A Boston-based engineer has started a site for crowd-sourcing engineers, allowing engineering students to find temporary projects to work on.
The site, called Borrow an Engineer, allows entrepreneurs, companies and engineering students to find each other. It was established by Zach Herbert, who graduated from Boston University in 2014 with a degree in Mechanical Engineering.
According to Herbert, a lot of talented engineering students are using their free time to do various projects, like building apps and websites, constructing their own rockets and 3D printers, etc. Despite this diligence, these independent projects are not counted as work experience, since the projects were completed outside of companies.
Borrow an Engineer was inspired by the networking that takes place within the engineering industry, where engineers recommend their peers for any appropriate work opportunity that pops up.
In building Borrow an Engineer, Herbert also "borrowed" other peers in the industry to help with building out the backend, the site, and to ensure a successful launch.
Borrow an Engineer launched with 300 student contacts already in place, 150 of which were from Herbert's alma mater, Boston University, as well as engineers from other universities and states. These numbers were quickly boosted when 50 engineers officially signed up on launch day.
According to Herbert, most small businesses, startups and entrepreneur need engineers for small projects, rather than taking them on as full time employees. Borrow an Engineer caters to that need, by providing another option besides engaging an engineering firm to deal with temporary projects, or using other freelancing sites where often the calibre and location of the resulting contractors can be unclear.
With Borrow an Engineer, businesses, startups and individual entrepreneurs can post projects they need to have done for free. The listing will contain details about the project, such as timeline and budget. Engineers who are interested can then submit proposals for the project, which the original poster can accept or reject.
Small businesses with a project in the works can also browse the database of engineers, look at their profiles, and see anything catches their eye. They can then contact individual engineers to see if they would be interested in taking on the project.
Once a project is matched with an engineer, and the project is complete, Borrow an Engineer handles the payment into the engineer's bank account, from which it takes a 15% cut per project.
According to Herbert, engineering students and graduates will be able to use the site to gain experience over multiple projects, allowing them to build a professional portfolio of their work and have a taste of real-world engineering experience.
Herbert is looking to continue growing Borrow an Engineer, expanding it beyond Boston and perhaps internationally.