Shawn Davis...

Hello, and welcome to my attempt to be informative and entertaining. Unfortunately, since the likelihood that both of these will happen at the same time is very slim I will try to get to the point. My name is Shawn Davis and I am a junior at The University of Texas where I am studying to become an electrical engineer, with a specialization in electronics and embedded systems. My choice of major was likely genetically predetermined seeing how my grandfather, father, and sister have all been engineers before me.

Having lived in Houston for the majority of my life there was little adjustment to be made when I "moved" here to work for NASA. I already knew about the hot, sticky, summers and the lack of real winter, AND I have been fortunate enough to be staying at home while I work - no expenses!! Yet, even having lived here so long, I can still find new things to pass the time. There is a wealth of unique things to be a part of in Houston, you need not be afraid of being idle after work. I myself have already become involved in a national improvisational comedy troupe as well as a volunteer ushering service for live theater. Soon I hope to be a member of the Houston Texans stand band where I would play drums at all the home football games. Even if you aren't feeling so adventuresome the co-ops are a great group of people and tend to do some sort of activity together each evening.

As you may have noticed from other co-op bios, many of us have had previous NASA experiences, myself included. I was fortunate enough to be a part of the Texas Fly High Program - the high school level KC135 program - during its final year. I must tell you, if there is ANY way you can get on the KC135, I suggest you drop everything and pursue it wholeheartedly. This event was definitely the single most defining moment in fostering my desire to work for NASA. And yes, for those of your who are interested, I was sick, but I loved it!

Another important aspect of being a co-op is to help build interest in math and science in the next generation of scientists and engineers. There are many opportunities for going out to local schools and talking about NASA and our current projects. It is great to be able to plant a seed for these budding minds to grow.

What I do here at NASA has been very exciting so far, I can hardly imagine what all I will be involved in by the time my co-op tours are finished. For my first tour I was assigned to EC5 - the EVA and spacesuit systems branch. In the time I was there I worked on many projects. The first involved instrumentation and data acquisition for a prototype liquid air backpack breathing/cooling system. I also planned out and performed basic design/project planning for a torque tool calibration test stand. Another project I completed was to design and build a new LED based lighting system for the advanced spacesuit. All of these were interesting enough, but the most exciting project I was fortunate enough to be a part of was SCOUT. My responsibility for this team was to reverse engineer the lunar rover trainer's (non-documented) electrical system and get it running again. After completing this portion I redesigned the motor control system and improved the rover's capabilities. Best of all, because I was the most knowlegeable about the rover's sytems I was made the test driver for our data collection runs. After the rover was working I helped build a special trailer to be pulled by the rover that had various rock processing experiement stations for use by the suited subject.

My second tour was in EV4: the antenna group of the avionics division. Here I was involved in the various aspects of antenna design and testing. This includes 3D computer modeling and simulation as well as the actual fabrication pending positive results from the computer. After this process is complete the antenna must be tested in the anechoic chamber to verify it works as expected. It has been very exciting being on the cutting edge of new electromagnetic technologies.

My third tour was in EV2: the electronics design branch of the avionics division. I was involved in three different projects, each at different levels of the engineering design process. I designed the architecture for the Digital Video (DV) over IP stream for the Space Video Gateway project. For the Non-toxic Engine Controller I wrote software to detect "poppets" during valve actuation. My most involved project was for Mini-AERCam which involved designed an instrumentation interface board between pressure transducers and the I2C bus.

Other activities I have been involved in were an introductory Russian language course and a human test subject for biological experiments and new technology tests. As co-ops, we have time for tours of NASA facilities and lectures from important figures in space history, it is nice that we are allowed time away from our tasks to learn more about our craft and its history.

I wish anyone who is interested in working here at NASA much luck in your search, I know that with enough enthusiasm and persistence you will succeed. If you have any questions, or would like me to deliberate further, feel free to drop me a line.

Shawn Davis
Work: shawn.m.davis@nasa.gov
School: shawndavis@mail.utexas.edu