Dr. henry gerard
independent consultant, modern mentorship
Context
Dr. Gerard’s current project of collaboration with university students allows him time to give back to those that need real life experiences in innovation. In turn, it provides him with critical minds to look over his more recent projects with alternative energy. He has found that many engineering students fail to solve problems because they have the expectation that things have to work perfectly. Additionally, he has found that some of the best learning happens after most students put their projects away - the thinking that it takes to change an invention, make it bigger or better, takes more curiosity than most are willing to invest. As an innovator, this is where his work begins. He believes innovators need to be “obsessively curious.” He believes his small mentorship program can teach students to persevere. Innovation Henry Gerard is an innovator in all aspects of his life. His mentorship program provides engineering students at various universities an avenue to discuss engineering questions, create connections through and help generate never seen inventions. He visits various universities to provide mentorship to engineering students and to present projects that challenge the regular curriculum. Additionally, he is currently working on his own alternative energy systems. Impact The direct beneficiaries of Dr. Gerard’s work are university students he mentors through his outreach program in innovative engineering solutions. His expertise augments their learning process and helps them enter the workforce with a clearer understanding of innovative thinking. Additionally, his current venture has potential to impact the over taxed energy systems through patented Compressed Air and Energy Storage Systems. Skills Henry Gerard describes his upbringing as unusual. He is part of the first generation in his family to have graduated college. His father was constantly skeptical of all working things and popular opinions. To Dr. Gerard’s benefit, as a young man he developed a great ability to question. His questions constantly raised new ideas that he found valuable to explore further. At times, this questioning made him feel isolated but his ability to persevere and his passion to solve problems was stronger. Henry Gerard is excessively curious. He would agree that curiosity is his greatest attribute and that it enables him to outperform most innovators. One of the biggest lessons he tries to teach young students is that when others stop, that is where he’d like their thinking to begin. To challenge opinion and solutions is where real learning begins and this is his hope for all the future innovators. Interestingly, he admits that experiencing failure is a problem for him, and that he does not experience it as beneficial. He strives to make sure all his mathematical equations are exact because he often presents his data to organizations for funding. Since failure deeply affects his self-esteem, he encourages young people to experiment early on and get used to failure. He challenges their thinking in order to produce inevitable mistakes so that they can learn to be persistent. These combined lessons are important for the field of engineering. Dr. Gerard hopes to continue to mentor young engineers and to pursue his own alternative energy solutions. |
Bio
Dr. Gerard grew up in New York and attended Poly Technical University, New York as an undergraduate and received his graduate degree at Stanford University through a highly selective Ford Foundation Fellowship program. He worked for 37 years for Hughes Aircraft solving problems in applied physics. His innovative ideas have contributed to cell phone technology, university mentorship programs, and alternative energy systems. Today, he works on new ventures in alternative energy while connecting university students with real life engineering experiences. |