Hello and welcome to my first Green Dream Blog! In this blog I want to cover a bit of backstory on myself, and some of the work I have done this summer so far.
To start, my name is Aaron Wilde. I grew up in a small town in Alberta called Whitecourt. We have just over 10 000 people living here, and our main two industries are forestry, and oil and gas. Whitecourt is located about an hour and a half North-West of Edmonton. Essentially our entire landscape is forest. In Whitecourt, I pretty much spend all my spare time golfing at our local course. After all, there isn’t much else to do in a smaller town.
For most of my life I knew I wanted to become a Mechanical Engineer. My Dad was a Mechanical Engineer as well, which helped inspire me. I’ve always been mechanically inclined and that has motivated me to learn more about machinery and how it works. This led me to finally apply at the University of Alberta for Engineering.
After going through two years of engineering with my second year specializing in Mechanical Engineering, I am very happy with my decision. This summer I am doing my first engineering summer job at Alberta Newsprint Company.
So far this summer, I have been involved in ANC’s latest project. We have been constructing a Bleach Plant so we can bleach our pulp brighter and more efficiently. In simple terms, this will allow us to create brighter paper and in turn increase profits for the mill. From this project I have gained skills in project management and problem solving. I have helped manage different types of contractors and design solutions to some of the project’s problems. In my next blog posts, I will get into some of these jobs I’ve worked on.
One cool thing I’ve witnessed was the installation of our “Bleach Tower”. Just for reference, the tower is 26 meters tall, and 6 meters wide. It weighs over 88 000 lbs. It was quite a sight to see it installed.
Overall, I am very excited to continue this summer job and share my experiences with you guys!
Until next time,
Aaron