Keith Custer

December 2001

Job Title: Software Engineer
Employer: AVISTA Incorporated (Esterline)



Job Description:
I work primarily with Rockwell Collins Multi-Function Display technology development and verification. The MFD is the primary flight instrument used in commercial and government systems aircraft ranging from small transport planes to 747's to combat helicopters. My main functions are creating system and software design requirements that drive code development (which requires various forms of communicating with the customer) and writing system and software tests and running them in a simulation environment (which typically requires some traveling).

My Electrical Engineering training usually lands me in the troubleshooter position for lab and simulation equipment. I'm at my desk, on a computer approximately 70% of the time. The rest is in the lab, on travel, or in meetings / reviews. Most projects are a team effort of 2-12 people where each person has their part, but communication and interaction between the team members is frequent.


UWP Experience:
I enjoyed most of my classes and appreciated the staff that were eager to help and truly understand the material. I failed a couple classes along the way because of my poor study habits, but ended up with a well-rounded understanding and attitude towards the work. I felt adequately prepared for my job, despite it being quite different from the content of most of my classes.


TYPICAL WORK DAY:
Start between 5:30 and 8:30 and reply to email/voice mails (usually someone on the team asking me how to do something on a test rig, a programmer asking about requirements, or a customer or group leader relaying a new task). After that, each day is different (most tasks take a few days to a week on average) - I will spend the next several hours working on requirements or test documents, creating reports or estimations, problem solving/troubleshooting, traveling, working with environment/target hardware, etc.


Sample Project Description:
I can't tell any details about it, but from March of 04 to January 05 I was working on a high-tech display that replaces the old electro-magnetic Horizontal Situation Indicator in a couple types of ARMY Helicopters. The display provides a solution to the dust-storm "brownout" situations that have caused over 30 fatal helicopter crashes in Iraq and Afghanistan. In these cases the "enemy" was lack of visual reference, not terrorists.


Other Comments:
I nearly dropped out of UWP during my Junior year because of some spiritual events happening in my life, along with the time-consuming difficulty of the major I was going for. I decided to try it one more semester; doing my best while having a life outside Otts as well while thinking "if I fail, no big deal, if I do OK, I'll keep going." A couple years later I graduated.

Being an electrical engineering student does take a lot of work, but I learned a lot more than electrical engineering. I encourage students to take it at a comfortable pace so you can do well while maturing in life as well as your studies. Your work ethic can be established while in college as well as your attitude toward the rest of life. A healthy balance in all areas will make you more successful in general and more prone to actually enjoy everything you're doing.