Competency Demonstration Report Career Episode

Competency Demonstration Report

Career Episode No.

Dates and Duration of Career Episode: This career episode took place during the period from August 2004 to November 2006.

Geographic Location: The geographic location of this career episode was Yutang County, in the Peoples Republic of China.

Title of Position: Telecommunications Engineer

Nature of the Overall Engineering Project: Telecommunications Network Update

The overarching objective of this project was to analyse the design and plan of current telecommunications networks and systems to identify opportunities for the use of innovative telecommunications technologies. This overarching objective was further supported by several goals, including the identification of relevant ISO standards and how these standards could best be applied to the company's operations.

Nature of My Particular Work Area: In this career episode, I was assigned responsibilities for identifying opportunities for improving the performance of the company's existing telecommunications networks and systems that were congruent with ISO 9001: 2008, standards and company goals.

Organisational Chart Highlighting My Position:

Statement of Duties: My duties at the Yutang Chemical Production Co., Ltd. included, but were not limited to, the following activities:

1. Planning, designing, building, configuring and commissioning telecommunications devices, networks and systems, such as voice, radio, two-way, data, microwave, satellite and digital data systems, and ensuring telecommunications systems interconnect with equipment from different manufacturers, service providers and users;

2. Compiling engineering project proposals to define goals, identify scope, background and need, and ascertain cost of equipment, parts and services;

3. Evaluating and procuring new products and services from vendors;

4. Ensuring compliance with laws, regulations, policies and procedures in the provision of telecommunications systems;

5. Selecting and developing new telecommunications sites by locating sites, filing documents, drawing up documents for approval, drafting construction drawings and following through to approval;

6. Determining appropriate configurations of telecommunications hardware and software, ensuring desired performance of telecommunications equipment;

7. Preparing and interpreting specifications, drawings and regulations for the use of telecommunications equipment;

8. Determining the type and arrangement of circuits, transformers, circuit-breakers, transmission lines and equipment;

9. Identifying and analysing problems and needs of existing telecommunications systems, such as interference, intelligibility and clarity, to determine the most appropriate means of reducing, eliminating and avoiding current and future problems and improve communications;

10. Monitoring telecommunications systems to assess need for updates, upgrades, enhancements, preventive maintenance and new systems;

11. Assessing performance levels of system hardware and software to project future needs, and developing short- and long-terms plans for updating equipment, adding capabilities, enhancing existing systems and providing improved telecommunications; and,

12. Other duties as assigned.

c)

Personal Engineering Activity

Actual Work Performed: This project was divided into three discrete phases as follows:

1. A preliminary assessment of existing telecommunications network and systems was performed;

2. A review of the available technologies was performed in order to identify potential alternatives; and,

3. Recommendations were formulated concerning all superior alternatives to achieving the project goals.

Application of Engineering Knowledge and Skills: This engineering project required a comprehensive comparative analysis of the company's existing telecommunications network in order to identify any bottlenecks and constraints to productivity and performance as well as to identify any opportunities for resolving these through the introduction of alternative technologies such as WiMAX.

Delegated Tasks and How They Were Accomplished: Because this project was part of my overall job description, it was assigned to me directly with no subordinate assistance offered or required; therefore, no tasks were delegated as part of this engineering project.

Technical Difficulties/Problems Encountered and Resolution: One of the major problems that was encountered during the research phase of this engineering project was the highly dynamic nature of the supporting technologies that were needed to identify optimal solutions, many of which appeared to be interim in nature as upgrades and improvements were being introduced on a virtually daily basis by vendors and software engineers. At some point, though, a decision must be made concerning what technologies afforded the best solution based on performance, cost and compatibility and the strategies described below were used for this purpose.

Strategies Used: In order to develop appropriate recommendations for the company's top management, each of the potential alternatives identified during the research phase was carefully weighted using a scale that included factors such as any superior performance characteristics, cost, as well as the amount of time that was required for its deployment, implementation and administration. To help ensure that the weights assigned to each technology were fair and accurate and were not influenced by researcher bias, I had two other colleagues review the specifications and assign their own weights which were then compared with my original assignments to ensure congruence between these evaluations.

Collaboration with Other Team Members: As noted above, although this was an individual assignment, I collaborated with several other team members concerning their views on the alternative technologies that were reviewed to develop appropriate weights for the analysis and subsequent recommendations to management. This process helped to ensure inter-rater reliability and these ratings were also presented to management as part of the engineering project's overall findings and recommendations.

d)

Summary

Personal Impressions of the Engineering Activity and My Role: Besides providing valuable guidance to the company's management, this project was also a valuable personal learning lesson for me that provided a snapshot of current and future trends in telecommunications technologies as well as how these technologies can be applied to different engineering scenarios.

View of the Overall Project: This was a timely project that helped to ensure that the company's telecommunications network was optimally configured.

Success of the Project in Meeting Its Goals/Requirements: Based on my analysis of the weighted assessments, ultimately three recommendations were provided to the company's management, all of which offered some level of improvement over the existing network configuration with one alternative representing a superior solution.

How My Role Contributed to the Project: Overall, this project was deemed highly successful by me as well as the company's executive leadership team based on the fact that one of the three recommendations was approved for adoption company-wide.

Career Episode No. 2

a)

Introduction

Dates and Duration of Career Episode: This career episode took place during the period from January 2007 to February 2010

Geographic Location: Wujin District Caojing Bridge Industrial Park, Changzhou, Changzhou, Jiangsu, Peoples Republic of China

Name of Organisation: Changzhou Weike Chemical Co., Ltd.

Title of Position: Telecommunications Engineer

b)

Background

Nature of the Overall Engineering Project: The basic nature of the responsibilities involved in this career episode was to ensure that all statutory requirements were being complied with by the company, and to ensure that all relevant risk potentials were minimized. In addition, the overall engineer project was focused on ensuring that the business was operated in the most cost-effective manner possible.

Nature of My Particular Work Area: Because the various product lines that are manufactured by this company are extremely hazardous to manufacture and transport, the company's business activities are highly regulated by the Chinese national government, including the requirement that all corporate vehicles have global position system modules installed and operational and that these systems be integrated into the company's telecommunications network to provide real-time data concerning driver/vehicle status.

Organisational Chart Highlighting My Position:

Statement of Duties: My duties at Changzhou Weike Chemical Co., Ltd. included, but were not limited to, the following:

1. Planning, designing, building, configuring and commissioning telecommunications devices, networks and systems, including voice, radio, two-way, data, microwave, satellite as well as digital data systems; in addition, responsibilities included ensuring that telecommunications systems efficiently interconnect with equipment from different manufacturers, service providers and users;

2. Compiling engineering project proposals to define goals, identify scope, background and need, and ascertain cost of equipment, parts and services;

3. Evaluating and procuring new products and services from vendors;

4. Preparing and interpreting specifications, drawings and regulations for the use of telecommunications equipment;

5. Ensuring compliance with laws, regulations, policies and procedures in the provision of telecommunications systems;

6. Determining appropriate configurations of telecommunications hardware and software, ensuring desired performance of telecommunications equipment;

7. Selecting and developing new telecommunications sites by locating sites, filing documents, drawing up documents for approval, drafting construction drawings and following through to approval;

8. Determining the type and arrangement of circuits, transformers, circuit-breakers, transmission lines and equipment;

9. Identifying and analysing problems and needs of existing telecommunications systems, such as interference, intelligibility and clarity, to determine the most appropriate means of reducing, eliminating and avoiding current and future problems and improve communications;

10. Monitoring telecommunications systems to assess need for updates, upgrades, enhancements, preventive maintenance and new systems;

11. Assessing performance levels of system hardware and software to project future needs, and developing short- and long-terms plans for updating equipment, adding capabilities, enhancing existing systems and providing improved telecommunications; and,

12. Other duties as assigned.

c)

Personal Engineering Activity

Actual Work Performed: In order to achieve the overarching goals of this project, I developed a driver and traveler information application that provided relevant travel times, vehicle status and reported any untoward incidents that occurred in the company's vehicles as well as a mapping application that depicted real-time status of all global position system-equipped vehicles including time of day, vehicle speed, geographic heading, windshield wiper status, and headlight status. This information was used to assess the level of compliance by drivers with company policies and procedures, as well as to ensure that all transportation of product was performed in a safe and efficient fashion.

Application of Engineering Knowledge and Skills: This project required an extensive review of existing GPS technologies and how they could be used to capture the requisite telemetry from the GPS-equipped vehicles in a real-time manner. In addition, the requisite telecommunications required to provide this information was thoroughly investigated and an optimal solution was developed that was based on these findings.

Delegated Tasks and How They Were Accomplished: With approval from the company's general manager, two tasks that were part of the overall engineering project were delegated to other team members who had the requisite expertise in order to successfully complete the project by the management-imposed deadline. These two tasks were as follows:

1. Recapitulation and summary of existing GPS technologies in place in the company's vehicle fleet; and,

2. Analysis of the current telemetry provided by the company's telecommunications network.

Technical Difficulties/Problems Encountered and Resolution: The company's rolling stock fleet consisted of almost one thousand vehicles, all of which were equipped with GPS technology but a few of these GPS systems were legacy systems that required replacement with more up-to-date versions in order to achieve harmonization. Some of the other problems that were encountered during the engineering project included a dearth of maps that depicted the current status of the highways being used by the company's rolling stock for the transportation of hazardous materials. These various difficulties and problems that were encountered were resolved as described further below.

Strategies Used: For this project, I used a step-wise approach that involved a critical review of all relevant governmental regulatory guidance concerning legal and procedural requirements that applied to the GPS systems that were used in hazardous materials transportation, as well as what types of data were required to conform to these governmental standards; in addition, an analysis of the company's past compliance record was analyzed to identify further opportunities for improvement.

Collaboration with Other Team Members: During the research phase of the project, I collaborated with the other two team members who had been assigned responsibility for the above-described delegated tasks in order to ensure that the information provided was accurate and timely and fulfilled the project requirements. In addition, I checked in with these two other team members on a regular basis to ensure that they were making progress and to ensure that their submissions would be provided in a timely fashion in order to accomplish the engineering project by the deadline imposed by company management.

d)

Summary

Personal Impressions of the Engineering Activity and My Role: My personal impression of this engineering activity and my role in it was that this was a mission-essential project for the organization that not only contributed to the overall efficient performance of the company but also helped to ensure all relevant legal requirements were being satisfied as well.

View of the Overall Project: Based on my analysis of the foregoing factors, I recommended that this type of assessment should be conducted more frequently than the government-imposed regulations required in order to remain proactive in terms of remaining compliant with regulatory requirements in the future as well as ensuring the company's management of its rolling stock was as efficient as possible by using the appropriate routes that would accommodate the transportation of the hazardous materials. This meant that in some cases, the most direct routes were not the best routes because of ongoing construction or repair activities or because of other factors that diminished their acceptability as hazardous material routes such as their proximity to densely populated areas and so forth.

Success of the Project in Meeting Its Goals/Requirements: This project was an overwhelming success notwithstanding the limitations concerning the availability of accurate and timely maps depicting the current status of the highways used for deliveries.

How My Role Contributed to the Project: As the point person for this project, I contributed to the project's overall success through the delegation of specific requirements as well as the consolidation of the project's results for the analysis presented to the company's top management's for their review and approval.

Career Episode No. 3

a)

Introduction

Dates and Duration of Career Episode: This career episode took place during the period from August 2002 through August 2004

Geographic Location: The geographic location of this career episode was Jiangbian District, Chunjiang Town, Xingbei District, Changzhou City, Peoples Republic of China.

Name of Organisation: The name of this organisation is Changzhou Qinghong Chemical Co., Ltd. The company manufactures a wide range of industrial chemical compounds, including sulfuric acid, dimethyl sulfate, phthalic anhydride, fumarate and triglycidyl isocyanurate. All of these chemical compounds are very hazardous to humans in varying degrees, and they all therefore require special care in their handling and transport.

Title of Position: The title of this position was Database Engineer

b)

Background

Nature of the Overall Engineering Project: Environmental Waste Disposal Management Initiative

Objectives of the Project: The main objective of this career episode was to develop a computer-based application to facilitate the waste disposal methods of the toxic materials that was routinely generated as a byproduct of the dimethyl sulfate chemical manufacturing process used by the company. Other toxic waste products were also involved in the production process at this company, but dimethyl sulfate required the strictest procedures which could then be applied in varying degrees to the other chemical wastes that were generated as part of the manufacturing process. Dimethyl sulfate presents a number of hazards to humans and the environment in general, and it can be absorbed directly through the skin or its vapors inhaled, making its safe transport an essential element in the company's successful operations.

Nature of My Particular Work Area: In this career episode, I was assigned responsibilities for identifying the specific toxic wastes generated during the manufacturing process and what governmental regulatory guidance required with respect to their disposal.