Thank you for visiting my personal site.  As a technology professional in the aerospace business, my intent is to use this site as an online presence to promote my abilities (think of this as an online resume with bonus material).

Brief History

I have been an aerospace engineer since I graduated from college in 2001 (nine years at the time of this writing).  In that time I have been exposed to a large array of technologies, experiences, personalities, and design disciplines that I believe provide me with a unique and expansive skill set.

Probably the most bizarre part of my professional development is the fact that I’m not formally trained as an engineer.  My Bachelor’s degree is in Information Systems technology, which basically encompasses PC-based software development, database design and administration, light networking, and a good deal of web-based technologies.  When you really think about it, my original formal education was preparing me to be a cog in a massive Oracle system.  When I enrolled in college I was very young and did not know enough about what I was getting into in order to realize how I would eventually be pigeonholed when it came time to look for a job.  Towards the end when I was close to a degree, I understood very well what the future would likely hold and, while horrified by the idea of life as a database admin, found that I was past the point of safe return and was unwilling to restart my entire education.

Luckily, I was picked up by a company specifically targeting green software developers right out of school (basically looking for bright yet inexperienced potential engineers that could be had for much cheaper than practiced engineers).  This company specialized in glass cockpit flight systems (full life cycle development from hardware to software).  The manager who interviewed me at the time saw only on my resume that I was competent with C, which was enough to get me through the door.  The interview went well and I had a job waiting for me when I graduated.  I was given the title Software Engineer and dove in on my first day developing embedded software for helicopter avionics systems.  It was a trial-by-fire scenario in the truest sense; however one of my best assets is that I do quite well in these situations and have an ability to learn at rather accelerated rates.  Consequently, it was not long before I was made the lead engineer on the project to which I was assigned.

Pictured: My First Avionics System

The other jobs that I have held since then (which are few as I like to stay put and have stability as much as possible) have flowed directly from that first opportunity.  Over time, I’ve drifted from embedded software development to systems integration and R&D work, which has had the high bonus of exposing me to a vast array of different technologies and disciplines (if you had told me when I was in college that I would eventually be setting up satellite communication networks I would have scoffed; if you had told me that such a thing would only be a small percentage of my total job description I would have discounted everything you said ever after).

iXplor was a moving map application that I worked on while at InTheAirNet.

Overall, the single best discrete “thing” (for lack of a better word) that I’ve taken away from all this is the confidence I have in myself as a professional that I can handle anything that is thrown at me.  I have been in so many situations now where I’ve been knocked out of my comfort zone and forced to adapt that such activity has now become a matter of course.