Kerry McGuire...

Wow, I feel honored you are reading my bio. Thanks! My name is Kerry McGuire and I am a senior in Industrial Engineering at Clemson University. Where is Clemson you ask? Well, in a place where the cows overpopulate the people but it is a beautiful place but you have not come here to learn about Clemson so let me fill you in on the good stuff.

What Does a Co-op Do?

First Tour:

I worked in the Astronaut Training Division (yes that means I was being paid to interact with and teach astronauts, cosmonauts, and flight controllers). Something that was really cool with this tour was the opportunity to learn Russian. For my whole co-op tour I took Russian lessons every day. As an astronaut trainer you are responsible for training the cosmonauts and astronauts and by the end of my co-op tour I had certified to teach a lesson that provided them with knowledge on how to use and navigate the onboard computer systems. In a way your knowledge is being used up in space every time that they use your system. Isn’t that spiffy!

Second Tour:

If you are an industrial engineer (IE) reading this bio, please pay close attention to this co-op tour because this is the perfect tour for us! And even if you're not an IE the things you get to do and the people you work with rock!

During this tour I worked in the Space and Life Sciences Division in the Habitability and Human Factors Branch. My job was to redesign two medical packs on board the space station. The whole summer I ran tests on these packs to learn how to better improve them, and then I (a co-op!) had two Rhode Island School of Design Students who would then generate my ideas into beautiful drawings that will be used for future prototypes of these packs.

Other things you can do in this branch you can observe by going to Paul Dum's bio. He had the opportunity to fly in the KC-135 ("vomit comit"), use the 3D scanner, and use a lot of the other gadgets that were at our disposal. To the right is a picture of my friend and fellow co-op Fabiola. One of the things we do in this branch was to take the astronauts measurements and then design space suits that would give them the most mobility which in turn helps them do there tasks more efficiently. I know efficiency is what IE's are all about!

Third Tour:

Yes, I did my last co-op tour training to be a flight controller for the Environmental Life Support Group (ECLSS). As a co-op in a flight control group you have the rare opportunity to learn what it takes to be a flight controller. You will be put in the same training flow as if you were just hired to be a flight controller. And if you're lucky during your co-op tour, you will work a few sims!! During my work tour I sat on real time console, did on-the-job training in sims and in flight control trainers, conducted tech forums and redid the ECLSS flipbook that all ECLSS flight controllers use on console.

As you can see with all these tours is that you are not treated as a co-op but as an equal. Everyone has high standards for you but the tasks and people you will come in contact with are amazing!

Tours and Lectures:

Being a co-op you get to take spiffy tours and listen to great lectures. Some of the lectures during my tours were from Astronauts, Flight Directors, the head of the Shuttle Program, Flight Controllers and many more amazing people. Tours took us to places like the Neutral Buoyancy Lab (the 6.2 million gallon tank where the astronauts do some training), and included viewing Robonaut, Mission Control (Apollo Era, where we watched Apollo 13), and the list goes on and on.

All work and no play makes a Kerry a dull girl, so as a co-op we don't live by that philosophy

Life outside of work is just as cool as working. You never have to worry about having nothing to do while your here. There are 101 things going on all the time. If you like sports you can play on the co-op soccer, softball, or ultimate frisbee team or if sports isn't your thing you can travel to the Galleria which is the 5th largest mall in the U.S. or you can go watch an Astros, Rockets, or Texans game!

Attention Pilots and Scuba Divers:

For all the pilots and scuba divers (or anyone that is interested in either of these) out there Houston provides you with so many opportunities. Being a pilot myself I have found it very easy to find a place to rent from (there are so many airports around here controlled and uncontrolled) and you have good visibility most of the time! And for all those divers, being in Texas you are just a hop, skip and jump from Mexico. I have dived in the Great Barrier Reef, but I would have to say that Cozumel on a good day can be just as amazing. Also, for anyone that wants to become certified or get more certifications there are many classes offered.

Best Co-op's Ever:

The people you will meet during your tour are amazing. I am thankful to have the opportunity to get to know so many fine people from schools all over the U.S. and not all of them are engineers. I would highly recommend living with other co-ops if you come to work at JSC. My whole college career I had never had a roommate, and I was kinda skeptical living with 2 people I didn't know. Looking back now I wouldn't have done it any other way.

OK, I have hogged too much of your time all ready. Thank you for stopping by I've enjoyed talking to you. If you have any questions feel free to email me: kmmcgui@clemson.edu.