Brent Racine

BRENT RACINE LEADS the Navy Segment for engine programs at Fairbanks Morse Defense, and his work is primarily focused on large diesel engines for military ships. “Defense, I think, is going to stay at the forefront of diesel technologies—pushing to continue making these technologies cleaner, more efficient, and more user-friendly.”

Racine explained that although there’s a lot of discourse around hybrid and electric, until major battery issues are resolved, diesel cannot be fully replaced. But he’s no stranger to working on long-term projects—the programs he’s been involved in with defense and nuclear can take years to complete. “Research helps keep the horizon broader and open to the fact that there are better ways to do things.” He emphasized the importance of avoiding stagnation, as it is “very easy to get wrapped up in the day-to-day and keep solving the same problem over and over for a whole career.”

Racine added that it’s critical to keep the eyes open to the fact that there are better ways to do things. Networking, touring other facilities, and involvement in professional societies are all ways of doing that, according to Racine, adding that it gives you the opportunity to see how other people are solving problems that may be similar to the ones you’re facing.

A crucial skill that he advises new engineers to focus more on developing is their communication, stating that some people go into engineering thinking if they’re good enough technically, then communication doesn’t matter. “And that’s just not true,” Racine said. “I’ve seen people talk past each other—in some respects, it can feel like engineers think they don’t sound smart if they don’t put as many prepositional phrases per sentence as they can.”

He shared that he has taken on a personal endeavor to convince engineers of the value in clear and direct communication. “It’s one of my biggest ongoing challenges,” he said.