Re: What's your day job?
 

I am a cosultant mostly to non-profit companies. But for years I worked as a Telecom Engineer.

Re: What's your day job?
 

My job is almost definitely the coolest--

I design, test, and operate cryogenics plants that supply 2-Kelvin cryogens to a particle accelerator and several test facilities.

Re: What's your day job?
 

I'm a Nursing Assistant and on the fence between becoming a commercial pilot and a physicians assistant. Still going to college! :]

Re: What's your day job?
 

I launch rockets.

It actually isn't rocket science though. I am an electrical engineer working on telemetry data for the Delta program. I am lucky enough to support launch days on console (in Denver, not at the launch sites) and there is nothing that can reproduce the feeling of being polled before coming out of the T-4 min hold. The downside to be on console: all of my slip ups are now recorded and saved for history. Yep, that infamous 2am night during NPP's flight will go down in history!

By night I'm a grad student and mentor. I'll sleep when I'm dead.

Re: What's your day job?
 

I work on a charter boat here in Gulfport, Mississippi, I also weld as much as possible for extra cash. I plan on attending Bagley college of engineering in the fall at MS State.

Re: What's your day job?
 

As many others have stated in this thread, your career is what you make of it. Especially when you first start out as a young engineer, aggressively seek work that interests you, and stretch your capabilities. You'll often find in industry there are all levels of effort/interest by your teammates. Promoting yourself as motivated and capable of learning.adapting to a constantly evolving work situation will quickly set you apart from the field.

Fortunately FIRST has provided many opportunities for you to practice those skills, in front of your mentors as well as judges and VPs during competitions :)

Advice aside, my day job is an electrical engineer for a "major defense contractor". What does this mean? On any given day, I could be:

• Writing C/C++ on an IBM AIX platform to do multi-threaded signal processing (parallel FFTs, IQ data manipulation, filtering, Doppler processing, etc).
• Writing C++ and MATLAB analysis and/or test equipment automation scripts. The fewer times you have click a mouse or push a button on an instrument the better!
• Writing VHDL for a variety of FPGA platforms, including one very similar to the FPGA inside the cRIO
• Hardware design, which for me is typically high-speed mixed signal circuit board designs with FPGAs, A/D and D/A converters, and RF signal chains.
• Mentoring junior engineers or supporting other engineers in specific subject matters such as phase noise, fiber optic interfaces, and RF design.
• Sitting in meetings or filling out reams of paperwork - well, you can't have fun every day...

Surprisingly I still use about 75% of the math and physics I learned in high school and college. Trig and trig identities get used pretty frequently in signal processing, linear algebra on an almost daily basis. Differential equations to some extent, and calculus at least in terms of series approximations to forumulae.

Re: What's your day job?
 

Secondary Education Major/Geography Major, Class of 2015 and 2016

Although I'm currently a freshman, FIRST has inspired my career goals to become an educator... And a social studies educator nonetheless. I know I'm the oddball here, but that's who I am ;)

Re: What's your day job?
 

I am an product (applications) engineer for Kaydon, a manufacturer of custom and thin-section bearings. I get to play a small role in a broad range of interesting projects. I have worked on bearings in Dave Lavery's "other car" (original Mars Rovers), the Hubble Telescope, the International Space Station, Joint Strike Fighter STOVL, various satellites and helicopters, and everyting from medical devices to sewage treatment, renewable energy to nuclear power, industrial machinery, etc. I even get calls from other FRC teams.

I also have a 30 acre hobby farm with a few cattle and horses. I operate it with semi-antique equipment from the 1950's & 1960's, including some classic 2-cylinder John Deere tractors. It seems like the first thing that happens on all my machinery is for a bearing to go out. Tinkering with old farm equipment is a great learning experience. Shoveling manure keeps me humble. The seasonal schedule fits well with robotics.

As a mentor, I'm supposed to bring my work experience to robotics and share it with the students. In reality, I apply my robotics experiences to the benefit of Kaydon a lot more often.

Re: What's your day job?
 

I am in R&D at Procter & Gamble. After internships in logistics and plant engineering, I found my home in the bridge between bench top production of products (i.e. we figured out a way to make this one awesome widget) and full scale production (i.e. how can we make millions of these widgets?). The important part is that I get to wake up every day and do work that I am excited about.

I think it's important to remember that FIRST in its name stresses inspiration and recognition of science and technology. I see STEM in so many facets of my life now. An example: from working at a consumer products company, literally every time I buy something, in some small way, I think of the fact that someone had to come up with that product and someone (or something) had to make it. I have seen firsthand the level of thought that goes into making our products, much of it in overcoming STEM related hurdles.

STEM related careers, to me, are so exciting because of the limitless possibilities and paths one can take. Even more exciting is that not everyone has to pursue a STEM related career to appreciate the aspects of STEM all around them.

Re: What's your day job?
 

I work as an Applications Engineer for a company that makes various specialty adhesive tapes. It's the right mix for me between playing in the lab, working with manufacturing, and interacting with the customer. Best part is I get to go see people who is using our products to make some pretty cool things.
I have to say, FIRST is one of the primary reasons I got this job. My degree is in civil engineering. I was interviewing for a new training program for a sales position and I didn't really on paper fit what they were looking for. The HR manager wasn't convinced, and his first question for me was Why should I even consider you for this spot? Usually I would have thrown your application away in the first 15 seconds. Well, I explained my various responsibilities as a mentor though FIRST, and he liked it so much that he called me back for the Application Engineering position which they had not even advertised online less than a week later. They ended up offering me both positions, and I firmly believe I would not have had a shot at either without my FIRST experience.

Re: What's your day job?
 

I am a Development engineer at DEKA Research, Dean Kamen's Company. Mostly we design and engineer cutting-edge medical devices such as the 'Luke' arm or the iBot but have been known to deviate into other areas.

At DEKA, I put similar skills to the ones being taught in FIRST teams to use every day. Rigorous problem solving skills rooted in math and science allow me to ensure that whatever project I'm working on is reliable and safe. Creative thinking similar to FIRST robot design allows me and the team I work with to innovate so we "are on the cutting-edge of whatever industry we choose to join".

http://www.dekaresearch.com/index.shtml


Before Joining DEKA I worked with ARTAIC INNOVATIVE MOSAIC, a startup company in Boston. They assemble custom tile mosaics from photos their customers send in. To keep costs and response time low they use robots to arrange the tiles instead of out-sourced labor. It was my job to design and build the robotic system from the ground up. My experience with FIRST along with my degrees in Mechanical Engineering and Robotics Engineering really helped with this project. Due to my involvement in this project, Artaic has lowered the time it takes to assemble a square foot of custom mosaic mural from 2 hours to about 40 seconds!

http://www.artaic.com/


-Dan Karol

Re: What's your day job?
 

Right now, I'm working in the Human-Computer Interaction Lab here. My project is called Reflect2O (a play on H2O). We are creating a data visualization tool to put in people's homes to try and encourage them to conserve water.

Re: What's your day job?
 

I'm a Product Manager at Jobscience. We write Recruiting software on the Salesforce cloud. All of our Dev is in NH but we have a San Fran office as well.

I write specs, talk to programmers, QA, and generally bring projects from start to finish. It's nice seeing technology out there that you had a part in building.

Re: What's your day job?
 

Re: What's your day job?
 

I'm now officially an author! My first novel, Twice Shy, is being released this September by JournalStone Publishing, and I couldn't be more excited about it!

Re: What's your day job?
 

I work as an (paid) intern for our sponsor Special Parts & Mfg, who manufactures our sheet metal parts for the robot. Its really cool to see how our stuff is made and also helps with the CAD and design of the robot. I now know cool tricks SPM can do that we can use, and the limitations of their basic (non specialty) machines to get stuff made and delivered faster.

Re: What's your day job?
 

I design, build, install, program, commission, troubleshoot, service and support electrical and mechanical equipment and installations in water, power, chemical, and industrial and hitech apps.

I go from doing the work of an engineer doing designs and programming PLCs/PACs, SCADA controllers to smelling like grinding dust cause I've been grinding and welding pipe and steel stock together.

Last week I had my hard hat and tool belt on up in a scissor lift running conduit for motors and push buttons stations. This week I did drawings and ordered parts for 3 new machines and control panels for us to build.

Re: What's your day job?
 

I'm a senior on my team and about to move (permanently) from my hometown of Baton Rouge, Louisiana to Austin, TX to attend UT Austin, pursue a Computer Science major (and hopefully a masters), and continue working in the gaming industry. Thanks to a few contacts, I've already had an internship for 3 or 4 years (and they started paying me about a year ago).

It's not exactly engineering or anything, but FRC is still giving me some good programming experience that I'll use in the future :D

Re: What's your day job?
 

I'm a software developer for Research In Motion. I work on an app called DocsToGo for BlackBerry devices. When I interviewed for this job, I talked to at least 8 different people, every one of whom asked me about FIRST.

Re: What's your day job?
 

I work in Chrysler Powertrain developing realtime embedded software in C and Simulink. I'm actually a co-op student, so I rotate through a bunch of different 3-month positions twice a year (and go to school for the other 6 months). I'm at work during robotics build season, in the same building as 33's shop, so it's really awesome. This term I'm writing software. Maybe next term I'll be doing something else.

I have 4 major bullets on my resume. 3 of the 4 involved embedded software development in Simulink, the fourth was FIRST and includes LabVIEW.

Developing embedded RT software makes me really hate inefficient code (and Java).

Re: What's your day job?
 

My day job has changed since this thread started...

I now build rockets. More specifically, I'm a Technician Trainee at SpaceX, working in the stir welding department. The machines do the welding; my coworkers and I clean up, set up, and clean up the welds, along with moving the finished sections of rocket around. (Another group takes the sections and makes them into a rocket body.)

Re: What's your day job?
 

I work on radio telescopes part time, and build Nixie tube wristwatches in my spare time. Both seem to be about equally lucrative, but one has benefits.

When you think of a radio telescope as a 5 story building full of every sort of electronics from superconducting cryogenic receivers to big 50 HP motors and everything in between, all of it serial number one, you can see why it's fun.

Re: What's your day job?
 

Currently, I am working for a small start-up company called Microlution that manufactures micro-machining centers that can make precise and small parts. We currently have 3 micro CNC mill product lines (3 and 5 axis), with one micro CNC lathe product line that will be released this spring.

http://microlution-inc.com/ (New website is also coming soon...)

I am a mechanical engineer working as the testing engineer, which is one part mechanical, one part electrical, one part software, one part lasers, and one part organization. I troubleshoot various problems with functionality and performance, and ensure final quality. On working for a small company: it is very challenging and very rewarding to see that your work has a clear impact (sometimes immediately). There are plenty of pressure and deadlines along the way.

Before this job, I had a variety of jobs, including testing massive diesel engines, simulating small crack growth out of material impurities, determining properties of mud in a lab, and adding sensors to blow-out preventors.

The best thing about becoming an engineer is that you learn how to learn. Your education doesn't end with your degree. It stops when you stop asking questions.

Re: What's your day job?
 

I work as an engineer at Microsoft. If you use Visual Studio 2012 or Blend, you're using my (and a bunch of other people's) work.

Re: What's your day job?
 

I have been working at The Boeing Company for around 3.5 years now and recently switched sites from Philadelphia to the St. Louis area. I work in a group called ImDev, or Immersive Development, and help programs get the most out of their 3D product data.

In large companies management of 3D CAD & Visualization data is becoming an increasingly important and difficult task. Being able to provide visualization of the latest version of a vehicle to multiple disciplines throughout the company is no small undertaking. I get to work on tight deadlines for programs that need their data yesterday, but I also get to work with some emerging technologies that makes my job fun.

Re: What's your day job?
 

My current day job includes, designing and assisting assembly of Test Gauges. For ALTEK Company. The gauges are for Soda Cans, aerosol cans, food cans, and stuff like that. To tell the pressure of failure, to tell the Coefficient of Friction, and rating of the coatings, and some other stuff.

I also am a Volunteer Firefighter, its surprising how much more STEM i get from Firefighting than my engineering job. Learning + "Playing" with different cars, structures, tools, and whatever else tends to go bad. I got my climber idea from the latter truck, and the shooter idea from the spreaders.

I am looking for a more advanced day job. I got this job threw School and FIRST. now i am looking for a job that i can learn more from.

Re: What's your day job?
 

I am a Naval Architect & Marine Engineer. I studied to design ships and marine power plants in college. Now work as a full time engineer. I do software development for data analysis, computational fluid dynamics, finite element analysis, and work with underwater robotics and structures for alternative materials and composites for marine application. In my free time I mentor 2 FRC teams and 4 FLL teams.

There is more, but if I told you I would have to kill you.

Re: What's your day job?
 

I'm the Mathematics Department Chair and teacher at the high school that my Robotics Team runs out of. I teach Algebra 2 and Trigonometry at both the regular and honors levels. I will also likely be teaching calculus next school year.

Re: What's your day job?
 

I have worked for the United Technologies Aerospace Systems / Space Systems for almost 31 years, building various life support systems for NASA and the US Navy, including the EMU (extravehicular mobility unit, the space suit), oxygen generation, life support (human waste, water reclamation, thermal and humidity control), cooling and gas management systems for the NASA Space Shuttle, International Space Station and US Navy submarines. 1 1/2 years ago, I moved from the assembly side of the hardware to the Quality side as a Mech Inspector. I am the next to last set of eyes before these multi million dollar pieces of space life support equipment keeping our astronaurts alive, go out the door. (The last set of eyes are the DCMA / Gov't Inspectors who rely HEAVILY on us to do our jobs right.)

Re: What's your day job?
 

Interesting story:

One of our head mentors graduated from our high school in the 70s and played football like some of our mentors. He went on to get various degrees in engineering and work abroad. Around 10 years ago, he returned to our town and started as Director of Corporate Engineering at our primary sponsor company. He was very enthusiastic when we came to them about receiving machining help and funding. Just comes to show how you never know who you can meet in FIRST.

Re: What's your day job?
 

I agree.

Re: What's your day job?
 

Day job: Build armies of solar cleaning robots
Night job: Mentoring Citrus Circuits
Hobby: Building robots and robot accessories
Favorite sport: Robotics
Strongest Memories: Robotics
Primary reason for traveling: Robots
Dreams: Robots

Do I have a robot problem? ......Nah!!!!

Re: What's your day job?
 

I love this thread. It shows the diversity available in STEM related fields. Better yet, shows that if you can make things that people want or need, you are in demand. Thanks to everyone for contributing.

Myself, I am a corporate fellow at Oak Rodge National Labs Manufacturing Demonstration Facility. We print stuff... big stuff... Including FIRST robots.

http://youtu.be/HXvIMRklWiM

Re: What's your day job?
 

Still in college, but after graduation I'll be going to Green Hills Software to work on their embedded compiler and/or their static analyzer. It's not directly robotics-related, but the experience working with large groups on real problems has helped a lot in internships.

Re: What's your day job?
 

Oceanographer at the Naval Oceanographic Office.

More specifically, I'm the technical lead of the branch of the acoustics department which provides direct ASW (anti-submarine warfare) environmental product support to the US Navy.

I've been in this position the past five or six years. Before that, I collected acoustic data and processed/synthesized it into ocean acoustic databases for about 20 years.

Re: What's your day job?
 

I have a Civil Engineering degree and design roads for a living.

Re: What's your day job?
 

I have a new day job designing tooling, fixtures, equipment, and processes for FujiFilm Dimatix industrial inkjet print heads.

Re: What's your day job?
 

I am an Electronics Engineer at Warner Robins AFB. I do a lot of various things but mostly work with code and hardware most of the day.

Re: What's your day job?
 

Currently unemployed. :(
Anyone looking for a good Manufacturing/Test Engineer with 15 Years FIRST mentoring experience?

Re: What's your day job?
 

Mine has changed since this thread started too.

I am a software engineer working on robotics projects for X (formerly called Google [x]). This is the part of Alphabet (Google's new parent company) that is best known for the self-driving car, Project Loon, Glass, Project Wing, etc.

Re: What's your day job?
 

You have a very cool job.

Re: What's your day job?
 

I'm an Industrial Engineer for Hatch Stamping Company. I help robots, machines, and people work more efficiently.

Re: What's your day job?
 

Wow...after reading all the previous posts, I'm a little skittish about posting my day job. I'm just a STEM teacher. I teach 10-11-12th grade Concepts of Engineering, Robotics and Automation, and Engineering Design and Presentation. I've been 30 years working with scholars. Found out about FIRST in 2009, loved it, never looked back.

Re: What's your day job?
 

Why be skittish? Without people like you, many of the above people probably wouldn't be doing what they are.

THANK YOU!

Re: What's your day job?
 

The "coolness factor" just isn't there. LOL Thanks for the compliment. We teachers are the folks that keep the logistics train in order, keep the "suits" happy with our program, and ensure our team does not encroach on the school budget (we're totally non school funded). We'll keep those spaghetti suppers goin' and find new and goofier ways to fund raise.

Again, thanks for the compliments.

Re: What's your day job?
 

So with all the day jobs out there listed as having an extensive education, I'll now post mine; On-the-road Service Technician for Sears fixing appliances. High School Diploma.

Re: What's your day job?
 

I love the fact that this thread has been resurrected. I am fortunate to have a job that lets me work with FIRST and FIRST teams year round as the manufacturing manager for AndyMark. I love the fact that my passion in high school gave me the opportunities it has, and that I now get to do what I do to support thousands of other students from across the globe achieve their dreams and their own successes. I am often asked why I don't mentor a team, and if I wasn't supporting thousands of build seasons between FIRST® Tech Challenge and FIRST® Robotics Competition, I probably would. But then again, I would have the chance to volunteer as much as I do, and I wouldn't have had the chance to meet as many new friends like I have.

No matter what your dream, or day, job is, keep doing what you love and eventually things will work out in the end.

Re: What's your day job?
 

These are the sort of words that keep me going despite my current lack of employment. Sadly, my day job (aside from nominal employment with a Merchandising company) is looking for a job that uses my degree (BS EET, Purdue '15). It's been rough but I'm confident I'll eventually find something, hopefully something that won't totally wreck my current level of volunteering at events.

I guess what I can say is the job market is just like FIRST, hard but rewarding.

Re: What's your day job?
 

I went a little off the beaten path, despite being involved in FIRST long before heading to college! Though I graduated a few years ago and still volunteer now.

My day job currently is doing Industrial Design work, as well as some ME work on a variety of projects, from Google things I'm not allowed to talk about, to working with startups designing their products.

Re: What's your day job?
 

This is a fun thread to read.

I'm the vehicle software engineering lead and one of the first employees at a trucking software startup. We write software and control systems to let trucks platoon 20 feet apart. I love bridging the gap between software and mechanical engineering. I tell the students that trucks are just big robots. :)

Re: What's your day job?
 

I'm a metallurgical engineer in a steel plant that produces hot-rolled plate material. Our plate goes into an incredible variety of cool things, including bridges, buildings, machinery, ships, and military applications. I work in quality at the rolling mill, and a lot of my job involves looking at plates that don't get produced correctly (not to customer specs, defects in/on the plate, etc), figuring out what happened to make it come out wrong, and coming up with a fix to prevent it from happening again. When I'm not doing that, I work to implement changes throughout the process to improve efficiency. I get to work around cool old machinery, get dirty, and do a lot of problem solving, and every day is something different.

Re: What's your day job?
 

I have a BS in Mechanical Engineering from UW-Madison. I have been a Product Engineer for John Deere in Horicon, Wisconsin, for the past eight years. I have design responsibilities for engines and exhaust systems in our lawn and garden tractors, and sometimes help out with the Gators and zero-turn mowers as well. Before that I worked 25 years for Tecumseh Products Company designing engines for lawnmowers and snowthrowers.

Come to think of it, I don't really know anything about robots...

Re: What's your day job?
 

I have a new job since I last posted.

I'm currently working at Williams International, working on embedded software and electronics design for commercial turbofan engines. Some of the projects I work on are certified as high as Design Assurance Level (DAL) A, the highest standard in FAA certification. In these projects, the software must be formally verified and tests are audited by the FAA.

Re: What's your day job?
 

I work in the plastic injection molding field for a major company. I assemble robots and custom automation to handle the molded parts. The company bought out an injection molding machine (IMM) supplier and they are part of our operation now and with the material handling portion they added years ago complete turn key work cells can be purchased by customers now. We also are the OEM for robots for other companies, are logos aren't put on and thier's are but they are the same underneath, think Chevy - GMC.


The cool thing is I get to see parts, games, products and stuff months or longer before they are advertised. The weird thing is going into a store and seeing something and be like, hey I remember working on the stuff to build that months ago!

Re: What's your day job?
 

I work at a circuit board shop doing wave soldering, and circuit board repair.

Re: What's your day job?
 

You're nuts! I'm a mechanical engineer for one of the big 3 handling block and head CNC machining and component assembly. In 14 years I want to retire and become a teacher.

Re: What's your day job?
 

I currently live in clouds ;)

Virtual and private computing clouds for very large enterprises.
I automate stuff in them using agile and DevOps (aka automation).
I also co-conspire on the Meetup: OpenStack for Enterprises NYC.

I run my manufacturing stuff on the side (and almost all of this stuff is used and I retrofit for my amusement):

Just got a: ShopMaster Patriot VFD CNC with DRO with Gecko 540 control (2012 model with X axis at bed center).
To add to my: Freaked CNC Seig X2 3 axis mill, MaxNC lathe with tailstock, and MaxNC 4 axis mill(s) with tailstocks and probe.
Already had 2 LPKF Protomat 92S PCB mills.
A CNC router table which can be used for drilling, milling and plasma cutting with SuperPID spindle control.
2 manual rotary indexing tables.
14 3D printers (RepRap and me are old friends).
Enough IAI actuators to build 15 XYZ chassis.
5 NEMA 23 driven XYZ tables that with ACME screws that came out of military surplus.
A pile of Mitsubishi servo motors I use for CNC and general robotics.
A complete electronics shop (surface mount and pick and place).
Rotating table 3D laser scanner.
Powder coating equipment and long wave IR heat lamps (large).
Hobart MVP210 MiG welder on cart.
Hobart LX235AC/160DC stick welder on cart.
An Evolution RAGE3 saw.
A horizontal band saw with hydraulic retrofit.
A pile of RotoZip tools.
An oxy-fuel setup.
A RobinAir vacuum pump for my HVAC work, my vacuum forming and VIM forge.
My actual propane and charcoal forges are stored right now.
A 30" bend brake.
A 12" shear, slip roller, brake.
A large double boiler for reforming machine wax.
A 1 gallon ultrasonic cleaner.
2 Large drill press (one Craftsman one an old cast round column kit from my Father).
1 2 HP 10 gallon California Air Tools air compressor.
1 80 gallon air compressor driven with a 8HP electric more and a Harley Davidson V-Twin engine.
1 old Craftsman 5 gallon air compressor.
Various machine and workbench vises and anvils.
3 generations of my Family's hand tools (including stuff to shoe horses).

Working on a 40W-60W laser cutter next with a proper exhaust system.
Working on replacing my TiG welder.
Working on adding a few more tapping accessories both at MORT and at home.

Software:

Rhinocerous I was in the Mac OSX Beta got a nice discount
MSDN
BobCAD
HSMWorks
(This could go on for pages I have been working in computers professionally since before I was 10 years old...)

Educational robots:

1 RoboRIO AndyMark chassis with hi-grip wheels, Nav-X, pneumatics, Talon-SRX ESC, Axis and Logitech cameras.
1 cRIO 4 slot AndyMark chassis with hi-grip wheels, pneumatics, Talon SR/Victor 888/Black Jaguar ESC and 2CAN.
1 cRIO 8 slot custom 80-20 chassis with hi-grip wheels, chain drive w/custom sprockets on sliding assembly.

A couple of TeachMover robotic arms.
2 RB5X robots.

I also do a little IoT on the side:

DragonBoard 410C
Intel Edison
Arduino Yun
Raspberry PI 2

Computers:

I have the better part of a stock exchange mainframe in one garage right now (400 68360 CPU on VME).
2 Mini computers.
An old VAX that is just visiting on the way to a museum.
Part of my old PDP11.
MacMini, iMac 'gumdrops' and an older PowerPC.
Commodore 64/128 I still support software on.
Amiga 1000, 2000, 3000, 4000 the 4000 has the complete VideoToaster non-linear video editor with Lightwave.
A few hundred x86 PCs (laptop and desktop).

Printers:

2 HP inkjet plotters up to F size.
1 HP E size pen plotter.
1 HP C size high speed pen plotter.
3 Epson All-In-One office printers.
1 Epson R1800 13"x19" plotter with ink kit suitable archival use.


In short - I work - a lot!
I also part the technological junk pile.
Which means I am literally a digital janitor.
Now I just a need a roof over my mostly portable makerspace's head.

(This should somewhat answer the question how a managing director at a major financial institution knows manufacturing.
You know with my Associates Degree from a Community College.
When I tell people I used to make weapon systems for the military - I don't mean I had parts made in China ;))

Re: What's your day job?
 

I'm now at the Washington Area Bicyclists Association as the Youth and Family Education Coordinator. I organize and run bike classes in and after school, Bike Camp!, and other events.

Re: What's your day job?
 

Lots of interesting jobs in this thread! I'm currently an intern at Continental Automotive (yes like the tires), working in algorithms for Advanced Driver Assistance.

Re: What's your day job?
 

I am an IT - Director of Infrastructure by day... FRC Robotics Mentor for 1259 Paradigm Shift, by night. Sleep is optional :)

Re: What's your day job?
 

I am a engineer at GM. I was a seat Validation Engineer. I planned, performed, and documented all of the testing needed to meet federal safety requirements.

I have just moved to the Advanced Vehicle Development group at GM (Component Intergration Design Engineer). My role there is to work between design and engineering. In a nutshell I take the crazy cool designs that the studio comes up with, and turn them into somthing that meets requirments and is manufacturable.

FIRST is definitely the reason I went into engineering. Working with the mentors on 67 (HOT) as a kid really inspired me. I also got lucky enough to get hired by GM, so now I get to mentor my old team.

Re: What's your day job?
 

Meteorologist. I lead a research group that uses remote sensing (mostly weather radar, but also geostationary satellites and other things like lightning detection arrays) to study severe thunderstorms, tornados, hail, and the like to improve warnings of those threats to the public(s). So it's a combination of physics, CS, machine learning, social science, and a grab bag of other things.

Based on what I see from the students that apply for our jobs and work for us, if you are looking at a science career and are really good at coding up your ideas then you will go far. There is a severe lack of computing talent in the sciences.

Re: What's your day job?
 

I'm a Manufacturing Engineer at QuEST Global Services, working as an outsourcer for Pratt and Whitney. Currently I provide support and programming help for robotic automated inspection machines, which is a task I was able to get thanks to my FIRST Robotics experience. I also work on manufacturing cost estimation models for a wide variety of engine parts.

FIRST, combined with some college classes, gave me almost all of the manufacturing knowledge I had prior to starting this job, and it was immensely helpful when I was starting out.

Re: What's your day job?
 

I'm a high school technology and engineering teacher. I teach Project Lead the Way Aerospace Engineering and Introduction to Engineering Design, plus I wrote the curriculum for and teach a class called intro to robotics engineering and technology of flight.
Its not always as cool as the jobs other here have, but I would never change it for anything else. Its far more enjoyable than any other career I've had and I hope I have the energy to do it for quite a few more years.

Re: What's your day job?
 

I have a Masters degree in Mechanical Engineering from Bradley University. My graduate thesis work was done in partnership with Caterpillar and focused on object detection and collision warning using automotive RADAR sensors for Motor Graders performing snow removal applications. I was also the graduate assistant for all the robotics classes, and ran the robotics lab.

Professionally, I've been working in machine research for Caterpillar for going on 11 years now - 3 as a graduate student for my thesis work, 8 as a full-time engineer. I now lead various research projects in Automation & Enterprise Solutions.

This is my 8th season as a Roboteers mentor.

Re: What's your day job?
 

I was previously a software engineer at NetApp, working on enterprise data replication and data recovery in the OnTap operating system. We managed data movement and backup across clustered storage setups, mostly SAN. It was primarily C and C++ programming with some perl and expect scripting thrown in occasionally.

I left NetApp recently though and am currently looking for other employment, hopefully with more of a focus on hardware or robotics. If anyone knows of any good openings in the RTP, NC area, let me know!

Re: What's your day job?
 

High school student here, but I'm an intern at Steward Observatory Radio Astronomy Laboratory at the University of Arizona, working on developing inflatable space-based and balloon-borne terahertz telescopes for mapping cold galactic gas. I've worked there since last summer, when I got to design and build a camera system for attitude determination of a high-altitude balloon (out of laser-cut plywood of course) that flew on a NASA balloon in September.

Re: What's your day job?
 

I work for Continental Tire in the Maintenance department. I started as an electrician for automated machinery and moved up to supervisor. I currently work as an administrative supervisor handling scheduling, payroll, and reports. My bosses have been wonderfully supportive of the team and allow me to adjust my schedule according to the teams needs. Continental is also a big sponsor of the team.

Re: What's your day job?
 

I am a courtesy clerk at Vons :D, probably not as exciting as all the Engineers over here but hey I gotta start somewhere.

I am a Robotics Rookie

Re: What's your day job?
 

Hey look at it like this:
I've worked in plenty of mail rooms.

Re: What's your day job?
 

Currently i'm working as an Online Producer on The Wirecutter and The Sweethome websites. Basically I take guides written by very talented writers, editors, and freelancers and I load them in and make them look good on the site. I also do a significant bit of image editing.

Re: What's your day job?
 

I'm a software engineer/product architect working on data replication/high availability software for 'backend' commercial data systems (IBM i, specifically). The primary language I work in is C.

Re: What's your day job?
 

Currently in college, but I am an intern in the Information Technology department for a medical group in the metro Atlanta area, with 5 major hospitals and lots of urgent care centers and specialist centers.

I actually work in an office though, researching software solutions as well as writing code/scripts that assist the main program that our nurses/doctors/surgeons/etc use when interacting with patients, to ensure accuracy of medication.

I've been rotating languages between some SQL, C#, VBA, AutoIt Scripting Language, and whatever random things I need to do for the job.

It might sound boring, especially compared to the cool things that some people here do, but making sure that the information about patients is both accurate (and secure) is important also.

Re: What's your day job?
 

Signal Inspector, BNSF Railway, Kootenai river subdivision (northern Idaho and northwest Montana. 10th year of mentoring (tenure?).

Re: What's your day job?
 

Associate Professor in Biomedical Engineering at the University of Arizona.
Associate Department Head for Undergraduate Affairs.
I do research on optical imaging for diagnosis (find me on google scholar).
I teach Biomedical Optics, Bioinstrumentation, Introduction to BME, Rotation of Engineers in Hospital and I am working on Sophomore Design Course for undergraduate students.
I take care of our undergraduate curriculum and make sure we are accredited and fix any issues we might have with our 200 student program. For a while I was department head.

Re: What's your day job?
 

I'm a sophmore in college studying mechanical engineering by day.
FIRST addict by night.

But in reality, I've also been hired by Smart Vision Lights as their CAD designer for the past year. Get to design actual products every day, go to technical meetings with companies, and be apart of trade shows. Not too shabby for a guy without a diploma.

Re: What's your day job?
 

Things for me have changed, so I'll post it.

I'm a "New Products Engineering Specialist" at Arvin Sango in Madison, IN. I start this Monday.

Re: What's your day job?
 

Previous life out of college, I was a Manufacturing/Quality Engineering for seven years at a Fiber Optics company that was number one at it's height. Things went bust when the tech bubble burst and we were bought out by a world competitor. I saw the writing on the wall and transitioned into teaching Technology Education. I wanted to steer kids into a path of engineering.

I've been teaching at Ballston Spa for eight years now and in that time I helped start FLL where we now have eight teams each year. A high school coach started FRC in that time and we always had conversations about the gap between FLL and FRC when students came in at ninth grade. So, three years ago I started and FTC team for 8th and 9th graders to bridge that gap.

This year I took over the FRC and bridging that gap has paid off. When the FTC season is complete, I bring the 9th grade members onto the FRC team. This has truly allowed us to train down skills to the younger students while in the midst of build season. It really helps out during off season fall events and the young students can jump right into the fun of FRC

Re: What's your day job?
 

In simplest terms: I take water, add electricity, and make gasses.

Re: What's your day job?
 

My day job is to tell companies how to migrate their existing IT infrastructure from its current state into a future state while simultaneously balancing the needs of the C-Suite and all of the various business units. It can be challenging but I feel like wrangling high school students has prepared me for dealing with executives.

Re: What's your day job?
 

As I write this, I am waiting for the autocode that I wrote to generate the actual code that I will then attempt to compile into software that is suitable for execution on any of several variants of device (comprising millions of devices in total), the purpose of each such device being to control dozens of output signals (based on input received from more than twice as many sensors) with the intention of managing the operation of a single self-contained assemblage of machinery (having a cumulative mass measured in thousands of kilograms) during partially-autonomous operation while traveling at velocities measured in hundreds of kilometers per hour.


...In other words, I program cars. :cool:

Re: What's your day job?
 

I sit around, do nothing, and look pretty. :P

Jk, I work as a Commodity Data Analyst at a very large FORTUNE 500 Company. While it isn't very STEM related, my whole team at work are involved in FIRST as mentors and volunteers.

Re: What's your day job?
 

Intriguing question.

I'm a special education classroom assistant, and teach a computer science class while I'm working to get started on my teaching credential.

I also tutor private clients.

Re: What's your day job?
 

HS/MS technology education, drivers ed teacher. Summer landscape business owner

Re: What's your day job?
 

Own a firm specializing in robotics and STEM education. Basically I get to work with VEX and FRC teams throughout the year, and develop STEM curriculum for schools.

Re: What's your day job?
 

I will be starting an internship at BusinessWare Solutions in Hutchinson, MN. I will be in the Managed Services department.

Re: What's your day job?
 

Need an assistant? California, working with STEM education? I'll take it.

Re: What's your day job?
 

I put stuff on other planets.

-dave



.

Re: What's your day job?
 

AKA cosmic litter bug :D

Re: What's your day job?
 

That's just part of his job.

Dave is in interplanetary trade - he trades stuff for data.

Also, he was quoted in this month's Popular Science in an article about space suits, so it appears he's planning to put people on other planets as well.

Re: What's your day job?
 

I work at Target?

Re: What's your day job?
 

But will he be able to get the whole Stronghold field and robots to the Moon Regional? Probably break less gear boxes in lower gravity. Also the loud music...not so much. If we can get the stuff there I know where to put the driver's stations down here.

Re: What's your day job?
 

Watch out - there's about 1-1/4 second lag each way.

Re: What's your day job?
 

We could just make the field a little bigger. I'm sure the neighbors won't mind. FMS may just have to be modified a bit anyway.

Course we could just arrange a field trip but I think we'd need the really complex permission slips.
There's a joke in here somewhere about making good on the threat to send your kids to the moon if they don't knock it off!

Re: What's your day job?
 

Did you get laid off from your old night job? That one sounded pretty cool too.

Re: What's your day job?
 

Product Engineer at SunPower Systems. I'm responsible for ongoing support of our Oasis C1 Tracker utility-scale power plant product. That includes supporting plant/project design team, construction team, quality & commissioning team, and operation & maintenance teams whenever they have an issue with the mechanical panel mounting/tracking systems, electrical controls, or DC collection. I'm done when the DC coming off the panels gets to the inverter. It's a fun, wide-ranging role, covering over 1GW installed capacity these days. The green revolution is coming! ;)

Mostly, that means that people ask me questions and expect me to know the answers. Sometimes I can answer them, sometimes I need to ask other engineers. Often, I need to figure it out on my own from codes & standards. (Reading! It's important!)
I need to write clear emails and instructions, in terms non-engineers can understand, because I'm almost never the one actually doing the work in the field (somewhat disappointing). Communication is key! It's even more important than math!

FIRST prepared me with a diverse set of skills, a strong work ethic, and my first forum for exhibiting technical leadership, and inspired me to continue assuming technical leadership in extracurricular projects during college.
It also provided the connection to my first summer internships directly after high school and freshman year of college. I swung those experiences into additional internships the following summers, and swung those internships into a Sweet Job In My Field starting two weeks after graduating from UCLA.
I am INCREDIBLY LUCKY to have had the FIRST experience to push me in this direction.

Re: What's your day job?
 

I write embedded controls software for big yellow machines.

Then I come to robots and help write embedded controls software for smaller red and white machines.

Embedded controls software is fun!

My thoughts from doing this for two years:

What exactly is a STEM field look like on a day-to-day basis? Lots of problem solving. Real-time problem solving. The skills you learn through First, or in school, or at work, or in your free time, these are tools to help you problem solve. The most important tool in your bag is your desire to learn new things - this is what lets you add new tools to your problem-solving bag at will.

You'll probably start out solving problems directly related to specific issues with products. Some people like that and stick with it for their whole careers. Some folks move on to solve higher-level problems, like planning larger-scale projects, or finances, or people management. All of these, through the lens of "STEM", can be thought of as simply a problem to solve. A problem which can be solved by drawing on your knowledge and experiences (the tools in your bag). A problem which may push your boundaries, and force you to develop new skills.

Re: What's your day job?
 

No, you're nuts. I was an engineer for 10 years, then I became a teacher.
I foolishly thought that it would be somewhat easier. Couldn't have been more wrong.
Machines don't have a home life, that may be rife with issues. Machines don't have unique personalities, talk back, have future plans, complain, ask for help, or sing interesting songs.

The typical work week is 40 hours x 50 weeks = 2000 hours/year.
For a teacher, it is ~185 days x 8 hours/day = 1480 hours/year
In reality, a typical day is 9 hours, you come in at 7:00 am and leave at 4:00 pm = 1665 hours/year. There is very little "downtime". Lunch is 30 minutes.
Oh, now I have to go home and assess student work and provide formative feedback = 185 x 2 hours = 370 hours. 1665 + 370 = 2035 hours.
Then there are the summer workshops. I will be attending an AP physics refresher course = 40 hours.
Then, I will be working with my colleagues over the summer to improve the quality of our instruction.

Yes, we have ATTO (All That Time Off) which friends (and my barber) always bring up. "So what are you doing with your free time this summer?"

I haven't even included the work with our Robotics team, for which I gladly mentor. The small stipend that I receive for this is donated to the team through a United Way contribution.

So, you want to "retire" and "become" a teacher. Respond when that happens, and let me know if that is what you consider Retirement.

Re: What's your day job?
 

Fast forward 4 years and I'm still here. I am the Volunteer Director for a small Maryland non-profit - STEMaction, Inc. For the past 3 years I have worked on recruitment, management and recognition of event volunteers for all 4 levels of FIRST programs in Maryland/DC. 45 events & 1700 volunteers. My life is loud and colorful. And I'm still not that interested in robots.