Empowering Pumps recently began inviting people to Nominate a Pump Professional, and today’s Pump Person of the Week is an Engineer who was nominated by one of their co-workers (isn’t it great to be recognized by a peer!).
Today’s Pump Person of the Week is Trey Walters, P.E., President of Applied Flow Technology. This is what he had to share:
Q: How did you get started working in your field?
Trey: I fell in love with fluid mechanics as a 3rd year engineering student at which point I realized I could not live the rest of my life without learning more about fluids. So I took every elective class I could and then continued on to get an MSME. That was a great decision which has served me well. I spent seven years in the aerospace and power industries working on fluid systems – with very little of that focused on pumps. At 30 years of age I had the best idea of my life to develop a new commercial fluid system simulation software – and made the fateful decision to start a company around this new product. This led me to start really learning about pumps and their interaction with systems. That has been ongoing over the last 27 years.
Q: What do you love the most about your job? What are you most proud of?
Trey: When I started my company, it was just me in the basement of my house. Pretty scary as I had two young children to support! What I am most proud of is creating the first commercially available pipe system simulation software product for Windows that used a graphical, drag-and-drop interface – all by myself in that basement. I pioneered a new technology. Today we are still pioneering new technologies for engineers.
What I love about my job is how we impact engineers and people all over the world and help them build safer and more sustainable piping systems. I have met people and made friends on every populated continent and taught training classes and workshops in 15 countries. When I started my company I did not even have a passport!
Q: What advice would you give to someone considering this line of work or new to the field?
Trey: Fluids are EVERYWHERE! In nature but also in industry. Our entire society and economic system runs on fluid systems. Most of these systems are terribly inefficient due to past and, unfortunately, still current design practices. The fluid transfer and pump industry is ripe for new thinking and new environmental and economic design drivers. If you want to change the world, this is a place with enormous opportunity to do so.
Q: Can you talk about a project you recently worked on?
Trey: In the spirit of “fluids are everywhere”, a little over a year ago I spent over two weeks in China – just before COVID-19 became a worldwide pandemic. Plus another half-week in South Korea. It was my fourth time visiting China and second time in South Korea. I visited four major cities in China and taught workshops on our software products in two cities – Xian and Beijing. Plus I taught one workshop in Seoul, South Korea. Each workshop had 40-50 engineers. These workshops were set up and supported by our local business partners. At the Beijing workshop I was introduced to an engineer who used our software products to design two systems at the new Beijing Universal Studios theme park scheduled to open this summer. One system was the central hot water system used to provide heat for the theme park (and yes, also to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter™ being built there!), the CityWalk retail area and the new hotel. The other system was the theme park fire water system. He modeled the surge transients to ensure safe operation.
Q: Anything else that you’d like to add?
Trey: It is not an understatement to say that the future of our world depends on engineers. And perhaps soon other worlds too if Elon Musk is successful. Industry and old ways of thinking have created a lot of problems. It is up to today’s and tomorrow’s young engineers to help devise solutions. Fusion power. Transportation. Delivery of fresh drinking water. Waste processing. The world needs you!
Read Trey’s Blog: a President’s Perspective
On behalf of Empowering Brands, we appreciate your continued contributions to the global Pump Industry!
Know an Amazing Person who is making valuable contributions within the Pump Industry? Nominate them to be “Pump Person of the Week”!
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