Matthew Wickesberg's Professional Statement, BSCmpE 2012
Engineering. In what other field are you able to work on such a vast and important array of problems and topics? I would argue very few. For me, being an engineer means being trained in the art of tackling problems. Much like a business major goes into a management role and analyzes a team’s dynamics an engineer has to go into the realm of a technical area that needs a solution and break it down into its most fundamental components. Through my unique mix of industry experience, campus leadership, and entrepreneurial experience I believe I could bring these skills to your companies table.
On the industry side, the bulk of my experience comes directly from my 2+ years of research and software engineering at GE Healthcare. In the past I have worked on successfully developing tools that pinpoint patterns in Alzheimer’s and other complex neuro diseases. I have successfully developed analytical tools to find statistical and qualitative patterns in Positron Emission Tomography devices. Also I have led the business activities of international software programs and created real time monitoring systems for stress testing. All this was completely self taught out of necessity and developed into some of the passions I have today. If you would sum up everything I have done to date in one saying, I would say "I created products of passion." because none of this would have been possible if I were not passionate about it.
Additionally, on the GE team, I pursued and became an expert in a next generation Healthcare networking technology called Sapphire. This culminated in a year-long endeavor to create and lead a 10+ person software program to create a powerful and robust testing tool for Sapphire Networks and Sapphire Servers. The tool was an extension to a complete and robust re-design of a platform called SapphireViewer. The purpose of the software is to provide a configurable Sapphire client that can be used to develop and test various Sapphire Servers. From its inception to its completion it became a huge success as it is now used in 2 businesses, 3 continents, and numerous people around the world. In all, the program provided a quick and easy way to perform V&V tasks that are up to FDA standards and greatly increased the speed of developers finding and solving bugs in numerous Sapphire projects.
Going into more detail on my entrepreneurial experience I’d like to talk about my role in incorporating my own financial analysis software company, TradeView Software LLC. Pushing for incorporation in 2009 TradeView Software, under my guidance, has grown their IP cache and built upon the theories and architectures of financial market analysis softwares. To do this I created a lean 3 man team based upon Finance, Software Engineering, Visualization, and Design TradeView is positioned quite uniquely in its market to act fast and work on ground breaking products. The fact of the matter is the team is comprised purely of the best students at Purdue University. With all of this said, around late 2010 the team's time commitment started wavering greatly. As such, the business is now on hiatus until interest or some form of financial backing forms again. I would not classify this as a failure. Simply, this was a huge learning experience that is proving beneficial in my judgment and management of current project.
Lastly, let’s take a quick aside to state that I am also the Vice President of Purdue’s National Organization of Business Engineers (NOBE). This organization is quite different from many other organizations on campus in the sense that it aims to foster the skills that help you utilize your technical skills in a business sense. NOBE is based on the four pillars of which it seeks to integrate. (1) Upper Level Management (2) Consulting (3) Technical Leadership (4) Entrepreneurship. This day to day practice of practicing business skills together with engineering skills gives me a unique toolset that not many engineers have. It allows me to attack problems from different angles.
In conclusion, I feel that I can enhance your team with a unique perspective. I have the standard industrial experience that most all engineering managers look for with my 2+ years of work at GE Healthcare. However, I have also significantly trained my business and leadership skills through my roles of CEO at TradeView Software LLC and Vice President of NOBE. Additionally, during my time at Purdue, I focused on how to integrate these skills and practiced them on a daily basis. If you would like to hear more or inquire about something you read don’t hesitate to contact me.
