Taleitha (Tia) West

As a manager I meet with my team members once per week to talk about what they have been working on. We also use this time to identify any issues that have come up and what is planned for the next week in terms of priorities. I am also in charge of the overall team and project budgets. This means that every year I co-ordinate the summary of the last year's work and plan for the upcoming year.

As a part of the project team members I review the process that we are developing and design or specify the equipment that we need to do the job. This is the Mechanical Engineering specific side of my work. I sometimes need to do custom heat transfer calculations or mass and energy balance calculations for a system. Safety is a big part of the planning process and we conduct an in depth hazard assessment and mitigation plan based on the outcome.

Equipment set up or installation is also a part of my job. If I have specified or purchased a piece of equipment, I likely know the most about it. So I’ll be either installing or at least involve in the setup of the equipment. During operation of the testing I will gather data. This can range from gathering samples by hand, conducting titrations or other analytical tests and putting the data into a spreadsheet for further analysis. For more sophisticated tests that are hooked up to a data logging system, I would record the information on a time sensitive basis (i.e. pressure, temperatures, flow rates ever hour, etc.). Data analysis is also an important part of the job to understand the testing completed and ensure it is valid data that can be used further.

As a team leader I often prepare power point presentations that must clearly describe the results & conclusions without overburdening the management team with too many technical details. Presentation and soft skills are important. I wouldn't call presentations fun, but you get better with practice. I often have to make decisions but as a leader I try to encourage my team members to make their own decisions by helping them through the thought process with pros and cons. Sometimes people will come to me with a problem expecting me to fix it or make a decision. I often send them away to find out more information so that they come to me with a few potential solutions rather than coming to me with just a problem. Then we can have a productive conversation to come to a consensus or group decision.