JPL/NASA Anyone want to work there?

[Erin Rapacki]

Originally Posted by phrontist

If by some miracle I matriculate, China looks like the future hotspot for innovation.

Engineering is high stress though...

I think its more important to be good at what you do then to do what you want and suck at it. Engineers are the only thing preventing the technological meltdown of modern soceity. A minor mistake could kill many, many, people. Remember, with mass manufacturing, your mistake could copied millions of times.

I think I wanna be a highrise apartment engineer, nuclear power-plant engineer, or how about designing assembly lines for slaughterhouses. Yeah, those'd be a low-stress jobs

As if the saftey of the consumer isn't enough to worry about, your throwing around some suit's wad of cash...

Honestly I think it would be hard to have enough confidence to be a professional engineer.

This is the exact reason why we need MORE engineers! Yes, many people who go out and get an engineering degree may not have enough talent to provide a confident design, but at least they are trying to get a degree in something difficult... which means they are capable of learning, which means they could handle tough situations.

Many engineers work in teams to design a part or a product. As engineers grow within a company & get older, they may wish to specialize in an area. One of the areas is called Quality Assurance. This includes making sure all the documentation is in place for test procedures, assembly & manufacturing procedures, getting design changes signed-off, and making sure everyone is trained properly for their specific position.

If more people get engineering degrees, we could have more engineers designing... and equally, more Quality people nagging the engineers about making sure the product works properly.

I've worked on projects for the Air Force, NASA, and I'm very familiar with FDA approval procedures... trust me, everything is checked & rechecked hundreds of times.

The Glitch? At least one engineer may be aware of a problem but doesn't speak up about it. This could be either because the engineer is particularly shy or "low-level," or bad company politics would force them to ignore the problem hoping that nothing becomes of it. This is the real problem... and it's needing of a good solution.

This is where FIRST comes in with "gracious professionalism." Be honest, be caring, and in the workplace... speak up if something bothers your conscience. In FIRST, we are being taught the Ethics necessary to continue to grow as a technological society.


ByE

erin

[ElfMaster]

Well after college and graduate school, I hope to work with NASA. I'm interning at a satellite lab now. Its fun. After that... Pirate for a year!