What does the future of engineering look like from the perspective of someone just entering the field? In this episode, Chad Jackson sits down with Ryan Botzbach — a final-year mechanical engineering student at UC Riverside with a computer science minor, a passion for aerospace and defense, and the kind of hands-on instincts that most companies spend years trying to cultivate.

Ryan brings a perspective that engineering leaders can't afford to ignore. He's the engineer rebuilding a Volvo five-cylinder engine in his garage, converting 1970s aerospace drawings into 3D models for a machine shop, and running a thousand-person car club — all while finishing his degree. He's not waiting to "get experience." He's already in it.

In this conversation, Ryan and Chad explore:

• Why today's young engineers will tolerate outdated tools — for now — and what happens when they gain enough experience to push back
• The change agent mindset — how to stay alert to improvement opportunities instead of just clocking in and clocking out
• Model-Based Definition in practice — what it looks like when a small machine shop bridges the gap from 2D legacy drawings to CNC-ready 3D models
• Fusion 360 vs. SolidWorks — an unpopular opinion from someone who uses both daily
• AI as an engineering accelerator — from troubleshooting obscure part numbers to standing up a Kubernetes cluster on a Raspberry Pi
• The affordability problem in defense — and why companies like Andúril represent a fundamentally different approach to how the industry operates

Whether you're trying to recruit the next generation of engineers, modernize your workflows, or simply understand how the field is evolving from the ground up — this episode offers a candid, unfiltered view from someone standing right at the threshold.

Ryan Botzbach is a graduating mechanical engineering student at UC Riverside and part-time team member at DNL Components, a supplier to aerospace, defense, and racing industries.

What does it look like to build a software engineering function from scratch inside an aerospace and defense organization that has never had one? Marilyn Arceo has done it—more than once, across industries—and her answer might surprise you: the hardest part isn't the technology. It's the translation.

In this episode of Change by Design, Marilyn, an enterprise architect in aerospace and defense, talks about what it takes to stand up software engineering competencies in complex, regulated industries where those capabilities don't exist yet. She draws on a career that spans consumer packaged goods, fashion, healthcare, commercial real estate, e-commerce, and logistics to explain why the most valuable skill a change agent can develop isn't technical at all—it's the ability to sit between the deeply technical and the deeply human sides of an organization and make each one intelligible to the other.

The conversation covers the practical mechanics of building teams: when to hire fresh graduates versus experienced engineers, how to convert mechanical and electrical engineers who already have software foundations, and why a hybrid agile-waterfall approach works better than imposing any single methodology on a team that's never used one. But the real value is in the strategic thinking underneath those decisions—how to evaluate whether an initiative is worth pursuing, when to push for innovation versus when to accept that the math doesn't work, and why iterative rollouts beat wholesale transformation every time.

Marilyn also takes a grounded, cautious stance on AI-assisted development. She's seen the productivity gains, but she's equally clear about the risks: hallucinations, security exposure, and the "garbage in, garbage out" problem that surfaces when organizations skip the discipline of code review and governance. Her position is that AI should free engineers to focus on architecture and design, not replace the judgment that keeps systems safe.

For engineering executives building new capabilities and change agents navigating cross-functional integration in regulated environments, this conversation delivers field-tested guidance without the hype.

Topics covered:

• Standing up software engineering functions where none existed before
• The "business translator" gap: why organizations cluster at technical and people extremes
• Staffing strategies that blend fresh talent with experienced engineers and cross-trained domain experts
• Hybrid agile-waterfall adoption: making structural processes feel less overwhelming
• Risk vs. value: how to evaluate whether an initiative is worth pursuing before committing
• AI code assistance done right: governance, code review, and data security
• Breaking silos in hardware-software integration through cross-functional working sessions
• Cybersecurity as a collaborative partner, not a gate
• Green flags and red flags for change agents evaluating organizational readiness
• A mentor-forward philosophy: leaving every team and every engineer better than you found them

What does it take to transform the way a major automaker designs and validates its products — and who really drives that change?

In this episode, Chad Jackson sits down with Vijay Sanikal, a seasoned automotive engineer and proud self-described change agent who has worked across OEMs including GM and Stellantis, tier one and two suppliers, and Computer Aided Engineering (CAE) software providers. Vijay brings a rare 360-degree view of the product development ecosystem, and he doesn't hold back on what it actually takes to move organizations forward.

Vijay and Chad dig into the evolution of simulation-driven design — from the days when CAE was treated as offshore "extra work," to today's world where AI-assisted tools can optimize a design in real time without a human ever pushing a button. Vijay explains how the value proposition for simulation has fundamentally shifted, and why today's engineering leaders are far more prepared to invest in digital twin technologies than they were even a decade ago.

But this episode is just as much about people as it is about technology. Vijay shares his framework for what makes a change agent effective — from winning stakeholders without authority, to building cross-functional innovation forums, to knowing when to call an initiative a silo and when to reframe it as a stepping stone.

In this episode, you'll hear:

• Why innovation needs to come from the ground up — and how leaders can create the conditions for it
• How the roles of designer, simulation engineer, and requirements team must work in concert for change to stick
• The two ways AI is currently being integrated into CAE workflows — and what's coming next
• Why compute cost is an underappreciated risk in the shift to simulation-heavy development
• What green flags (and red flags) tell a change agent whether an initiative is worth championing
• Vijay's career advice for the next generation of engineers in a world where specialization is everything

Whether you're leading a digital transformation initiative or trying to build a case for simulation investment, this conversation offers hard-won perspective from someone who has lived it across multiple organizations and continents.