Re: What's your day job?
 

Officially I am a Broadcast Engineer for the most watched Public Television Station and arguably the best Classical FM radio station in the country. (We at least have the largest music collection) I am one of five people who design, install and maintain our broadcast plant. My primary responsibility is audio and as such I watch over the TV and FM On Air audio performance, multitrack recording studios, and just about anything from microphones in the studio to the transmitters on Sears Tower. Our largest audio desk is a 128 input, 96 track automated console with both digital and analog outputs totaling nearly 200 and up to 7 channel (film style) surround mix-down. I have just completed installation and design of a fully digital news audio control system also in 5.1 surround. Currently I am working on a refit for the radio station of 5 studios and network operations with all new digital consoles using audio over IP. This station has produced some of the best music for television programming over the years. This includes the Soundstage series (which I have been part of since the very beginning), Jazz programs with Ramsey Lewis, Chicago Symphony and Opera companies, Ravinia Music Festival, and all kinds of one time only music shows. I began TV work at my high school so that makes this my 47th year in broadcasting.

Re: What's your day job?
 

I am a Flight Test Engineer for the Navy. My job includes planning, conducting, and reporting on flight test projects for Naval Aircraft. I can draw a direct link between my participation in FIRST as a student to my college internship to my current position with the DOD. Without FIRST on my resume I would not have gotten my internship which provided me with the experience necessary to get hired into my current job.

Re: What's your day job?
 

I am the Education Lead for the Professional Services Division of a Business Intelligence Software Company. I manage a team of Education Consultants, work with our customers to develop and deliver training, act as the project manager for all major education initiatives within the company, and even, occationaly, get to teach once in awhile! Years ago, I was a local HS Physics, Chemistry, and Earth/Space Science teacher, before going to work as an Education Consultant for a number of companies. I also have taught at the local college, as an adjunct professor in the Computer Science Department.

While that job pays the bills, my true passion is teaching the kids on our team! So I still teach Physics, Chemistry, and Computer Science to HS students - I just don't get paid by the school system, but I get "paid" by being able to see our students grow and develop!

Re: What's your day job?
 

When I am not at school. I work at a small company called Fastenal (Indiana distribution center). I work in what they call unit load. Just another word for moving items and packages. But I do get to use a robot crane all day and its a good job for a college student, like me.

Re: What's your day job?
 

Research Scientist/Software Engineer in the robotics lab of a major aerospace contractor in the Philadelphia area.

I work in "applied research and development", a middle ground between cutting-edge university research and productization. We are funded by organizations like DARPA, ONR, AFRL, etc., to evaluate and develop new technologies in robotics for use by the Department of Defense. Some areas that I work in on a daily basis are autonomous path planning/AI, computer vision, robotic manipulation, and guidance/navigation/control (GNC) for a variety of robotic platforms (land, air, surface, submerged).

Re: What's your day job?
 

I design transmissions for John Deere tractors. Prior to Deere, I designed on-highway truck transmissions for Eaton and before that tank transmissions for GE. Interesting FIRST connection - IKE from the Killer Bees now works with the GE transmission that I worked on in the mid 1980's.

Re: What's your day job?
 

Researcher/mechanical engineer in the Human Neuromechanics Laboratory at the University of Michigan.

Currently, I'm working on the development of a robotic ankle orthotic (and its controller) for use by people who might not have control over how their ankle moves.

Re: What's your day job?
 

That's the answer we get from some of our Honeywell mentors. Either that, or we get the response of "We work on the non-nuclear components of nuclear missiles."

As for me, I'm just a junior in High School. I'd like to get into some internships that are engineering related (Electrical or mechanical) just to get some outside-of-FIRST experience. I just have absolutely no idea where to look...any advice would be appreciated (PM me preferably)

Re: What's your day job?
 

Thanks everyone, fascinating to see how CD makes the world work.

I had the opportunity to intern at Boeing Commercial Airplanes last summer, and when I graduate in May I'm going back. I worked in stability and control (ie making sure the airplane does what the pilot commands), and it looks like that is where I'll be going when I get back. Most of my work involved running simulations, but we support flight testing and tunnel tests too.

The summers of my 1st and 2nd years of college I worked at a vintage car auction. Tracking the paperwork got tedious, but moving the cars was always fun!

Re: What's your day job?
 

I am an Electrical and Software Engineer for AREVA NP. I design control systems for robots and manipulators for non-destructive examination of Nuclear Power Plants.

Re: What's your day job?
 

I am a Mechanical Engineer at Osram Sylvania Inc's Solid State Lighting R&D center.

I design LED based lighting solutions to replace various traditional sources (incandescent, HID, flourescent, low pressure sodium, etc). The idea being that LEDs can save consumers money by reducing electricity costs and maintenance costs for the tradeoff of a slightly higher upfront cost. As time goes by, that higher upfront cost will hopefully come down and therefore create a much better solution for a sustainable future!

-Brando

Re: What's your day job?
 

I am partially responsible for computer security for a leading global financial software vendor and I own and operate several small business involving computers, electronics, engineering and robotics.

My hobby is my work. If I'm not building something related to FIRST I'm probably writing code, developing a product, or fixing something (including cars (electric/fuel), CNC machines and industrial machinery).

I've developed projects that involve: military, LED lighting, biomedical, handicap retrofits, ultrasonics, AI, real time video, RTOS, fly-by-wire, optics, electrochemical process, high performance computing, semiconductor design and aerospace.

Re: What's your day job?
 

I'm in technology - working with school districts of all sizes on state and federal reporting requirements and their management software (And no, I cannot help you get scheduled with your favorite teacher or fix your grades).

Most of my day is spent untangling interesting problems where we use an analogy of fire-fighting, fire prevention and fire proofing.

I'm also a National Board Certified Teacher and love to see what FIRST can do with students - it is the most amazing thing. I am in education because my parents would only pay for college if I was a teacher, nurse or secretary. So, I started as a science teacher and branched out to computers/networks/servers. Yes, times have changed and I write this to encourage everyone to find and follow their passion.

I have 3 kids - and they all like STEM (they better!).

Julia (just a robot mom - for now!)

Re: What's your day job?
 

I'm a Systems Engineer at Bluefin Robotics, which makes underwater robots (AUVs).

As a systems engineer I'm basically the lead engineer on projects and I cover two of our main product lines. I occasionally step in as a project manager (on some of the smaller programs) or sales engineer (on some big proposals) as necessary.

In addition to getting to play with robots for a living, the benefit of working with underwater robots is that I get paid to go out on a boat -- awesome on nice days in the summer, less awesome on cold rainy days in the winter -- and travel quite a bit as we do acceptance testing and training in all parts of the world.

Basically, all my hopes and dreams as a young FIRSTer have come true!

Re: What's your day job?
 

I work as a social media consultant & IT engineer for World Harvest Church in Roswell, Georgia, and a part-time marketing/membership sales associate at the McCleskey-East Cobb YMCA branch in Marietta, Georgia while in college.