While working at Rockwell Collins as a systems engineer, I have come to appreciate the value of the top-down approach to design.  We are building very complex systems with large teams and it is impossible for any one person to know how every widget works and fits together.  Because of this complex interaction my first boss, Bill Piche, always reminds our team that “we are all systems engineers.”  When he said this he wanted to make sure that all of the software engineers, hardware engineers, and control law engineers considered how their changes impacted the rest of the avionics system, the airplane, and the crew.  After participating in the development of a system from requirements capture through test, it became more apparent to me why it was so important.

When I accepted my first job at Rockwell Collins, I completely understand of the responsibilities of the systems engineer, because I had not been exposed to the discipline yet.  Between on the job training, an elective during my master’s degree and independent study, I began to learn the model for systems engineering and the value that it can bring to the development process of complex products. Since I struggled to find resources when I first started as a systems engineer, I thought it would be helpful to share my experiences with other people.  

I am excited to be able to share my experience by leading a workshop at the Society of Women Engineer’s Annual Conference (WE12) this November in Houston.  The session description is:

“In a competitive market, we are all asked to build products that are better, faster, and cheaper. Sometimes that creates pressure to take shortcuts on important steps, like up-front requirements capture. This can create costly yet preventable challenges when it comes time to integrate and test the system. When designing a component, every engineer should understand how it integrates with the rest of the system. We might use a systems engineering model to provide a top down process to define the whole system. This interdisciplinary approach for the design and development of products allows for a complete definition of system requirements that can be allocated to each component of the system. The entire life-cycle of a product is taken into consideration with this approach. This workshop will start with an introduction to the system engineering model, followed by an opportunity to practice capturing requirements of a system, and will conclude with a discussion about verification and validation.”

Follow me (@RebeccaEE) on Twitter for updates and interesting facts as this presentation comes together this fall.  I hope to see you in Houston.

This year I decided to partcipate in the "Letter to my Young Self" project sponsored by the Science Club for Girls in Massachusetts.

Dear Becky (age 10),

You will go to a lot of interesting places that you cannot even imagine right now if you use your strengths and passions.

My first piece of advice is to find a way to use your strengths. You are good at math and science and best of all you like to do it. This makes them two of your strengths so put them to good use. You also like computers and learning how they work. Do not get too frustrated if you do not understand computer programming the first or even second time through, it will eventually make sense because your persistence will pay off.

Next, follow your passions, this may seem like the first piece of advice, but it is slightly different. You have a passion for solving problems and learning new things, both of these will serve you well. Engineering is all about solving problems and because the world around you will be constantly changing there are always new things to learn. Be on the lookout for new passions, you never know when a class or a professor will introduce you to something that you love to do. By the time you graduate from college you will have a third passion for controls. At this point you have never been on an airplane, however this new passion will lead to your first job teaching airplanes how to fly and land themselves. Also, do not ever lose your curiosity it will keep you asking questions which will help you learn new things.

Now find a path that will combine your strengths and your passions. I will not lie, that path will have some bumps and is bound to make a few left turns along the way, but it is totally worth it. Electrical Engineering is not the easiest major in college, but it can be rewarding. It combines math, science, computers, and problem solving in pretty awesome ways. It is everything that you love to do, keep that in mind when assignments get tough. You will go on to graduate from high school and college with honors. After that you will find a great job that will pay you to use your strengths and your passions. This job will give you the opportunity to design and test equipment for airplanes in computer simulations and on real airplanes. Your passion for learning will also drive you to complete a master’s degree in electrical engineering and even consider a Ph.D. Along the way you will meet some great mentors with excellent advice, learn from them.

You will continue to find places to learn after college, like engineering conferences. Recently, I attended a session where Kim Groshek, another woman scientist, said, “No journey is too risky if you have the knowledge, courage, and determination to stay on course.” The main theme of her presentation was to define success on your own terms and that is one of the best pieces of advice I have heard recently. At every point in your life success will mean something different, in college success might be as simple as completing another quarter with a GPA above 3.0. Once you graduate success might be finishing a project at work or getting a promotion. At some point you might also decide that industry is not the right place for you to be, and success will all of a sudden be something completely different. For Kim success has come in many different ways from writing children’s books, to producing movies, to working on computers for the State of Wisconsin. The point is that it is different for everyone and can change at any time, so define what it means for you right now and stick to it.

Finally, try to not worry about the people who call you a nerd or a geek. The further you move along in life following your passions the more new people you will meet that are like you. When you go to a school that only has engineering, science, and math, you will find a lot of new friends that will appreciate you for who you are. These are the friends that will stick with you for life. You will find an organization called the Society of Women Engineers; it is full of women like you and they will inspire you. The most important thing is to be true to yourself, because your opinion is the only one that matters.

The bottom line is that if you follow your passions, use your strengths, and put your mind to it there is no limit to what you can achieve.

Have fun and good luck,

Rebecca (Johnson) Reck (age 28)

This year for the Society of Women Engineers (SWE) is sponsoring a contest at WE11 (their annual conference) called the Mosaic of Memories Quilt.  Each contestant was asked to submit an essay and a 6" x 6" quilt square illustrating their point of view as an engineer or SWE member.  Each submission will be judged at this year's conference and the completed quilt will be on display at WE12.  I was inspired to take advantage of the change to combine my crafty side with my engineering side.  My submission to the Mosaic of Memories Quilt contest is below.

Controls are my passion, which started during my first class at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology. I took all of the controls classes offered, which led to my first full time job designing control laws for the Automatic Flight Control System at Rockwell Collins. While working, I pursued a Masters degree at Iowa State University and researched controls. My next goal is to continue my education, earn a PhD, and then teach controls to the next generation.

The first control law I learned how to model was a Proportional (P), Integral (I), and Derivative (D) design. The pink block labeled with a P corresponds to a proportional gain on the error signal, the I block is a gain times the integral of the error, and the D block corresponds to a gain times the derivative of the error. The pink block labeled with “SYS” is the system under control.The buttons represent summation points. The first button creates an error signal by subtracting the feedback from the reference. The second summation adds all of the control terms to input to the system being controlled.

Instead of a New Year’s Resolution, leadership coach and teacher Ginny Wilson-Peters selects a word to focus on for the year.  It has become an annual tradition for her; this year I’ve decided to do the same.  My word for 2012 is passion.  I chose passion as my word for 2012, because I want refocus my time on my passions: controls and learning.  Dictionary.com defines passion as:

pas•sion [pash-uhn]noun

1. any powerful or compelling emotion or feeling, as love or hate.
2. strong amorous feeling or desire; love; ardor.

Controls are my first passion, not only because I enjoy designing them as a pure engineering exercise, but also because of the potential to impact humanity in many different applications.  For example, the control laws that I help design for the automatic flight control system help reduce pilot workload and make airplanes safer.

I also have a passion for learning because I enjoy the quest for knowledge, understanding new technologies, and solving problems.  Last semester, I completed the advanced track of the Artificial Intelligence class that was offered online for free from Stanford University.  This meant completing all of the homework assignments and exams that the students on campus were required to complete.  I opted to take the class because it was something I have always been curious about and I looked forward to watching the class and completing the homework each week.

In 2012, I am going to look for more opportunities to spend time on my passions.  The first thing I am going to do is participate in the Code Year sponsored by Codecademy.  The mission of Code Year is to “make it easy for everyone to love and learn how to code” in one year, currently there are over 300,000 other people signed up.  Learning how to code will open up more opportunities to implement controls in new ways.  I am also going to read some of the books on my shelf, and catch up on IEEE articles that I have flagged to read.