"Ron Larsen" is a professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering at Montana State University and received his Ph.D. from the Pennsylvania State University. He was initially attracted to engineering by the challenges the profession offers. Some of the greatest challenges he has faced while teaching have involved nontraditional teaching situations, including evening courses for practicing engineers and teaching through an interpreter at the Mongolian National University. These experiences provided opportunities to try new ways of communicating technical material, and the new techniques have been incorporated in his lectures and texts. "Introduction to Mathcad" and "Engineering with Excel" developed from sets of course notes prepared to help his students more effectively utilize a new software tool. They continue to be updated to meet the needs of engineers in an ever-changing workplace.