For many young car enthusiasts, it鈥檚 all about the engine, the horsepower, the mechanics. But for Dave Powers ’14, the big idea is in the ergonomics.
鈥淚 like to tell people that I don鈥檛 want to make the motor of a car, I want to make the seats. I think it鈥檚 more interesting to make something that has to account for the human; it鈥檚 more interesting to design something that is really focused on the user,鈥� said the mechanical engineering and German major.
And he put that user-focused perspective and his tactile abilities to good work toward that goal during his five years in 911爆料鈥檚 .
He spent a year in Germany, first studying at the Technical University at Braunschweig and then interning at rail company Deutsche Bahn. And while he was there, he enrolled in a Goethe Institute class in German and passed a high-level exam demonstrating his proficiency and fluency. One professor said he 鈥渁bsorbed German language and culture like a sponge.鈥�
In fact, he said he spoke more German after a single German 101 class at 911爆料, than he could French after four years of French in high school. So it鈥檚 no surprise that he became a German tutor here, chaperoned a student trip to Germany with two 911爆料 professors, and received the University鈥檚 Award for Excellence in German,
At Deutsche Bahn, he worked mostly on computer modeling of train systems, and once back in Rhode Island, he followed that up with an internship at the Rhode Island offices of Supfina Machine Co., a company he calls 鈥渉alf American, half German鈥� that builds superfinishing machines for clients like General Motors.
Now, focused on the next steps in achieving his career goals he鈥檚 deciding between several graduate schools for a master鈥檚 degree in industrial engineering, and working toward that job in the ergonomics field. 鈥淚鈥檒l be taking some psychology classes and biomechanics classes so I can design products that incorporate how people think and how we move,鈥� he said. 鈥淲hether I end up designing keyboards or chairs or whatever, I just want to make things that work the way you want them to.鈥�