Dr. Elizabeth D'Andrea: Program Manager, Electromagnetic Rail Gun Office of Naval Research

摘要

When I grew up, there were jobs for girls and jobs for guys. I always was more interested in the jobs in the guy world. My father was a senior engineer for Newport News Shipbuilding and, when I was no more than 10, he - with his willingness to let me be who I was - was more than happy to let me run with a hard hat on under big plates of steel when they were putting ships together. The first time I went on a destroyer, a yard worker playfully tracked my movement on the deck with a gun turret. I thought, "This is so cool." I went to Virginia Tech and found out I was really good in math. My professor felt I should get into more of a quantitative analytic side. I worked at NASA in summers, and they had me build very rudimentary analytic models on a Wang [computer]. I earned a degree in quantitative methods from Old Dominion University and followed with a master's in systems management from Florida Institute of Technology and a doctorate from George Washington University in business engineering and engineering management. I worked for the Army's Training and Doctrine Command analyzing the Ml tank and Apache helicopter programs. At the Air Force's Tactical Air Command, I analyzed how fighter pilots' skills atrophied over time so we could design an economical program of education, simulation and flight time to maintain those skills.