Jerry is a technical consultant who brings a wealth of experience and expertise to our company. Let’s learn a little more about him with four quick questions.
Hi Jerry. Can you tell us a little about your professional background?
I’m a registered Professional Engineer with 40 years of experience in the metals, automotive, manufacturing, defense, medical and aerospace industries. I earned a BSME from the University of Cincinnati where I graduated Summa Cum Laude (2nd in a class of about 80).
Throughout my career, I’ve designed, developed, and installed numerous data acquisition and process monitoring systems, and I have also helped hundreds of companies solve critical product design and process machinery problems through a combination of testing and engineering analysis.
When do you typically get involved with projects at Signalysis?
My role at Signalysis is still somewhat fluid but so far, I have been asked to get involved with questions involving in-depth data analysis, such as multi-harmonic order-tracking, periodic impact energy, and other esoteric vibration and sound analysis methodologies.
Based on my teaching experience I was also asked to put together a short seminar for Signalysis and its customers that focuses on the basics of gearing design, geared system performance and vibration analysis of geared systems.
What advice would you offer to someone interested in a career as a test engineer?
If you want to have lots of different and challenging experiences, travel the world, meet all kinds of interesting people, and get great joy from working as an engineer, then being involved in experimental testing is definitely the way to go. But if you want to maximize your income as an engineer, there are probably better career paths than becoming a test engineer.
OK, last question. What’s something about you that not many people know? Any interesting hobbies or brush with greatness?
Motorcycles have been my hobby and passion since I was a teenager. One of my career highlights is my close friendship with Mr. Masao Furusawa, former CEO of Yamaha Motors. Our friendship started in the 1980s while working together on a vibration analysis of the Yamaha RD350LC. Furusawa-san was a research and test engineer for Yamaha at the time, but he eventually became the head of Yamaha’s snowmobile division, then the head of its 4-wheeler division. He ended his career as Executive Officer in charge of all of Yamaha Motor Company. I was lucky have become his friend before he became so successful and famous. That friendship allowed me to be a guest of the Yamaha Factory Racing Team, and I joined Furusawa-san and his team at many motoGP race weekends during the period 2005 through 2011, when Yamaha enjoyed great success in the top-tier motoGP World Championships.
In addition to Furusawa-san I was also able to meet many famous motorcycle racers, including Giacomo Agostini, Kenny Roberts, Eddie Lawson, Valentino Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo. I was also able to have some interesting conversations with Kevin Cameron, a well-known technical editor for Motorcyclist and Cycle World magazines. At one of the motoGP races at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, I met the Speedway owner and racing legend Arie Luyendyk. At another race, Jay Leno came through the pit box and met briefly with Furusawa-san while I was there. At one of the races in Laguna Seca I was allowed to go onto the starting grid and hob-nob with all the famous VIPs and celebrities.
Another adventure I had was spending 3 weeks working at the Agusta helicopter factory in Gallarate, Italy. I was performing a ground vibration modal test of the Agusta A109 helicopter at the factory, supported by a group of Agusta technicians. Two Agusta brothers, Giovanni and Domenico, started Agusta helicopter and the MV Agusta motorcycle companies, respectively, and both companies were headquartered near Gallarate. One day I asked one of our technicians if he knew of any Agusta motorcycle museums in the area. It turned out that he just happened to be the curator of the MV Agusta motorcycle museum that was very close to the helicopter factory. The next evening he gave me a private tour of the museum after it had closed for the day.
Another great highlight of my career was spending several weeks working as a contract test engineer with Northrup, who was doing ground vibration and launch noise testing of Space Shuttle components at Johnson Space Center in Houston. On that project, I was working with both Neil and his father, Bob Coleman, who was the project leader. I kept in touch and have maintained a friendship with both ever since, although we rarely worked together on anything since our good old NASA rocket science days. But recently we re-connected, and things fell together to bring me into the Signalysis fold.