Hi there!
Thanks for stopping by my bio page.
My name is Luke Reich, and I'd be happy to share some details about who I am!
On paper, I am a senior attending Michigan Technological University pursuing a degree in Mechanical Engineering with a minor in Structural Materials. My experience at Tech has led to opportunities working at Delavan Fluid Power in Minneapolis designing and testing diaphragm pumps, working for Marathon Petroleum in Kentucky examining corrosion within the refinery to diagnose critical inspection points, and working at the Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory in New York diving deeply into high tech nickel and stainless steel alloys to support Nuclear Navy projects related to the nuclear reactor within VIRGINIA Class Submarines. On campus I am the Hiring and Communications Executive coach for the Math Learning Center (the largest learning center at Michigan Tech), I am a Learning Facilitator for the Pavlis Honors College, and I am a part of the Supermileage Systems Enterprise Team. Check out my Supermileage Senior Design Project here. I will graduate from Michigan Tech in December of 2022.
Everything mentioned above has had a huge impact on my life, but everything outside of my professional and academic life is such a big part of who I am, too.
It's hard to define myself with only one story, or one project, or one adventure. I have passions for so many things in life, and I find myself bouncing around from one exciting thing to the next. Whether I'm revamping my blacksmithing skills with the five burner farrier forge I built in high school, or spending hours researching the strongest fabrics available to make a highly over engineered day-to-day tool that can hold over 1000lbs (a grocery bag), I tend to delve deeply in whatever I find myself doing. Beyond blacksmithing and sewing military-grade tote bags, you might find me in the garage working on heirloom quality woodworking projects (and when I say heirloom, I mean it. One of my first projects was a 300 lb solid white oak dining table with a steel reinforced butcher block table top). Or you might find me leatherworking, polishing my latest metal creation, tinkering with my RC car, or sketching out an invention that most likely won’t make it out of my sketch book.
Beyond my self-proclaimed “advanced” arts and crafts I surround myself with, I love hiking, camping, backpacking, bouldering, film photography, longboarding, mountain biking, and anything I can do outside. Between adventures, you’ll find me in the gym weightlifting, sprinting, and working primarily on mobility exercises (splits, here I come). If I’m inside, you’ll catch me diving deeply in my latest PC game obsession, working through the latest Andy Weir novel, or catching up on my favorite Anime.
Overall, I am someone who’s rarely bored. When I finish up one project, I start planning the next one (with an appropriate amount of downtime in between, of course). And as I finish up my college, I’ve started to plan for the future. I still don’t know exactly what I want to do, but I know one thing for sure: I love working with people and I want to make my way to a management position. So far, my highly technical internships have given me a decent perspective on what it takes to be an engineer, and what it takes to lead a team of engineers. I know that in order to be an effective leader of engineers, I’ll need a good amount of engineering experience myself. Regardless, I hope to gain several years of industry experience in an engineering field, but to jump start my career I am considering pursuing a masters degree in ME or MSE. Eventually, I hope an MBA will fill any perspectives on leadership that my schooling and experience haven’t provided me yet.
Thanks again for stopping by, and if you made it to the bottom of my page, thanks for learning a bit about me! If you’re a fellow college student looking for some perspectives on my professional or academic experience, don’t be afraid to reach out! If you’re a professional looking for someone like me for an engineering position, please don’t hesitate to shoot me an email!
Luke Reich
Lareich@mtu.edu