04/19/11

     We met with Mr. Scott Miller, who gave us a presentation of the space environment. He discussed the dangers of the space environment, such as reactions of elements in space, such as the oxygen reacting with the metal on the space craft, potentially making the outer layer useless. Mr. Miller also went over the process of sputtering, which is when you take material from one object, and move it to another. The example he showed us was of vaporizing gold, and replacing the gold vapor on another piece of metal.
     Other potential dangers include orbital debris colliding with space craft, ultraviolet rays, ion energy deposits ruining electronics, solar particle events, material degradation, and electronic or mechanical malfunctions. Another human risk factor is radiation dose, which is the length of time a person is exposed to radiation in outer space.

03/25/11

     Today we discussed inflows, and outflows. An inflow is when you have one incoming value, such as the amount of employees hired, coming in at a greater rate then an outgoing value, such as employees fired. Out flow is when the opposite is true, and the goal is usually to obtain some sort of balance.
     We also learned about feedback and it's importance. Feedback is a reaction, or response that is given about an applied idea. For example, if you were to push against a spring, it's feedback would be the force with which it pushes back. Feedback in the systems engineering world could be the money you receive for your product, criticism, or the productivity of your workers.

03/22/11

     Today we met Christopher Marchant. Mr. Marchant is a software engineer that works with embedded systems. Embedded systems are very precise, minimalistic programs that are predictable, and usually unseen. They usually provide data, or do some other task repeatedly in order to keep the other parts of the system working, so they are usually very small with very few functions (in order to limit the number of things that can go wrong).

03/15/11

     Today we toured the CEDAR room. In the cedar room, there is a giant projection screen that is used to display 3-dimensional designs in order to aid the engineers, and to better examine the designs. The CEDAR room is a large conference room as well. Multiple offices are able to view the same design, in order to allow for conversation and debate on the topic.

03/11/11

     Today we were introduced to Systems Engineering. Systems engineering takes into account all the aspects of a system. Planning out the construction, use, time frame, and other variables involved in the construction of a system, and the coordination of the individual components.

03-08-11

Today in Job shadowing we went over the Things You Need to Know list. We learned safety procedures, in case of emergencies like fire, or tornadoes. We learned the procedures for making phone calls, how to call outside numbers, inside numbers, and the rules that apply to phone use. We also went through introductions. Our mentor Dave Schultz introduced himself to Kenneth and me. We exchanged stories, he told us about his job, and we told him what colleges we want to attend, and what we plan to major in.