5 ms·

Wild engineer's dream: where can I work on something of the same coolness level? High scientific content, total quality, no compromises whatsoever.

kakaorka 9y ago
Probably nasa or spacex?
MilnerRoute 9y ago
I've heard they really need people who'd be willing to replace the aging programmers who have been overseeing Voyager for a long, long time... https://thenewstack.io/celebrating-nasas-voyager-probes-team-thats-still-supporting/ https://thenewstack.io/celebrating-nasas-voyager-probes-team...
ISL 9y ago
I'll burst the quality bubble now: There were absolutely compromises, and the engineers who shipped it knew myriad ways in which it could be better. To answer the question: Find something you think is equally cool, learn what you can about the field, be open to the possibility of a pay cut, and start knocking on doors. Sometimes doors open. Work really hard when they do.
- warmwaffles 9y ago
  Also engineers love constraints and compromises. It's a nice dance between getting shit done and getting shit done right.
- InclinedPlane 9y ago
  Two months before the Voyager probes were shipped for launch it was found out that Jupiter's magnetic fields and radiation environment were a lot stronger than anticipated, in excess of what the spacecraft were designed to tolerate. They ended up wrapping many of the cables on the spacecraft with aluminum foil bought from a local supermarket as a protective measure.
pryelluw 9y ago
Does it need to be a job? If not, you can build your own low orbit satellites, scale rockets, satellites communications, aquatic robotics and more. In fact, aquatic robotics are one of the most approachable ones because you can do it in a nearby lake/river/beach and do proper science. Plus you can team up with local scientists and help them gather/process data.
- kilroy123 9y ago
  You just gave me so many ideas for fun side projects.
  - pryelluw 9y ago
    Feel free to ping me for any more ideas or help :)
    - dfischer 9y ago
      can you really build a satellite as a hobby project ?
      - pryelluw 9y ago
        Yes, there are things like cube-sats. Problem is affording the launch price. ;)
        chrisallenlane 9y ago
        Even building a cube-sat that never leaves your desk would be an interesting hobby project, really. Non-experts would certainly learn a ton from doing so, and you'd end up with a cool conversation piece, if nothing else.
        pryelluw 9y ago
        Absolutely. It's why building one is on my todo list. Although it could be attached to a weather balloon and still be useful for scientific testing.
PostOnce 9y ago
aerospace (airliners, hardened electronics for space, etc) / robotics (all those problems with the fukushima robots, precision medical and industrial bots) / medical devices of all kinds Of course, you can work on whatever you want to whatever standard you want if you do it on your own time & dime, if you have the willpower and the budget, or can find a patron, crowdfunding is viable now.
PoachedSausage 9y ago
You don't say what kind of engineering you do, but you could do worse than working at a particle physics lab. You have everything from data analysis, complex control systems, physics simulations, high voltage electrical engineering... the list goes on. Ok, the pay isn't silicon valley level but most labs take work life balance and professional development quite seriously and you get to work on cool stuff.
- mikekchar 9y ago
  I just want to say that I've literally done this and it was awesome. Granted it was when I was at university and it was a "part time" job, but I've often thought about going back. Now this is going back 30 years and academia in NA has probably changed a lot, but at least at that time most of the top research groups had enough money to hire full time "technicians". At my university it was a union position, so the pay and benefits were not bad compared to the rest of society. Of course compared to the high tech industry, the pay was not even close :-) Probably for that reason, every body I worked with was passionate, brilliant and more than a bit quirky. Anyway, I ended up working in a chemistry group doing crystallography, a physics group doing high energy physics and an astronomy group that was working on community education programs. Each team had really interesting challenges. One thing I would caution (from my experience) is that the attitude was very much "get it to work" vs "do it properly". I was writing software and had quite a bit of freedom, but the hardware guys were often tasked with, "We have this problem and there is nothing that we can buy/afford that will solve it. Could you please invent something? You have that mountain of spare parts from previous projects to work with". They would be wandering around the department saying things like, "Do you need that <whatever piece of electronics> any more?", and then would steadfastly break it down to get the parts/components that they needed. Probably less reusable stuff in electronics these days, but I remember being pretty awestruck at the time by what they could scavenge and then build. I remember in the physics lab, my supervisor/boss had bought a laser printer from Europe. Because it was 240 volt, they built a voltage doubler so that they could use it. One day they accidentally plugged it into 2 voltage doublers and... well, predictably it no longer worked. But my buddy quite happily pounced on the dead carcass and I don't think it lasted more than a couple of hours before the working parts were repurposed for something else. Like I said, this was a long time ago, but I imagine things still mostly work the same. Awesome place to work.

kakaorka 9y ago

Probably nasa or spacex?

MilnerRoute 9y ago

I've heard they really need people who'd be willing to replace the aging programmers who have been overseeing Voyager for a long, long time... https://thenewstack.io/celebrating-nasas-voyager-probes-team-thats-still-supporting/ https://thenewstack.io/celebrating-nasas-voyager-probes-team...

ISL 9y ago

I'll burst the quality bubble now: There were absolutely compromises, and the engineers who shipped it knew myriad ways in which it could be better. To answer the question: Find something you think is equally cool, learn what you can about the field, be open to the possibility of a pay cut, and start knocking on doors. Sometimes doors open. Work really hard when they do.

warmwaffles 9y ago
Also engineers love constraints and compromises. It's a nice dance between getting shit done and getting shit done right.
InclinedPlane 9y ago
Two months before the Voyager probes were shipped for launch it was found out that Jupiter's magnetic fields and radiation environment were a lot stronger than anticipated, in excess of what the spacecraft were designed to tolerate. They ended up wrapping many of the cables on the spacecraft with aluminum foil bought from a local supermarket as a protective measure.

pryelluw 9y ago

Does it need to be a job? If not, you can build your own low orbit satellites, scale rockets, satellites communications, aquatic robotics and more. In fact, aquatic robotics are one of the most approachable ones because you can do it in a nearby lake/river/beach and do proper science. Plus you can team up with local scientists and help them gather/process data.

kilroy123 9y ago
You just gave me so many ideas for fun side projects.
- pryelluw 9y ago
  Feel free to ping me for any more ideas or help :)
  - dfischer 9y ago
    can you really build a satellite as a hobby project ?
    - pryelluw 9y ago
      Yes, there are things like cube-sats. Problem is affording the launch price. ;)
      - chrisallenlane 9y ago
        Even building a cube-sat that never leaves your desk would be an interesting hobby project, really. Non-experts would certainly learn a ton from doing so, and you'd end up with a cool conversation piece, if nothing else.
        pryelluw 9y ago
        Absolutely. It's why building one is on my todo list. Although it could be attached to a weather balloon and still be useful for scientific testing.

PostOnce 9y ago

aerospace (airliners, hardened electronics for space, etc) / robotics (all those problems with the fukushima robots, precision medical and industrial bots) / medical devices of all kinds Of course, you can work on whatever you want to whatever standard you want if you do it on your own time & dime, if you have the willpower and the budget, or can find a patron, crowdfunding is viable now.

PoachedSausage 9y ago

You don't say what kind of engineering you do, but you could do worse than working at a particle physics lab. You have everything from data analysis, complex control systems, physics simulations, high voltage electrical engineering... the list goes on. Ok, the pay isn't silicon valley level but most labs take work life balance and professional development quite seriously and you get to work on cool stuff.

mikekchar 9y ago
I just want to say that I've literally done this and it was awesome. Granted it was when I was at university and it was a "part time" job, but I've often thought about going back. Now this is going back 30 years and academia in NA has probably changed a lot, but at least at that time most of the top research groups had enough money to hire full time "technicians". At my university it was a union position, so the pay and benefits were not bad compared to the rest of society. Of course compared to the high tech industry, the pay was not even close :-) Probably for that reason, every body I worked with was passionate, brilliant and more than a bit quirky. Anyway, I ended up working in a chemistry group doing crystallography, a physics group doing high energy physics and an astronomy group that was working on community education programs. Each team had really interesting challenges. One thing I would caution (from my experience) is that the attitude was very much "get it to work" vs "do it properly". I was writing software and had quite a bit of freedom, but the hardware guys were often tasked with, "We have this problem and there is nothing that we can buy/afford that will solve it. Could you please invent something? You have that mountain of spare parts from previous projects to work with". They would be wandering around the department saying things like, "Do you need that <whatever piece of electronics> any more?", and then would steadfastly break it down to get the parts/components that they needed. Probably less reusable stuff in electronics these days, but I remember being pretty awestruck at the time by what they could scavenge and then build. I remember in the physics lab, my supervisor/boss had bought a laser printer from Europe. Because it was 240 volt, they built a voltage doubler so that they could use it. One day they accidentally plugged it into 2 voltage doublers and... well, predictably it no longer worked. But my buddy quite happily pounced on the dead carcass and I don't think it lasted more than a couple of hours before the working parts were repurposed for something else. Like I said, this was a long time ago, but I imagine things still mostly work the same. Awesome place to work.