alumni spotlight
A Life in Engineering: Robert Conachey ’80
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obert Conachey ’80, has been working on special projects—some unrelated to his Webb education for most of his career… and he’s enjoyed every minute of it. He attributes his success in working on these disparate activities to his natural curiosity, along with the broad, well-rounded education he received at Webb. Bob was very interested in math and science as a child. One of his hobbies was stamp collecting, which exposed him to the history and politics of other countries. He would look up the location of those countries on a map, or read further about their history in an encyclopedia—but little did he know how useful this would become when he chose a maritime career. Bob applied to Webb and was admitted with less than four days remaining for the May 1st final decision. Like all engineering majors, Bob worked hard and did his share of all-nighters. He was elected class president and Student Organization president (aka “dictator Bob”) until being relegated to the faceless masses over some paperwork controversy involving something called a constitution. Upon graduation he joined Exxon International’s Tanker Department in Florham Park, New Jersey, working on development projects addressing anti-fouling coatings and determining if office computers could be installed onboard tankers and accepted and used by crew members. Even though these projects were only peripherally referred to at Webb, Bob’s curiosity and initiative more than made up for his deficiencies. Two years later he was offered a temporary assignment in New Orleans, at Avondale Shipyards as a steel inspector for the construction of three products carriers. This experience proved very useful throughout Bob’s career, and as an unexpected bonus he met his wife of 29 years on that assignment! Upon his return to New Jersey, Bob worked on several energy efficiency and monitoring projects. After two years Bob joined the American Bureau of Shipping to work in the machinery department in the rotating equipment group. While there he was exposed to all types of equipment and design philosophies, and participated in various forensic analyses of failed equipment. ABS relocated its offices to Houston, Texas in 1991, and Bob was promoted to principal engineer of that group. In 1999 Bob was transferred to the corporate 24
technology department to work on a special project seeking improvement of machinery reliability through maintenance. Bob had never been exposed to reliability engineering or maintenance theory but, in Webb fashion, he quickly got up to speed. His work resulted in the publication of the “ABS Guide for Surveys Based on Reliability-Centered Maintenance.” Several years later Bob was asked to participate in a winterization committee to create a guide addressing details of vessels' systems not covered by the Ice Class Rules. This turned out to be a fascinating area of marine engineering: applying risk principles so as to address those areas of the vessel that were paramount to successful operation in low temperatures. In addition to issues with diesel engines, electrical equipment and life saving equipment, human response to cold temperatures, extended daylight and suitable clothing were concerns. Bob participated in several seminars and traveled to several overseas ABS offices to train staff. About this time Bob was supervisor of the Safety Analysis Group. This group analyzed various ABS generated data, engineering and survey reports. This information could be used to determine the presence of trends or improve design reviews or surveys. With the encouragement and support of his wife, Shirley, and ABS management support, Bob pursued a M.S. in Industrial Engineering at University of Houston in the evenings. He successfully achieved this life goal in December 2012. Some of the courses he thought would be easy such as, reliability engineering and advanced statistics were more difficult than anticipated. Some of the industrial engineering courses presented challenges because Bob had no background in those topics such as simulation, linear optimization and human factors. Soon after beginning classes Bob realized he thoroughly enjoyed this much needed “tune-up.” The graduate school experience exposed Bob to numerous ideas and more technological innovations. It showed the importance of additional higher education to maintain skills and acquire new skills. Bob was reminded of a conversation with a career counselor who informed him that one could expect to work in five to seven jobs over their career and three of those jobs do not presently exist. Accordingly, one needs to keep abreast of change and be open to new ideas.