{"id":404,"date":"2012-02-22T14:11:27","date_gmt":"2012-02-22T22:11:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.plm.automation.siemens.com\/t5\/Siemens-PLM-Corporate-Blog\/Future-Engineer-Series-Meet-Jon-Nibert\/ba-p\/334830"},"modified":"2026-03-26T11:00:15","modified_gmt":"2026-03-26T15:00:15","slug":"future-engineer-series-meet-jon-nibert","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/news\/future-engineer-series-meet-jon-nibert\/","title":{"rendered":"Future Engineer Series: Meet Jon Nibert"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"ecocar<\/A>

It\u2019s National Engineer\u2019s Week<\/A> in the U.S. It\u2019s a time to honor past, current and future engineers. So meet future automotive engineer Jon Nibert<\/A>. Jon was always pretty sure he wanted to be an engineer. Like many of you, he was a kid who liked to take things apart.

Jon attends the Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology<\/A>. The school\u2019s athletic teams are named the \u201cFighting Engineers\u201d, so it\u2019s no surprise that Jon likes a challenge and doesn\u2019t accept the idea that something can\u2019t be done.

Jon has a bachelor\u2019s of science in Computer Engineering and plans to graduate next year with a master\u2019s of science in Engineering Management. In the meantime he runs the EcoCAR program at Rose-Hulman.

Rose-Hulman is one of 15 schools participating in the EcoCAR2 three-year collegiate engineering competition<\/A>. The goal is to reduce fuel consumption, well-to-wheel greenhouse gas emissions and tailpipe emissions all while maintaining performance, utility and safety. That picture above was taken at the EcoCAR winter workshop a few weeks ago in Austin, TX.

We\u2019re an EcoCAR sponsor<\/A> in the competition, providing software and support. It\u2019s part of our GO PLM academic program to provide advanced technology in the classroom<\/A>.
<\/P>

\u201cIt\u2019s great to work on a real-world product,\u201d says Jon. \u201cThere isn\u2019t one right answer. There is no textbook. The professor doesn\u2019t have the answers. It\u2019s extremely collaborative and challenging.\u201d<\/BLOCKQUOTE>
\"\"<\/A><\/EM>

Here is a picture of Rose-Hulman\u2019s EcoCAR2<\/EM> architecture, designated “split-parallel plug-in hybrid vehicle (PHEV).” These images were generated using NX by their chief mechanical engineer, Kyle Mason. <\/EM><\/EM>

The team uses NX as their primary CAD software<\/A>. When I asked Jon what feature he uses the most, he said \u201cWe just keep trying new features. We dig in and find things. The sheer power is wonderful. We want to leverage more built-in functionality like FEA solvers. The constraint-based approach is wonderful to make sure parts are designed properly. It\u2019s nice to have one tool that can do all the work vs. a whole suite. It\u2019s also great to learn NX now since it is such an industry standard.\u201d 

Rose-Hulman is also deploying Teamcenter<\/A> to serve as a centralized hub so that everyone can see what they need to see.

The EcoCAR program spurred Jon\u2019s interest in automotive design and manufacturing. \u201cBefore entering the program, I hadn\u2019t considered automotive. But what I\u2019m doing now I\u2019d love to stay doing professionally. There are a lot of technical challenges and rewards in advanced technology. There really isn\u2019t a right answer. You have to take a systems-level approach. Draw yourself out of your comfort zone to see the bigger picture so you can understand what\u2019s affecting outcomes.

Jon draws himself out of his comfort zone in another interesting area \u2013 theatre. It\u2019s his favorite hobby since he\u2019s a nice blend of creative and design. He likes to see the audience walk away after enjoying a play, including the set and lighting he\u2019s helped design. I imagine in his future he\u2019ll enjoy watching people drive vehicles he\u2019s helped engineer.

I liked Jon\u2019s interesting fact about himself stated on the roseecocar2 blog<\/A>: \u201cmuch like Chuck Norris, his awesome power comes from his beard of manliness and wonder.\u201d

When I asked Jon how we encourage more kids and students to pursue engineering degrees, he noted:
\u201cWe need to overcome the smart kid view of engineering. Engineering is not only for smart kids, it\u2019s for anyone who wants it. It has to be a passion and something you enjoy. The grades will follow.\u201d<\/BLOCKQUOTE>
If you\u2019d like to meet more future automotive engineers, check out more on EcoCAR\u2019s Meet the Teams page<\/A>.

– Dora<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s National Engineer\u2019s Week in the U.S. It\u2019s a time to honor past, current and future engineers. So meet future automotive engineer Jon Nibert. Jon was always pretty sure he wanted to be an enginee…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":61893,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spanish_translation":"","french_translation":"","german_translation":"","italian_translation":"","polish_translation":"","japanese_translation":"","chinese_translation":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[19],"industry":[],"product":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-404","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-academic"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/61893"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=404"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":405,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404\/revisions\/405"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=404"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=404"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=404"},{"taxonomy":"industry","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/industry?post=404"},{"taxonomy":"product","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product?post=404"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=404"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}