TIANNA SHAW

Mathematics and science play important roles in my career as an electrical engineer working in the Life Sciences area. I have lead engineering responsibilities in the areas of data acquisition and control for a number of the Life Science facilities. My responsibilities include providing electronics, data acquisition support for facilities and experiments. I also have a lead role in the design of a control system for the Human Powered Centrifuge. My areas of speciality in college were Signal Processing and Control made all the complicated mathematics I had to take more meaningful. Applying the theory and creating a system that works well for a particular purpose is very exciting. Knowledge of science, especially human physiology, are very important in designing systems used for human research. I have found that this knowledge often bridges the communication gap between myself as an engineer and a researcher or scientist.

The most exciting thing about my job is the variety of projects that are going on at Ames and NASA and the flexibility to see what others are doing in different areas. One of the exciting things about working in this field is that there is not really an average day. I have been working in the Division for about two years. The first projects that I worked on mostly revolved around specifying a new data acquisition and medical monitor station for the 20 G centrifuge that was recently renovated. Now that the work on the facility has been completed, experiments can be run. I often work on developing the data acquisition programs for the different experiments, work with the investigators to provide them with their data. In addition, there are meetings to discuss the various projects with my supervisors and other engineering support people.

I always enjoyed math and science all the way through high school. I even thought I was good at it - that is until I went to college. The transition from a small high school on an Indian reservation with a graduating class of 44 to a large private university was quite a shock. I struggled my first couple of years both because I did not have a very strong educational background and because many of my classmates did. I stuck with it because I knew what I wanted to do. After a couple of years - when the material was new to everyone-I started to catch up with the others. Continuing on to graduate school allowed me to further define my specialities, and because that was what I was actually interested in, things were a lot easier and actually fun!

I never really cared about what others thought I should do. A lot of people in my high school class may have been a little more popular than I was, but I am the one who has a great job with NASA, making money and having a great time. Don't worry too much about what others may think of you and your grades when you first start college. Instead figure out what your weaknesses are and find ways to get help with them - classmates, professors, tutors. I had a difficult time asking for help. Try not to be intimidated by the thought that you really don't know enough to even ask for help. Just do it anyway. Eventually you find out that you aren't the only one who doesn't understand. If your professor or other person you ask for help isn't working for you or there are problems based upon communication or personality styles, find someone else and keep looking until you find the right person to help make things click for you.

You don't need to have your life figured out before you consider college. I was lucky that I chose something that I actually liked-before I even knew what it was. At this age just keep yourself open to exploring possibilities and learning about things. The more you become involved at this age, the easier it will be to choose a college to go to or career. Make sure you do something that you are interested in - remember not every major is right for everyone. Select yours thoughtfully and allow yourself to switch, if desired. Changing your mind when you are in school will not make that much difference in terms of years once you have been working for thirty or forty years. It's best to find something that is good for you now rather than waiting.

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