Since we have more people working on this team than we have weeks in country, we’re hoping to push out two spotlight posts this week. Preston will be our first spotlight this week.
Preston Whiteman, from Camp Hill, PA, received his B.S. in mechanical engineering with a concentration in thermal-fluid systems in the Spring of ’18 from Villanova University. He is the manager of Villanova’s mechanical engineering MakerSpace, a student projects workshop equipped with 3D printers and a laser engraver. Preston is also on the Villanova Men’s Volleyball Team, and a member of the Food Recovery Network. This summer, Preston is going to Cambodia to continue work on his EOD disposal senior design project. Partnered with the Golden West Humanitarian Foundation, Preston and the rest of his team will work on the detection, removal, and safe disposal of unexploded ordnance and landmines left from the Vietnam War and Khmer Rouge Regime. In his free time, Preston is a champion competitive shooter and an avid outdoorsman.
What projects are you working on while in Cambodia?
I’m working with Golden West to develop their OxyLance system. It is a safe and controlled way to detonate and dispose of ordnance that uses a burning steel rod to cut through the ordnance casing in seconds.
What drew you to choosing this project and working in Cambodia?
I worked with Golden West on an ordnance disposal fume hood as my senior design project, and I jumped at the chance to spend a whole summer in Cambodia continuing that work. Now I get to spend a whole summer in an incredible country on the other side of the world, and I get to blow things up. What more could you want?
What are your plans for after this summer? Going back to school? Have a job?
I decided to put off joining the real world for one more year, and so after this summer I am returning to Villanova to complete my M.S. in Mechanical Engineering.
What trajectory drew you to get into engineering and your current field?
My original plan was to use an engineering degree to get into the FBI, but my goal quickly changed when I fell in love with engineering. I found that while most of my friends despised fluids and heat transfer classes, they were my favorite. I chose to concentrate in thermalfluid systems and haven’t looked back.
What are your long term professional goals? How will your experience in Cambodia help reach those goals?
Most people will tell you that thermalfluid people have to go into HVAC, but I’m looking to buck that trend. It is my hope to get into the clean energy industry, particularly solar energy. My experience in Cambodia is helping to make me a more practical engineer. You don’t always have access to exactly what you need out here, so you need to be creative to get the job done with that you have.
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