Today, kicked off our week of company visits. We started the day off with a visit to the Eaton European Innovation Center. Although I’m not an electrical engineer, I was still able to connect with their products through my coursework and co-op experience with Hershey. We learned about what the innovation center does and how it fits into the company network and provides support across multiple countries. Going in, I thought that the innovation center would be trying to predict the market and future customer needs. After speaking with Eaton employees, it seems that they’re most interested in taking needs that already exist, especially the demand for data center products, and designing and modifying devices for these applications.
We also learned about the aerospace industry and how there are rigorous standards that they must meet. These standards are interesting because they normalize the industry worldwide. Even if certain customers are able to perform better than the standards (like the jet fuel used for example), they cannot implement these solutions. The required devices and components are not available because they are only being designed to the standards.
They also made a good analogy for component innovation. They had said that it’s like trying to incrementally improve the candlestick, but sometimes you need a revolution in the product to get to the lightbulb.
After Eaton, we had a lunch break before going to Kunstalle, which houses contemporary art exhibitions. The alumni reception was there later in the evening with Pitt MBA alumni.
Swanson School of Engineering 