Being an Engineer

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Scott Heimendinger is an engineer and inventor whose career spans business intelligence at Microsoft and IBM, to cutting-edge food-tech innovation. Early in his career he served as a program manager at Microsoft, then pivoted into culinary science, co-founding the pioneering sous-vide company Sansaire, which raised over $823 K via Kickstarter to make sous-vide accessible to home cooks.
He then moved into roles of increasing technical depth: at Modernist Cuisine he developed robotics, motion-control systems, microscopy, visual engineering and more; at Anova he led the development of the Anova Precision Oven — a home-focused combi-oven blending steam, air-flow and sensors. Today, with Seattle Ultrasonics, he’s tackling the humble chef’s knife: by embedding ultrasonic vibrations (over 40,000 Hz) and rigorous testing (including a robot-arm slicing experiment producing 100,000 data points) he’s redefining what it means to “cut better” in the kitchen.
For this episode we’ll dive into Scott’s journey bridging engineering and food, the technical story behind the ultrasonic knife (including prototyping, testing, failures and design iterations), and how a leader like him shepherds innovation from concept through to product launch. For engineers interested in product development, instrumentation, design-for-manufacturing and the crossover into consumer goods — this is one you won’t want to miss.
LINKS:
Guest LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottheimendinger/
Guest website: https://seattleultrasonics.com/
 
Aaron Moncur, host
Download the Essential Guide to Designing Test Fixtures: https://pipelinemedialab.beehiiv.com/test-fixture
About Being An Engineer
The Being An Engineer podcast is a repository for industry knowledge and a tool through which engineers learn about and connect with relevant companies, technologies, people resources, and opportunities. We feature successful mechanical engineers and interview engineers who are passionate about their work and who made a great impact on the engineering community.
The Being An Engineer podcast is brought to you by Pipeline Design & Engineering. Pipeline partners with medical & other device engineering teams who need turnkey equipment such as cycle test machines, custom test fixtures, automation equipment, assembly jigs, inspection stations and more. You can find us on the web at www.teampipeline.us

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In this short trailer, Pipeline Design & Engineering announces a new service we quietly piloted in 2025—and are officially opening up in 2026. 
Pipeline is a team of engineers who design and build custom machines, fixtures, and automation systems for manufacturers working on complex, real-world problems. Like most engineering teams, we rely heavily on custom machined parts—and over the years, we’ve developed a trusted overseas manufacturing supply chain to support our own work. 
This episode tells the story of how a single difficult-to-manufacture part led us to test that supply chain for select customers, how carefully we validated quality and lead times, and why we’re now confident offering this capability more broadly. 
What’s being announced: 
Turnkey procurement of custom machined parts at pricing that significantly outperforms typical domestic shops 
Strong quality, including tight-tolerance and difficult parts 
Typical ~2-week lead times, with expedited options available case-by-case 
Engineering-led DFM review, quality checks, and a single domestic point of contact 
If you’re sourcing custom machined parts and feeling pressure from pricing, lead times, or supplier reliability, this episode explains why Pipeline built this service—and who it’s best suited for. 
To learn more or see if your parts are a fit, reach out to Pipeline directly at teampipeline.us  
About Being An Engineer
The Being An Engineer podcast is a repository for industry knowledge and a tool through which engineers learn about and connect with relevant companies, technologies, people resources, and opportunities. We feature successful mechanical engineers and interview engineers who are passionate about their work and who made a great impact on the engineering community.
The Being An Engineer podcast is brought to you by Pipeline Design & Engineering. Pipeline partners with medical & other device engineering teams who need turnkey equipment such as cycle test machines, custom test fixtures, automation equipment, assembly jigs, inspection stations and more. You can find us on the web at www.teampipeline.us

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Aaron Eden brings more than three decades of building, testing, and shipping practical innovation. At Intuit, he focuses on AI-driven process automation; partnering with product, operations, and analyst communities to eliminate manual toil and design customer-centric solutions at scale. His posts highlight ongoing hiring and growth around intelligent automation and a practitioner’s mindset toward measurable impact.
Before Intuit, Aaron co-founded Moves the Needle, where he helped Fortune-scale organizations adopt lean startup and design thinking behaviors. Through executive mentoring and enterprise programs, he guided leaders to shorten time-to-market and increase employee engagement while staying grounded in customer outcomes. He’s also held multiple roles inside Intuit’s broader innovation ecosystem, including Design for Delight leadership and talent initiatives aimed at spreading experimentation across the company. 
Outside of the enterprise, Aaron’s entrepreneurial streak shows up in community and advisory work. He co-leads the Artificial Intelligence Trailblazers meetup—an open community designed to make modern AI approachable—and frequently speaks on translating buzz into business results. He also mentors founders through Startup Tucson and participates in local panels like the University of Arizona’s “Technology for Good,” where he advocates for responsible, accessible AI.
If you’re an engineer or technical leader, you’ll appreciate Aaron’s bias toward running small, smart experiments, measuring what matters, and shipping value fast—principles he’s applied from customer care analytics to RPA/AI platforms. Expect a conversation rich with playbooks for automating high-variance processes, empowering analysts, and building an innovation culture that sticks.
 
LINKS:
Guest LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aaroneden/
Guest website: https://www.brainbridge.app/
Guest NPO: https://www.aitrailblazers.io/
 
Aaron Moncur, host
Download the Essential Guide to Designing Test Fixtures: https://pipelinemedialab.beehiiv.com/test-fixture
About Being An Engineer
The Being An Engineer podcast is a repository for industry knowledge and a tool through which engineers learn about and connect with relevant companies, technologies, people resources, and opportunities. We feature successful mechanical engineers and interview engineers who are passionate about their work and who made a great impact on the engineering community.
The Being An Engineer podcast is brought to you by Pipeline Design & Engineering. Pipeline partners with medical & other device engineering teams who need turnkey equipment such as cycle test machines, custom test fixtures, automation equipment, assembly jigs, inspection stations and more. You can find us on the web at www.teampipeline.us

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Presented by Mike Landis, Director of Engineering at Pipeline Design & Engineering 
In this PDX Webinar, Mike Landis shares the practical project management framework Pipeline uses to manage engineering development projects, balancing budget, schedule, scope, and risk. 
The session includes a walkthrough of Pipeline’s engineering project budget and schedule tracking spreadsheet, refined over 20 years of real-world use. 
Register for the webinar here: 
https://www.thewave.engineer/store/product/35-practical-project-management-for-engineering-teams-webinar-with-mike-landis/ 
About Being An Engineer
The Being An Engineer podcast is a repository for industry knowledge and a tool through which engineers learn about and connect with relevant companies, technologies, people resources, and opportunities. We feature successful mechanical engineers and interview engineers who are passionate about their work and who made a great impact on the engineering community.
The Being An Engineer podcast is brought to you by Pipeline Design & Engineering. Pipeline partners with medical & other device engineering teams who need turnkey equipment such as cycle test machines, custom test fixtures, automation equipment, assembly jigs, inspection stations and more. You can find us on the web at www.teampipeline.us

Send us a text
This episode is a recording of a webinar with guest Chris Denney.
Watch the recording for free on The Wave.
Think your manufacturer keeps screwing up your circuit boards? The truth might be that the design itself is setting them up to fail.
In this webinar, we uncover the most common PCB design mistakes that frustrate manufacturers — and how engineers can prevent them.
This session is geared toward mechanical engineers who want to better understand how board layout and design choices impact manufacturability, communication, and cost. You’ll walk away knowing how to collaborate more effectively with your electrical counterparts and PCB manufacturers to avoid painful (and expensive) surprises down the line.
Electrical engineers will also benefit from real-world DFM insights and practical takeaways they can apply immediately.
Learn how to:
Identify design choices that make PCB assembly harder than it needs to be
Communicate more effectively with PCB vendors and electrical teammates
Design in a way that reduces rework, waste, and frustration for everyone
Watch the recording for free on The Wave.
Download the Essential Guide to Designing Test Fixtures: https://pipelinemedialab.beehiiv.com/test-fixture
About Being An Engineer
The Being An Engineer podcast is a repository for industry knowledge and a tool through which engineers learn about and connect with relevant companies, technologies, people resources, and opportunities. We feature successful mechanical engineers and interview engineers who are passionate about their work and who made a great impact on the engineering community.
The Being An Engineer podcast is brought to you by Pipeline Design & Engineering. Pipeline partners with medical & other device engineering teams who need turnkey equipment such as cycle test machines, custom test fixtures, automation equipment, assembly jigs, inspection stations and more. You can find us on the web at www.teampipeline.us