Alan Lares, MASc/12, BEng/10

For someone with a mechanical engineering bent, there are many paths to a successful career. Alan Lares chose automotive engineering and is now a material engineer with Nissan in Farmington Hills, Mich. The Ottawa native got his master’s in mechanical engineering where one of his areas of specialization was developing low-cost materials and composites for unmanned aerial vehicles, but he opted to work in automotive where many of the principles are the same.

“Both industries are very concerned with lightweighting and making aircraft or vehicles as light as possible to reduce fuel costs,” he said.

His decision to switch from air to ground transportation had a lot to do with the resurgence of the auto industry in North America. “The Big Three were hiring quite a bit in this area. And I always loved cars. I ever had quite the same passion for airplanes.”

Read the full story by Denise Deveau in the National Post, 13/03/12, Resurgence of auto sector lifts hiring.