Transportation, always on the move, opens up great jobs for diverse techies

"The technology is often off-the-shelf, but it's a challenge to integrate it into a public transit system." – Louis Sanders, APTA

"The mission keeps building and growing and we have to keep up, but knowing that the work contributes to the safety of the American public is a huge reward." – Dr Emma Garrison-Alexander, TSA

By Laurel McKee Ranger
Contributing Editor

Whether it's goods or people to be moved, transportation technology is changing, and changing our lives. Many services are now transported virtually via the Internet, but most goods still arrive by truck, train, ship and plane, most people still commute to their jobs, and although more and more business is being done through virtual meetings, much of it still depends on face-to-face contact and requires travel.

Public transportation: making strides
Public transportation is clearly changing. EE Louis Sanders, director of technical services at the American Public Transportation Association (APTA, Washington, DC), stresses that in recent years public transportation has done a lot to incorporate advanced technology into its systems. "One of the most important areas is the use of alternative energy for buses. There are electric buses and hybrids now, and some use hydrogen fuel cells," says Sanders.

A lot is being done with electronic systems integration
for operations like computer-aided dispatch, automatic vehicle location, automatic passenger counters and electronic payment systems, as well as integration of train and bus schedules. "Technology for this is off-the-shelf today, but it's a challenge to integrate it into a public transit system," Sanders explains.

"All our systems have a substantial amount of IT behind them, but integrating stand-alone pieces into the overall system can be difficult."

Big need for techies
Sanders says public transportation systems need IT pros who know systems integration, database management and applications within the system, as well as mechanical technicians and MEs with skills adaptable to public transit.

On the rail side, positive train control is a major issue. The federal government has mandated advanced safety techniques to stop trains automatically before they can exceed limits of authority. This requirement has tight deadlines, increasing the need for techies with communications and electronics backgrounds to integrate and install the controls.

A livelier note: text or email alerts on transit matters are available for passengers in Washington, DC, Salt Lake City and some other big cities. Plenty of complex technology there!

Alfred Price works in telecom in the DC metro area
Alfred Price certainly knows the challenges and rewards of working in public transportation. He's a senior telecom engineer at the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA, Washington, DC). WMATA provides buses and both underground and aboveground rail service in the DC metro area.

It's Price's job to evaluate newer technologies like LAN, WAN and fiber optics for WMATA's many systems: security, PA, fire and intrusion, radio and the CCTV network. "Right now we're overseeing the communications design for the Dulles Airport Metrorail extension," Price reveals.

The thirteen-station all-above-ground airport extension will bring rail service from the nation's capital to Dulles Airport. The first five stations are already under construction, and Price and his assistant oversee the contractors.

"Basically, I'm going out and making sure the contractors are following the specs," Price says. "We are also dealing with video analytics for Homeland Security with this project."

Price has a 1994 BS in electronic engineering technology from Norfolk State University (Norfolk, VA) and is working toward a project management professional (PMP) certification from the Project Management Professional Institute. He's a member of the Conference of Minority Transportation Officials and Kappa Alpha Psi Inc.

He grew up in DC and worked at Washington's Potomac Electric Power Co for three summers while he was in school. "I learned a lot from the EEs there," he says.

After graduation he worked for the Institute of Paper Science and Technology (Atlanta, GA) as an electronics engineer for two years. Then he joined Prime Company Communications (Richmond, VA), where he designed wireless phone infrastructures. In 1997 he took his skills to Sprint PCS (Overland Park, KS) and worked as an RF engineer in the Virginia Beach area for several years. Then he became a senior RF engineer with Telecom Wireless Solutions (Atlanta, GA).

In 2002 he joined True Position (King of Prussia, PA), which provides wireless location intelligence and solutions, as a senior systems design engineer. In 2003 he moved to WMATA as a telecom engineer. "Metro believes in diversity," he notes with pleasure.

After hours, Price volunteers with his fraternity in health awareness and youth development programs. He also gets into scuba diving and golf, and coaches a girls' basketball team for a DC high school. Occasionally he brings his son to work with him, "but he wants to be a doctor, not an engineer," he says.

His biggest pleasure on the job is shepherding a project from start to finish. "You watch it go through the whole process, and then you see your work paying off in the field maybe six months later!"

Dr Dharma Acharya builds operations research tools for CSX
CSX Corp (Jacksonville, FL) provides both rail freight and intermodal transportation: trucking and the like. As assistant VP of operations research at CSX, Dharma Acharya, PhD, with seven direct reports, is responsible for systems that create and maintain the railroad's operating plan. That, he says, includes crew and locomotive plans for running trains. Acharya's group is part of the service design department, and works closely with service planning and other departments.

"We put tools that are easy to use in the hands of those who operate the network," Acharya explains. "Our objective is to build decision-making tools using optimization, simulation, statistical and analytical techniques."

One recent development is a crew-balancing tool; "The field people responsible for assigning train crews are already using it," he says. The team also works on data analysis projects and special studies for senior management.

Growing up in the Palpa district of Nepal, Acharya always wanted to be a doctor or an engineer. He went to Tong-Ji University (Shanghai, China) on a scholarship to study highway engineering, and when he completed his BS in 1983 he moved into a masters program in transportation engineering at the University of Massachusetts (Amherst, MA). He completed his MS in 1985 and went on to a 1990 PhD in transportation systems from MIT (Cambridge, MA).

While at MIT Acharya interned with Burlington Northern Railway. After graduation he went to work for the Association of American Railroads (Washington, DC) as a senior research engineer. In 1994 he moved to CSX as manager of operations research, and became director of ops research in 1995. In 2001 he received the Chairman's Award of Excellence, and in 2004 he became assistant VP of the group.

Acharya has many passions in addition to his career. Along with his daughter Sheila, a recent graduate of Flagler College, he helps Nepali-speaking refugees from Bhutan who have resettled in the Jacksonville area.

Does he miss the high mountains of Nepal? "Of course," he admits. But he's thankful for the opportunities he's had in America, and enjoys living with his family in Jacksonville.

Christy Thomas develops apps at BNSF
Christy Thomas is an application development manager in technology services with BNSF Railway (Fort Worth, TX). She delivers apps used by field personnel to help move rail cars through a rail yard. She directs a team of nine BNSF people and five contractors. Each year she's given a set of business objectives, and works with company leaders to gather project requirements. She staffs the projects and handles the delivery of the solution.

She studies railroad processes with an eye to standardization: right now every rail yard operates a little differently, she explains. Her job takes her to various terminals "to create technology that enables the standardization of the business processes we're rolling out."

Another key part of the job is developing the people on her team. "I spend a lot of time working on opportunities to help them grow," she says.

Thomas is a native Texan and has a 1999 BS in CIS from Tarleton State University (Stephenville, TX). As the mother of four children, she says it may be a while before she starts her MBA; but she did complete her BS in two and a half years when she was a single mother with two young daughters. She took the technical track, she says, because with two young children she needed a profession with a strong future.

After graduation she was offered a consulting job in Australia and went out there with the kids. But the job lasted only a few months, and she returned to the U.S. and joined BNSF in 2000 as a developer in the management trainee program. She went on to project lead, then manager, and, this year, senior manager.

She really likes the job, she says. "It changes every day. I understand the business aspects and can communicate between the technical and business groups. I'm always looking for opportunities to streamline and advance the technology here." She has particularly enjoyed making the technology more intuitive.

At BNSF Thomas had the chance to support a variety of business areas as well as work with external vendors. "You can move here," she says. A nice plus: her husband works in the same technical department.

"BNSF is very flexible and supportive of family," she says. "If I need to leave to attend a school function I can log back in when I get home at night. The people here are wonderful, like extended family, and the company is very loyal."

At Bombardier, Judy Pringle works on the rail side
Incorporated in 1942, Bombardier has international HQ in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, and U.S. HQ in Washington DC. The company's initial business was the manufacture of snowmobiles; it diversified into the mass transit field in the 1970s and into aerospace in the '80s. Today the company provides rail vehicles: automated people movers, monorails, light rail vehicles, advanced rapid transit, metros, commuter/regional trains, intercity/high-speed trains and locomotives; propulsion and control systems and rail bogies. It also offers services like fleet maintenance, ops and maintenance, vehicle refurbishment and modernization and material management; customized transportation system solutions; and signaling solutions for mass transit and mainline systems.

Bombardier also makes business aircraft under the Learjet, Challenger and Global brands, commercial aircraft, amphibious aircraft, jet travel and specialized aircraft solutions, and provides aircraft services and training.

Judy Pringle is an engineering specialist level 1 at Bombardier. She works in the systems integration group of the company's transportation systems division in Pittsburgh, PA. "We provided the automated people movers in many airports across the U.S., including Atlanta, GA, Denver, CO and Orlando, FL. We also do systems integration for mass transit systems," she says.

Pringle has traveled to Asia, Europe, Canada and throughout the U.S. to check up on her systems, spending as much as a month at a site. "I go to design meetings, reviews, testing and commissioning to provide operating systems support in the control room. I make sure the system is operating as per the design," she explains.

This year she spent three weeks in Korea. Earlier she spent six months in Singapore helping with operating systems. Her responsibilities include the layout of the system, how many trains there will be, how fast they will operate and how many people they will move. "We use proprietary simulation software that I helped develop and keep updated. We do R&D on it every year."

Although Pringle has spent time on the management side she really prefers the engineering track. She has a 1981 BS in math and another in CS from the University of Pittsburgh (Pittsburgh, PA) and started work in the process control division of Westinghouse. In 1990 she moved to AEG Westinghouse, a transportation company formed from Westinghouse Transportation Systems and AEG. That company became Adtranz, which was acquired by Bombardier in 2001.

Pringle began working in transportation because of her background in operating systems. "I started out writing software for process control apps. Transit control is, when you think about it, actually a very specialized form of process control."

She found it a male-dominated industry. "I've had everyone turn and start ordering coffee when I walked in to present a design. I've had to prove myself over and over again," she says. Even today, she thinks only about ten percent of technical pros in transportation are women.

Pringle herself is part of the Women in Leadership program at Bombardier's Pittsburgh facility. "I'm mentoring three women, in engineering, finance and admin," she says.

Her work is very challenging. "You're always pushing the envelope, trying to get a little more performance out of a system. You look to create better trains, better and faster rides, and to get the trains to run closer together."

Hard work, but she loves it. "When I quit having fun I'll be looking for another job! Watching your own creation, your 'baby,' start running and carrying passengers, taking it from design to completion and seeing it work perfectly on opening day: you can't beat that!" she says.

Michael P. Mena: cockpit programs at Gulfstream Aerospace
Michael P. Mena is director of advanced cockpit programs at Gulfstream Aerospace Corp (Savannah, GA), which designs, builds, markets and services business jet aircraft. Mena is responsible for developing new cockpit systems for the Gulfstream fleet; he reviews new and emerging technologies to see if they're ready to use in the fleet.

Mena has a wealth of experience in aviation and avionic systems design and integration. He completed a BS in technology and electrical and electronics design at California State University-Los Angeles in 1985 and started with Douglas Aircraft (Long Beach, CA), a subsidiary of McDonnell Douglas, as a cognizant engineer in performance management systems.

In 1988 he moved up to engineering manager of flight management systems, and in 1991 to business unit manager of avionics, then program manager for the MD-90 for Saudi- Arabian Airlines.

In 1998 he joined Gulfstream as program manager for the company's enhanced vision system, and in 1999 moved up to director and program manager for the G550 and G500. He became director of advanced cockpit programs in 2004. He's also a senior member of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.

Mena's grandparents, originally from Mexico, moved to Texas in the early 1900s. Mena grew up in Los Angeles, CA, and when he completed high school in 1973 he enlisted in the army. He was trained as a medic and then as a clinical specialist.

After he got his honorable discharge he took the registered nursing board exams and got his license. He worked as nurse in the ICU at the Alhambra, CA community hospital. "At first I considered going to med school, but I soon saw it was not for me," he says. "My longtime love was aviation, especially the instruments that go into airplane cockpits. I decided to use my GI bill to go back to college and study electronic design, and aim for a position as an avionics engineer in the aerospace industry."

Good aim! Mena is pleased with his career at Gulfstream. "It's a great company and growing, but it's still small enough so you have direct access to the senior leadership team. We're working in an environment that promotes innovation, to give our customers the best in terms of safety and technology."

Over the years Mena, solo or with his team, has received several awards, including the 2003 Robert J. Collier trophy for the G550 and the 2007 Honeywell Bendix trophy for aviation safety, which Mena received as a member of the synthetic vision development team. "Our approach is to develop systems that let airplanes fly in and out of airports in low-visibility conditions without relying totally on ground systems," he says.

After work Mena enjoys Cuban and Puerto Rican music. He plays the conga drums himself and performs with his old band occasionally when he goes back to Los Angeles for a visit. He also works with Habitat for Humanity and Literacy Volunteers of the Lowcountry.

In 2006 Mena was recognized as one of the hundred most important Hispanics in technology and business by the Career Communications Group, Inc.

Inclusion at Gulfstream
Ira Berman, Gulfstream SVP for admin and general counsel, notes that the company is "passionate about sustaining an inclusive environment where all employees are able to achieve their best work. As an international company we value and rely on the diverse demographics in our workforce, customer base and vendor relationships."

Gulfstream works with the Black Engineer of the Year awards, SHPE, Women of Color, AISES, SWE, Women in Aviation International, and Women in Corporate Aviation, and with HBCUs. It offers co-op and internship programs as well as programs aimed at encouraging high school students interested in aviation.

The company currently has more than a thousand engineers working in categories ranging from acoustics to vibration. At present it is not actively hiring except to fill vacancies.

Ignacio Roman: rail lines and roadways at AECOM
Ignacio Roman is a project manager with AECOM (Los Angeles, CA), a Fortune 500 company that provides professional, technical, management and support services to transportation and infrastructure markets. Roman works on transportation projects: transit, including passenger/rail systems, and roadways. As a PM he coordinates with government agencies and other clients, staff and sub-consultants.

Like other managers, Roman works to bring projects in on budget and on time. He also pays careful attention to the needs of his team, and goes out of his way to train and develop his staff.

Roman has a general CE background with extensive transportation engineering experience that includes addressing water quality issues on many projects. "I seem to have built a niche around storm water and water quality issues," he notes with a smile.

An important client of Roman's is the Alameda Corridor Transportation Authority (ACTA, Carson, CA). He's supporting the twenty-mile rail cargo expressway that connects the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles to the transcontinental rail network. He's also been involved in the Schuyler Heim moveable bridge replacement project and the SR-47 expressway extension project. Both are needed to increase traffic capacity from the ports to the Alameda corridor, and to comply with latest seismic code.

"Construction starts next spring," he says. "I'm using all my design and communication skills to work with ACTA leadership to keep the project on schedule."

Roman's parents are from Zacatecas, Mexico, and he was born in East Los Angeles. "We grew up in a tough community south of LA," he recalls. "There wasn't a lot of hope there and we didn't know what to aspire to. It wasn't until I went to a Catholic boys' high school that I realized that college could prepare me for many career opportunities."

Now Roman has a 1992 BSCE from the University of California-Los Angeles and a 1993 MS in EnvE from the University of California-Berkeley. He also inspired his seven siblings to aspire to college.

While at UCLA he interned with the soils test lab at the water division of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. After graduation he worked for the road maintenance division of the Los Angeles County Department of Public Works for two years, then moved to Hatch Mott McDonald (Fremont, CA), a rapidly expanding architectural and engineering firm.

"I worked for the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority, focused on a rail transit expansion program," he says. "Eventually I got into construction management. I learned to resolve hard construction issues because I listened to everybody involved." In 2002 he joined AECOM.

Today Roman is a founding member of AECOM's professional growth initiative and its sustainability committee, and an active member of AECOM-LA's Toastmasters. He also volunteers in local schools through a number of programs and has been acknowledged by the California State Assembly, Caltrans and the LA City Council for his work.

He tells young engineers to look for work experience in a variety of CE areas. "They will understand the field better, and find their own passion," he says.

Diversity at AECOM
Teuila Hanson, AECOM assistant general counsel and director of diversity, notes that AECOM employees at every level are involved in advancing diversity. "From communication plans to committee creation to recruiting and global initiatives, we all work to promote a diverse culture for our workforce, our clients and the communities we serve," she says.

Dr Emma Garrison-Alexander is CIO at the TSA
The Transportation Security Administration (Arlington, VA) is a federal agency that works on transportation security: airports, railroads, subways and more. Emma Garrison-Alexander is assistant admin and CIO for the office of information technology at the agency.

She's responsible for the IT part of the agency's mission, including end-user services, all support technology and infrastructure from computers to servers and routers. The agency has more than 50,000 employees, which means it uses a lot of technology. With an annual budget of more than $400 million and five direct reports, Garrison-Alexander develops and manages central policies for all IT at TSA, and implements IT initiatives across the agency.

Her typical workday is very busy. "I meet with the TSA leadership team and with my own leaders. I meet weekly with all the CIOs across the Department of Homeland Security," she explains. TSA covers more than 450 airports and IT is critical to get its business done. "We also provide the IT for those airports, for our HQ staff and internationally, too."

Garrison-Alexander has a 1983 BSEE from the University of Memphis, TN, and a 1996 MS in telecom management and a 2007 doctorate in management with a focus on technology and information systems from the University of Maryland, University College.

Before joining TSA she spent more than twenty years with the National Security Agency, beginning as an EE and moving into management in technology and systems, signals intelligence and information assurance. She graduated from the NSA's senior leadership development program and became a member of the defense intelligence senior executive service. She was also a senior ops officer for the director of the NSA, and her last job there was in counterterrorism.

When she first came into the workplace Garrison-Alexander was not only one of the few women in a male-dominated field, but one of the few minorities there. "People have to adjust to seeing you as a professional," she recalls. "Fortunately I had a great mentor."

No problems like that today: the biggest challenge is the ever-increasing demand for IT services. "The mission keeps building and growing and we have to keep up," she says. "But knowing that the work I do makes a difference and contributes to the safety of the American public every day is a huge reward."

It was that mission that originally attracted Garrison-Alexander to TSA. She also felt that as it was a new organization, she would be able to help shape the agency. "I liked the idea that I would be able to have an impact."

Garrison-Alexander grew up in a small town north of Memphis, TN, near author Alex Haley's childhood home. After work she likes to help with the outreach program at her church, oversee the children's ministry there, and follow her children's basketball games. "I loved playing when I was younger," she says. "Now I'm looking forward to my daughter's competing in the Nike Tournament in Chicago!"

D/C

Laurel McKee Ranger is a freelance business writer headquartered in Randolph, NJ.

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