Platform Systems Engineering Co-op
After my initial co-op at Collins Aerospace, I wanted to explore what else the company had to offer. Through this curiosity, I found my way into the Mission Systems business unit with a Platform Systems Engineering Co-op. My primary role is on the Systems Engineering and Integration Team (SEIT) for a program called SP101. SP101 is based on Collins' flagship Pro-Line Fusion system and is altered to have mission capabilities. The program itself is structured to be an Agile work environment. This has been my first exposure to Agile methodologies and has taught me an immense amount about workplace productivity. My primary focus is in writing, altering and performing flight deck tests that will eventually be used to validate system capabilities in formal qualification testing (FQT).
In addition to SP101, I spent 3 months assisting the systems engineering team for the KC-135 in writing and performing tests for their Flight-2 system. This presented a great challenge, as my previous exposure had been exclusive to SP101's Pro-Line Fusion based system. Luckily, the team that I was brought in to assist was gracious enough to bring me up to speed quickly on the basics of how the system functioned.
When my time with the KC-135 systems team came to an end in December 2020, I went back to school to and continued to work on SP101 part time performing small tasks for the systems team. I plan on returning in Summer 2021 to continue the work that I had to leave when I transitioned from SP101 to KC-135.