Greetings Traceologists!

    I am back from Dallas and the interview went stellar!  I hear a decision around Wednesday and my life is slowly resuming normalcy.  Dallas was awesome! I arrived Thursday night, stayed at a Hilton Garden Inn, and basically prepped for my interview and slept.  Friday was interview day which occurred from 8am to 4pm.  They first gave us an overview of the company, the benefits entailed with the job I applied for, along with a meet and greet.  Once formalities were made, the company had approximately 17 interviewers in which each candidate was interviewed by 3 employees.  After the gruesome 2 and a half hour interview, lunch was served along with a presentation on the different types of products generated from the company.  The job I applied for is part of Raytheon’s S.A.S. (space and aeronautical systems) program which involves the design and manufacturing of various sensors, satellites, microprocessors, motherboards, etc that assist in the operations of various platforms.  Probably the most notable "invention" of the company is the sensor located on the Predator aircraft featured in the armed forces commercial.  The final event of the day included 2 tours; the first was a tour of an assembly line for integrated motherboards that are custom made and are solely produced “in house.”  The second tour was more of a CSI type of job in which chemists and mechanical engineers use latest technology to identify foreign objects (i.e. liquids, deformations, solids, etc.) collected in different weapons systems to see how and if they affect the production and performance of a specific component.  Overall the experience was priceless and amazing!

Hello!

 I know it’s been a while but I finally have time to breath and update you and the wonderful life of Traci.  School has been hellacious! Senior design is taking over my life and my electives are harder than I expected.  Between work, school, a pathetic excuse of a social life, finding a full time job upon graduation, GRE studying, applying for fellowships, and contemplating grad school, my life is not that bad…haha.  Some how I am managing all of these things but I wish my grades were slightly better….oh well… just need to graduate….

In better news… tomorrow I leave for Dallas, TX for a full time job interview with Raytheon.  I super excited!! It’s an all expense paid trip complete with flight, rental car, and hotel!  Hopefully I’ll get this job so I don’t need to worry about my GPA next semester….bah!  I’m bringing my laptop on the trip, so after the interview on Friday, I’ll be sure to update all of you on how the whole experience went!  According to the email sent, I will be receiving a job decision within 48 hours. :D Well that’s it for now… off to homework and packing! 

hello traceologers!

     So last week was crazzyy and life is finally falling into place.  Last wednesday was Engineering Day where different companies attend  and students try to get internships, full time jobs, and co-ops...its a career fiar for engineering firms basically..personally I was trying to obtain a full time job since I am graduating in spring :(  To my luck I was able to get a few interviews with some awesome companies.  Here's a few... Lockheed Martin, Norfolk Naval Ship Yard, US State Department, and Northrop Grumman.  I'm not oging to lie, the career fair kinda scared me... I really don't want to graduate or grow up... college life fits me...but I guess the time has finally come...time to be an adult.  As for grad school I think I've decided to hold off on it... I'm still going to apply but practically all of these companies will pay 100% of the tuition while still being on salary.  I think I want to stay within Florida but truthfully with this economy ...you have to follow the money.  

I can't believe we beat BYU!!!!! We honestly beat the #7 team in the country!!!! WHOOOO!!!! too bad some people ::cough cough ESPN cough:: aren't giving us enough credit!!!!! But who cares!!! We're back and ready to win the rest of our season!!!! Hopefully this win is what we needed to carry the momentum for the rest of the season.  Enough with my sports input....

I wanted to write you all about my Senior Design project for the next two semesters.  I was chosen to be on a team for a High Speed Sand Target Impact Testing developed by Eglin Airforce Base in Panama City, FL.  The test is design to collect various data points which gives information about displacement vectors, force exertion, impact forces, etc.  My team is tasked to develop this test so that it is fully automated and no human interaction is necessary.  This is probably the biggest challenge considering that programming is not the strongest point in a mechanical engineers "skill-toolbox."  But non the less this should be an awesome experience and I can't wait to  go take a visit to see how the current test is conducted.  I also though it was pretty ironic that I go from the Navy to the Airforce when it comes to projects and internships...haha!

Hello again.... pardon the delay in posts... life got a bit hectic...but its the 3rd week and time to buckle down!!

Well I promised some pictures and stories about my summer and here is one of them!  During the third or fourth wee of the internship, all the interns were invited to go to Norfolk to visit the naval ship yard.  We got to tour a few ships, talk to a few sailors, see a few weapons systems (so cool!!) and test ride some pretty freakin' fast boats!  One of the ships we saw was the USS George W. Bush which is the number 77 (i think) aircraft carrier featured in Transformers 2... it was the ship that blew up.  That ship amazed me! Calling it huge is a major understatement... after we viewed that ship we went on a tour of the USS Vela Golf..definitely smaller but still pretty big... I never realized how internally complicated these ships are... some have work out rooms, complicated technology, tons of various weapons, among a lot of other cool stuff.  This specific ship was used to assist in the war on pirating along with other assigned tasks.  We were able to view a few of the weapons and taught how they worked and what type of damage its capable of.  Towards the end of our trip, we attended a civilian boat show where civilian companies (ie. Lockheed Martin, etc.) can show off their crazy new boat inventions in hopes of selling them to the government.  There were spider looking ones, amphibious ones (can go in and out of water), cigar-like boats.... I could go on and on.... well enough with the chit-chat and here are the pics!!!!

     Ok ok so it’s been a while and I apologize but internet was very limited in Virginia…butttttt IM BACK!! School just started back up again and life is getting crazy! I graduate in spring and I’m freaking out a little about that.  I want to tell you about Virginia and all its crazy encounters! For those of you just tuning in to Traceology, this summer I was offered an internship with the Department of Defense. I lived in Bowling Green, VA and worked in Dahlgren, VA. Dahlgren is the home to a Naval Weapons Support Base which conducts a lot of research, manufacturing, and testing of various weapons systems. The experience as a whole was AMAZING and I couldn’t have expected more. I had two main projects this summer and have a patent pending!  One of my projects was the patent which is an integrated docking station.  Basically the I.D.S. (integrated docking station) allows for the user (i.e. soldiers, sailors, pilots, etc of the armed forces) to have complete control of the weapon fire control system while maintaining target control via computer software…hope I explained that well. The other project was a thermal analysis of a weapon fire control system in which I conducted physical and software simulated experiments to make sure that none of the components of the weapon system overheated and can work under harsh conditions…overall…pretty fun stuff. During the internship I met a lot of other interns from across the country which was cool….visited Virginia Tech…pretty cool…(its kinda like FSU but instead of brick they have Hokie Stone haha)…. I also went to D.C. for the Fourth of July which is a whole post in itself with pics!!.....went to Norfolk Naval Shipyard (another post in itself with pics!!)…frequently visited Fredrickburg, Virginia Beach, and some amusement parks.  

So I received an email from an incoming freshman who had a few questions about engineering. Since I am away from the office and can’t access my work email, I decided to reply to the email via blogging…hope this helps Yves!

To catch the rest of you up with the email, I was asked about how to start up and get on track with mechanical engineering, which classes are good to take, etc. My first word of advise would be to start out right away with your pre-req’s for the major…this includes calc I, II, and III ….physics I and II (with labs)….chemistry I and if you’re a chemical engineer then chemistry II as well….also get the intro engineering courses out of the way such as intro to electrical engineering ( yes mechies need to take this)…intro to engineering…and material science and engineering….ok I think that covers all the intro classes….Now as far as other courses to take throughout your semester since you can’t and shouldn’t take all of these as a full load (meaning spread the pre-req’s out within 3-5 semesters…this includes summers as a semester) here are a few suggestions. Since engineering is not necessarily the best GPA boosting major, take fairly easy classes to cover your liberal arts classes… some that I took include: intro to theatre, enc 1101 (theme of class was popular culture), enc 1145 (theme was poetry…. Yes I wrote poems), modern popular music, Spanish literature in translation (was easy for me since I am bilingual and had read some of the text in an AP Spanish class in high school), social problems, multicultural film ( you watch modern movies and write short essays on them) along with some others. At orientation, your group leader should give you a booklet that has a list of some courses for liberal arts and a mini summary of them…choose some classes that appeal to you and more than likely you’ll enjoy them and they won’t seem difficult. Another good tool is ratemyprofessor.com. This site gives you a good idea of what the teacher is like according to previous students in the class.

Greetings from Virginia! Sorry I haven’t updated in a while but life has been pretty hectic. To sum up the past four days….Friday I left Tallahassee and started my drive to up to Virginia…. Stopped in South Carolina for the night and finished the drive on Saturday….Sunday was unpacking day and getting to know the area. Yesterday was my first day of the internship in Dahlgren, VA at the Naval Weapons base. Nothing too eventful since a lot of the day was spent signing disclosure agreements, getting badges, getting to know our mentors and work area, etc. Today me and the 2 other interns got to set up our office area and computers which was pretty exciting considering this is my first desk job ever….my own desk, computer, phone line….anyways…Today I got to check out some cool army vehicles that were having various maintenance performed on them in the building next to me. It’s pretty cool to watch when they have to clean the vehicle prior to fixing it….when they hose them down, a ton of sand from the Middle East just falls out of every crevice of the tank. Since the base I work on tests various weapons, bombs, and explosive protection devices, I’ve had a few surprises of loud explosive noises during field testing within the area…scared the heck out of me…

Hello again!  I know I know…. It’s been a while since you have last heard from me but I do have a few funnies for you!  This past week I spent at home in Miami with family and friends since I haven’t seen them since January.  Basically I just went to the beach, shopped, slept (which was much needed), and hit up some of the great Miami nightlife hot spots.  I’m sure you all know that last Tuesday was Mexican Independence Day and what better way to spend than in the authentic city of Miami with 5 of my closest girl friends.  After an anxious journey from Sarasota, the girls finally made it in town by noon.  We hit up South Beach as well as doing a little sight seeing since it was their first time in the 305, ate an amazing Mexican feast at home… then at night we definitely lived up to the Cinco de Mayo fun at Mokai on the beach….met some cool people, ran into some other Noles…and definitely enjoyed the great tans we sported thanks to the lovely Miami sun.  The girls kinda got a few surprises while in Miami.  To name a few….yes…South Beach can be a topless beach especially to the European women so don’t freak out….yes…everyone in Miami speaks Spanish so don’t be surprised when at McDonalds they ask you what you want in Spanish….and finally yes… you are probably the only natural blonde in the vicinity of the 305 so you might get weird stares and looks…  Although the 2 day mini vacay had to end, we definitely decided we need to do it again! As for the rest of my week vacation in Miami, I basically did the same routine every day and eventually flew back up to Tallahassee on the 9th.  Still no update on the internship but I’ll be sure to keep you informed! Later!  

So the winds have changed and the tides have turned……can you believe I actually FINALLY got an internship!!!! A very nice gentleman called me twice on Monday and out of stupidity I didn’t pick up the first time since I don’t answer numbers I don’t recognize.  When he called the second time my best friend Jon convinced me to pick up and jokingly said…”hey answer it… it could be an internship..haha not!”…. well wouldn’t you know! It was Mr.  Fuller from the US Navy Department of Defense inquiring on my interest on possibly participating in an eight to ten week internship this summer!  He asked me a few questions on what engineering related activities I participate in along with if I was familiar with a few various 3D software programs.  After giving me some brief information on what exactly I would be doing upon acceptance I gladly accepted and immediately started freaking out.  Basically what I would be doing is drafting, designing, prototyping, machining, and eventually testing air craft carrier missiles.  I’ll be located in Dahlgren, VA which is basically a naval base surrounded by nothing and is located about 45 minutes outside of D.C.  I’m not going to lie…. I’m pretty stoked!  In high school I was able to build killer combatant robots and now I get to design and launch government missiles….so awesome!!!!  Not only that but I have to get security clearance…that’s like one of those childhood fantasies to work for the government and be included in all the top secret activities and do super cool stuff.  Although this is a great opportunity I am pretty scared… this is like the first step into adulthood… completely living on my own, in a state I have visited barely one time, surrounded by a bunch of really intense naval people….whoa.  Currently I’m looking at places to live up there and gaining the mental stability to embark on this once in a life time adventure…. Wish me luck! Later kiddos!