Google recently announced a corporate restructure and named metallurgist, Sundar Pichai as its new CEO. Pichai, 43, born in India, trained as a metallurgical engineer before moving to the U.S. He joined Google in 2004 after studying at Stanford University, Calif.
It should not be too much of a surprise that metallurgy skills can be translated into the world of technology. Google Search is a typical process with inputs, processes, and finally output (search results). In a heat treatment process the inputs are green components, the process is run in a furnace with set temperature, time and atmosphere, while the output (typically a change in microstructure in the components) is examined by a quality inspector or metallurgist to ensure the process has achieved the desired properties.
Pichai has been a lifelong learner which has enabled him to achieve the heights of CEO for one of the best known tech companies on the planet. Even though he is no longer hands-on in heat treatment, he stills work for a supplier to the Industry and need to make sure his skill-set remains relevant. He achieves this through a mix of activities including, reading industry journals or eNewsletters, short blogs, or even tweets (Industrial Heating, Process Heating, HTPro); visiting heat treat focused news websites; attnding relevant regulatory training; and keeping close to Eurotherm R&D engineers who give updates on details of the latest dream gadgets and algorithms.
As a supplier he also attends a number of events/tradeshows throughout the year and across the world. He raises his heat treat skillset/understanding through attending the various technical lectures/sessions available at industry and OEM events and, by making sure he is in close contact with the experts and giants of the industry. He also tries to also present a paper at events in order to give back a little to the industry he’s been involved with for over 25 years.
