Oh, The People You'll Know: Mike Gordon

2/27/2020 Amanda Maher

Written by Amanda Maher

Mike Gordon
Mike Gordon
Mike Gordon has appreciated the sense of community he found in MechSE during his time in college. He views college as a time that allowed him to find himself and find dear friends to join him along the way. In particular, he found support and best friendship through his team at the Innovation Studio.

Now a Sub Manager of the studio, Mike manages the schedules of the 22 employees in addition to handling logistical customer service and hardware-related tasks. Over the summer he helped in the primarily student led effort to install waterjet cutters into the innovation studio. After a firmware update and a collaborative effort on the part of all present studio members, the waterjet cutters are now up and running. Mike wanted to stress that the Innovation Studio has been a very large part of his college experience. In addition to the technical experience he found at the studio, Mike found great friendship from other student volunteers and managers.  

His membership in ASME has also played a role in Mike’s experience in the MechSE department. Initially a member of the Competitions Committee during his sophomore year, Mike joined a friend in their Outreach Committee during his junior year and served as Publicity Director during the second semester of his junior year. In addition to publicizing information about engineering companies in the ASME newsletter, Mike took the liberty of making a few creative changes to the newsletter, which are still present in the community today. Now, as Vice President of External Affairs, he invites companies to speak at ASME general meetings, but has encouraged representatives to also speak on a more personal level and engage the students in an honest way. He encouraged the sponsors to be candid about life after graduation and share their experiences as multi-faceted individuals.

Multi-faceted himself, Mike has many creative interests that he enjoys in addition to his engineering work. As a lifelong soccer player, Mike finds says soccer is one of the most creative and free sports he has participated in. He is a member of a co-ed intramural team which was initially composed of all MechSE students but has since branched out to include members of other disciplines. Mike also enjoys watching movies, specifically horror movies. He appreciates the opportunity to study the subconscious effect certain cinematography choices have on the viewer, and how perception can be bent and manipulated.

Along with this, Mike is a musician and feels music to be one of his main creative outlets. He plays piano and loves to play rags. Recently, Mike has dabbled in the world of piano composition. He also plays drums and has lent his musical talent to fundraising events such as the ASME Spring Showcase. As he matures, he finds that he can find new meaning and emotion in music and says he has learned a great deal about how to express himself through music. 

Mike recognizes that college offers challenges to students in areas that they had not previously had to encounter. But these challenges can and will be overcome. He urges students to not forget who they are along the way, and encourages them to practice their passions and outlets as they are training to become the bright engineers of the future.


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This story was published February 27, 2020.