The Molding of Young Minds

The Fall of my Sophomore year was an interesting time. Not only was it my most stressful semester to date, I also felt a little lost. I wanted an internship, a research position or something to distinguish myself. Trouble is, I wasn't a citizen yet and it wasn't a great time for the aerospace industry.

Then I received an email about this scholarship from Boeing. I wasn't going to apply but they emphasized wanting minorties and women, so I thought why not.

This scholarship was given out by the Boeing chair of the AE school, Dr. Dimitri Mavris. "Doc," as everyone who works with him calls him, also happens to be the head of the Aerospace Systems Design Lab. He spoke of wanting us to become involved, of wanting to inspire us to attend grad school. I thought, sign me up!

It was difficult to become involved in research there. I found out recently that they didn't really believe in the power of undergraduates at the time, and the first ones were just making their way through (those include Elise and Scott). In the Summer of 2004 I finally got involved (sorta) with the ASDL by doing some work with Hernando, a guy I had met my freshman year who now is a grad student. By the end of that summer I was extremely frustrated. I wanted more.

I spoke with Doc and he handed me over to Dr. Michelle Kirby. She intimidated me. But soon I became part of her team and was attending meetings and trying to learn as much about TIES and TMAT (her two processes) as I could. The learning curve was steep and at times I felt completely useless. Since I was inexperienced with coding and probabilistics, in January Michelle put me to work on the NIA Congressional Study. Then came the ONR calculator, where I was really able to show my stuff. Then came this summer, where I worked more hours and harder than I had before and became an integral part of my team. She was intimidating, but through the intimidation I found that I am very much like her in some respects and different in others. But mostly I just learned that she wants kids to become involved and to grow, and that's what I was doing.

At the end of this summer she sat us (me, Elise, Sara, Paul) down and told us she would begin moving us away from doing "grunt" work and starting to teach us to become researchers. I was excited, this was what I had ultimately been aiming for.

I got a clear picture of what all of this work and grooming has been leading up to this Thursday. We have been working on developing a new process, and Michelle has been trying to push me, Elise and Sara into doing more of the thinking and development. We had a brainstorming meeting this past Thursday and for the first time I got to contribute thoughts and ideas. I convinced to myself the importance of a Master's degree. They don't teach innovation in undergrad.

It was so exciting to be a part of that integral team that is forming this new (and what I think to be extremely important) process for NASA, ONR and industry in general. Thursday after a 3 day workshop to learn new software, we were standing around talking to the guy from the company that came to visit. She was telling him the history of the ASDL, why undergraduates are important, and her little "army." He asked about the value of a degree from another place and I told him I had done some research and hadn't found anywhere quite like the ASDL. She turned to me and said "Forget it, you're not going anywhere."

I am already taking a graduate class. They will be moving me into a desk as soon as someone moves out.

I have come to love the ASDL and the ASDL family. Will and I have become one of the ASDL "couples," even though we were "external" originally. But mostly, as I see now more and more what a graduate education here will be like, I know it's the right place for me. Doc, the father figure to all of us, spends more time in class talking about becoming leaders and being leaders with character and integrity than on the equations or theory. Our education as engineers is complete, he says. Now we will become leaders, innovators, and complete people. It's nice to finally be somwhere where they acknowledge that on paper a person may look good but ultimately it is their character that will decide where they go.

Applied Design is not like senior design where we will all have the same answer. Our RFP is so broad we could take it wherever we want to, and that is liberating. I know that I will be at the forefront of the industry and innovation someday, and that's just cool.

It is weird to think that in December I will be an "engineer" and in January I will (continue) work on my master's degree. That makes me feel so old...

:-)