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Education:
I went straight from P-B-L to U of I. Graduated in '99 with
honors with a BS in Aerospace Engineering. Went to grad school
at MIT in the Space Systems Lab. Received my Masters in Aerospace
Engineering in '01. Received my PhD in Aerospace Engineering (Astrodynamics)
in '05.
Employment
History: I started mowing at Glenn Cemetery a long
time ago. I then lifeguarded at the Paxton Pool (one of my
favorite jobs), and worked as a Paramedic for
Paxton EMS. I also did a summer at EIEC. In college, I worked as a Zamboni driver
and skate monitor for the U. of I. ice rink. My first engineering jobs were
summer internships at the Aerospace Corp. in California ('99)
then NASA JPL ('01). After graduating in '05, I worked at
Draper Labs in Cambridge, MA, doing Navigation.
Currently, I am
working for an aerospace start-up company called Terrafugia,.
I officially started full time in February
'07. A lot of my fellow Aerospace Engineers had been disheartened with
the aerospace industry. Too many projects that we had worked on
would get canceled. NASA didn't seem to be the place it used to be.
Don't get me wrong, I have some friends who love their job
at NASA and are doing amazing things. It just wasn't for
me right now. Carl Dietrich , a fellow MIT student at the
time, and I
always talked about starting our own company. He initially had this crazy
idea of a “flying car.” We laughed about it and then
gradually realized that we might be on to something. We
realized that if you could make a vehicle that flies and drives,
it would make flying more practical and more fun. Long
story short, we met with some of the MIT Sloan business school
students, formed a team, and submitted a business plan to the
MIT 100K business plan competition. We ended up as runner
up out of 160ish entrants! Armed
with the knowledge that we had a viable business opportunity, we
began to raise money and started working full time in 2/07. One
year later, we are 10 employees and only a few months away from
completing our first prototype. Yep, building flying cars. What
could be better?
An interesting side
note is that Terrafugia wouldn't be where we are without Ben
Schweighart. Ben is a computer graphics artist. Early in the company (04-06),
when we had the idea for
this aircraft, we didn't have a good way of conveying the idea.
Trying to get people excited about an idea
is hard to do if you only have sketches or PowerPoint slides.
Ben had just gotten out of school and was looking for projects
to boost his resume/demo reel. He had done some projects for
MIT, and he is just amazing at what he does. He created
all the graphics you see on our website (terrafugia.com).
And it is those graphics that we used as our “product” for the
first couple of years. When we make a presentation, go to
shows or distribute pamphlets, we use his graphics. To this day,
all of our images are his. As soon as we get the prototype in
the air, the images will transition to real photos, but until
then, it's all Ben. I can't stress how lucky we are to have
him.
Personal
Accomplishments:
I was on a reality TV show, but it wasn't Survivor; it was
"Escape From Experiment Island." It was a TLC channel
combination of Survivor and Junkyard Wars. It was a lot of
fun, but the show never caught on. It lasted one season
and was cut. So I got my 15 minutes of fame and had an
amazing trip to Scotland. Here are some photos:
http://www.davenlinda.com/section_EVENTSnADVENTURES/02escapefromexperimentisland_after.htm
Other Interests:
I’ve skippered sailing boats in the British Virgin Islands
and Turkey, Private Pilot, SCUBA, Hanglider Pilot (H2 Rating),
Paramedic, etc.
Local events
that influenced me:
Well, the teachers that probably influenced me the most
were Sandy Emerick, Tina Frisbee, and Nyla Hensley. I had
a great time and experience with PBL, especially with all the
activities that were offered from Math Team, to Football, to
Marching band, and the Musicals. PBL was the perfect size
where it was big enough to have all these things, yet small
enough that I could do them all without needing to be super
talented (as can be attested to my lack of singing skills unlike
Nate who still has an awesome voice). PBL was a great
school to grow up in.
# # #
After graduating
from PBL high school, I went to college at the University of
Illinois at Champaign-Urbana. I knew I was going to major in
engineering, but I couldn't decide what type. Since Sam had
originally decided on computer engineering, I decided to be
different and major in electrical engineering. (Little did I
know that both of those majors are very closely related.) After
a few years of college, I realized I had made a good decision
because I was really enjoying electrical engineering.
When it came time
to choose my specialty, I decided on power engineering because
my father worked in the power industry. After graduating with
my E.E. degree, I got a job at Tennessee Valley Authority in
Chattanooga, Tennessee. TVA is a government entity that was
created in 1933 by President Franklin Roosevelt as part of his
innovative solutions to lift the nation out of the depths of the
Great Depression. TVA's task was to electrify the Tennessee
Valley, provide flood control and stimulate the economy of the
hard-hit region.
Sixty-eight years
after its inception is when I began working for TVA. My job at
TVA is to calculate the excess transfer capability on the
transmission system so it can be sold to power producers
including TVA. Because of weather patterns and fuel costs, a
lot of times it is cheaper for power companies to buy their
power on the market than it is to produce it themselves. My job
is to calculate how much power can be shipped into, out of, or
across TVA to accommodate these transfers of power. It mostly
involves looking at computer simulations and updating models of
the power system.
I presently work at
Chickamauga Dam at a building called "The ROC". The ROC is an
underground bunker that houses our back up operating center. I
feel pretty safe working underground, but I do miss having some
windows and being able to talk on my cell phone! I also
represent TVA on part of a NERC Standard Drafting team. Being
part of the team requires me to fly around the country and meet
with other industry representatives. Our standard drafting team
is tasked to draft rules that the industry has to follow when
calculating transfer capability. TVA is also helping me advance
my career by paying for my MBA classes at the University of
Tennessee in Chattanooga. I really enjoy working for TVA
because it has such a rich history, and I feel like I'm part of
something much bigger than myself.
# # #
My career started with influences from
my friends and family at a young age. I was influenced from my
Mother who was very supportive and encouraging of my artistic
side, my best friend who I used to draw with constantly, my very
crafty father who made sure I knew my way around tools and handy
work, and my brothers who excelled in math and engineering. The
field I chose is a blend of art and engineering which was a
perfect fit for me really. I think the things that drew me to
3d animation the most would be movies like Jurassic Park and Toy
Story, as well as video games. I was always just blown away
with 3d and the possibilities.
My senior year in high school I was able
to take an independent study in computer graphics and was able
to play with some low level 3d software for a period a day.
This really helped later on. When it came time to pick a
college, I looked around for colleges nearby with 3d animation
or some form of it as a major. Southern Illinois University had
one SGI machine and very little in terms of classes. Then one
day a speaker came in from the Illinois Institute of Art in
Chicago and told us about his school that had a major that was
completely built around computer graphics and animation. After
we visited the school, I was so excited that we didn't bother
looking at other schools.
ILIA turned out to be pretty much what I
hoped, and I was strides ahead of my peers because of the time I
spent at home playing with Bryce 3d and in my independent
study. I always felt throughout college I was ahead of the
game, but when it came time to graduate and put together a
dreaded Demo-Reel (a video that showcases my best work) I sort
of got smacked back into reality. I started watching other
peoples’ demo-reels--not just my schoolmates, but people I would
be competing against for jobs. I was at the bottom of the
pool.
The Computer Graphics boom was actually
slowing way down when I was graduating, so there was an overload
of well-experienced animators looking for jobs like I was. My
short-term goal was to at least find a job that would help me
grow and learn even if it was short term and low pay. My
long-term goal was to find a stable job that wasn't temporary--a
full-time, well-paid, fun job. After hearing about a few
internships in Chicago, I interviewed for one near my school for
a company called MetroEdit.
They were a video company that mainly
cut and put together corporate videos. Drew and Chris, the
owners, had wanted to try their hand at making a children's
animation. So they interviewed me to help them with figuring
out how much work it would be and how long it would take to make
a pilot episode. They owned a copy of Lightwave 3D which I had
never used because my school was using Maya and 3d Studio Max at
the time. So I spent the first month learning Lightwave,
developing the main character, and helping figure out a way to
approach the pilot. We ended up hiring five other people that I
would lead in a year's long work to create this pilot. In the
end, the pilot we made was probably around 10 minutes long. The
story was about a little boy alien, his pet, and their
adventures. You can see some images from this website, if it's
still up.
http://www.toonranch.com/orb_billyorbitz.html
The pilot wasn't a huge success, so
after it was over I was out of a job because MetroEdit didn't
really have any call for 3d outside of this pet project. So we
were put on hold until someone wanted to fund us. Making next
to nothing and living in Chicago, I was sort of in a panic. The
first thing I had to do was to rework my demo-reel to make it
better and try for another job. I quickly moved down to
Tennessee and moved in with my brother Nate, who helped by
offering low rent and some good company! I got a part-time job
at Office Depot and worked on my demo-reel during my spare
time. Before I got very far, Sam asked me to help his rocket
design team by animating the engine they planned to use for
their rocket in 3d. That video was a pretty good success, and I
learned a TON about aerospace, rockets, and even more about
Lightwave, which I was still using after the internship.
I then saw a company in Ithaca, NY, was
hiring Lightwave artists who were interested in working on
'Roving Mars' and other projects that were aerospace related.
Being a perfect fit for me, I applied right away to Maas
Digital. I got a quick response from Dan Maas, the owner,
saying he was interested and would keep me in mind. Other than
that I didn't hear from him again. But I didn't really wait
because quickly after the rocket engine animation, Sam's
adviser, Ray Sedwick, asked me to animate some satellites in 3d
that use electromagnets to stay in formation. I ended up doing
two animations for him that turned out pretty good and were used
in countless presentations. So, another success! I then added
that recent work to my demo-reel and reapplied at Maas Digital.
I told him, I had some new work that was an improvement to the
first reel I sent him. He quickly asked me to come for a week
of interviewing/working. During that week, he asked me to make
arrangements to move.
My time at Maas Digital was pretty
amazing. Dan is an extremely brilliant person who helped me
grow as an artist/animator more than I could have hoped to do.
He and I started work on the 3d graphics for the movie “Roving
Mars.” We soon hired a couple other people to help ou,t and
after their summer stay it was just back to the two of us. We
finished the animations soon after the summer, and I helped him
with a few other projects he was working on. Unfortunately I
was hired temporarily to help with the movie, so as soon as the
movie and the other projects were finished, I was looking for
work again. I should note, I didn't realize going into 3d that
most 3d jobs are just temporary for the duration of that
project/movie/commercial presentation. It was starting to
worry me that this was how my life was going to be . . . job to
job.
After I was finished at Maas Digital, I
did a quick animation for JPL NASA about another satellite.
Then it was time to regroup and look yet again for another job.
Instead of staying in Ithaca, I moved back to Tennessee and
started working on my demo-reel again. And again, before I got
too far, Sam asked me to help his company, Terrafugia. They
needed an animation of their plane concept and some print
materials for a booth at an Air Show. The animations turned out
really well, so I used them create yet another demo-reel. This
reel is what landed me a job at John Frassanito & Associates in
Houston, TX, where I am currently working.
JF&A is a small company that creates
animations mainly for NASA and some other smaller clients.
These animations are used in presentations to help promote
missions and to generate interest from the public. The cool
thing about this job is that it's permanent, pays well, and is
fun! I think I've brought a lot of quality to the animations
here. This in turn has helped us land even more work. We have
been non-stop busy. I spend everyday animating rocket launches,
rocket staging in orbit, astronauts, the Hubble telescope,
supersonic jets, and tons of other aerospace-related projects.
I even managed to bring in a couple of my own smaller clients
that stemmed from the work I did for Sam and from 'Roving Mars'.
So I'm really happy with how things
turned out! Too bad all this moving around and instability has
prevented me from having any sort of long- term relationship!
(Well I gotta blame it on something!) Hopefully, someday I can
remedy that!
My website is
www.4dartist.com. It's slightly out of date and needs some
fixes, so I may do that soon. It should show a few of the past
animations I did, that I talked about above.
# # #
The PBL Education Foundation appreciates
the time that the Schweighart boys spent in writing up their
stories (especially Nate who was married in mid April and yet
took the time to write his story!). We wish them continued success in their young careers
that have taken them so far already.
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