Engineer - Mark R. Cammarere
Field: Electrical Engineering
Job Title: Senior Staff
Place of Employment: Technology Service Corporation, Trumbull, Connecticut
What is your current job and what does it entail?
I work for the Trumbull, Connecticut office of Technology
Service Corp (an employee-owned small business). We primarily do Department
of Defense (DoD) contract work for either the DoD directly, or for larger DoD
contractors (e.g., Boeing, Lockheed-Martin, etc). My work at TSC has included:
radar analyses, data fusion, target identification, signal processing and (most
recently), geospatial technology/GIS.
In your day-to-day activities, who are the people that you interact with regularly?
I deal regularly with other TSC engineers (either in the Trumbull office or
other TSC facilities), engineers from other DoD contract firms, and customers
(e.g., Army or Air Force civilian or military personnel).
For your position, what skills do you need in geospatial technologies?
Required geospatial skills have included ArcView
3.x, Avenue programming, ArcGIS
v8.x/9.x, Visual Basic programming and (most recently) the Commercial
Joint Mapping Toolkit (C/JMTK), ArcPad and
GPS.
For your position, what skills outside of geospatial technologies are required?
General mathematical skills, algorithm design/development and software development.
What was the key factor in your career decision?
I always did well in math and science in high school. Also, I had a couple
of relatives who went into engineering and piqued my interest in that line of
work.
What do you like most about your career?
Doing technical work (e.g., designing and developing things – algorithms,
software, etc).
What do you like least about your career?
The biggest drawback to working for a small business is that contracts tend
to be of short duration. I don’t often get an opportunity to work in one
area for a long period of time.
What do you do to relax?
I read and play/listen to music.
Who are your heroes/heroines?
Jesus Christ, my parents and several acquaintances who have significantly
shaped my life (i.e., pastors, co-workers).
What advice would you give a high school student who expressed an interest
in pursuing a career in your field?
Work hard. Avoid the temptation to "take it easy" after graduation.
Your college education is really important in that it marks the real beginning
of your adult life.
Are career opportunities in your field increasing or decreasing and why?
As you can probably tell from the above, my "classical" training
has not been in geospatial technology (sort of came in"through the back
door"), so I can’t make any observations in that area. However, in
the area of DoD-related engineering, I think the opportunities are increasing
(it seems to be getting more difficult to hire competent folks). I think the
primary reason for this is the changing global political climate. Contrary to
what many people thought when the former Soviet Union fell, the world is becoming
an increasingly dangerous place. Also, the way the U.S. is engaging in
conflicts is changing. This has put a lot of pressure on the DoD to transform
to meet these challenges (new technologies & weapons, etc).
E-mail: mcammarere@tsc.com
Degree |
Major |
Institution |
A.S. |
Engineering Science |
Mohawk Valley Community College |
B.S. |
Electrical Engineering |
Syracuse University |
M.S. |
Electrical Engineering |
Syracuse University |
|