About Me and this Blog

After graduating from Manhattan College in 2003 with a BSEE, and through the wonderful professional network that is the Boy Scouts of America, in which I am an Eagle Scout, I was hired as an Electrical Engineer in an engineering consulting firm on Long Island.  The company was LKB (Lockwood, Kessler and Bartlett, Inc).  The firm has many disciplines of engineering under one roof (Civil, Environmental, Structural, Mechanical, Plumbing and of course Electrical) so, although I was strictly an Electrical Engineer, I worked with and learned about the whole project by observing the work of the other disciplines while we worked together on multi-disciplined projects.  I don’t want to bore you with a sales pitch, so for more info on LKB, check out their website www.lkbinc.com.  During my time at LKB I learned a great deal about medium and high voltage power distribution, relay coordination and controls at substations and within buildings as well as low voltage (480V and 208V) power distribution and lighting. 

After four years at LKB, and shortly after getting married, I left LKB and went to Cosentini Associates, which is another engineering consulting firm, but in New York City.  My tenure there was short, but I learned an enormous amount about the fast-paced, MEP (Mechanical, Electrical, and Plumbing) side of engineering as well as mechanical and plumbing engineering.  My role at Cosentini was as an Electrical Engineer within the Mission Critical Department, so I also learned a great deal about mission critical design.  This involves implementation of UPSs, Static Switches, Generators, and various forms of redundancy for both Power and Cooling typically found in data centers, stock trading floors, banks, retail stores, health care, etc.  To learn more about Cosentini Associates, visit their website at: http://www.cosentinimc.com/.

After my brief tenure at Cosentini (15 months), and shortly after graduating Long Island University – CW Post campus with an MBA (May 2008), I went back to LKB as the Project Manager for MEP and Power Systems.  I currently manage many of the power and MEP projects that we undertake from proposal to construction completion.  For a more complete description, check out my profile on Linkedin.com http://www.linkedin.com/in/robertschmid.  I’d also like to note that I am a Professional Engineer in NY, CT, NJ, and VA and a LEED AP^®.

My purpose for creating this blog is to discuss my experiences on projects and hopefully to educate a little.  I find that my team and I spend a lot of time researching new and old technologies for the various systems we design and specify in order to remain current, so I hope this blog can help someone, giving them all the information they need, or at least a step in the right direction.  From time to time I also hope to have guest bloggers, maybe of different engineering disciplines, to share their thoughts and experiences as well.  I also want to hear about everyone else’s experience and opinions about different design techniques and/or technologies. 

I hope you find this blog helpful and I welcome comments from other engineers as well as the curious browser who wants to know more.  If you read something and have a question or comment about a term used, want to suggest a topic, or whatever, please do not hesitate to comment on the post or e-mail me, rschmid@lkbinc.com.  Please remember to keep all posts clean and friendly.

Keywords:  Electrical Engineer, MEP Engineering, Mission Critical, LKB, Power Systems, High Voltage, Low Voltage