stress, you will get the results.
Speaker 1:That's right. Any shout outs you want to throw at anybody before we wrap it up.
Speaker 2:I mean obviously my group at the CCWJ, professor Mendez and my family, of course.
Speaker 1:All right, perfect. Well, thank you very much, eddie. It's been a lot of fun having you here. I think this is the last podcast we have for the week here at Canwell. It's been tons of fun. Today's, day three, I have my last presentation in about an hour, I think and then, and then it's the VIP party sponsored by apprenticesearchcom. Check them out. If you're looking for apprentices and need workers, they're the ones to go to. And well, thank you very much for being here. Thank you so much. All right, and everyone that keep downloading and sharing the podcast. It's been tons of fun out here. We're getting tired, but we got to push through and I can't wait to get more content out for you in the next few weeks. So keep on keeping on and we'll see you soon. We hope you enjoy the show.
Speaker 3:You've been listening to the CWB Association Welding Podcast with Max Surin. If you enjoyed what you heard today, rate our podcast and visit us at cwbassociationorg to learn more. Feel free to contact us if you have any questions or suggestions on what you'd like to learn about in the future. Produced by the CWB group and presented by Max Surin, this podcast serves to educate and connect the Welding community. Please subscribe and thank you for listening.