The weeks seem to be going by very quickly here. I’m in my seventh week and it certainly doesn’t feel that way. But that’s good, they’ve been keeping me busy here lately, and I feel like I’m learning things every day.

One thing I’ve been putting some time in recently is developing some antenna patterns for our dynamic GPS simulations. Our customer for this project had sent us some data about the antenna they were using and I had to extract that and then, using some Matlab scripts, put it into a form that we can use in our simulation software. It was a good experience to learn how to manipulate data like that, and rewarding in that I was able to do it on my own, troubleshooting as I went.

Another project we’re working on is getting to the point were we have to start to develop testing procedures on the unit and the interface on this product is new. So I’m getting to spend some time in the lab configuring all the test equipment that we have to make sure that we can properly interface the unit with the computer and our test software.

It’s always interesting and a little scary to be working on something that no one has ever done before and that you need to figure it out so that the project can continue on as scheduled.

To get away from talking about work for a little, I just want to throw in the importance of having fun when you’re working hard. Something the folks at work seem to be able to balance very well. They are under a lot of stress of deadlines all the time and everyone works very hard all day long. But at the end of the day and on the weekends people go out and enjoy themselves. Everyone has to blow off steam and have some fun; it’s relaxing and improves the work environment I think.

So things are going great and work and they are keeping me busy and I’m learning, but we are also having some good times. There’s a lot to do here in Tampa if you know where to look.