“Explore Everything Materials Science and Engineering Has to Offer”
MSE alumnus Noveen Delaram (MS’17), Materials and Process Engineer at Sikorsky
“Really take the time to explore everything materials science and engineering (mse) has to offer,” said Noveen Delaram, UConn MSE alumnus (MS’17), when asked what advice he has for those considering the major.
Delaram himself first realized what he wanted out of a career at fifteen years old, when he joined a team that would build electric- and solar-powered vehicles from scratch and race them. “I was the person on the team that was always in charge of all our composite work, so I would prep, layup, and work on pieces made of carbon fiber and fiberglass. From then on, I knew I wanted to be an engineer and work with composites.”
At first, Delaram committed to UConn as a chemical engineering major. He didn’t realize composites work really fell under Materials. “After attending one of the sessions in ‘ENGR 1000: Orientation to Engineering’, I saw what was said in the presentation for mse and immediately ran to the engineering office and swapped my major. I loved everything I saw.”
Delaram loved it so much that he stayed at UConn for graduate school. “I was offered a great opportunity to work with some undergraduate research my senior year, which led to me being offered a graduate program. It gave me the chance to work with some cutting-edge technology and learn a lot of key analysis techniques that have carried me through my career so far.”
The most inspiring professor Delaram had during his time at UConn was Professor Pamir Alpay, who currently serves as the interim Vice President for Research. “He was the MSE department head at the time, and worked very hard to stay well informed on the progress in our courses and who the students were in every year. He truly acted as a mentor to everyone in the department and made an effort to work with everyone who came to him.”
Currently, Delaram is a Materials & Process Engineer at Sikorsky, an aircraft manufacturer based in Stratford, Connecticut. “I consider myself very lucky to be in the position I am in now. The introduction to the company and my current group came from a friend I made during my time as an undergrad at UConn. I had a chance to speak to a member of this team outside of the normal interview, ask some questions, and learn everything the team does. Our conversation really sold me on the job and the work I would get to do.”
Delaram then went on to explain what exactly that work is. “The team I am a part of focuses on composite and raw material related work for helicopter blades. Our business group has people in many different aspects of aircraft production. We have teams that focus on failure analysis, metallurgy, and many more fields. We support production of every aspect of an aircraft.”
When asked his favorite part of his job, Delaram said it’s that no two days are the same. “Every day brings a new challenge, a new problem to get to the root cause of, and it provides a challenge every day.”
However, the most difficult aspect of the job lines up with his favorite part. “Because there are constantly new problems, there is not always a known answer to the issue at hand. This means that I must make sure any answer I give matches previous work and matches specification and drawing call outs. With a company that’s been around for 100 years, I cannot always ask the person who made a given drawing note, so making a judgment call sometimes requires gathering a lot of input.”
One upcoming project that Delaram was excited to talk about is as follows: “At the very end of 2022, the US Navy gave the green light for full rate production of the CH-53K King Stallion helicopters. That will really kick up work for us here and as one of our newest aircrafts, we get to work with a lot of newer processes and materials.”
Delaram said that students looking to pursue a career in materials science and engineering should “take the time to explore everything materials science and engineering has to offer. It has one of the most diverse workloads in all of engineering. Someone with a background in mse can find work in almost any field, but really make sure to pick an area of focus. Learn to diversify, try to learn a little bit of everything, but make sure to pick a focus and go down that route.”
Published: May 10, 2023
Categories: alumni, industry, news
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