Industrial Automation - It Doesn't Have To... Be a Man's World

To celebrate National Women's History Month, this episode is dedicated to the countless women in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math who have blazed a trail for women in STEM today. 

At elliTek, a couple of women are carrying the Engineering torch today.

Julie Shaw is an Applications Engineer with elliTek.  Julie earned her Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Engineering at Tennessee Technological University.  Not only is Julie a superstar with Vision Systems, but she is a whiz when it comes to PLC Programming, HMI Programming, Mechanical Applications, and troubleshooting to name a few.

Allison Burris is the outside Sales Engineer with elliTek.  Allison earned her BS in Electrical Engineering with a Mathematics minor from Western Kentucky University.  Allison excels not only in Complex Circuit Analysis, Electrical Hardware Debugging, Jig Design, and Machine Troubleshooting, but her team focus, critical thinking, and problem solving have served her well in her career.

Allison took some time out of her busy schedule to talk with us about being a woman in a predominantly male work environment.

Allison tells us what got her on the path to engineering.  We talk about the classes she took and how her studies prepared her for entering the workforce.  Allison lets us in on her challenges and successes as a Production Engineer and Sales Engineer.

Stay tuned to hear Allison's advice for girls considering a career in engineering.  You DO NOT want to miss it!

Last but not least, we highlight a few women who have paved the way for women such as Julie and Allison.  It was tough to pick just a few.  Take some time to learn more about the Women Engineers in Science History at Science Buddies.

www.sciencebuddies.org/blog/women-in-science-history

Reach out to us with any questions or future topics!

• LinkedIn:  www.linkedin.com/company/ellitek-inc
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• Facebook:  www.facebook.com/ellitek
• Twitter:  www.twitter.com/elliTek_Inc/media

If you don't want to click on those links, pick up the phone to call us at (865) 409-1555 ext. 804.

Transcript

Beth Elliott  0:25  

Welcome to "Industrial Automation - It Doesn't Have To..." podcast. A big thank you to Morgan Everett, Lead Mentor with Red Nation Robotics, for taking the time to be our guest the last episode, and that title was "Industrial Automation - It Doesn't Have To... Be Last". Morgan's passion and enthusiasm for teaching our next generation of leaders is so encouraging. It's fantastic. We have another special guest today. Allison Burris, Sales Engineer with elliTek. Hi, Allison, thank you for joining us today.

Allison Burris  0:57  

Hey, thank you so much for having me.

Beth Elliott  0:58  

All right. So, since March is National Women's History Month, it's an all-ladies cast today. Allison, what's the title of today's episode?

Allison Burris  1:09  

Today's episode is "Industrial Automation - It Doesn't Have To... Be a Man's World".

Beth Elliott  1:14  

Oh, yes, there are. There have been some very fascinating women in science, technology, engineering, and math that have paved the way for today's engineers. Later in this episode, we'll recognize a few of these trailblazing women. At elliTek, we have a couple of ladies here who are carrying their torch today. And one of the ladies is Julie Shaw, an Applications Engineer with elliTek. Julie earned her Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Engineering at Tennessee Technological University. And Julie is a whiz with vision systems. Is it she?

Allison Burris  1:48  

She's the best. 

Beth Elliott  1:49  

Yeah. So, we'll definitely have to have her on in another episode and pick her brain. But she is super busy right now doing projects.

Allison Burris  1:58  

Carrying the torch. 

Beth Elliott  1:59  

That's right. Amen. All right. So, but Allison's here, and we are going to talk with Allison about being a woman in engineering. But before we get into today's topic, I think this weather that we're having is absolutely amazing. I love seeing the trees bloom, start to bloom and the grass growing. What do you think about spring?

Allison Burris  2:25  

I think this is the best time for Knoxville, Tennessee because, in the summer, you're talking about crazy, crazy heat. 

Beth Elliott  2:32  

Humid.

Allison Burris  2:33  

Yeah, and humidity. And then, of course, in the winter it's so confusing all the time. I like the consistency of spring. And that's about the only time we have it.

Beth Elliott  2:42  

Yeah. Do you get allergies?

Allison Burris  2:45  

I do get allergies for just the period when everything turns like where all the pollen drops everywhere. That's very hard to deal with I'm sure for everyone. But other than that, I don't really struggle with it too, too much.

Beth Elliott  3:00  

I love seeing the new birth. Seeing the rebirth. It's beautiful.

Allison Burris  3:05  

I like to plant in my little porch garden. 

Beth Elliott  3:08  

Nice. What do you grow?

Allison Burris  3:10  

I love to grow pretty much anything that I can grow. Mostly I have to grow out of pots right now. Which means I'm restricted to things like peppers and tomatoes. But last year, I had so many peppers. I have a freezer full of them. So 

Beth Elliott  3:22  

Oh, nice. 

Allison Burris  3:22  

Yeah, I really succeeded with that potted plant.

Beth Elliott  3:25  

Fantastic. Maybe we should have another episode about indoor or outdoor, porch gardening.

Allison Burris  3:31  

We can do indoor gardening. I've got it all. We can do any of that talk.

Beth Elliott  3:35  

Awesome. Well, this might be a doozy of a first question. 

Allison Burris  3:39  

Okay

Beth Elliott  3:39  

So, what got you into engineering, Allison?

Allison Burris  3:43  

That is a maybe complex answer. And for a first one, you're right, it's a doozy. So, when I was maybe four a long time ago, obviously, my grandfather and my dad both were like, you're going to be an engineer, because that's what gives you money, on your, an ROI on your college degree. So, at the age of four, I was already getting that knowledge. And I think at that point, it was brainwash. And then when I was 11, I decided on electrical because my cousin had a circuits book under his bed that he did not play with. And I was bored watching him play video games. And I thought that circuits book was so cool that I picked electrical and here we are. 

Beth Elliott  4:24  

Oh, nice. Nice. All right. So, when you were growing up, did you face any challenges or obstacles that might have detoured your career path at any point?

Allison Burris  4:36  

Yes, I think every person going to engineering eventually reaches this point and not just engineering but the STEM field as a whole. Because when it comes to learning math, your brain is not prepared for it. I think that we go from learning words which are memorization and applying memorization and learning, I don't know, where things are. That type of basic knowledge is not at all how you have to use your brain for math, because you can memorize two plus two equals four all you want. But that doesn't help you understand how 365 plus something else equals something else, because you can't memorize that far out. Or if you can, more power to you, I can't. So, it requires forcing your brain to use the logic underneath the memorization. And that's very difficult for anyone. So, when I, I remember when I was first learning math, to the level of beyond memorizing multiplication tables, or whatever else it was, and at that point, I was like, I'm bad at math. I'm awful at math. And the fact is, of course, I was. It was new, everyone's bad at math at that point. But it's important for everyone to let your brain do that figuring, and then move forward with it. Because I think it's very common, especially, I don't know if it's anecdotal or not. But for women, I hear a lot of people say, Oh, I couldn't be an engineer. My brain doesn't work like that. Well, that's because you've never tried. Or if you have tried and you have issues, that's a whole nother thing. Maybe for like learning, I don't have a learning disability. So, I'm sure that has a factor, obviously. But the ability to teach your brain, something is hard every time. And it's important to push through it.

Beth Elliott  6:19  

Yeah, yeah. So, did you have anybody that helped to push you through it, to help you kind of lead the way?

Allison Burris  6:27  

My dad is very much a math person. He's an engineer. I'm a fourth-generation engineer, hence the brainwashing at age four. But he told me I remember even that day that I was struggling with math. And I was like, I'm done with this. I hate it. He said, No, you're not. We're not dumb people. You're not dumb, and you're not gonna be dumb. You're gonna learn math. And then that was it. He was like, you don't have an option. So maybe more brainwashing. I don't know. But it was the ability to have an advocate. And I know that's not always possible. But advocating for yourself, if you don't have the advocate of your parents is good, obviously. And I know a lot of I've heard a lot of people say about their kids. Well, they won't be doing engineering because they're because I'm not good at math. But you can help them just by advocating for them. Like pushing to get them over the bridge of, you know, self-doubt, and the ability to allow your brain to work in a new different way than it's had to before.

Beth Elliott  7:30  

That's awesome. Your dad's a huge influence on your life, isn't he? 

Allison Burris  7:34  

Yes. 

Beth Elliott  7:35  

Yeah. So, when you were in high school, what classes did you take? Or did you take any classes like to prepare for your engineering field in middle school?

Allison Burris  7:50  

I moved a lot. And so, I'm not sure I moved in the in middle school. That's where I struggled with math the second time. The first time was when I was, I don't know, eight at the whenever you first start learning about math and beyond adding, memorization tables type thing. But middle school, I had a bunch of different just regular math classes, I think. But then high school, I started taking as many math classes as possible, basically. I could choose which ones I wanted to take. And so, I was taking, I took AP calculus because I was trying to test out of it for college. And I didn't end up testing out I actually just went ahead and retook it, but I wanted to be prepared for college anyway. And it counted, you know, AP counts as high school and college. So, I was like, well, I'll just do them both. So that was I think the extent of it.

Beth Elliott  8:43  

Okay, was that your most challenging class?

Allison Burris  8:46  

No, by then I think calculus is okay. So, I've heard it and anecdotally said that, if you are good at trig, and bad algebra, then you'll have an easier time at calculus, but I was, and that's how I was. So, for me, algebra was very difficult. And I had to struggle through it. And trig was very easy. So, calculus was okay. And so, I don't know if that's really true or not, but AP Calculus was not too bad for me. Once I had everything else down. It's the foundation underneath it, the logical part, teaching, forcing your brain. That part is the hard part. But then once you've got it, I think it's a good foundation to be able to learn on top of that.

Beth Elliott  9:26  

Okay, okay. So that built, you build a foundation off of that. Okay. What was your favorite class in high school? 

Allison Burris  9:32  

Oh, I think I don't, I don't know if I had a favorite. I was very much seeing high school as a temporary thing. And I was ready to mark them all off. I did have one teacher who was actually a PhD. And he taught, I don't even know what, but it was Dr. Sauer. And he taught a math class. And he was my favorite teacher, the way he taught. He was very passionate about it. And so, his Math class was probably my favorite of anything that we learned. And I don't even think it was calculus. I think it was maybe algebra. I'm not sure. But Dr. Sauer was the catalyst for enjoyment. 

Beth Elliott  10:12  

Okay. All right. Well, because of his passion for it?

Allison Burris  10:14  

Yes. And he was just very blunt. And he had a lot of funny things to say. So that it was always interesting. And he always forced us to do a journal entry. I don't know why. He's kind of a spiritual person. So maybe it was a, an effort to get us in touch with, like self-awareness, maybe. I'm not sure what that point was. But he would literally have us write out a one-page journal while we were there in class. And I don't know, in general, his class was just very, I liked it. I didn't ever have a problem going to class. 

Beth Elliott  10:45  

Oh, nice. Nice. Did you do any after-school stuff? Like, I don't know. Do they call them clubs, like chess club or math club? I don't know.

Allison Burris  10:54  

I did. In middle school, I started running cross country. And so, I did that. I did not do. I think in middle school I also did Lego robotics or maybe that was Elementary School.

Beth Elliott  11:08  

Morgan talked about that last time in the podcast. Were they, the FIRST Robotics, they have different levels of competitions for grade schools and I bet that was it. 

Allison Burris  11:18  

Yeah. Yeah. I think that that's what I was in. But then I ended up sticking with cross country in high school and then did French club or something like that. So, nothing super technical, but I think it was the need for release from all of that. Because having an intense schedule of all the AP calc, AP Physics, all that stuff, I didn't want to do anything after school with it. Maybe not a good recommendation for anyone out there. But

Beth Elliott  11:43  

It worked for you. 

Allison Burris  11:44  

It worked for me. Yeah. You gotta let your brain not have to force itself to think all the time. 

Beth Elliott  11:49  

Yeah, for sure. So which classes do you think helped you, prepare you for college? Was it the classes or the after-school programs or combination of the both?

Allison Burris  12:04  

I think that having a full schedule helped me adapt to college. And I think that was not necessarily what was the content of the schedule, but rather than it was just full, I was always busy. And so, it was a transition from high school to always busy, to college always busy with homework, was okay. And I also think taking AP calculus and physics and all the other high intensity, as much high-intensity classes as I could take in high school, I did. And so, my first year of college was actually very easy. I did not have any academic trouble at all. Because my high school classes had been so much more difficult at that point because I had been taking so many of them at once as a high schooler, that once I got to college, I didn't have an issue freshman year. So probably it's just the ability to learn while you're still at home that you can be busy and productive within that. And not let it make you crazy.

Beth Elliott  13:05  

Yeah, yeah. And then you can start creating new habits, study habits, and that kind of thing, getting to a good pattern of self-discipline.

Allison Burris  13:13  

Right

Beth Elliott  13:14  

That's needed in college years. 

Allison Burris  13:16  

Right. They say in college you get sleep, social life, or studying - pick two. I picked not to sleep because I wanted the social life and the studying to make it through.

Beth Elliott  13:30  

I was in the same boat.

Allison Burris  13:33  

I still helped with that, honestly.

Beth Elliott  13:36  

So where did you go to college?

Allison Burris  13:38  

I went to Western Kentucky University.

Beth Elliott  13:39  

Okay. Is it the Hilltoppers? 

Allison Burris  13:41  

Yes. 

Beth Elliott  13:42  

All right. All right. So, what did you study? Did you have two majors, or you had a major in a minor, right?

Allison Burris  13:48  

Yes, I did electrical engineering, and I had a math minor. But the math minor only required like an extra class or two, because you have to do so much math for electrical anyway. So that one was sort of a shoo-in. 

Beth Elliott  14:02  

Yeah, yeah. No brainer there. 

Allison Burris  14:04  

Yeah. 

Beth Elliott  14:06  

What was your favorite class? And why?

Allison Burris  14:08  

I think circuits was my favorite engineering class. And 

Beth Elliott  14:12  

Like circuit boards, that kind of thing? 

Allison Burris  14:13  

Yeah, learning about circuitry, and putting it together in labs, that type thing. There are a couple levels of circuits and you have to take it multiple times. As an electrical engineer, I had to take two circuits classes that were engineering-focused. And then I had to take physics that required some circuits knowledge as well. So, I had it a lot. But I enjoyed it maybe because of my 11-year-old self in the back of my mind playing with the circuits book at my cousin's house, I don't know. So, I thought it was enjoyable to see it all come together in something that you can see it with your eyes, you know, the lights work. But now I can explain how the lights work. How they're all connected.

Beth Elliott  14:59  

Do you do a project, any projects like a senior project, or anything like that? 

Allison Burris  15:03  

Yes, I did do a senior project, it was a doozy. And it required a lot of mechanical work, which was very new for me, I did not do anything mechanical until that class, pretty much, because everything in electrical engineering is obviously electrical. But for that class, I had to put together a SCADA system, which I could not do now, I'd don't think. And I had to do PLC programming, which is that's the only time I ever had to do it. And I had to put together a pump. And that was the mechanical stuff. I had to call my mechanical friends and be like, I have no idea what I'm doing. Please help me with this. I don't know what's going on. I had to do a lathe, work with a lathe. 

Beth Elliott  15:45  

Wow. 

Allison Burris  15:45  

Yeah, it was a whole lot of stuff. So, it was intense. But I liked it. It was cool. It was fun to put it together and actually build and see something. With electrical, you don't always get that opportunity.

Beth Elliott  15:56  

Okay, because it's just a portion. It's not just a portion, but it's a, it's a portion of the whole, the thing as a whole, correct? 

Allison Burris  16:02  

Right.

Beth Elliott  16:03  

Okay,

Allison Burris  16:03  

Well, and if you, if you build a circuit, and the point of the circuit is to measure something, then your output, the thing that you get to see is a number on a multimeter or a graph on an oscilloscope, and that's kind of boring, you know. But when you get to see a pump work because of a PLC programming you did, that's cool. And you see the water move through it, you're like, hey look at that. It's very interesting, as compared to just measuring voltage or resistance.

Beth Elliott  16:31  

So how did those prepare you for the real world? 

Allison Burris  16:36  

Hmm, I think, honestly, my college did not necessarily prepare me for the real world as well as I wish it would have, especially in the industrial world, people think that having an engineering degree makes you automatically qualified for the position. And that's not really, that's not really true at all. Because my only experience with mechanical example, that was only one class out of my entire career, college career. And PLC programming, one class out of the entire thing. So, when I went from manufacturing, when I went from college to manufacturing, did I need to know the highly complex three-line long equation to explain wireless communication? No, I did not. I needed to understand where in the system that's not working, isn't working and how to fix that. So, it became more of a troubleshooting almost. Like I wish I had more experience troubleshooting, again circuits. So, it's like, electronics focus is good if you're going to go into manufacturing and industry.

Beth Elliott  17:47  

Okay. Okay. All right. So, what was your least favorite class? 

Allison Burris  17:53  

Wireless communication. It was horrible, it was very horrible. I can't even remember, honestly, what he was trying to teach me because all of it was so intense. And I was like, I don't care about this. Because I don't need to know why Wi-Fi works. I mean, I guess I do, but I don't, you know. And so not just Wi-Fi. But in general, the ability to go somewhere and need that information, I feel like seriously can't be very high percentage. And I did not like it. I didn't think it was very applicable to my life as a whole. But 

Beth Elliott  18:26  

It was a requirement. 

Allison Burris  18:28  

Yes. Yeah. It was one of the senior electives you had to take to graduate with electrical engineering. So, I, I don't know. To me, it was like taking a Gen Ed, like I had to take, I don't know, a history elective. And did that apply to my, my adult career? No. But I still did take it. And it was sort of like that for wireless communication. But by then you're a senior, last semester, and you're like, please just get me out of here. I do not care about this. I don't want to do this in real life. So, at that point, I had already decided to move on to manufacturing and I was just

Beth Elliott  18:59  

You were just ready to go. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. And you entered the world like right after. After you graduated. I mean, you hit the ground running. You're just, you're just a hard worker, I can tell that. You're ready to go.

Allison Burris  19:14  

Well, I didn't like being poor. That was the real reason. College is expensive. And I wanted to stop having to pay so much money to be somewhere without making any. So, I had jobs, of course in college, but I was ready to just be done with the whole thing.

Beth Elliott  19:33  

So, when you're, when you're at Western Kentucky University, did you participate in any clubs or are they called clubs, or were you in any of that kind of stuff?

Allison Burris  19:43  

I think there's club sports. I didn't, I didn't continue running cross country there. I did run for fun just to stay healthy. Manage stress with my running that was good. But I did not do anything extracurricular. I was really trying very hard to get out in four years. It's not very common in engineering anymore, I think to finish in four years, a lot of people finish in five-ish. I know somebody who finished in like seven and a half, like very long. And I know some people who have finished, I think, maybe at the fastest, really four I don't know of anybody who's finished faster than that. So, my scholarships ended at the four-year mark, and I wanted to be done. So, I worked to make money. And then I went to school. And that was about it.

Beth Elliott  20:30  

Where there any other girls in your engineering classes? 

Allison Burris  20:33  

Yes. 

Beth Elliott  20:34  

Was it? I mean, what was the ratio?

Allison Burris  20:37  

So, if you count engineering as a whole, generally at WKU, and maybe in general, across the board, and I haven't confirmed that statistic. But the civil engineering group is the least amount of women, as far as I could tell. Mechanical had more women and electrical somewhere in the middle, for us. And I think, from what I've seen in the real world, in my jobs, I think that's also true. But I'm not positive, you know, the worldwide statistic on that. But I can tell you that my graduating class at WKU, we graduated 11 that year, from electrical. Now, mechanical was much larger, and civil was even larger than that. And of I think it was 11. Or maybe, yeah, let's go with 11. And we graduated three women, which is a record. And I think it's only ever been one before that every time. So, we had a record in there, but I don't think that's normal. I think it's usually one. 

Beth Elliott  21:38  

My goodness. 

Allison Burris  21:39  

Yeah.

Beth Elliott  21:40  

So, when you graduated, there was just there were 11 in your graduating class, and three were women. Why do you think that there aren't that many women in electrical engineering?

Allison Burris  21:51  

I don't know. I think there are less electricals in general anyway because it's definitely an abstract knowledge. And it's not exciting to measure voltage across a line. And that's a significant portion of your job. So, I think the general number of engineers is lower for electrical anyway. And given that girls are less prevalent in engineering, I would say that it probably just follows on that. 

Beth Elliott  22:18  

Okay, okay. All right. So yeah, we said you went straight into college after the, straight into the workforce after college. So, and we talked about, a little bit about how your college courses prepped you for the real world. But do you want to go into that a little bit more? 

Allison Burris  22:34  

Yeah, I think, in general, learning, learning to learn, I guess it comes back down to that. Getting your brain to think in a method of circuits, something abstract. So, I think that in general, I should, I wish I would have focused more on those, really. The circuits and learned it better and like certain physics things that I - I was trying to manage so many classes at once that I didn't remember all of them super well. I think probably, you know, your percentage is maybe off on retaining knowledge. So, I wish that I had focused more on the base level classes, because that's the stuff I use the most, really circuits, calculus, physics, that kind of stuff, trig. 

Beth Elliott  23:16  

So, is that what you would encourage anyone that's going into it to focus on the basics? 

Allison Burris  23:22  

Yes, yeah. Well, make sure that you have a good foundation before you try to move on. Because I was maybe doing too much social life or something and didn't get on my foundation good. 

Beth Elliott  23:33  

That happens.

Allison Burris  23:34  

Right. And that'll give you struggles down the road. So certain classes would be more difficult maybe just because I didn't focus hard enough on the nitty-gritty of the basics. Really, the basics are key. Just like trig going to Calculus. Same kind of thing. 

Beth Elliott  23:50  

Okay. Yeah. Obviously, I didn't take any of those. So, when you entered the workforce, you, you progressed really quickly, from going from a production engineer, and then moving on up. So, you're hard-working. And did you find it difficult in a male-dominated environment to advance so quickly?

Allison Burris  24:14  

Honestly, no, I don't I get a lot of questions related to being a woman in engineering in that way, in that format. I think, as long as you are working as hard as the people around you, you're, you're going to be noticed. So, I think that I don't know if being a woman in a man's world really mattered. At least I never let it matter. Maybe that's the key. I don't, I literally never thought about it. I just did my own thing. So, I guess it worked.

Beth Elliott  24:44  

Yeah, no, that's good. So, you don't let it. You didn't even. It didn't even cross your mind. 

Allison Burris  24:50  

No. I mean, you know, even with going back to my parents, my dad, my dad never said, well, you're a girl so you have to be in it. It was never, It was never a thing. It was just you're going to be an engineer because that has a good ROI on college. I was like, cool. That makes sense. Numbers make sense. So, from there, I just never, I literally never thought about it.

Beth Elliott  25:12  

So, when you were working, what were some of the biggest challenges you faced on some of the projects that you had? What was your just one that just was like, oh, my goodness, I don't think I can do this?

Allison Burris  25:23  

I think it's universally true for production engineering, that it's difficult to maintain the schedule, because if your manufacturing plant is running 24/7, then that means that somebody may need you at any point in that 24/7. So, especially for automotive, which I was in, it is highly intense. It's very intense on scheduling, and the ability to keep up and get what you need to get done for the future of your plant, and also maintain what's already out there. So

Beth Elliott  26:01  

It's a balancing act, isn't it? 

Allison Burris  26:04  

Yeah, it's hard. It's challenging.

Beth Elliott  26:06  

So, where are you on call for 24/7? I mean, how does that look?

Allison Burris  26:10  

It was sort of like that. Though it was not quite on call. It was difficult to say no if somebody is struggling, and so you, you're kind of on-call by your own commitment, I guess. 

Beth Elliott  26:25  

Yeah. For your fellow employee, colleague, to help them. 

Allison Burris  26:31  

So, there's definitely a method that was supposed to be followed from a person, maybe on second shift which I did not work, for a maintenance person on second shift to go through the process to get to me, as a last resort type thing. But generally, it was, depending on the maintenance person, you know, I may get a text from my favorite maintenance person who had my cell phone number, not all of them did. And he would text me and say, Hey, I'm having exactly this problem. And I would be able to fix it by text, maybe, or I'd be able to call him, and he could verbally explain what was going on. And I could verbally explain how to fix it, to my knowledge. But yeah, there are times when a machine’s down, and we have to make a shipment, and I would have to go in, and it didn't matter what time was. If they couldn't make the shipment, you know, you had to go fix it. Whatever it was, make it come back up. 

Beth Elliott  27:25  

Production can't stop.

Allison Burris  27:27  

Right. 

Beth Elliott  27:29  

So, what did you like most about being a production engineer?

Allison Burris  27:33  

The best part about being a production engineer is definitely the constant change. I am not very good at sitting still. I am not very good at doing the same thing all the time in repetition. And as a production engineer, even if you wanted to do that, you absolutely could not. Because if some machine is down on line nine today, you have to fix that. But then you have to build line 24 tomorrow, something like that. Then you're constantly on a state of coming in deciding what you're doing, maybe getting that done, and that was okay with me. Kind of the chaos. I was okay with chaos. That does not fit for everyone at all. But for me, it was very, I'm okay with it. 

Beth Elliott  28:15  

You thrived in that, didn't you? 

Allison Burris  28:16  

Yeah, it was it was constant energy. And I was okay with that.

Beth Elliott  28:21  

So, you've been at elliTek for a little over a year now as the sales engineer. You can't make sales calls during a pandemic. So that's kind of what, what's that button. That's starting to ease up a little bit. What engineering skills have you been able to utilize that someone without the knowledge that you have, and skills that they couldn't have done?

Allison Burris  28:47  

I think being able to understand a complete system, even if you don't, if you approach a system, and you don't understand the full system, but you know that one system may have three parts to it. And understanding the relationship between part one to part two, to part three matters, even if all you're trying to focus on is part three, then getting, choosing a solution, maybe easier for a person who has experience looking at the system as a whole, rather than just, oh, here's a scanner and let me put it on your machine or whatever. Because then I could come in and say, Yeah, I can have your scanner put here. But maybe your associate could reach it better over here. And I see that your station over here is working together with the station. Because that's the kind of thinking I had to have as a production engineer with a system of, I don't know, five machines on a line type thing. And you would have to decide where different things are better and what's your best ROI on that investment, whatever you put in. So, I think that just the experience, not necessarily the technical part of it, but the experience of being able to see a system as a whole is definitely key. 

Beth Elliott  30:04  

Yeah, yeah. Cuz anybody that didn't have that experience before would just be, here's your scanner.

Allison Burris  30:10  

Right, here's your scanner. I'll sell you another one tomorrow.

Beth Elliott  30:15  

No, you're, you're in there for the whole solution and to make, make it better and empower them, aren't you?

Allison Burris  30:20  

Right, I don't want ever to try to sell something to somebody that I as a production engineer would not want to use. Because I don't want anyone to say, oh, Allison, she sucks. She gave me the stupid scanner and it doesn't even work. And I don't, I don't want that. No.

Beth Elliott  30:34  

No. What with this pandemic and you know, you haven't been able to make sales calls. Other than that, I mean, that's a huge challenge in itself for a seasoned, for a seasoned salesperson. I don't know, you know, they, they've had to navigate it. But you're, you know, you're fairly new into the sales game. What are your other challenges that you've had to overcome and face?

Allison Burris  31:01  

I am learning from a top-down situation now, where previously I was working from bottom up. Because when I as a production engineer had a part, and that part had to be inspected, which was my job, setting up machines for inspection. When I would try to think about what I needed, then I only had to think about the things that applied to what go to that part that fix the thing that I need fixed type thing. But from a sales standpoint, I'm learning all the various solutions that could possibly be out there, like a LinMot, or Tolomatic, or whatever, why, why one versus the other is better for 18 different applications. So that's been interesting because it's almost like my brain has tried to maintain this logical ground-up thing with math and everything else. And now I'm having to do more of the memorization type knowledge that I did not super practice because I was practicing the other way. So, it's been interesting to try to learn all that. And I have not had any issues with it necessarily. But even when I think oh, yeah, I've learned all these things this week. I'm like, super smart. I'm the smartest. And then the next week, something comes up. I'm like, cool, I know nothing.

Beth Elliott  32:21  

It just chops you down, don't it?

Allison Burris  32:23  

Oh, there's infinitely more things to learn. I forgot. So that's been interesting. And the hardest part.

Beth Elliott  32:29  

Yeah, I tell you what, the more I learn, the more I know, I don't know.

Allison Burris  32:33  

Right. Exactly. I just want to feel smart. And I'm not. I feel like it's not happening. 

Beth Elliott  32:40  

Oh, you're super smart. I'll tell you what 

Allison Burris  32:43  

You know what I mean. A specific subset of knowledge.

Beth Elliott  32:46  

You want, you want to be able to go and be able to identify like that. What, what the solution or at least have a handful of solutions that you could just spout off right away without them having to wait or anything.

Allison Burris  32:59  

Right, exactly. And I want to know the reach on three different robots just off the top of my head, and I do not memorize all that super well. So that's what I've been working on.

Beth Elliott  33:10  

Well, I liked your Hanwha video for the cobot. That was a lot. That was That was good. You did a great job on that one.

Allison Burris  33:17  

I was trying to think very Instagram and see. But it turned out to be that too much knowledge is required and such a small video. So, it didn't really end up to be Instagram, maybe more like YouTube. It was fun. 

Beth Elliott  33:31  

It's a It's a neat little robot, isn't it? 

Allison Burris  33:33  

Yeah, I really liked it. I thought it was very also attractive, which I think a lot of people don't think about. But when you have a customer coming through a plant, and your plant looks old and dingy, then they are not. They're looking at it the way that you're looking at it. So, they're not thinking, wow, this is bright and shiny. I want that I want this to be what builds my parts. They're thinking, Oh, that's from the 70s., because it looks like it's from the 70s. So, I think that the Hanwha has so has such good lines on it, that it really is an attractive thing. And I think it would look really good in a lot of production floors. 

Beth Elliott  34:09  

Yeah. And then that when they when their customers come through, they can 

Allison Burris  34:12  

Right. Exactly. That's impressive. 

Beth Elliott  34:14  

Yeah, yeah. Yeah. All right. So, what advice would you have for girls that are going to go and choose their career in engineering?

Allison Burris  34:26  

I would say, Don't talk yourself out of it, and don't think about being a girl in it. I think a lot of people get focused on that maybe and it's not beneficial. It's just like the math thing where if you are told by your parents, well, I wasn't good at math, so you won't be either. Well, that doesn't mean anything. My dad's not good at cooking, and I cook. Well actually, he is good at cooking. I don't know what an example is there. But the point is, is if you talk yourself out of it, you've already lost. So, don't do that. Just work at it and it's hard. But if it wasn't hard, everybody would do it. 

Beth Elliott  35:03  

It's true. 

Allison Burris  35:05  

Just think of it as Yeah, it's not a big deal. It's hard. But that's okay. And then move on with that. 

Beth Elliott  35:10  

All right. All right. Well, do you have any other thoughts you want to share with the listeners?

Allison Burris  35:15  

You know, I was thinking about, I knew you're gonna ask me this as an open mic sort of thing. And I thought about something I think would be good to share. I was given my senior year, the worst piece of advice ever. And I'd like to let everyone know what that is and why it was the worst. 

Beth Elliott  35:32  

Okay, go for it. 

Allison Burris  35:33  

So, I had a professor who was trying to protect me, I think. She is a woman in engineering. And I think she, her attempt was to make sure that I was able to succeed in a man's world by adapting to the world in the way that she thought would be cohesive, I guess. And so, she told me specifically, she said, You smile when you talk. Don't do that. You wear too many colors. Don't do that. You apologize, sometimes for speaking too intelligently. Don't do that. And I was like, Well, I'm not trying to apologize. You know what I mean? But it was more like a Oh, well, if you don't really understand that, let me try to say it a different way. And for me, that was just, hey, Beth, here's this electrical engineering knowledge that you probably don't have that I want to be able to talk to you anyway. And I was trying to make sure you didn't feel left out of the conversation. 

Beth Elliott  36:29  

Well, and then sometimes when you explain it in a different way, it helps you understand it in a different way, as well.

Allison Burris  36:36  

Right. And it makes more people welcome to the conversation. And I think having only I don't know, an elite set of people in the conversation is not good. Because you might think something, Beth, that I would not think of from a marketing standpoint, and me thinking that a robot is attractive, matters to some people, right? So, it's a totally different way to think about things. But that's okay. Because more people at the table is great. So, when she was telling me again, and because she was trying to help me succeed, it was not an, it wasn't in a bad way. 

Beth Elliott  37:08  

It wasn't malicious. 

Allison Burris  37:09  

No, no, no. But she was telling me to look more like a man, maybe. Right, like, don't. Like men aren't wearing bright red, I don't know, top, so I guess they can, but that's an example. And they aren't smiling as much when they talk maybe, because they're more direct typically, stereotypically, maybe. I'm extremely direct, but I mask that by smiling. So it's definitely it's definitely true. Right? So anyway, she was telling me to try to fit in more. But I didn't like that advice. And I thought, if I have to be boring and stop smiling and not wear colors, I don't really want to live this life. I mean, like in engineering. I don't want to, I don't want to conform, and like dole down everything to be able to succeed.

Beth Elliott  38:02  

 To be in that world, no.

Allison Burris  38:02  

Right. And I don't want to, I don't want to have to adapt to the world, I want to introduce a different perspective if that is what's required. So, I took her advice in and I listened to it, and I thought about it a lot. And I still think about it now. And at my first interview for my last job, I wore a bright red sweater. And I smiled all I wanted, and I thought she would not be happy with this. But when I did get that job, because I did, then they told me Well, your personality is key to the success here because I think that you are going to be a good team member. So, my personality, my smiling, my being too loud, maybe I don't know what it is. 

Beth Elliott  38:53  

Outgoing

Allison Burris  38:53  

Yeah, was able to be seen as a positive. And then I succeeded pretty well at that company moving up because I was able to get people to work together and bring more people to the table and any problem that we had. So obviously, the advice was wrong. And I'm happy that the advice is wrong. Because if you have to be boring to be an engineer, then I don't want to be an engineer either. That's very boring. And then, of course, this job, my personality got me this job. So just don't I don't want people to ever think that they have to change who they are to be an engineer. I just think that's old. I don't think anybody is thinking that way anymore. And if they are, that's not a good fit for you anyway.

Beth Elliott  39:37  

Yeah. And that's that's on them, too.

Allison Burris  39:39  

If they're turned off by my personality, I'm not interested in that job either.

Beth Elliott  39:42  

Exactly. Exactly. That's awesome. Well, thank you for your time today, Allison, you're awesome. We're gonna go over before we wrap up, I'm just going to recognize a few of the trail of the women that blazed the trail before you so.

Allison Burris  39:58  

Perfect.

Beth Elliott  39:58  

So, this first one is - as the first-ever computer programmer, Ada Lovelace was 100 years before her time. In the 1840s, Ada recognized that given the right programming and inputs, a general computer could do anything. She created the first algorithm used by an early computer prototype. Amazing. That's fantastic. Do you want to read about Edith Clark?

Allison Burris  40:29  

In 1919, Edith Clark was the first woman to receive a Master of Science degree in electrical engineering from MIT. She developed the Clarke calculator in 1921, a graphing calculator used to help solve electrical, electric power transmission problems.

Beth Elliott  40:45  

Do you know that Clarke calculator? 

Allison Burris  40:46  

No. But, I did use a graphing calculator to solve power transmission problems. So, thanks for that.

Beth Elliott  40:54  

Maybe it's based on what she did. 

Allison Burris  40:56  

Thanks, Edith. I did not want to do that without it.

Beth Elliott  40:59  

And then lastly, it was hard to it was hard to just pick three women. I mean, I was going through this list and it's amazing. I'm going to put there's a, it's science buddies.org and I'm going to put their link in the show notes, so I really want people to go and just read about these women. They're they're just amazing. The last one we're going to talk about today is Mary Jackson. She earned her Bachelor of Science degree in mathematics and physical science in 1942. Two. And 1951, she was hired by NASA. And by 1958, she became NASA's first female African American engineer. 

Allison Burris  41:40  

Wow. 

Beth Elliott  41:41  

In the 1970s, this I think, is amazing. She helped children in the science club at Hampton's King Street Community center build their own wind tunnel and used to continue to conduct experiments. Isn't that neat? 

Allison Burris  41:54  

Yeah. 

Beth Elliott  41:55  

Giving them back to their communities, too. Yep, these are just a few of the trailblazing women in STEM, science, technology, engineering, and math. And like I said, I'll put a link to the science buddies.org on the show notes. And, Allison, before we go, is there anything you would like to add? Some words of wisdom and encouragement for the young ladies out there?

Allison Burris  42:21  

Wear whatever color you want to your first interview.

Beth Elliott  42:24  

I like it, I like it. All right. Well, this is I hope you've enjoyed "Industrial Automation - It Doesn't Have To... Be a Man's World". And we would love for you guys to leave a review. You could find all of elliTek's podcasts on our website, it's elliTek, e l l i t e k.com, slash podcast. And you can, you can subscribe to our RSS feed there. And so, you don't have to miss an episode. And then if you have any topics or questions, hit us up on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and it's usually elliTek or elliTek hyphen, Inc, one of those two, combination of those, and we'll leave those on the show notes as well. So, you can leave us a message and, you know, I want someone to call in and leave a message or a question or a comment, and we might just feature them on the air. 

Allison Burris  43:20  

Okay. 

Beth Elliott  43:20  

And do you know that number? 

Allison Burris  43:22  

Yes, I know. 

Beth Elliott  43:23  

Okay, let's see here.

Allison Burris  43:26  

Okay. It's 865-409-1555. 

Beth Elliott  43:31  

Say it again one more time. 

Allison Burris  43:33  

865-409-1555. 

Beth Elliott  43:36  

All right. Thank you so much, Allison. I appreciate your time. 

Allison Burris  43:39  

Sure Thanks. 

Beth Elliott  43:39  

All right. You guys, have a great week, and we'll hear you next time.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai