Patrick Goschy, digital venture owner for ExxonMobil.
ExxonMobil Digital Venture Owner Patrick Goschy is a self-described "geek," but don't let that humble assessment mislead you.
A lifelong inventor, Goschy is referenced on more than 270 patents held by Apple, Sony, Samsung, Nike and many other leading companies. Specifically, he was instrumental in developing the accelerometer technology that drove the mega-popular Wii video gaming systems, among myriad other developments.
Despite his considerable expertise, Goschy is not a degreed engineer. After working in the gaming industry, he sought a position at ExxonMobil's Baytown refinery as an instrument technician in 2010.
"If you don't have a degree, you don't really have a chance at working as an engineer at ExxonMobil," Goschy said. "When you go, 'Hey, I've got a better way of doing this,' the reaction is, 'No way. We've been using this stuff this way for years. Why would we change?'"
But Goschy stayed true to his calling.
"It's kind of in me, in my DNA. It's what I do," he said in a presentation at the IoT in Oil & Gas Conference held recently in Houston. "That's how it works. You have an idea, you find the technology, you combine it and you make it work. People will throw arrows at you and say, 'No, that won't work. We've never done it that way before.' If you listen and say, 'Yeah, you're right,' nothing changes. But if you have tenacity, if you go ahead and demonstrate and keep going up the ladder, you can change everything."
Innovation: Think outside the box
Innovation, Goschy said, is something "you can do anywhere: in the office, on campus -- if I have an idea, I start pulling stuff apart."
One day while sitting at his desk, he wondered if the technology existed to measure water in a tank and, if not, how he might develop it.
"How can you have a tank while sitting in an office?" he said.
The answer was sitting beside his desk. Looking at a garbage bin as a water source, he poured "a bunch of water into the can, taped some tin foil to the sides of the can and wired them to [a] capacitive sensor."
"[Everyone has] a capacitive sensor in their pocket. That's how your phone reads your finger. It isn't reading your finger; it's reading the moisture in your finger," he said, explaining that the same technology can be used to measure levels in a tank through a piece of plastic.
"It worked," Goschy said. "Now, that's not new technology. It's not unique technology. But if you take that technology and combine it in other ways, you can start to achieve some interesting results."
Thinking outside the box by using currently available tools in new ways is essential to developing new processes and technology, Goschy said, as is using new tools that are coming online.
He observed some industry stakeholders argue the oil and gas industry doesn't -- and shouldn't -- make sensors or other tools to increase efficiency or production.
"I happen to disagree with that," Goschy said, stressing the value of partnerships. "We're standing on the shoulders of geniuses. If there's an option to buy something, buy it. But if that option isn't available, why not make it? Why not combine those technologies and use that scalability and electronics to your advantage?
"It's the difference between buy or build, in many cases," he said, noting the significant cost difference between one electronic unit and a million units. "I personally enjoy building so much more than buying, because I'm a geek. That's my thing. I think that kind of passion is something that can't be discounted. And if you have that kind of passion, it will always work out. It doesn't matter what arrows are thrown at you or what obstacles stand in your way.
"If you have a passion for what you are doing, it will always work."
