National Engineers Week Alabama Power Spotlight: George Dobbins
Alabama Power's George Dobbins works at his desk in Tuscaloosa. Dobbins supervises a team dedicated to delivering the most reliable and modernized electrical service possible. (contributed)
(Editor’s Note: During National Engineers Week, Feb. 17-23, Alabama NewsCenter is profiling engineers at Alabama Power’s Corporate Headquarters and each of the company’s divisions.)
George Dobbins
Alabama Power’s George Dobbins got hooked on pursuing a career in engineering as a high school junior. (contributed)
Alabama NewsCenter: What is your job title and work location?
George Dobbins: Engineering supervisor; Tuscaloosa.
ANC: How long have you worked for the company?
Dobbins: I’ve been with the company 19 years. I have worked at APC, GPC and SCS in Power Delivery, Renewable Development and the Policy and Regulatory Support team.
ANC: Where did you go to school?
Dobbins: I completed my BS and MSEE at UAB (Go Blazers), my MBA at Auburn (War Eagle!) and am currently working on my doctorate at Mississippi State (Hail State). While it can be conflicting at times, I bleed blue and orange.
ANC: What made you want to pursue a career in engineering?
Dobbins: I have always had a love for math and science courses, at an early age. As a child, I would take apart just about anything I could get my hands on and put it back together and was fascinated by the electronic circuit boards in so many different things. I grew up in the Black Belt and had no exposure to the field of engineering. That all changed my junior year in high school when I attended the University of Alabama’s E-Day. The UA students led a demonstration on how to design electronic circuitry and some of the different components. From that moment, I was hooked.
ANC: Can you provide a brief description of your work?
Dobbins: I lead a team of engineers who work to ensure that we provide a safe and reliable service to our customers. We work to prevent and minimize any outages that our customer may experience. In addition, we are focused on modernizing the electric distribution system through the installation of smart devices that can sense problems on the system, automatically isolate the trouble and restore service to as many customers as possible within a matter of minutes.
ANC: What do you find most rewarding about your career?
Dobbins: I absolutely love helping others and working to develop the next generation of engineers who will lead our company. This job affords me the opportunity to work on a team with very diverse backgrounds toward a common goal of serving others.
ANC: What makes you most optimistic or excited about the role engineers are playing in the innovation economy?
Dobbins: I get excited thinking about the next wave of innovation and what that will mean for generations to come. I am a huge fan of self-driving vehicles. While there have been some early growing pains, can you imagine the number of lives that will be saved once this technology has matured and is fully deployed? It concerns me that there has been a lot of hesitancy and fear in adopting this technology. Fear stifles innovation.
ANC: What do most non-engineers not understand about engineering and/or engineers?
Dobbins: I’ve always been amazed at the fact that the engineering field directly touches just about every facet of life. There aren’t many fields that can lay stake to that claim. Most people don’t realize that. Engineering is interwoven into just about everything that we do.
ANC: How many pocket protectors do you own?
Dobbins: What’s a pocket protector? Just kidding. … The face of engineering is changing. When most people think of engineers, they typically have this stereotypical view of someone who is sitting at a desk with a pocket protector and socially awkward. The field of engineering has changed and continues to evolve. I absolutely love seeing the diversity that didn’t exist 50 years ago. We’re not just techies, but are leaders, consensus builders and more.
