CRANBERRY TWP — Technically, maneuvering a marble into a coffee can isn't in Don Hackworth's job description as a technical project manager at Westinghouse Electric.

However, it is an activity Hackworth does somewhat regularly and enthusiastically.

Hackworth believes that a career in engineering, like the one he's chosen, can be a gateway to a successful future.

He brings that message — often by integrating activities like the marble challenge — to school students while he's volunteering in Westinghouse Electric's N-Vision community outreach program.

The daylong program typically focuses on three topics: careers in engineering and how to prepare for them; forms of energy; and nuclear energy.

A team of three or four employees from Westinghouse, which is a provider of components and services to the commercial nuclear utility industry, give the presentations to students.

Hackworth is versed on all three topics, but is most likely to speak about careers in engineering.

The N-Vision program is generally presented to junior and senior honor students who are contemplating careers in engineering, Hackworth said.

However, it has been customized for various age levels with different activities and topics. The company's Internet site says the programs can be presented to children as young as kindergartners.

During the past year, Hackworth has participated in about a half-dozen N-Vision programs, including seminars in the Seneca Valley and Mars school districts.

“I was really glad to get this opportunity,” Hackworth said. “I enjoy public speaking.”

Hackworth is as quick to point out the long-term benefits of a career in engineering as he is to talk about the virtues of public speaking.

“That's how I got my job, or at least my job interview,” he said.

Once a shy high schooler, Hackworth said he chose to tackle his weakness in the area of public speaking “head on” while in college.

To do this, he took a job giving campus tours. One of these expeditions, he said, was a tour he had volunteered to give a couple and their son, who was considering attending the college.

At the tour's end, Hackworth said, the woman identified herself as a vice president at Westinghouse and lined him up a job interview.

It turned out to be a win-win situation: Hackworth got the job and the woman's son picked Hackworth's school, Penn State Erie, The Behrend College.

Hackworth, having grown up in Monroeville, graduated from Gateway High School in 2001. Already, he knew he had an interest in following his father's footsteps into engineering.

In college, Hackworth earned two bachelor's degrees in five years from Penn State Behrend. His degrees are in electrical engineering and computer engineering.

Even before he graduated, Hackworth had been hired by Westinghouse Electric, and he began working at the company's Monroeville office in spring 2006.

Westinghouse, which joined with its owner Toshiba in 2006, provides fuel, services, technology, plant design and equipment for the commercial nuclear electric power industry.

According to the company's Internet site, “nearly 50 percent of the nuclear power plants in operation worldwide, and nearly 60 percent in the United States, are based on Westinghouse technology ... The four core product lines of Westinghouse — Nuclear Automation, Nuclear Fuel, Nuclear Services and Nuclear Power Plants — support this mission.”

The company, according to a company overview on its Internet site, has about 15,000 employees globally.

Hackworth, when first hired, did engineering tasks.

But in his current position, Hackworth said his main duties are to coordinate a team of about 25 engineers to perform analysis work on the SMR, or Small Module Reactor.

Hackworth sets schedules, allocates assignments and tracks a project's budget and deadlines.

Hackworth said he worked in Monroeville until June 2010, when he moved to the company's new world headquarters in the Cranberry Woods office park off Route 228.

A first large wave of employees began moving into the new headquarters a year earlier.

At the same time Hackworth made the employment move, he and his wife, Jenna, also moved to Cranberry Township.

In his free time, Hackworth enjoys a plethora of always-evolving hobbies. Among them are woodworking, home improvement, bicycling, camping and martial arts.

With an easy smile, Hackworth says his job at Westinghouse suits him.

He says he enjoys interacting with a variety of people and working with top-of-the-line technology on a daily basis.

It almost seems as if he was born into the job.

Hackworth, the eldest of three siblings, is the son of Kathy and Don Hackworth, who met while both were working for Westinghouse in East Pittsburgh. Kathy was a secretary, Don an engineer.

“I'm a Westinghouse baby,” Hackworth said.

<B>HACKWORTH FILE</B><B>Name:</B> Don Hackworth<B>Address</B>: Cranberry Township<B>Employment</B>: Small Module Reactor technical project manager at Westinghouse Electric Co.<B>Family</B>: Wife, Jenna<B>Education</B>: Bachelor's in electrical and computer engineering from Penn State, Erie, The Behrend College<B>ON THE JOB</B><B>Name: </B>Westinghouse Electric Company<B>Address</B>: Cranberry Township<B>Top official</B>: Aris Candris, president and chief executive officer, will retire March 31 but remain a senior adviser to the company. Jim Ferland will then be co-president and chief executive officer, and Ricardo Pérez will be co-president and chief operating officer.<B>Services</B>: Provides fuel, services, technology, plant design and equipment to utility and industrial customers in the worldwide commercial nuclear electric power industry<B>Contact</B>: There is a Contact Us page at www.westinghousenuclear.com<B>Mission</B>: Our primary vision is to be the custom- ers' choice to supply leading-edge nuclear technology to satisfy the world's growing demand for energy.