Extreme Engineer of the Month

Profile: Wesley Driver, Harris Corporation, Software Engineer

Wesley working on his senior design project at Auburn. No cameras are allowed in the high-security facility where Wesley works.

Education: B.S. Degree in Software Engineering, Auburn University

Favorite Classes:

• Object-Oriented Computing/JAVA—learned about object-oriented, modular software design
• Software Process—learned standards for good software design
• Senior Design Project—wrote software for the Solar Decathlon House project's command center to predict hourly theoretical solar energy yield and manage day-to-day power

Best Skills: thinking outside the box; seeing applications in his mind; and writing code in a way that others can easily follow

Hobbies: woodworking, golf, and water sports

Role Model: His father. "He could fix anything. I wanted to be that way."

Advice: Enjoy your high school time. Challenge yourself. Don't just take what's required. The more you put in now, the more you will earn later on. The efforts will pay off.

What Would You Do for Free?
In high school Wesley was preparing to be a chemical engineer—taking plenty of chemistry and related science courses. His internship with a local paper mill during junior college changed all that. It's not that he didn't like it; he just knew it wasn't what he wanted to do for life. He got some advice from an engineer he knew: figure out what you'd be willing to do for free then do that as a career. For Wesley, that was computers. He loved computers—playing on them, designing software—all things he had done in high school.

Among the First
The next semester Wesley enrolled in Auburn and saw an article announcing a new degree—software engineering. It had the computer science and math/engineering background he wanted. This was the fit he was looking for. He graduated two and a half years later with the distinction of being one of the first two graduates from Auburn University with a degree in software engineering. During a job fair his senior year, he interviewed with Harris Corporation and accepted a position as a software engineer in their government systems division's wireless products group.

Top Secret
Much of the work in Wesley's division is for the government. A lot of their projects are classified. A government agency or department comes to Harris with a need for a system or application, and Wesley and other engineers in his group study the issue and respond with recommendations. Once a contract is signed, they develop the software for a PC or special hardware they build.

Wesley designs the software architecture for the communication system, preparing the technology road map for current systems, and managing development schedules so customer deadlines can be met. Most of the systems he works with are command and control software defined radios within a secure communication system. His team also typically includes hardware engineers as well as electrical engineers.

Secure Communications
Among the applications Harris engineers work on are secure communications on the battlefield, in the air, and across the world. While Wesley can't talk about specific projects, some examples are provided on the Harris Web site. These include applications for the FAA, DIRECTV, and Satellite Networks.

Declassified: Hot Link for a Cold War
One of Harris' government projects that is now declassified is the "Red Phone" or "Hot Line" that provided a direct link between the U.S. President and the Kremlin during the Cold War.

Tons of Toys and Gadgets to Play with
Wesley's job allows him to work with the latest technology and sometimes even develop it. "It's cool," he says. "They stick me in a lab or office with tons of toys—computer gadgets. I get to play with them all day…and they pay me for it. It's a bit of cloak and dagger atmosphere. It's cool." Only three years out of college, Wesley has just been promoted to product manager of the product he's working on.

Blow 'Em Away
Wesley says that with software engineering you're only limited by what your mind can imagine. Just last month Wesley provided a solution to one of his government customers. "They were blown away," he said. They told him, "We didn't know you could do this. Here's the money. Go build it." Now he gets to head that project. We look forward to reading about it in 50 years or so when it's declassified!