{"id":284123,"date":"2023-04-05T12:00:19","date_gmt":"2023-04-05T16:00:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/inspire\/?p=284123"},"modified":"2023-04-05T12:01:07","modified_gmt":"2023-04-05T16:01:07","slug":"process-development-center-redefines-the-college-experience","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/inspire\/2023\/04\/05\/process-development-center-redefines-the-college-experience\/","title":{"rendered":"Process Development Center Redefines the College Experience"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/span><\/p>\n

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\u2019s been working at the Process Development Center<\/a> (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.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThese are things you can\u2019t always learn in school,\u201d he said. \u201cThe big thing about the PDC is the interesting people from interesting places come together for a job they\u2019re good at. Which is awesome. The breadth of the work is impressive. Anyone who isn\u2019t in chemical engineering doesn’t have a clue [about the PDC] and I have to explain.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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<\/a> slurries to learning to weld and how to navigate corporate communications. And the amazing thing is, he hadn\u2019t heard of the PDC until a friend told him.<\/span><\/p>\n

Now he\u2019s learning more than he expected and gaining valuable insight into the industry that will, he hopes, last him a lifetime.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a great team to work with and it inspires a lot of confidence,\u201d said Carvalho, who began working for the PDC in 2020. \u201cThe 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\u2019t be able to help anyone.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The PDC offers the community a unique opportunity to run trials with their new\u00a0 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.<\/span><\/p>\n

He\u2019s 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.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s very exciting and nerve wracking. You can\u2019t look at what other people have done. You have to do it yourself,\u201d 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.<\/span><\/p>\n

After graduation Carvalho has accepted a position as a design engineer for Pratt and Whitney.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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\u2019s 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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2211,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"1","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"University of Maine Student defined the course of his career through his work at the Process Development Center (PDC).","_seopress_robots_index":"","_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[50,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-284123","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-strategic-partnerships","category-uncategorized"],"taxonomy_info":{"category":[{"value":50,"label":"Strategic Partnerships"},{"value":1,"label":"Uncategorized"}]},"featured_image_src_large":false,"author_info":{"display_name":"kengland","author_link":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/inspire\/author\/kengland\/"},"comment_info":0,"category_info":[{"term_id":50,"name":"Strategic Partnerships","slug":"strategic-partnerships","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":50,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":2,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":50,"category_count":2,"category_description":"","cat_name":"Strategic Partnerships","category_nicename":"strategic-partnerships","category_parent":0},{"term_id":1,"name":"Uncategorized","slug":"uncategorized","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":1,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":2,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":1,"category_count":2,"category_description":"","cat_name":"Uncategorized","category_nicename":"uncategorized","category_parent":0}],"tag_info":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/inspire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284123","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/inspire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/inspire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/inspire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2211"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/inspire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=284123"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/inspire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284123\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":284136,"href":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/inspire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284123\/revisions\/284136"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/inspire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=284123"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/inspire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=284123"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/inspire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=284123"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}