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Dr Jasjit Heckathorn leads systems engineering at Draper Lab
The division includes sixty-five people in four groups;
her mission is to keep them challenged and
doing their best work for the lab’s clients
 Jasjit Heckathorn, PhD leads a division that works with colleagues across the engineering and program organizations of Charles Stark Draper Laboratory, Inc (Cambridge, MA). Her senior staff guides mission-critical, one-of-a-kind projects related to national defense and space programs, as well as commercial applications of physics, electronics, micromechanical devices, computer and packaging technologies and software engineering.
Heckathorn was invited to lead Draper’s Systems Engineering and Analysis division in 2003. The division includes sixty-five people in four groups: strategic systems, special projects and tactical systems, modeling and simulation, and space programs.
“We have people with very diverse backgrounds supporting programs within the lab,” she says. “People in my division work in all parts of the lab. Every day is different for me.
“I make sure the projects are running smoothly and staffed properly,” she adds. “We need the training, tools and structure to produce the quality work that our customers expect.”
Wide range of engineering
Draper Lab includes some 850 engineers among its 1,300 employees. They work on a wide range of government and commercial projects in strategic systems, space systems, tactical systems, special ops, biomedical engineering, geospatial and energy solutions. Draper Lab’s traditional expertise was in guidance, navigation and control technologies, but this has expanded to reach into many more high-tech areas.
Joining the lab
Heckathorn joined Draper Lab in 1993. She began in the software engineering division, and since then has worked on a variety of projects, including the telecom simulator test station facility located at Cape Canaveral Air Station in Florida. GPS satellites and related ground stations are tested at that facility.
From 1995 to 1998 she had line management responsibility for software engineering, managed more than fifty software engineers and led the software process improvement initiative.
In 1998 she transferred to the systems engineering division and was a systems engineer, technical director and group leader, then the division leader.
She started in Delhi
Heckathorn earned BS and MS degrees in physics at Delhi University (Delhi, India). She came to the U.S. to attend the University of Chicago, where she completed a PhD in theoretical high energy physics in 1977. She met and later married another grad student, also working on a PhD in high energy physics. During her time at U Chicago she spent a summer at CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research (Geneva, Switzerland).
For the next two years she was a Fellow in the physics department of Johns Hopkins University (Baltimore, MD), and also worked as an engineer at Belfort Instruments (Baltimore, MD), a manufacturer of meteorological sensors and systems.
Singer-Kearfott and on
In 1980 she moved to Singer-Kearfott (Wayne, NJ), which became GEC Marconi and is now part of BAE Systems (London, England). There she learned to develop mission-critical real-time embedded software. She led a team that developed software for a delivery system used by special ops forces in the U.S. invasion of Grenada.
She led other teams and contributed to software development for inertial navigation systems for several applications, including the B-1B bomber and the space shuttle. She applied her talents to internal R&D and business development in these areas until 1988.
Northrop was next
Heckathorn went on to Northrop’s Precision Products division (PPD, Norwood, MA) to lead a real-time embedded software development group. She introduced new technologies to the organization, and supported R&D and business development.
She represented PPD on Northrop’s corporate software council and was a member of the software process assessment team, using the Software Engineering Institute (SEI) capability maturity model. She also participated on a team assembled by Northrop and SEI to prototype SEI’s risk assessment methodology.
Finally, she was a facilitator for PPD’s total quality management (TQM) initiative. She helped the division’s project and process teams adopt TQM and trained managers in TQM culture.
Mom was the guide
Her mother, a director of education for the Delhi school system in India, was the guiding influence in young Heckathorn’s life. As her mother was transferred from one area to another her daughter absorbed lessons of leadership and education.
“My mother was my biggest role model,” she says.
Teachers helped nurture her interests; professors supported her in pursuing advanced studies and gaining experience. Managers along the way and at Draper have helped her advance, she notes.
Understandably, Heckathorn considers mentoring part of her job today. She takes notice of what will keep the talented people around her challenged. “I meet with them regularly to be sure they are satisfied and getting the visibility with upper management that they want and deserve,” she says.
Involved in many areas
Heckathorn is also Draper’s representative to the corporate executive board of the International Council on Systems Engineering. This nonprofit organization aims to bring industry, academia and government together to promote technologically appropriate solutions to society’s needs.
Draper offers Heckathorn the opportunity to be involved in many areas of technology. She appreciates technology both for itself and for its value to society. Through her staff, whose members work closely with NASA on space projects and with subcontractor partners like Raytheon and Honeywell on one-of-a-kind special defense projects, she is always learning.
“We are involved in cool high-tech projects,” she says. “It’s very exciting.”
Heckathorn and her husband love living in New England. They like to go hiking, and feel that strenuous exercise in the cool air keeps them grounded. They value their weekends to reflect and put the week’s events into perspective.
Diversity at Draper
Anne Joyce, principal HR director, notes that Draper Lab is committed to a diverse workplace that recognizes and values employees’ differences. “A diverse workforce enriches our organization and contributes to our ability to provide our customers with innovative and
unique solutions,” Joyce says.
D/C
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