background and outlook

Oh, before getting too far ahead with ideas, here are a bit of background for those who eventually wonder here not from facebook or friends on fb I haven't talked to lately =P

I got my BSEE from Caltech in '03, took some time off, found a job in Boeing Satellite in '04, met my wife in '07, got married in '08, found a new job in SD in '08 to move closer to my wife's job ^_^ Also, I got my MSCS from USC in '08, and currently pursuing a System Engineering certificate for what it's worth.

While I enjoy the mental stimulation from academic work, I'm more of a hands-on, break things and figure out how to fix it kind of person. I entered college knowing that I didn't want to suffer the rigor of applied physics and didn't want to become a full code-money. As I finished my BS, I came to the realization that software is a tremendous enabling technology that provides incredible amount of possibilities you can only dream of achieving in hardware... or rather, to do it in hardware will require billions of dollars, whereas software maybe a few hundred hours. That's why I decided to get a masters in CS, and took all the classes for pure personal interest rather than doing something for the sake of resume padding. (There was 1 class I hated, but 1 out of 9 isn't bad ;-))

My wife got her BSCE with a minor in Robotics from CMU in '05 and MSCE in '06, and constantly thinking about a PhD in robotics.

Between the two of us, I'm more of a hardware and firmware person, writing C-code as necessary and get things to work in a quick-and-dirty way. She's more of software person, doing OOP in java and the likes. Besides the need of a good mechanical engineer, we have most of our basis pretty well covered =)

When I left Boeing, general consensus from my co-workers were that they weren't surprised I left, but they were surprised that I left for another (here unnamed) aerospace company. And frankly, they are right. Even prior to leaving Boeing, my wife and I are getting various requests to help with various engineering aspects from various sources. While at Boeing, even though work's slow at times, I get to play with things closer to my major, ie hardware design, trouble-shooting, and the likes. These days, I sit in an open area behind thick, locked doors, working on some program as a sub-system analyst, far away from directly dealing with hardware or software. Okay, it's not as bad as it sounds... in a twisted way, aerospace is at the "cutting edge" of some aspect of software... specifically, Real Time Operating System with time and space partitioning is something that'll converge with commercial OS in the next few decades; software auto-coder starting with UML down to things like MATRIXx and Rational Rose, which maybe will replace code monkeys 30-50 years from now; Control laws, fancy ground-segment tools, and other works that are surprisingly up-to-date with industrial developments.

Meanwhile, I come up with various random ideas, but don't have the time to really explore them in depth. We still have engineering requests from others that we'll be working on after our "make-up wedding" in May, and looking to start a generic "engineering solutions" company, to help realize other people's ideas. Of course there are our own ideas that will be in various stage of development, and if we get enough work, we'll look to start a Limited Liability Partnership, bringing in new talents and old friends into the mix. Frankly, I'd rather have partners than employees, but they can start as employees and build their own client base. Over time, I'd like to encourage people to be on their own if possible, to provide healthy competition or just make operations more efficient. If enough decides to go off on their own, maybe we'll create a little technology niche in so-cal ;-)

I still remember at Boeing So-Cal Leadership Conference in 2008, I asked about the company's stance on spin-offs, and the response was along the lines of "we don't like spin-offs because we are afraid of talents fleeing"... HELLO!!! if they are truly talented, all that corporate bureaucracy won't be of interest anyway! If one day, I start to think like that, that means my organization is one on the decline, and it'll be time to re-think about my business model. So, hopefully, over time, I'll have some success with various engineering project to be able to bring and encourage more talents to follow our footsteps, and maybe even one day, supersede slow and cumbersome companies like Boeing Satellite (if I ever decide to venture in that direction, which I doubt).

So, all you MechEs, EEs, CEs, CSs, even BiEs (my dad owns a biotech company, so if you are a BiE, you are more than welcome to contribute... sorry, no ChemEs for now ;-) ), if you would like to contribute time, money, ideas, or want to hire us, we are open to it =P Hopefully, as this blog develops over time, it'll also help sell me and my wife's abilities and help generate clients. Remember, your ideas will remain fully confidential unless I get your permission to publish =)