Summer Internship at MITRE

"MITRE is a not-for-profit national resource that provides systems engineering, research and development, and information technology support to the government. It operates federally funded research and development centers for the DOD, the FAA, and the IRS, with principal locations in Bedford, Massachusetts, and Northern Virginia." - www.mitre.org

In a Nutshell...

Realizing the need for real world experience in the Computing Industry, and feeling the oncome of the inevitable clash with that thing parents often refer to as a "job", I decided to sign up for CS 454, Internship in Computer Science, through the JMU Computer Science Department.

It all began way back in Febuary when I picked up the CS 454 application form and filled in the requested information. After being accepted into the program, I set up a meeting with Mr. Allan Berg to go over my resume. During the first CS 454 meeting, we were told that we would spend hours upon hours developing and correcting our resumes, all of which I thought was completely unnecessary. That was before I met with Mr. Berg. Our first meeting was very disheartening to say the least. I walked in with the best resume in the world, and walked out with a piece of paper that looked like it got into a fight with a red ink pen...and lost...badly.

Eventually, things worked out and I found myself working at the MITRE Coorporation, in the Center for Advanced Aviation System Development (CAASD). I spent the entire summer developing a Graphical User Interface for an Air Traffic Controller (ATC) simulation. The entire software system is being built using Sun's JAVA 2 1.4 API, so I had plently of time to explore a lot of capabilities that JAVA supports. Coorporate life was good, people were friendly helpful, and supportive. There were always plently of technical people around to answer questions if you had them, and the atmosphere was non stressful and relaxed (ask me about the time I wore a tie!).

I have had plently of time to reflect upon this experience, and I cannot say enough about what this intership has done for the overall value of my education. There is no better way to prepare yourself for a professional career in computing other than to go out and get your hands dirty. Here is a link to my Official Intership Report if you are so inclined to check out the nitty gritty details of my summer. If you have any questions or would like to talk with me, please send me, Brock Beatty, an e-mail and I will do my best to satisfy your thirst for more information.

The Report...

Misc...

Here are some pictures from this summer.

About me...

Brock Beatty Computer Science Senior beattybp@jmu.edu 540.578.3893