Bradley Potter, Recipient of the Joseph Campbell Memorial Scholarship (2011)

RES Scholarship Alumni Spotlight

Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland Ohio Degree: B.S. in Chemical Engineering and Materials Science Engineering in 2013 Masters from University of Dayton in Materials Engineering in 2016.

Company/Organization: GE Aviation 2013 – present

Path to profession

Bradley pursued chemical engineering for his undergraduate studies at Case. As he learned more, he realized he was interested in the applied side of STEM. When he had to pick a specific focus, he chose material engineering and made that his major. Bradley was very involved with baseball throughout college and was able to exercise what he was learning first-hand. Since playing in Ohio subjected bats to cold temperatures, he was presented with the opportunity to apply what he was learning by completing failure analysis on the bats. This further reinforced his interest in materials engineering.

Professional Experience

When Bradley started at GE he participated in a rotation program, Edison Engineering Development. He rotated every year for 3 years through 3 divisions: metallic work, coatings, material testing (behavior). In this way he was able to get experience with various applications of what he had learned in his degree program at Case-Western. At the end of the rotation, he received his Masters degree from the University of Dayton in Materials Engineering.

Bradley's current job title is Advanced Lead Engineer, Materials Behavior. He has been in the Materials Engineering Department for all 8.5 years at GE and in the Material Behavior Section for the past 5 years. He likes the well-defined work/structure, statistical analysis of the data collected and the ability to have hands-on involvement in setting up various material testing & development experiments. When there is a new material or material change, his department needs to make sure the material properties are adequate to achieve the design intent and application. This is critical since these materials are heavily regulated by the FAA. He creates panels with new (or altered) materials, sets up tests for material properties, creates test plans, gathers and analyzes the data. All this information is fed into design analysis.

Currently, Bradley also leads recruiting efforts at Case Western across GE (healthcare, aviation,renewable energies divisions). He coordinates events, interviews, etc. at career fairs. The first thing hewill look for in students at these events are previous experience with other internships or co-ops.

Aspects of college; skills, coursework, or extra-curricular activities that help shape careers

College helped develop good habits particularly in time management. Balancing course work and various activities (baseball, orchestra, running) helped prepare for achieving a healthy work/life balance today.

Advice for someone pursuing a career in engineering

Strongly encourage internships & co-ops. They are a big value-add to the resume and from these, valuable experience is gained which ultimately leads to being hired. At Case a co-op was recommended if you wanted to go into industry. Bradley completed Co-op’s at Goodyear Tire and Rubber, PCC (Precision Cast Parts do castings for GE) and GE Aviation.

If you know of a student in grade 6 through college or a past RES scholarship recipient who should behighlighted in this column, please contact Lynne Irwin at the RES, res@frontiernet.net.

By Michelle Sommerman, PE, RES 1 st Vice President & Scholarship Committee Chair

Bradley Potter, Recipient of the Joseph Campbell Memorial Scholarship in 2011