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Elon seems to really want to get involved in this. Make no mistake, Boeing and SpaceX are fierce competitors for government contracts with very dubious selectio

Elon seems to really want to get involved in this. Make no mistake, Boeing and SpaceX are fierce competitors for government contracts with very dubious selection processes. I'm saying this because he is a businessman, not an engineer. He seems to be getting a lot of information about the 787s batteries inner workings when the number of airplanes and suppliers are very limited. Edit: I'm not trying to be cynical, but I do think that if Elon really wanted to help he should contact Boeing and do it instead of playing politics.

sfall 14y ago
while not a PE he is no slouch, he has a bachelor's in physics
- Evbn 14y ago
  Which covers 0 information about Li battery vs other kinds, especially considering when he earned his Bachelor's.
  - jonknee 14y ago
    Then there's that small matter of his founding an electric car company that uses Lithium Ion batteries. Oh and the rocket company. I can't imagine many people more qualified to talk about LiIon and aerospace.
- digikata 14y ago
  Is a Professional Engineer certification relevant here? All the PEs I've met work in the civil engineering field.
  - itp 14y ago
    Sounds like you only know people with Civil PEs, then. There are different examinations and qualifications for different disciplines. Source: my wife is a Naval Architecture PE.
    - digikata 14y ago
      Naval Architecture, that's fascinating! That's Naval Architecture as in ship hulls or decks, not harbors etc? Have to say, I poked around at a number of PE certification links first and found a lot of state PE offices linked with Land Surveying. Other sources like wikipedia note that PE certs in the US exempt many interstate industries such as Mechanical, Chemical, and Aerospace Engineering.
    - jessaustin 14y ago
      Yeah that's the only kind of PE I've met. As a profession they do not impress. These guys are incapable of imagining anything they haven't done before a hundred times, let alone doing it and putting their seal on it.
      - Spooky23 14y ago
        Generally speaking, you don't want creative processes for the construction of overpasses, highways, and building construction. You want something that is structurally sound, safe for the application in question, and of a design suitable to being bid on by multiple contractors.
      - digikata 14y ago
        I can't say that I blame them, if I recall correctly, putting their seal on it implies the assumption of legal liability for the fitness of the design by the PE. Under those circumstances, I would make strongly conservative decisions too.
richardjordan 14y ago
My understanding is that Elon Musk, a physicist by education, is indeed an engineer and was very hands on in the engineering processes at SpaceX, so I'd assume he wasn't out of the technical loop that led to design decisions at Tesla.
- michaelkscott 14y ago
  Maybe a little OT but: Can you be considered an "ist" by having just a BS degree. That is, physicist, computer scientist, etc... If no, what is the requirement? Masters or PhD?
  - JohnsonB 14y ago
    You don't even need formal qualifications for those, just the actual skill, and then it's up to people to asses if you have them.
    - richardjordan 14y ago
      Right. A bit like an artist. You don't need an advanced degree in art to be an accomplished artist. Plus the idea of formalized education with narrowly focused advanced degrees is fairly recent, and for most of the history of the discipline Physicists have not been so qualified.
  - richardjordan 14y ago
    I did a BSc in Physics. I consider myself a Physicist by education, just as I consider Musk to be. You are trained to be a Physicist whether you pursue a career in that field or not. As I mentioned on a post recently talking about research projects, my final year project in 1995, without going into too much detail, was modeling the expansion of the universe assuming a non-zero cosmological constant and tracing the paths of light through such an expanding/contracting/whatever universe, depending on assumed values, and studying the likely distribution of hydrogen absorption lines as it passed through a posited foam-like structure of walls and filaments of matter. This was a relatively off the wall topic at the time, but for anyone studying Physics today you'll know a lot of these things now represent the state of thinking in many ways. People might pursue these topics to a much deeper level in order to get a Masters or PhD but you still need to be a Physicist at any level to dive into such a project and produce a result. At least that's my 2c - it's all just semantics, and as such there are many possible answers here :-)
rpm4321 14y ago
"I'm saying this because he is a businessman, not an engineer." Musk is the Chief Designer at Space-X, Product Architect at Tesla Motors, and a member of the Stanford University Engineering Advisory Board. He has previously served as a member of the United States National Academy of Sciences Aeronautics and Space Engineering Board. - Wikipedia.
- snowwrestler 14y ago
  Elon Musk is not an engineer. He does not have an engineering degree and does not hold an engineering license. I'm a huge fan of the guy, but he is not an engineer.
  - deleted 14y ago
    [deleted]
  - benkay 14y ago
    > musk not an engineer > ford not an engineer > brunel not an engineer ladieslaughing.jpg
  - hga 14y ago
    No, but he has a bachelor's in physics along with his business degree. And from personal experience I can say that if you hang around enough with engineers you pick up a lot of things.
aptwebapps 14y ago
He did offer his help initially, although that may have been a political move as well.
MysticFear 14y ago
"Desire to help Boeing is real & am corresponding w 787 chief engineer." https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/295162137297428480 https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/295162137297428480

sfall 14y ago

while not a PE he is no slouch, he has a bachelor's in physics

Evbn 14y ago
Which covers 0 information about Li battery vs other kinds, especially considering when he earned his Bachelor's.
- jonknee 14y ago
  Then there's that small matter of his founding an electric car company that uses Lithium Ion batteries. Oh and the rocket company. I can't imagine many people more qualified to talk about LiIon and aerospace.
digikata 14y ago
Is a Professional Engineer certification relevant here? All the PEs I've met work in the civil engineering field.
- itp 14y ago
  Sounds like you only know people with Civil PEs, then. There are different examinations and qualifications for different disciplines. Source: my wife is a Naval Architecture PE.
  - digikata 14y ago
    Naval Architecture, that's fascinating! That's Naval Architecture as in ship hulls or decks, not harbors etc? Have to say, I poked around at a number of PE certification links first and found a lot of state PE offices linked with Land Surveying. Other sources like wikipedia note that PE certs in the US exempt many interstate industries such as Mechanical, Chemical, and Aerospace Engineering.
  - jessaustin 14y ago
    Yeah that's the only kind of PE I've met. As a profession they do not impress. These guys are incapable of imagining anything they haven't done before a hundred times, let alone doing it and putting their seal on it.
    - Spooky23 14y ago
      Generally speaking, you don't want creative processes for the construction of overpasses, highways, and building construction. You want something that is structurally sound, safe for the application in question, and of a design suitable to being bid on by multiple contractors.
    - digikata 14y ago
      I can't say that I blame them, if I recall correctly, putting their seal on it implies the assumption of legal liability for the fitness of the design by the PE. Under those circumstances, I would make strongly conservative decisions too.

richardjordan 14y ago

My understanding is that Elon Musk, a physicist by education, is indeed an engineer and was very hands on in the engineering processes at SpaceX, so I'd assume he wasn't out of the technical loop that led to design decisions at Tesla.

michaelkscott 14y ago
Maybe a little OT but: Can you be considered an "ist" by having just a BS degree. That is, physicist, computer scientist, etc... If no, what is the requirement? Masters or PhD?
- JohnsonB 14y ago
  You don't even need formal qualifications for those, just the actual skill, and then it's up to people to asses if you have them.
  - richardjordan 14y ago
    Right. A bit like an artist. You don't need an advanced degree in art to be an accomplished artist. Plus the idea of formalized education with narrowly focused advanced degrees is fairly recent, and for most of the history of the discipline Physicists have not been so qualified.
- richardjordan 14y ago
  I did a BSc in Physics. I consider myself a Physicist by education, just as I consider Musk to be. You are trained to be a Physicist whether you pursue a career in that field or not. As I mentioned on a post recently talking about research projects, my final year project in 1995, without going into too much detail, was modeling the expansion of the universe assuming a non-zero cosmological constant and tracing the paths of light through such an expanding/contracting/whatever universe, depending on assumed values, and studying the likely distribution of hydrogen absorption lines as it passed through a posited foam-like structure of walls and filaments of matter. This was a relatively off the wall topic at the time, but for anyone studying Physics today you'll know a lot of these things now represent the state of thinking in many ways. People might pursue these topics to a much deeper level in order to get a Masters or PhD but you still need to be a Physicist at any level to dive into such a project and produce a result. At least that's my 2c - it's all just semantics, and as such there are many possible answers here :-)

rpm4321 14y ago

"I'm saying this because he is a businessman, not an engineer." Musk is the Chief Designer at Space-X, Product Architect at Tesla Motors, and a member of the Stanford University Engineering Advisory Board. He has previously served as a member of the United States National Academy of Sciences Aeronautics and Space Engineering Board. - Wikipedia.

snowwrestler 14y ago
Elon Musk is not an engineer. He does not have an engineering degree and does not hold an engineering license. I'm a huge fan of the guy, but he is not an engineer.
- deleted 14y ago
  [deleted]
- benkay 14y ago
  > musk not an engineer > ford not an engineer > brunel not an engineer ladieslaughing.jpg
- hga 14y ago
  No, but he has a bachelor's in physics along with his business degree. And from personal experience I can say that if you hang around enough with engineers you pick up a lot of things.

aptwebapps 14y ago

He did offer his help initially, although that may have been a political move as well.

MysticFear 14y ago

"Desire to help Boeing is real & am corresponding w 787 chief engineer." https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/295162137297428480 https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/295162137297428480