A lot has happened since my last update. First, and most exciting, I secured a position as an Electrical Hardware Engineer at Lutron Electronics in Coopersburg, Pennsylvania. Lutron makes smart lighting and shade controls. I’ll get to work on projects that are engaging and challenging, for a company that is doing good in the world. Intelligent lighting saves energy. When scaled up to entire office buildings, smart lighting reduces demand for electricity by a lot. We need more renewable energy production and less energy consumption to turn climate change around.
Lutron products are used in:
- The Metropolitan Museum of Art
- The Empire State Building
- The New York Times Building
- St. Paul’s Cathedral, London
- The White House
- Windsor Castle
The location, in the Lehigh Valley of Pennsylvania, is great for me. It is close enough to make NYC and Philadelphia a day trip, near hiking and skiing in the Poconos, and a day’s drive from Vermont. They still get snow and fall foliage. I talked to a lot of people, and weighed a couple offers, but in the end Lutron was an easy decision.
Outside of the job search process, I’ve finished up my second-to-last semester at RPI. I have also been getting outdoors. I hiked Hunter Mountain and Sleeping Beauty in New York. After coming home for Thanksgiving, I hiked Mt. Tom with my parents, and did some walking and skiing in local spots. We got 15 inches of snow all at once. We also saw the conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn, the closest they have been since 1683. Although we didn’t see them at their closest, since the sky was going to cloud over for the next few nights.
Oh, and I’ve been working on this in my downtime. It’s worse in deep snow than skis, and worse on pavement than a bike. But it’s still a lot of fun to ride.
