Being an Engineer
Being an Engineer
S6E49 Pipeline Media Lab (PML) Announcement
In this special episode, Aaron and Brad introduce Pipeline Media Lab (PML) — a new initiative built for engineers, by engineers.
We talk about why we’re creating PML: engineers don’t need more ads, they need education, practical insights, and real stories from people solving hard problems. PML brings all of that into one ecosystem—podcasts, events, webinars, community, and more—to help engineers learn, grow, and stay connected to what’s happening across the engineering world.
We share the vision behind PML, what it means for the Being An Engineer podcast, and how it supports the broader engineering community. You’ll hear how PML came from years of conversations with engineers, lessons from PDX, and the belief that engineering knowledge should be accessible, useful, and presented without hype.
The episode covers:
- Why engineers ignore ads but engage deeply with good education
- How PML will spotlight real engineering work—projects, processes, people
- What new content, events, and experiences are coming for the community
- How this launch strengthens the podcast you already listen to
- Behind-the-scenes thinking on building something meaningful for engineers
If you’re an engineer who likes learning from other engineers, seeing cool projects, or getting better at your craft, you’re going to like where PML is heading.
LINKS:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/bradhirayama/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/pipelinedesign/
Subscribe to the PML newsletter: https://pipelinemedialab.beehiiv.com/
Download the Essential Guide to Designing Test Fixtures: https://pipelinemedialab.beehiiv.com/test-fixture
Subscribe to the show to get notified so you don't miss new episodes every Friday.
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
Watch the show on YouTube: www.youtube.com/@TeamPipelineus
Hello and welcome to another exciting episode of The being an engineer podcast today we have something special and unique, an announcement, a new effort that we're launching, which encompasses not just the being an engineer podcast, but all of our community engineering related brands. And we'll talk about that in more detail. It's called PML, or the pipeline Media Lab. And those of you who are already on our newsletter know about this, for those of you who aren't, and even for those of you who have read the newsletter, you might not, not know all of the different channels and efforts that are undergoing right now. So we're going to talk about that in some detail detail, and let all of you know what you can expect. And also ask for your feedback, because we want this to be an interactive effort where we hear from you, the community, dear listener. And tell us what do you want to hear, what kind of content is interesting or useful for you. And then I also want to introduce my good friend here, Brad Hirayama, and we'll talk about him a little bit more later, who he is, why he's here, what he's doing, what his background is, but that's the basics we're going to this episode is going to be entirely about pipeline, Media Lab, what it entails and how it's going to benefit you The listener.
Brad Hirayama:Yeah, and Aaron, thanks for that introduction before we get started. You know, PML has been birthed out of so much that you've already built around engineering community, so I would just love a little bit of a backstory.
Aaron Moncur:What is the
Brad Hirayama:reason that you started the being an engineer podcast? Wanted to undertake something like PDX. Wanted to build a community like like the wave. Just, just tell me how that all started. Yeah, I
Aaron Moncur:so I've been an engineer for over 20 years now, and I have recognized more and more as I've gotten older, that my core strengths are not doing the hardcore analytical engineering work, but are more in the communication and organization areas. Of course, I am an engineer. I have the engineering background. I understand engineering talk, but if I'm being honest, what I enjoy more than the actual engineering is sharing the engineering with with other people promoting the the discipline of engineering. The podcast came about when I it was during covid, towards the very beginning of covid, and I was part of this coaching group. And the the mentor, who was in charge of our group, he asked us, hey, what if covid decimates your business and you have to close shop? What would you do next? And I thought, Oh, that's such an interesting question. And I thought about all these different things that I might try, but kept coming back to engineering and communication. And I thought, wow, podcasts would be really cool, and that would be a great way to share engineering stories and information with this community. I could do that, and it didn't take long to realize that, well, I could just start a podcast right away. I don't have to wait until pipeline shuts down. Thankfully that that never actually covid was pretty good for us, but that's another story. So I started the podcast, and that was almost six years ago, which is crazy to think about. Now we're coming up on on six years of the being an engineer podcast. So that was just one part of the story. There was an experience I had so pipeline my company, we've done test fixtures and motion control and automation machine building for about a decade now, and about 10 years ago, when we first started dipping our toes into that water, that pond, we didn't really have experience with like motors and pneumatics and motion control and all these things. And I remember the first project we did that that used a motor and trying to get that motor not just spinning, but spinning in a very controlled manner right, spin for at this RPM for this amount of time, and then pause and then do this other thing, reverse direction, whatever it was a pain in the butt, and I couldn't believe how difficult it was just to get a motor spinning. And it made me realize that it's hard to find, like, the detailed engineering information that one needs to actually complete a project to move the needle. And wouldn't it be wonderful if there was a place where you could just go and, like, learn those things that that you need to understand. There is. So much knowledge already out there in the world. The problem with with our industry, probably most industries, this isn't unique or specific to engineering, is is not that an insufficient amount of knowledge, it's access to that knowledge in like, an easy, straightforward manner. So that kind of led to creating the wave dot engineer, our online community tools, education and community for engineers. And there are all kinds of cool things we'll talk about, maybe a little bit later, about the wave, that where engineers can benefit. And then after the wave, I had this idea for an in person event, and that became PDX, which I think all of you have heard me talk about at this point. Technically, we had our second year in last month, in October, although it was kind of the first year for, like, the new format and the format that we will be using moving forward. So now we've got the being an engineer podcast, we've got the wave dot engineer website. We've got this PDX in person event. And we're also doing, and have been for the past year, kind of every other month ish, free online PDX webinars. So we had got the in person version of PDX, which is super cool, show up there in person, learn things, meet new people, and then. But there's, you know, a charge to be there. There's a ticket you have to buy. And if you're not here in the Phoenix area, there's some travel costs associated with it. So we also have the PDX webinars, which are kind of like super mini segments of the full PDX experience, where anyone, regardless where you are, can join for free and learn something from an expert in our field. So we had all these these different like brands and channels, and I realized that, man, we've actually created, like, a pretty robust media or content generation and dissemination engine, and maybe all of that should be, like, coordinated a little bit more tightly. And that's where the idea for PML pipeline Media Lab came from, kind of a parent brand for all of these other channels that that, that we have,
Brad Hirayama:yeah, and then I came along one day, you know, getting a little bit more into who I am, Aaron approached me on LinkedIn. I was on the podcast. You guys may have seen me, or, I guess, heard me at that point.
Aaron Moncur:And I was
Brad Hirayama:really searching for other creative outlets at that point. And I kept pestering Aaron about ideas, and I think I replied to a LinkedIn post that you had around that time, and I was talking about, I think newsletters are really cool, being able to just write both long form and short form give value really Quick email inbox value to whoever your readers are. And after a little bit more pestering, Aaron agreed to let me start the newsletter. So I've been writing now the newsletter to be part of this ecosystem for almost the last year. Now I think we're almost, we're almost at a year since the since the newsletter launched, you know. And it gave me a really nice outlet to share ideas, to share stories, and, you know, to really tell engineering history, like I don't think I've seen, you know, and give people that that level of information. So that's where I came along. And then, you know, Aaron pitched me this idea of pipeline Media Lab and what it could, how it could affect the greater engineering community, what he already has built, what he wants to build, the vision that he has for This dissemination of information and kind of democratizing access to complex topics, or even the fundamentals of simple things, you know, to help people get involved in more complex automation or processes. And I bought in, I bought in 100% you know, and I think that I'm really excited about what we are building and what is to come, because like Aaron, I share the same vision that engineers need access to information, and that's how we push the envelope, and that's how we innovate. And so really excited to be here. I didn't mean to take that over Aaron, but, you know, I think we have a lot of really exciting things that we're going to talk about later on today, coming up, and I'm really excited. I know Aaron's really excited. I hope that you guys get really excited with us.
Aaron Moncur:Yeah, and I need to say something about Brad. I'm gonna make him blush here, but he took on the newsletter. It was all him, you know, it wasn't even really on my radar. And he reached out and said, Hey, I'd love to just do this. And I was like, Ah, okay, how does that work? Like? And he just grabbed the bull by the horns and did it and took it over. And if I'm being perfectly honest. This is back when Brad and I didn't know each other very well. At that time, I was like, Ah, maybe he'll do a few episodes of the newsletter, and then it'll it'll come to end. You know, it's a lot of work. And is one person really going to sustain this? And to his credit, he 100% has not just sustained it, but but grown it and made it into an even more compelling piece of content than than when it started. So I've just been super impressed with with Brad. And it's not often that you meet someone who aligns so well with with your vision and your mindset and your way of doing things, and is actually effective, like actually get stuff done, knows how to to work, and so I've been so impressed with his work ethic and his capability and in his mindset and and all these things. So just very grateful that our paths crossed and we had the opportunity to work together now and build out PML into something even bigger and better for everyone. Have you ever built a test fixture that didn't work well? Most engineers have, usually because of hidden pitfalls you wouldn't know to look for if you don't design fixtures all day after watching this happen for years, we built a simple five step framework that gets fixtures right the first time, and we packaged it in a free guide called The Essential Guide to designing test fixtures if you want more accurate, repeatable data and fewer redesigns. Grab the guide at PML, dot, engineer, forward slash, test, dash, fixture, get it, steal the framework and level up your fixture. Game,
Brad Hirayama:yeah, you know, I, I was shocked when Aaron reached out to me on LinkedIn. I thought he was like a spam bot at first. Who, who would actually want some, you know, random senior level engineer on a podcast. You know, why? Why would you want somebody like, like me? And, you know, getting to know Aaron over the last year has just been, you know, such a, such a great opportunity to learn from somebody who has been in the industry and who understands what it means to step into a world of a little you know, some some questions. You know, you don't know everything. You don't know exactly how to do it, but then just tackle it, take it, run with it. Learn as you go, ask, the right questions. And I think that's what we've done over the last year, and it's really brought this PML vision to life. And yeah, again, just really excited about what's coming next.
Aaron Moncur:So go ahead, a couple of thoughts there. Our engineering manager, Michael Hadley, who was the second guest on the being an engineer podcast. If you go all the way back to the beginning, there's kind of an intro with just me, and then I guess the first real guest was, was Michael Hadley, and he's a super interesting guy. Lots of stories in history, and one of the very interesting parts of his history is he worked with Tony Robbins, the motivational speaker, you know, author, speaker, Tony Robbins, is it Robbins or Robinson? I think it's Robbins. Tony Robbins, it's Robbins, yeah. Anyway, Michael has told me this story a few times where he somehow got introduced to Tony way back in the day. This is like, you know, 20 years ago, or something, 25 years ago. And they hit it off. They got along really well. And at some point, Tony approached Michael and says, I'd like you to be my business manager. I don't have a business manager, and I need one, and I'd like you to fill that role. And Michael says, I don't know anything about being a business manager? How can I do that? And Tony says, Well, neither do I. We'll figure it out. And that's what happened. So Michael became his business manager for the next several years. And I love that attitude, and it's, it's, I think, I think most engineers have that same attitude of, I don't know how to do this thing, but I'm an engineer, I can figure it out. And I saw the same thing with PDX. So PDX, we did a pilot two years ago, and it was cool, but it was pretty small, kind of a very, very minimalistic format. And we thought, you know, that went well enough. Let's do it for real now. And so we did pdx 2020. Five, which just just finished last month, and it was stellar. It was a great success. People loved it. The attendees loved it. The exhibitors loved it. It was just a unique and kind of innovative format, win, win for everyone. And when we first started planning pdx 2025 I told Nikki our we call her our integrator, because she integrates all the things behind the scenes that just make pipeline run. And I told her, hey, I want to do like a legitimate conference, you know, almost like a trade show. And she was like, we can't do that. We don't know how to put on a trade show or plan and organize like a big event like this. And other people in the industry also, in fact, after PDX finished, and that actually was successful, people reached out, and they're like, Hey, I admit I thought you were kind of crazy for trying to do this, but wow, it worked out. You guys pulled it off. And it just goes to show that engineering mindset, you know, we don't know how to do a lot of things, but we have the that engineering education that teaches us how to solve problems, and so that's what I've relied on most of my career to just figure out how to do something. Nine times out of 10, I fake it till I make it right, and then I figure it out as I go along.
Brad Hirayama:Yeah, you know, and I think the last year has been a great testament to that for the both of us, and we're at the point now where, you know, we have our guiding principles, we have a direction. We know what we want to do and what we're building for. We have our purpose, and I think that's really what we're here to share with you all today, because it's now concrete. It's something that we're both really, really driving for in 2026 so you don't mind, let's just kind of segue into that. So what is pipeline Media Lab? Right? What? What is pipeline Media Lab gonna do? So pipeline Media Lab, just as a brand, is the umbrella that kind of governs all of the different media verticals that we already have built out, and it unifies the ecosystem into a one cohesive mission, you know, and that mission revolves around educating the masses, right? Really, disseminating information. Aaron, he approached me about this idea that he had, that, you know, he wanted to start to build more of an ecosystem and kind of unify all of our different media distributions to together and and, you know, after listening to the 20 minute pitch that he that he gave me, I was, I was I was All in. And so we are here to build content that connects the engineering, the manufacturing world, with meaning, with purpose, and with education first. And how are we doing that? So we're going to be partnering with companies in order to have expert led talks, webinars, amas, where you can bring your problems and really what we want you to do is we want you to be able to come to our events, to listen to our podcast, maybe read our newsletter, read the articles that that we're posting, and come away with a solution, or at least an idea or framework that leads to a solution. I think that is the most important thing for engineers, right? We don't have to start from zero all the time that there's so much information that's art that's already out there. There's so many frameworks and people that talks about the things that they've used in order to solve these complex problems, and we're trying to bring that to the forefront and make it really accessible for everybody.
Aaron Moncur:Yeah, Brad, you talked about the guiding principles that we've defined. Why don't you talk a little bit about that? What are these guiding principles?
Brad Hirayama:Yeah, so we came up with three, our three principles, and this is really going to be the definition of how we operate. It's going to make sure that we consistently make strategic decisions that are within what we're trying to do. So number one, and I think the most important for us, is the principle of Teach, don't sell. So within engineering, you know, education is what builds trust. So if you think about any vendor relationships that you've ever had when it's transactional and they're just here to sell you a product, and they kind of back off after they after you don't bite. That's, that's not where trust is built. Trust is built when you teach somebody something and they can see that you know what you're talking about. And in our world, education earns trust, and trust is what drives engagement. And in the flip side, of course, then engagement is going to what's is what drives revenue, and I think that that's what we're pitching for all of our partners to be a part of, to change that sales and marketing business model away from just sell, sell, sell. You know, here's an ad, here's why we can do whatever you want us to do, but why don't I teach you a little bit of something? Why don't I show you that I have expertise in whatever you know, small, little niche that I'm in, and that will bring you back to me when you have that, that problem. So that's, that's number
Aaron Moncur:one, and you wanted to, yeah, interject real quickly here, this was embodied so perfectly at PDX last month, all of our vendors were contractually required to provide some type of useful, meaningful training to attendees. They couldn't just show up and provide a flyer or a brochure. They had contractually they had to provide meaningful training to engineers, and this was a very unique and innovative format that people weren't used to. And a lot of the vendors, they got it right away, they're like, 100% sign me up for this. So at the event itself, I mean, too tall, Toby was was teaching engineers SolidWorks pro tips. And he had hordes of people around his booth during his training sessions, all learning the pro tips that he's gained over the past, you know, 1520, years as a SolidWorks Pro user, we had a machine shop quick turn machine who was teaching engineers how to tap parts using like a manual tap. You know, every now and then you need to break out a tap and create threads in a hole, teaching engineers how to do this without breaking taps. Or, you know, best practices associated with this. We had Iris dynamics, who is showing engineers how to use linear motors, not just what they are, but in detail. Here's how you set one up, here's how you program one. So we had dozens of vendors, like 34 vendors, I think we had who were all there to teach engineers how to do something. And the response from the engineers that we received, we sent out a survey afterwards and said, Hey, how was this? I know it's kind of a like a different thing. Was it useful? Was it beneficial? Overwhelmingly, engineers said, Yes, this was awesome. We've never been to an event like this before, where we show up and we actually learn something from the exhibitors at the booths. And in fact, the exhibitors, they were surprised. Afterwards, they came to me, they said, Aaron, we didn't expect this. Typically at a trade show, historical, traditional trade show, we're used to, you know, we're trying to corral people like pull them in from the aisles and come talk to us at their booth. In this case, all the engineers, the attendees, were organically just going to the booth without any cajoling at all, because that's where the training sessions were happening, and so it was just this awesome. Win, win. Everyone got some some benefit and value from it. And that is kind of our number one guiding principle for PML, is teach. PML is all about education and community for engineers, and
Brad Hirayama:what you're going to see moving forward, and we'll go into more detail in a little bit when we talk about what's coming. But this style is going to really resonate across every single media vertical that that we have. We're going to be running traditional ads, let's say ads with air quotes, because they're not actually going to be ads. They're going to be partners that we have that are willing to teach something that they know really well, or that they've thought about, or that they've done, and that's how, like I said, we're going to build trust, is through education first. So that's our first guiding principle, that is the most important guiding principle for everything that we're going to do here at PML, number two, number two, we've already touched on, but number two is to uncover and amplify existing knowledge. So again, all of the engineering education and knowledge is out there. It's out there somewhere, right? Whether it's in somebody's head, or it's buried in a white paper on some, you know, a single company's website. That knowledge is out there, you know, and that, I think, is the challenge, right? So if I'm finding a problem and I'm having to search for that knowledge, where am I going to go? Who am I going to trust? So, PML. So our our mission here is to really, to package everything into easily digestible, easily easy to find kind of a single source that you can go to in order to find that that knowledge. And the nice part too, about what we're doing is we're building a network of these experts. And so maybe even if we haven't put the knowledge out there yet, maybe you know this partner hasn't put any white papers or anything out there for what their specialty is, we already have that network for you, so we can help you, and we want to be that central hub that people can go to and ask their questions and help to solve the really complex challenges that are coming in this in this world, right? That's what we need to continue to innovate and to push engineering. Yeah, yeah, and so that's number two, number three, number three, I'm going to introduce but I really want Aaron to kind of talk a little bit more about this, because this is something that he talked to me about. And I see the passion, and I've really bought into this passion, but our guiding principle number three is to use success to do good, and what that means to us is PML as an entire brand, is here to support engineers in their knowledge and engineering work, but we also want to make sure that we are uplifting our community and that we are enabling impact, humanitarian impact, in a very altruistic way as we grow right so our our work that we're doing here is not purely for just driving engineering growth, but we're going to be able to give back to the community as well. And like I say now, this is a topic that Aaron is is, I know, is very passionate about, and this is something that you know he's talked to me about multiple times, and he's talked to me and got me to buy into this as well, that this is going to be a part of how we operate and what we do. So I would love to just kind of hear, you know, where this came from a little bit, and why this is important to you.
Aaron Moncur:I have two stories that I'd like to share, and even before these stories, I'll share that I have always had this intrinsic desire to help people. I don't know where it came from, maybe my parents, the way I was raised, I don't know, but I've always had this desire to help people. And so fast forward to maybe four or five years ago, something like that. My wife works in the front office at our local high school, and so she hears, you know, whenever, whenever something noteworthy happens at the high school, she generally hears about it first, because she's there in the front office. So one day something noteworthy occurred. Unfortunately, it was not a good something. They got a phone call from a parent, and this this father said, My son just left the house. He has a gun, and he is heading to the school right now. So they immediately called the police. They locked everything down, followed all the safety protocols that, thankfully, they had in place. Police showed up very quickly, not just, you know, a patrol car, but an army of police showed up, heavily armed. They had a there was a helicopter flying overhead. I mean, to their credit, they took this very seriously, which they should have. And so a army of police officers around the perimeter of the high school, heavily armed police helicopter flying overhead, and thankfully, they did. They caught the kid before he was able to do anything, and sure enough, he had a gun with him. He ditched it in some bushes, but they caught him, and what could have been a really horrific, tragic story ended without anyone getting hurt, thankfully. So my wife told me about this, and I thought, man, what makes a kid so angry that he's willing to harm one of his peers in this way? And I thought, I don't know the answer to that question, but, but surely, there's something that that we could do, some small thing, to help these kids understand healthy adult behavior. And so we started CAD Club, which is a volunteer organization we run here at Pipeline. Uh, twice a year. We have two terms per year. Each term is about 10 weeks long, and we open our doors here, pipeline to kids, students, middle school or high school age students who are interested in engineering, and we have them come in and we show them how to use CAD and we teach them engineering principles, and we design things together in print things and assemble things. And so engineering is the mechanism that we use to teach these things. But really the purpose of CAD club is to help these kids understand what healthy adult behavior looks like. And each class we talk about a soft skill, a CAD club tenet. We call them things like early is on time and be honest. Take what's on the inside, put it on the outside, and talk about it, right? Just classic life skills that, honestly, some adults don't have, but we're trying to instill in these kids. So that's that's one story, and then the other one comes from a gentleman named Andy Wells, who was a guest on the podcast a few years back. And Andy is in, I think it's North Dakota. I could be wrong about that, but he's, he's on Indian reservation, or near Indian reservation land. There's not a lot else going on around there, but he has this company, wells technologies, it's a manufacturing company. They're a contract manufacturer, and they had a hard time finding workers, just because there weren't many people around. And unfortunately, in that area that there's a lot of poverty, a lot of addiction, and thus a lot of the potential workers have felonies criminal records. And for a long time that they had a policy at Wells technology, that we don't hire people with felonies on their records. And this was like, pretty standard, right? It's not like they had this unique policy there. And Andy tells the story of one day this, this gentleman came in and he had a felony on his record, but he was looking for work, and he said, Hey, I'll, you know, I'll do anything. I'll sweep floors, I'll mow the lawn. I just, I'm looking for a job, a way to support my family. And Andy said, I'm so sorry. You know, I appreciate what you're saying. But we just, we have this policy we don't hire people with felonies on their records. So the this gentleman, you know, shook his hand, thanked him for his time, and and walked out the door, and Andy kind of watched him go out the door and into the parking lot, and his family was there in a car, wife or maybe a girlfriend, and a couple of kids in the backseat. And Andy thought, Man, I own this company, like, Am I really beholden to this policy that we have? Does that make sense? And so he followed the guy out to the car and said, hey, you know what? Why don't you come back on Monday and we'll try this. We'll see how it goes. And so the gentleman did came back on Monday, and Andy, I don't know, had him sweeping up in the shop or something like that. And it worked like this guy was so grateful for the chance for for employment that he was a stellar employee. And Andy thought this like, this could be a bigger program to help more people. And so he expanded it, and now they have this amazing program where, I think a third of their workforce, something like that, is made up of convicted felons who have been given a chance at Wells technology. They've trained them. They've some of these individuals have gone on to, like, be CNC programmers, you know, just making really complex parts. And that all came about because Andy had this vision of, how can I help people? And I loved that so much. It was, I think, still to this date, it's the most uplifting episode that I've ever done on the podcast. And it just resonated with me so much. So that's where this, this third guiding principle comes from, to use success to do good. And we're looking forward to doing good and sharing those stories with everyone.
Brad Hirayama:Yeah, and I love it. And like I said, you know, Aaron shared these stories with me, and I, you know, we come from very similar, I think, cultural backgrounds, if you guys don't know by the shirt that I'm wearing, but you know, we're, we're both from Hawaii, and you know, there's, there's a Hawaiian word that is taught very readily amongst elementary school students. And it's, it's kuleana. Kuleana means responsibility. But what is your responsibility? Right? What is your kuleana to your family, to the world around you, to your community. And I think that this is a great way to focus on impacting our community around. Us in whatever way we can. And I think that this principle will grow as we grow as well. And we, you know, we're going to start with what we can, we're going to focus on what we can focus and hopefully, you know, continue to make that make that impact in our communities as we as we go forward into 2026 and beyond,
Aaron Moncur:let's maybe talk about all the different channels that we have, depending on how long you've been a listener, you may or may not be aware of all these channels. Even for longtime listeners, there might be some new things here that you're not aware of, so let's spend just a couple of minutes going through the different channels that we have. First off is the podcast. That should be obvious, because you're here listening to the podcast right now. We're on Season Six currently, and we've got, I think, close to 350 episodes where we've brought high performing engineers in to share their their pro tips, how they do things with the rest of the community, again, just disseminating that, that knowledge to everyone who's listening. So the podcast is the biggest and the oldest channel that we've established. And then there's the wave dot engineer. And on the wave, there are a lot of really cool tools and educations that can be had there. So there are forums, right? I mean, just like there are a lot of forums out there, the wave has a forum as well for engineers. You can go out, post a topic, get get answers from the community. There are articles. Brad is is responsible for a lot of those. He's written a lot of the kind of the thought leadership articles, as well as engineering stories from history, like this thing happened. What do we learn from it? How can we apply it to the future? So tons of of educational articles out there. We have some CAD downloads that not a lot of people know about kind of like grab CAD, but the big difference is grab CAD, I feel like, is made by a lot of students, maybe, and hobbyists, hobbyists, right? Like, it's kind of a looks like, feel like CAD model, but it's not something you would ever use for manufacturing. And the CAD downloads that we have on the wave, we call them Design Accelerators, are legitimately designs and models that you can use directly for manufacturing. They have tolerance associated with them. There. Most of them have drawings associated with them, and you can download the whole thing. Most of them are free. There are a couple that are, you know, pretty reasonably priced, $15 $20 something like that. But if that's going to save you, you know, half a day or a full day of design time, easily worth it. So there are CAD downloads. There are also mentors that you can connect with on the wave. There are probably eight or 10 very seasoned engineers out there who are ready and willing and desire to connect with younger engineers and provide mentorship. So you can just pick one of them and reach out and say, Hey, I could use some advice, and that's what they're there for. They're eager and excited to fill that role. There's a vendor directory so you can find different vendors in the engineering manufacturing space. There are a few other things there as well, but there's a lot. My point is, it's not just forums. There's a lot of different content and tools on the wave. And then we have the wave. It started as the wave newsletter and recently has been rebranded as the PML newsletter. That's all Brad. So why don't you take that one?
Brad Hirayama:Yeah, so like Aaron said, recently rebranded. It was originally under the wave umbrella, but now that it's pipeline Media Lab, now it's the PML newsletter, but this newsletter is kind of the first source for information that you're going to go for. So all of the long form articles that I'm writing on the wave gets put onto the newsletter. Really interesting forum topics are going to be on the newsletter. You know, I do a kind of a, not a super deep dive, but I try to pull out the key highlights from episodes of The being engineer podcast, 350 episodes. Like I haven't gone through all of them yet, but I'm slowly listening through and I love the content. So I pull out key points, and, you know, key talking points, and I, you know, really write that into kind of a very condensed form that that you can read and then potentially go and listen to the full episode for more information. And the PML newsletter is where we are going to announce first a lot of the new and exciting things that we're going to have coming. So, you know, one really. The easy example here is, you know, we're going to be trying out different ad styles as we as we spoke about earlier, teach, don't sell. So we're going to be trying out different ad styles where we're going to give you we're going to give you information, we're going to give you frameworks that that Aaron has spent the last two decades thinking of, that his team has used in the past to actually develop these automation or fixtures, or, you know, we're going to give you all of that information, and we're going to try that out over, over on the newsletter first. So it's, your one stop shop for everything. PML, so I would subscribe, you know, and we'll give all the links later, and we'll have have a link in the show notes, but if you really want to stay up to date with what we're building, that's the place to be,
Aaron Moncur:and it's super easy to subscribe again, we'll put a link in the show notes, but just go to the wave dot engineer, and there's a little banner on the right column where you can sign up. So the wave dot engineer, that's where you sign up for the PML newsletter. I really want to give away all of our best stuff, and not just ours, as in pipelines, but our partners that we work with as well. We want to take their best stuff, their most useful knowledge and give it away. And if you don't have time to listen to a full episode of the podcast or read the full article, like Brad said, the PML newsletter is where to go, because that's a condensed version of like, all this stuff that we're putting out. So then we have the in person PDX event, which we've talked about. The whole shtick of PDX is training for engineers and exhibitors are required to provide training. And to their credit, I was a little worried this being the first year, that most of the training sessions would end up being just kind of a thinly veiled sales pitch. But to their credit, they were not, and we got feedback from the attendees that that was the case, that they're they actually did a really good job of providing legitimate practical training for engineers on on a wide variety of topics relevant to engineers developing physical products, product development engineers. But, you know, I had a few messages from people who said, Aaron PDX is great. It's cool and all, I see the value, but I'm not in Arizona, and my company has frozen travel and you know, I need to get them to sponsor my my ticket price and all that. What else can you do for us? So we have the PDX webinars as well, and these are roughly every other month. That cadence might pick up in 2026 but these are our free, you know, the same kind of very practical, useful training, engineering knowledge that you can use and apply to your work right away. But it's free and it's virtual, so anyone can attend, no charge, no cost, and let's see. So we've gone through the podcast, the wave, the PML newsletter, both PDX versions. We also have a YouTube channel that we've done some with over the past, but we we intend to do more with so if you don't know about our YouTube channel, just look for pipeline design and engineering on on YouTube. Unfortunately, you will come across some companies who actually design pipelines and and that's not us, but you'll recognize us when you see it. It's all the pipeline branding. And we have, we actually do have some pretty cool videos there. In fact, if you don't know, this is a good announcement, we just a couple of months ago, we started doing video first podcast episodes. So recording with the intent to distribute on video first and obviously audio as well. So if you haven't seen any of those, you can watch the full video episodes. See our bright, smiling faces on the screen on our YouTube channel. That's where to go to watch video, first episodes of The being an engineer podcast, and then Brad mentioned some like amas. Ask Me Anything webinars. We'll be doing some of those as well. So these are all the primary channels that we're using. And Brad, if folks listening to this right now want to start engaging or maybe have a comment for us or something they want to ask. How can they reach out to you? And I,
Brad Hirayama:so I think the easiest and quickest way is to just send us a message on LinkedIn. I think both of us are more than open to connecting with you on LinkedIn. But number two, if you go to PML dot engineer and you sign up for the newsletter, that newsletter replies directly to my inbox. So if you have a question, you have a comment, you have a story that you want told, it goes straight to me, and I can see that, and I can pitch that over here to Aaron. You know, I would really encourage everybody listening to go and sign up for the wave. The making an account is free, and you have the access to the forums. You have the access to the mentors, you have access to all the all of the articles and interacting with people across the industry that have that same mindset, right? Trish, trying to solve hard problem, help each other to solve hard problems, you know? And, and that's a that's a great place to interact, not only with us, but, you know, with the with the community at large.
Aaron Moncur:Yeah, I'm going to toot my own horn just for a short minute here, Brad, I hear about a lot of new efforts that people are trying to do, and some of them make it, and some of them don't. I just want to point out for the record that I started pipeline 16 years ago, and here we are, 16 years later, still going, still strong. We've grown, we've developed lots of capabilities. We more than exist. We thrive. I started a podcast six years ago. Some people thought it was kind of lame that I was starting a podcast. A lot of podcasts were starting back there, and they're like, Yeah, he'll do this for a few weeks, and then he'll get bored of it. But here we are, six years later, still doing it. The wave started a few years ago, still working on that and building it and growing it. PDX, we're on our second our second year now, starting to prepare for our third year. My point is, I'm really good at sticking with things. I'm very good at being persistent and continuing to try and execute these are definite, definite skills of mine. I remember years ago when I started training in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, my father in law, he said, kind of brought me the wrong way. Actually. He looked at me, he was like, Oh yeah, that'll, that'll last for two weeks, and then you'll, you know, you'll get bored and move on. Well, I'm here seven, eight years later, still training, still loving it again. My point is, I'm very good at being persistent. So this is not an announcement that we take lightly. The creation of PML, we're in it for the long run, and we hope you're in it with us,
Brad Hirayama:you know. And let me tell you the amount of to do's and ideas and visions that we have for 2026 is a testament to this. There are so many things that are that are coming in 2026 not just for one channel. We're going to be doing a different styles of recording for the podcast. So you know, Aaron's continuously innovating and coming up with, what can we do to make things better and and different? Pdx 2026, is going to be bigger and better. We're going to have more, more, more more vendors, more teachers for you there. We're going to have different styles of competitions, you know. And the list is endless of what we could do. Like I said, the newsletter is growing, the topics are growing, the partnerships are growing, which means the content is going to continue to grow. And I think the big community that we have on the wave is just going to continue to bring better things to the forefront. So we have that network that we are tapping into, and really what we want to do is we want to make sure that everybody here that's listening is aware that we're not just building this for ourselves. We're not building this in a bubble. We're not trying to only put our ideas in the forefront. We want to interact with you. We want to build this for you, and we want you to tell us what you want to see, what you want to hear, what types of topics or companies you would like us to feature, if you have, you know, if you're starting a company and you're a founder and you want to be a part of the podcast or be featured on the newsletter based on your technology, we want to hear those types of, those types of things. And so I think that the biggest thing, other than subscribing to the newsletter, joining the wave, listening to the podcast, that you can do is to connect with us. Connect with us. Let us know what you want to hear, who you want to hear. And. Let's all build this community together, and let's continue to increase the knowledge bank of our community so that we can continue to solve hard problems and push industry forward.
Aaron Moncur:And it doesn't need to be complicated to reach out to us. You don't have to fill out some, like, extensive form or anything. Just send us a DM on LinkedIn and say, Hey, I think it would be really cool to understand better how simulation can help with PCB design or, you know, whatever it is that you want to learn. And then we'll be like, great. We have like, three partners who do this thing. We'll organize a webinar, right? It's super simple. We're, I'm all about productivity over formality, right? We don't need endless forms that people fill out. Just send us a message. We're just two normal guys, right? Like we're not behind this, this wall of gatekeepers or anything. We're just two normal guys. So send us a message and and let's collaborate. Let's work together and build something great.
Brad Hirayama:Yeah, anything else you got? I'm super excited about next year, so I'm chomping at the bit to kind of get going, and, you know, continuing to build this, this vision out for all of our community.
Aaron Moncur:Yep, same here. All right, I think we've covered it pretty well, so maybe we'll wrap things up and sign off for now, awesome.
Brad Hirayama:Well, thank you everybody for listening. Just one more quick plug the newsletter. PML dot engineer, our community is the wave dot engineer being an engineer podcast, sign up, subscribe and connect with us. So let's, let's build something great next year.
Aaron Moncur:Thanks everyone.
Brad Hirayama:Thank you.
Aaron Moncur:I'm Aaron Moncur, founder of pipeline design and engineering. If you liked what you heard today, please share the episode to learn how your team can leverage our team's expertise developing advanced manufacturing processes, automated machines and custom fixtures, complemented with product design and R and D services. Visit us at Team pipeline.us. To join a vibrant community of engineers online visit the wave. Dot, engineer, thank you for listening. You.
