Machines Like Us – Science News

From deploying robots in the rain forest to testing fitness products in triathlons, engineers are living their dreams and redefining "work."

In this annual special report on "Dream Jobs," IEEE Spectrum profiles 10 amazing engineers who meld their passions and personal interests into their careers.

• Sigrid Close, resident expert in ionospheric and near-Earth phenomena at Los Alamos National Laboratory, in New Mexico -- works with rocket scientists to study meteoric and other disturbances in the uppermost reaches of the atmosphere, with the goal of improving satellite communications.
• Bruno Putzeys, designer of amplifiers and other audio electronics for Hypex Electronics and Grimm Audio -- one of the world's top designers of class-D audio amplifiers.
• David Downey, software engineering team leader in Garmin International's fitness products division -- testing high-tech biking and running gear has him in a bike race, a running race, or a triathlon at least once a month.
• James Brown, test pilot on the F-22 Raptor for Lockheed Martin Corp. -- logs hundreds of flight hours at 2600 kilometers per hour with an eye to modifying onboard computers, navigation systems, and weapons.
• Steven Camilleri, designs and builds highly efficient brushless dc motors--based at In Motion Technologies in Dandenong, Australia, he has reinvented the motor, figuring out the engineering from scratch.
• Roger Hill, develops devices that can be attached to fish, marine mammals, and birds in order to monitor their functions and locations -- alternates between his office at Wildlife Computers and the Antarctic ice.
• Ney Robinson Salvi dos Reis, a robotics engineer at Petrobras in Brazil -- heads the underwater-technology division's robotics laboratory and takes robots into the field, whether that's an Amazonian swamp or the Campos Basin near Rio de Janeiro.
• Ash Nehru, designs software for creating interactive 3-D lighting displays for United Visual Artists in London -- the guy who makes the tools that make the art, whether it's a light show for a rave or a music video.
• Salinee Tavaranan, project director of the Border Green Energy team -- on the Thai-Burma border, she installs solar panels and microhydro turbines and trains local residents in how to install and maintain the systems.
• Mark Schubin, television engineer and tech guru for the Metropolitan Opera in New York City -- puts together televised broadcasts of the performing arts, reaching a larger audience in new ways.

IEEE Spectrum Magazine