“Engineering is Responsibility Manifest by Design.”

Dr. Rick Hubbard, a software engineer and Senior Member of the IEEE, inspires engineers of all types with the simple challenge to manifest good design.

According to Dr. Hubbard, the indelible responsibility of engineers exceeds the temporary impetus of projects. Engineers are at all times problem-solvers. They are responsible to provide well-reasoned, appropriate solutions to problems easy & hard. As a result of good engineering, the permanent contributions of engineers enable mankind to peer into an atom, fly to the moon, commute to work, use the internet, and brush their teeth. Engineers affect all aspects of human endeavor by creating the fabric of living.

As a Junior in High School working a hot factory job in Venice, CA in the late 1960s, Rick learned first-hand the importance of designing a workable process to solve difficult problems. The business required doubling production in less than a month without budget increase. Rick engineered a new approach to the production process — a process that defined conventional wisdom. The new approach achieved the production goals without changing plant, design or staff. That experience taught Rick, that engineers “find a way” to solve problems at the intersection of rigor and creativity.

As a Lieutenant in the US Air Force in the late 1970s, Rick was given the assignment to take over development of a poorly designed system that had been failed to work properly for two years. In ninety-three days, he re-designed and re-wrote the system using sound computer-science & engineering concepts. This experience caused Rick to search for new ways of approaching old problems.

During the 1980s and 1990s, Rick continued to develop new & novel approaches to difficult engineering & business problems. During this period, Rick held senior technical & director positions in the Big-4 consulting firms, financial services sector, telecommunications industry, and the federal government.

From the 1990s through today, Dr. Hubbard focuses on accelerating critical aspects of software engineering: requirements, feasibility, risk planning, architecture and approach. He continues to find a way with new ways to approach old problems and has created the unique and uniquely effective software engineering approach, Your Best Project Ever.

Rick earned his BS in Computer Science from CSU, Chico, an MBA in Finance from Creighton University and a Doctorate of Computer Science from Colorado Technical University. He has been active in the ACM, ASM and IEEE. Rick lives in Northern California with his wife. They have three children and two cats. He divides his time between engineering solutions, writing techno-thrillers and boring holes in the sky with a Cessna 182.

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WHAT I WISH SOMEONE HAD TOLD ME, WHEN…

…I was sitting in your chair.

This lively talk conveys hard-won lessons observed and learned of an engineer’s life and opportunities in a light-hearted and informative way.

Success in any engineering field transcends mere skill. Skills are assumed, yet are not sufficient to lead to either accomplishment or fulfillment. This presentation is as timely as the next graduating class of engineers. In rapid-fire succession, this talk delivers nineteen hard-hitting messages that reflect — not necessarily wisdom — experience that all engineers can build upon during their careers and contributions.

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