Process Development Center Redefines the College Experience

Devin Carvalho gained a wide variety of experience working at the Process Development Center, which will help him in his future career

When employers are hiring, they often ask for someone with various forms of experience. Senior Devin Carvalho is studying Mechanical Engineering at the University of Maine. He’s been working at the Process Development Center (PDC) for three years, an experience that has been transformative and rewarding on both sides and giving him the experience he needs to be ready for the future.

“These are things you can’t always learn in school,” he said. “The big thing about the PDC is the interesting people from interesting places come together for a job they’re good at. Which is awesome. The breadth of the work is impressive. Anyone who isn’t in chemical engineering doesn’t have a clue [about the PDC] and I have to explain.”

The PDC offers a broad range of technical services and resources for clients, both in traditional pulp and paper and in emerging process technologies and materials science. One of the top suppliers of cellulose nanomaterials in the world, the PDC provides nanomaterials to researchers and application developers at hundreds of businesses, laboratories, and educational institutions in over forty countries. Carvahlo has been able to really round out his experiences – doing everything from mixing chemicals in the nanocellulose slurries to learning to weld and how to navigate corporate communications. And the amazing thing is, he hadn’t heard of the PDC until a friend told him.

Now he’s learning more than he expected and gaining valuable insight into the industry that will, he hopes, last him a lifetime.

“We have a great team to work with and it inspires a lot of confidence,” said Carvalho, who began working for the PDC in 2020. “The PDC is a place where you can really grow your career, but you need to be willing to do the actual work. You have to be able to balance your school schedule – if you can only commit a couple of hours per week, you won’t be able to help anyone.”

The PDC offers the community a unique opportunity to run trials with their new  pilot-scale refiners – something that would halt production if a company wanted to test something at their own facility. The PDC can test concepts on their refiners that can then be scaled up to a larger facility’s needs, without the cost and time of doing so at a private facility. And students like Carvalho help and learn along the way.

He’s worked the gamut of jobs that the PDC has to offer, from running Thermoformers and creating plates and cups from nanocellulose and doing work for outside companies making biomaterials – Carvalho has a chance to work on the cutting edge of a field in its infancy.

“It’s very exciting and nerve wracking. You can’t look at what other people have done. You have to do it yourself,” he said. And he does a little of everything. Testing consistency, tensile strength of the fiber, conducts fiber analysis, fixes odds and ends, learned how to weld and machine work, as well as loading and unloading with the fork lift. In addition to scientific work, Carvalho has learned how to interact in a professional atmosphere – composing and sending professional emails, creating and reading gantt charts, scheduling, arriving at work on time with clients, and navigating the industry.

After graduation Carvalho has accepted a position as a design engineer for Pratt and Whitney.