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I graduated with a biotechnology engineering degree in 2018 and worked in the field for six years — first in pharmaceutical process development, then in a synthetic biology startup. I chose the major because I loved biology and wanted job security. I got half of what I expected. The degree is rigorous, the field is fascinating, and the career prospects are strong but narrower than marketing materials suggest. This is what I wish I had known before I started. What Biotechnology Engineering Actually Covers Biotechnology engineering sits at the intersection of biology, chemistry, and engineering. The curriculum typically includes: Core…

I scaled my hardware product from 10 prototypes to 10,000 units in 18 months. The journey took me from a garage in Portland to a contract manufacturer in Shenzhen, through two failed production runs, a $40,000 inventory write-off, and a quality crisis that almost destroyed my company. Electronics manufacturing is not just about soldering components to a board. It is about supply chain management, design for manufacturing, quality control, and cash flow timing. This is what I learned the hard way. The Three Stages of Electronics Manufacturing Stage 1: Design for Manufacturing (DFM) My first mistake was designing a beautiful…

I tested Intel Rapid Storage Technology (RST) on four systems over five years. Two desktops, two laptops. RAID 0, RAID 1, and single-drive configurations. I have seen it improve boot times by 40%. I have also seen it corrupt a RAID array and cost me a weekend of data recovery. In 2026, with NVMe SSDs dominating the market, the question is not whether RST works. It is whether you still need it. The answer depends on what you are doing. For most users, RST is irrelevant. For specific workloads, it is still useful. This is my honest assessment. What Intel…