Harvey Mason
Q. What does your company do?
A. Perigon is a full service engineering firm with mechanical, electrical, civil/ structural, chemical , and automation engineers on staff. We design manufacturing / chemical / and energy projects.
Q. What academic degrees do you hold, from what institutions, and when did you graduate?
A. I hold a Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering Technology degree and am a licensed Professional Engineer. I graduated from UNC Charlotte in 1974.
Q. What is the purpose of the board of advisors?
A. Dean Johnson uses the board as a “sounding board” and as a place to float new ideas or questions. The board also makes a good place to recruit people from practice to participate as panelist for student events or help find internships. I feel we also have input that helps shape the programs. Dean Johnson is a collaborative leader who asks for opinions.
Q. What changes have you seen in the college and UNC Charlotte?
A. GROWTH in all caps is what comes to mind. It has become a major campus.
Q. What is exciting at the college?
A. It is exciting to see students with such enthusiasm to learn and prepare for their professional lives.
Q. What do you see in the future for the college?
A. UNC Charlotte once seemed remote to Charlotte. I see it becoming harder to ignore than in the past. Many people in Charlotte still do not know what a wonderful university we have here.
Q. What are your thought about the football team?
A. I think the football team will help with recognition. It will have a growth period, but out there five years there will be a big game that gets people talking.
Your Engineering Career
Q. Why did you become an engineer?
A. I have always liked to think about solutions to mechanical questions. How to make a machine run faster, smoother or longer. When I was a kid cutting grass, I thought the lawnmower could have been designed better. At age 12, I wanted to understand why airplanes fly, and boats float, and smoke appears to rise.
Q. What skills have been important in your career?
A. Oddly, I think writing skills have been very important. A good engineer who can’t write a report or letter to express their work is at a disadvantage.
Q. What changes have you seen in the profession during your career ?
A. Well, my slide rule hasn’t been touched in quite a while. Computers and software have and continue to broaden what an engineer can achieve.
Q. What is the most exciting project you ever worked on?
A. My company designed much of the US National Whitewater Center. We did all the wet parts. From the concrete channels, to the pumps, to the power that drives them, and the automation configuration for controlling it all, it was Perigon.
Q. What is the best career advice anyone ever gave you?
A. The best career advice I got was to take the state registration exams and become a PE.