I call myself an accidental engineer if
you had asked me when I was in middle
school or high school or maybe even the
early years of college if I would grow
up to be an engineer I would have looked
at you like you had three heads I didn’t
know any engineers growing up I didn’t
know what engineering was and at that
time stem was not even an acronym I can
remember starting at Lockheed Martin
around all these amazingly smart
engineers and having some money of them
say to me I always knew I was going to
be an engineer I knew I was gonna be an
engineer from the time I was this tall
because they had someone in their life
who was an engineer maybe their father
maybe an uncle or a neighbor that wasn’t
my story my parents were very
well-educated and I knew a lot of
professional people but none of them
were engineers in fact when I told my
daddy that after college I was going to
pursue a career in engineer he asked me
if I was going to work on a train that’s
like no that I was really good at math
and science growing up math was my
favorite subject and I knew that I
wanted to do something with it for my
career so I knew some accountants and I
knew that accounting was a good career
and that you had to be good at math to
be an accountant so I said I’m gonna be
an accountant I enrolled at the
University of Maryland Baltimore County
as an economics major I was going to get
a certificate in engineering and later
go on to be a certified public
accountant and then in my sophomore year
of college I took out an elective as all
college students have to and I took an
elective in COBOL programming and I
Yakko boy I know it was a long time ago
and and by the way I was the last of the
group that used those punch cards so you
know I really understood some of you
were there too I appreciate rubber bands
you know I absolutely fell in love with
it it transformed me I was almost like
Peter Parker getting bitten by that
radioactive spider except it was a
computer science bug for me and it
grabbed ahold and I’m telling you to
this day it hasn’t let go it changed the
course of my life
now I don’t know how much you know about
my alma mater but we are the UMBC
retrievers and our mascots name is True
Grit and that is no accident if you have
been in some of my classes my math their
science even my accounting classes you
would know you need a True Grit to get
through those courses my professors were
challenging yet they prepared me to be
the very best software engineer that I
could possibly be and when I started
working at Lockheed Martin 30 years ago
was a software engineer I it opened my
mind to working on systems that save
people’s lives that protect our nation
and our world but I will tell you that
when I was in middle school when I was
in high school when I was in college I
had no idea how rewarding how much fun
what a difference you could make if you
chose a career in stem so I am
extraordinarily passionate about helping
as many of our young people as possible
to gain an interest to maintain an
interest and ultimately to pursue a
career in engineering because we can’t
afford any more accidental engineers we
have a frightening shortage of young
people who are interested in science
technology engineering and math in this
country and one of the reasons I think
that they’re not interested that they’re
not clamoring to go into this amazing
field is because they also don’t know
how rewarding how much fun and what a
difference you can make in this amazing
career so I think we all have to shout
it from the rooftops stem is an awesome
career we’ve got to tell everybody that
we can we’ve got to tell our stories
we’ve got to make stem come alive our
young people and if you don’t have a
story you can tell mine minorities and
in particular underrepresented
minorities are the fastest-growing part
of the population in this country today
yet we are the least likely to obtain a
degree in engineering and this has to
change
in order for it to change it will take
all of us using our collective
superpowers to be the difference so I’m
gonna start us off right now
I’m gonna show from every rooftop that I
can that if I had not taken that course
in COBOL programming if I had not been
blessed enough to get a job as a
software engineer at Lockheed Martin I
would never have had the privilege of
shepherding the creation of scientific
marvels of impossible innovations
technologies that are used in land air
sea and space I can remember when I
first started at Lockheed Martin I
really didn’t talk to my family and
friends much about what I did at work I
mean I was writing code and I didn’t
actually know how to translate that to
someone who wasn’t a computer scientist
but then in 2008 there was a rogue
satellite some of you might view all
remember the COBOL and punch cards you
will remember this 2008 there was a
rogue satellite falling from the sky and
there was a great concern that the fuel
tank on that satellite when it made
contact with earth would cause
significant catastrophic results for a
large part of the world well I wrote
code for the launcher that shot that
satellite out of the sky and saved us
all and so when I when I got home that
day from work I was like mom dad that’s
what I do
Wow that’s really really cool I really
felt like I had superpowers then for me
the excitement of engineering is the
excitement of solving problems it’s the
excitement of creating something that
didn’t exist before it’s the excitement
of creating technologies and solutions
that help us all to do more to be more
to achieve more and even with the
awesome possibilities that a career in
engineering can unlock our nation still
has a critical challenge we do not have
enough people majoring in science
technology engineering and math and our
nation’s demographics are changing we
need people from all backgrounds to fill
the talent pipeline so that we can make
sure that we unlock tomorrow’s
undiscovered superpowers and
me I have to tell you I get to do some
really cool stuff
Lockheed Martin does exciting things we
do revolutionary things we do things
that some people think only happen in
the movies or in graphic novels and I’m
going to tell you about just a couple of
them this f-35 helmet gives our f-35
pilots pilots real superpowers you’re
talking 360-degree vision you’re like
Wonder Woman flying around in her
invisible plane because you can that
pilot can actually see through the
structure of the f-35 jet using six
imbedded super-high cameras to be able
to feed his helmet you’re like Iron Man
soaring through the sky you know Iron
Man has his helmet on and he’s getting
all kinds of information airspeed
altitude warnings well in the f-35 pilot
that helmet he’s getting all of that
information and more helping him to more
effectively execute his mission keeping
him alert and keeping him safe
human-machine teaming at its finest now
what’s the primary job of a superhero
save lives well our next technology is a
lifesaver
this is K max K max is an unmanned
aerial vehicle and it is a lifesaver and
it’s a potential game-changer what
you’re gonna see here on the screen is a
demo of us using four of our autonomous
capabilities to fight fires and to save
people there’s a stranded hiker in this
scenario and we’re going to do all of
this without putting any human
additional human life at risk not a
pilot not a firefighter so first we use
something called indigo it’s a
quadcopter that has an infrared camera
that will find a hot spot of the fire
then we launch a desert Hawk that goes
off to find where the hiker is locate
then send the coordinates for that hiker
to another unmanned helicopter deploy
that rescue helicopter save that hiker
and at the same time K max which was
initially designed to be a cargo lift
transport helicopter is collecting water
and taking that water back to the fire
right to the hot spot that indigo found
to very effectively put out that fire
all this is happening
and this can happen in the real world
all this is happening while not one
additional life is being put at risk and
it’s all controlled all four of those
autonomous vehicles are controlled by a
simple ipad interface now I could stand
here all day and tell you about the
amazing technologies that I am
privileged to work on it I would love
doing that but I’m not going to do that
because that’s not my point my point is
is that if I hadn’t gotten bitten by
that computer science bug early on in my
college career I would probably have
never been able to be a part of working
on solutions that can literally save the
world my story isn’t unique but I surely
hope that it can be inspiring so that we
can all really believe that if we expose
our young people to the Marvel of stem
to the excitement of stem as early as we
can far earlier than I was that we will
have more of our young people pursuing
careers in stem I am living proof and we
can’t afford any more accidental
engineers now I know that a lot of folks
are saying we hear stem all the time
stem is everywhere and as much as we
talk about it that ought to be
sufficient I’m here to tell you it’s not
there are communities in our country who
may have heard of stem they may know
engineers yet when they look in the
mirror they don’t believe it’s for them
by second grade in 2017 there are young
girls many young girls who are already
deciding whether or not they’re good at
math second grade in second grade you
shouldn’t be deciding that you’re not
good at anything we have to speak life
into our young people we have to help
them to know that they can achieve
anything that they want to achieve any
aspiration if they’re willing to work
hard at it but it will take absolutely
all of us to do that we have to all use
our collective superpowers we’ve got to
get together like the Avengers
we’re using all of our innate abilities
to encourage as many of us as our young
people as we can to see possibilities
beyond their current view to speak life
into them to ignite their passion for
stem and this has to keep going not just
from second grade but all the way
through I met a young woman who was a
senior in an
engineering school an african-american
woman and she said to me I’m thinking
about not pursuing career in stem
anymore and I asked her why and she said
when I first started as a freshman there
were many women in my class and now I’m
the only one and the young men in my
class don’t let me participate in their
study groups or their activities that
help them to be better prepared
she felt isolated she felt alone I’m
here to tell you do not be discouraged
diversity drives innovation diversity is
a virtue in engineering we need so many
voices at the table to make the
impossible possible to bring superpowers
to life we need many different ideas
many different views we need a million
different answers to the question what
if [Applause]
you had asked me when I was in middle
school or high school or maybe even the
early years of college if I would grow
up to be an engineer I would have looked
at you like you had three heads I didn’t
know any engineers growing up I didn’t
know what engineering was and at that
time stem was not even an acronym I can
remember starting at Lockheed Martin
around all these amazingly smart
engineers and having some money of them
say to me I always knew I was going to
be an engineer I knew I was gonna be an
engineer from the time I was this tall
because they had someone in their life
who was an engineer maybe their father
maybe an uncle or a neighbor that wasn’t
my story my parents were very
well-educated and I knew a lot of
professional people but none of them
were engineers in fact when I told my
daddy that after college I was going to
pursue a career in engineer he asked me
if I was going to work on a train that’s
like no that I was really good at math
and science growing up math was my
favorite subject and I knew that I
wanted to do something with it for my
career so I knew some accountants and I
knew that accounting was a good career
and that you had to be good at math to
be an accountant so I said I’m gonna be
an accountant I enrolled at the
University of Maryland Baltimore County
as an economics major I was going to get
a certificate in engineering and later
go on to be a certified public
accountant and then in my sophomore year
of college I took out an elective as all
college students have to and I took an
elective in COBOL programming and I
Yakko boy I know it was a long time ago
and and by the way I was the last of the
group that used those punch cards so you
know I really understood some of you
were there too I appreciate rubber bands
you know I absolutely fell in love with
it it transformed me I was almost like
Peter Parker getting bitten by that
radioactive spider except it was a
computer science bug for me and it
grabbed ahold and I’m telling you to
this day it hasn’t let go it changed the
course of my life
now I don’t know how much you know about
my alma mater but we are the UMBC
retrievers and our mascots name is True
Grit and that is no accident if you have
been in some of my classes my math their
science even my accounting classes you
would know you need a True Grit to get
through those courses my professors were
challenging yet they prepared me to be
the very best software engineer that I
could possibly be and when I started
working at Lockheed Martin 30 years ago
was a software engineer I it opened my
mind to working on systems that save
people’s lives that protect our nation
and our world but I will tell you that
when I was in middle school when I was
in high school when I was in college I
had no idea how rewarding how much fun
what a difference you could make if you
chose a career in stem so I am
extraordinarily passionate about helping
as many of our young people as possible
to gain an interest to maintain an
interest and ultimately to pursue a
career in engineering because we can’t
afford any more accidental engineers we
have a frightening shortage of young
people who are interested in science
technology engineering and math in this
country and one of the reasons I think
that they’re not interested that they’re
not clamoring to go into this amazing
field is because they also don’t know
how rewarding how much fun and what a
difference you can make in this amazing
career so I think we all have to shout
it from the rooftops stem is an awesome
career we’ve got to tell everybody that
we can we’ve got to tell our stories
we’ve got to make stem come alive our
young people and if you don’t have a
story you can tell mine minorities and
in particular underrepresented
minorities are the fastest-growing part
of the population in this country today
yet we are the least likely to obtain a
degree in engineering and this has to
change
in order for it to change it will take
all of us using our collective
superpowers to be the difference so I’m
gonna start us off right now
I’m gonna show from every rooftop that I
can that if I had not taken that course
in COBOL programming if I had not been
blessed enough to get a job as a
software engineer at Lockheed Martin I
would never have had the privilege of
shepherding the creation of scientific
marvels of impossible innovations
technologies that are used in land air
sea and space I can remember when I
first started at Lockheed Martin I
really didn’t talk to my family and
friends much about what I did at work I
mean I was writing code and I didn’t
actually know how to translate that to
someone who wasn’t a computer scientist
but then in 2008 there was a rogue
satellite some of you might view all
remember the COBOL and punch cards you
will remember this 2008 there was a
rogue satellite falling from the sky and
there was a great concern that the fuel
tank on that satellite when it made
contact with earth would cause
significant catastrophic results for a
large part of the world well I wrote
code for the launcher that shot that
satellite out of the sky and saved us
all and so when I when I got home that
day from work I was like mom dad that’s
what I do
Wow that’s really really cool I really
felt like I had superpowers then for me
the excitement of engineering is the
excitement of solving problems it’s the
excitement of creating something that
didn’t exist before it’s the excitement
of creating technologies and solutions
that help us all to do more to be more
to achieve more and even with the
awesome possibilities that a career in
engineering can unlock our nation still
has a critical challenge we do not have
enough people majoring in science
technology engineering and math and our
nation’s demographics are changing we
need people from all backgrounds to fill
the talent pipeline so that we can make
sure that we unlock tomorrow’s
undiscovered superpowers and
me I have to tell you I get to do some
really cool stuff
Lockheed Martin does exciting things we
do revolutionary things we do things
that some people think only happen in
the movies or in graphic novels and I’m
going to tell you about just a couple of
them this f-35 helmet gives our f-35
pilots pilots real superpowers you’re
talking 360-degree vision you’re like
Wonder Woman flying around in her
invisible plane because you can that
pilot can actually see through the
structure of the f-35 jet using six
imbedded super-high cameras to be able
to feed his helmet you’re like Iron Man
soaring through the sky you know Iron
Man has his helmet on and he’s getting
all kinds of information airspeed
altitude warnings well in the f-35 pilot
that helmet he’s getting all of that
information and more helping him to more
effectively execute his mission keeping
him alert and keeping him safe
human-machine teaming at its finest now
what’s the primary job of a superhero
save lives well our next technology is a
lifesaver
this is K max K max is an unmanned
aerial vehicle and it is a lifesaver and
it’s a potential game-changer what
you’re gonna see here on the screen is a
demo of us using four of our autonomous
capabilities to fight fires and to save
people there’s a stranded hiker in this
scenario and we’re going to do all of
this without putting any human
additional human life at risk not a
pilot not a firefighter so first we use
something called indigo it’s a
quadcopter that has an infrared camera
that will find a hot spot of the fire
then we launch a desert Hawk that goes
off to find where the hiker is locate
then send the coordinates for that hiker
to another unmanned helicopter deploy
that rescue helicopter save that hiker
and at the same time K max which was
initially designed to be a cargo lift
transport helicopter is collecting water
and taking that water back to the fire
right to the hot spot that indigo found
to very effectively put out that fire
all this is happening
and this can happen in the real world
all this is happening while not one
additional life is being put at risk and
it’s all controlled all four of those
autonomous vehicles are controlled by a
simple ipad interface now I could stand
here all day and tell you about the
amazing technologies that I am
privileged to work on it I would love
doing that but I’m not going to do that
because that’s not my point my point is
is that if I hadn’t gotten bitten by
that computer science bug early on in my
college career I would probably have
never been able to be a part of working
on solutions that can literally save the
world my story isn’t unique but I surely
hope that it can be inspiring so that we
can all really believe that if we expose
our young people to the Marvel of stem
to the excitement of stem as early as we
can far earlier than I was that we will
have more of our young people pursuing
careers in stem I am living proof and we
can’t afford any more accidental
engineers now I know that a lot of folks
are saying we hear stem all the time
stem is everywhere and as much as we
talk about it that ought to be
sufficient I’m here to tell you it’s not
there are communities in our country who
may have heard of stem they may know
engineers yet when they look in the
mirror they don’t believe it’s for them
by second grade in 2017 there are young
girls many young girls who are already
deciding whether or not they’re good at
math second grade in second grade you
shouldn’t be deciding that you’re not
good at anything we have to speak life
into our young people we have to help
them to know that they can achieve
anything that they want to achieve any
aspiration if they’re willing to work
hard at it but it will take absolutely
all of us to do that we have to all use
our collective superpowers we’ve got to
get together like the Avengers
we’re using all of our innate abilities
to encourage as many of us as our young
people as we can to see possibilities
beyond their current view to speak life
into them to ignite their passion for
stem and this has to keep going not just
from second grade but all the way
through I met a young woman who was a
senior in an
engineering school an african-american
woman and she said to me I’m thinking
about not pursuing career in stem
anymore and I asked her why and she said
when I first started as a freshman there
were many women in my class and now I’m
the only one and the young men in my
class don’t let me participate in their
study groups or their activities that
help them to be better prepared
she felt isolated she felt alone I’m
here to tell you do not be discouraged
diversity drives innovation diversity is
a virtue in engineering we need so many
voices at the table to make the
impossible possible to bring superpowers
to life we need many different ideas
many different views we need a million
different answers to the question what
if [Applause]
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