Robots, Drones and Turbines – Oh My! Cool Careers Extended Edition

I'm Ivan. Today we're visiting Foresight, a cybersecurity company with its world headquarters located right here in Overland Park, Kansas. We're going to be learning more about what it's like to be a cybersecurity analyst. Come on, let's go check it out. I'd like to introduce you all to David, who's a cybersecurity analyst here at Foresight. Nice to meet you, Ivan. Nice to meet you, too. Would you like a tour? Sure. It looks like Tony Stark's lab. So, David, what does a cybersecurity analyst do? Cybersecurity analysts protect people's online information, and we prevent hackers from stealing that information. So businesses will hire us to make sure that their information is secure and that their networks are secure. If we see something suspicious, it's our job to notify the clients and make sure we're keeping the bad guys out. Sometimes we try to find out where the hackers are located so we can give that information to the police and they can stop it. It could be right down the street or as far as Russia or China. That's why we think of ourselves as like computer detectives. Just like police officers and firefighters have to train regularly to learn new skills and stay in shape, cybersecurity analysts run drills all the time and try to find weaknesses in people's computer systems, then create software defenses to keep hackers out. Why is cybersecurity important work? Well, some of what we do is solve small problems. Like if a user were to repeatedly fail to log into their computer by entering the wrong password too many times, you may have done something like that in a game or in a school program. To us, that may look like they're trying to break into the account. So then we'll investigate it and determine whether or not they're doing something bad. Sometimes we have to solve more complex problems, like when a bad guy would get inside of a company's network and then they would do something called ransomware, where somebody would be locked out from their computer and all of their information, and then they have to pay the bad guy's money in order to unlock their information. When big companies have to shut down, it can cost them a lot of money and be very damaging. I take great pride in knowing that I'm protecting people all over the world from the bad guys. So how did you learn to be a cybersecurity analyst? I had a lot of different jobs after high school. I worked as a machinist in a warehouse and in factories. And I also climbed telephone poles and worked on them for the electric company. I found out about cybersecurity analysis and that it was a very high-demand, high-paying job. I've always liked computers, so I decided I would take a few classes and learn about cybersecurity analysis. Then I was hired here at Foresight about two and a half years ago. If I decide I want to be a cybersecurity analyst, what can I do now as a kid to prepare? That's a very good question. Cybersecurity analysts are really good at problem solving. So things you could do now are playing games and puzzles that would improve your critical thinking and problem solving. It also helps to have a really good background in programming and in math. Do you have to go to college for cybersecurity? Not necessarily. Some people take classes to earn certifications instead of a college degree. Technology is an always-changing field, so there's a lot to keep up with and a lot to learn. Wow, that sounds like a great career for me to consider. My mom would be happy, too. Thank you to David and the entire team here at Foresight for showing me around and keeping our money, property, and information safe. Until next time, this is Ivan signing off from Overland Park for Cool Careers. Great day, everyone! Hi, I'm Dallas. We're in Perry, Kansas at the headquarters of Ham Companies. Ham specializes in construction and construction materials, as well as waste management. Today, we're going to learn more about what it's like to be a drone pilot for the construction industry. Let's go! Drones are aircrafts without a human pilot, crew, or passengers on board. The pilot operates the drone from the ground with a remote control. Drones are used in many industries, from filmmaking to agriculture. They're even beginning to be used for delivery services, meaning a package could arrive at your home from the air. I'd like to introduce you all to Paul, who is a drone pilot here at Ham. Paul, can you tell me more about what you do? Sure. I do use drones for aerial mapping. I'll take pictures from the air, I'll dump it into a computer, and run it through a process called photogrammetry. Photogrammetry is a remote sensing process. It's very, very helpful for surveying. It'll make 3D maps for me to compare surfaces and previous flyovers for collaboration and being able to track progress on the job. Paul explained that before drones, surveyors used to have to walk around with equipment on all kinds of terrain to gather their measurements, and it wasn't very accurate. On construction sites and near deep quarries, this could get dangerous. Plus, it took a really long time. So why is it important to have 3D models of the land for excavation and construction projects? Well, let's go to the office and I'll show you. So one reason it's important to map these areas is we can measure stockpiles, we can measure how much it weighs, how much it's worth. Here I have some stockpiles drawn, various products. From there I can draw an area around the limits of the stockpile, and we can compute a volume for the amount of material that's in here. So in here we've got 39,300 yards. So what's in these piles? Rocks. Big rocks, little rocks. Rocks that's mixed together to make concrete, asphalt, things to help build our infrastructure. We can fly every, we try to do it every month as we sell the product, and from there we can see how much material has been sold, how much we've made, and maybe how much more we need to make. Okay. Now that I have a better understanding of what you do with the drone, I have another question. Sure. Can I fly it? Let's do it. Paul showed me how he sets up his drone, and then we went outside to test it out. It was a little harder than I thought. So how did you become a drone pilot? I started as a surveyor. I learned from my old boss on the road crew, and drones slowly became part of the industry. I practiced, eventually got my drone pilot's license, and here I am today. If I want to be a drone pilot, what should I do now to prepare? It depends on what kind of drone pilot you want to be. I would focus on your math and your sciences. If you want to be a construction pilot like me, I would recommend taking some construction classes in high school, maybe some drafting, engineering, wood tech, just to familiarize yourself with the industry and see where that takes you. So did you have to go to college to be a drone pilot? No, I didn't. I taught myself, but the most important thing is to remember you have to get a drone license to practice UAS operations. You can take a test online, a practice test, or take an online course, or you can just do research and find out yourself. I never knew that drones were being used in construction. Thank you, Paul, for answering all my questions and letting me fly your drone. I had a lot of fun. I did, too. Thank you for coming. Until next time, this is Dallas signing off from Perry for Cool Careers. Have a great day! Hello, I'm Dena. Today, we're visiting Textron Aviation, a designer and manufacturer of aircraft and aviation products. Textron Aviation's world headquarters is in Wichita, Kansas, and the company has offices and services around the world. Textron Aviation has been inspiring the journey of flight for over 90 years and builds beachcraft and Cessna aircraft. Today, we're going to learn about how robotics and automation are used in the aviation industry. Let's go! I'd like to introduce all of you to Stacey, an automation engineer here at Textron Aviation. Stacey, can you tell us what an automation engineer does exactly? My job is to use automation and robotics to make building airplanes safer and easier for people to do. In the past, building airplanes took a lot of repetition and physical labor from a lot of people. Today, we use robots and automation to do some of that repetitive work safer, faster, and more precisely. How do you figure out how your robots work? Usually, our team's tasked with solving one of three problems using automation and robotics. Safety, quality, and ergonomic issues. Ergonomics and making the workplace a more comfortable place to work for the employees. Usually, our team gets together and we brainstorm how we can use automation and robotics to build a process or a machine to help fix these problems. Once we believe that we've got a solution, our team runs computer simulations to see if it works. Testing our solution digitally saves us a lot of money and time. It also keeps us from slowing down production for other workers. I spend about 70% of my time looking for solutions and testing them on a computer. And another 30% of my time fixing problems and maintaining the robots. Now let me ask you something, Nina. Do you like playing video games, doing computer work, or building things? Yeah, definitely. Then you've already got some of the skill sets needed to do this job. Is that how you learned to become an automation engineer? That's one of the ways for sure. When I was going to high school, I attended woodworking classes, shop classes, and welding classes that I still use those skill sets today. So at an early age, I was doing hands-on skills and building things. I joined Textron Aviation as an experimental test mechanic when I had two years left of college at Wichita State. I wanted a job that was very hands-on. I knew I was interested in some sort of engineering field, but I also wanted to make sure my job would actually let me build things. I earned a degree in engineering technology with a focus on mechatronics, which combines mechanical and electrical engineering. After I graduated, I joined the automation team as an automation and robotics engineer. I'm still working there to this day, and I absolutely love it. What do you like about your work? I enjoy how hands-on it is. On a daily basis, I get to design processes and machines that utilize different types of engineering, such as mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, and computer engineering. That's really cool. Okay, I have one more really important question for you. What's that? Can you show me how the robots work? Absolutely. Okay, that was super fun. It would be so cool to do work like this every day. How can I get started while I'm still in school? I'd recommend taking as many science, technology, and math classes as possible. I'd also recommend taking shop classes so you have a better understanding of machinery and how it works, like all engineers should. I can do that. I think my high school has a robotics club. Would that be good to join? Absolutely. Any first-hand knowledge that you can get beforehand is definitely going to be a plus for you. There's another way that you can get some first-hand experience here. What's that? Tektron Aviation provides a paid summer internship for high school students. This means you get to come in and help with real projects and work alongside people doing this work. It gives you a chance to experience what it's like to work here and try your hand at some of the jobs we do here. And after you graduate, we even have paid internships for college students that will teach you great skills you need to get started in robotics. Okay, that sounds amazing. And you get paid for it? I'm in. Is there anything else I can do to start preparing to work in this field someday? Yes, you can work on your soft skills. Soft skills are traits like being on time to work and being a good team player. Also, some people are afraid of failure, but failure is something we embrace as engineers. Whenever we have an opportunity to fail, we can assess what we're doing and build a better product. So in this job, failing can be a good thing? Absolutely. Failure is part of inventing new things. If the Wright brothers would have stopped every time they didn't get their ideas off the ground, we'd have never had airplanes in the first place. I'd like to thank Stacy and everyone here at Tektron Aviation for showing me around this amazing facility and teaching me about robotics and automation and manufacturing airplanes. I learned a lot today, and I hope you did too. Until next time, this is Dina signing off in Wichita for Cool Careers. Have a great day. It's part of inventing new things. So thanks Stacy and everyone. Until next time. Hello, I'm Kieran. Today, we're visiting the world headquarters of Garmin in Olathe, Kansas. Garmin came out with its first GPS navigation product in 1989, and now they've grown into a global consumer products leader, serving the automotive, aviation, marine, outdoor, and fitness markets with associates in 34 different countries. Today, we're going to learn about what it's like to be an electrical process engineer at Garmin. Let's go. I'd like to introduce all of you to Marjan, an electrical process engineer at Garmin. Marjan, what exactly do you do at your job? I test products to make sure they work properly, they're long-lasting, and that they're going to make our customers happy. I look for problems in the design, software, and manufacturing of products. Then I figure out how to improve it so it meets Garmin's high standards. We are very picky about the things we make. I specifically work in the aviation sector of Garmin's business, and I spend a lot of my time testing displays, touch controllers, and backup batteries that go into aircrafts. I do a lot of different things when it comes to electrical and software engineering. Garmin's products all have something to do with GPS, global positioning systems. Can you explain what GPS is and how it helps people? A global positioning system uses a group of satellites orbiting the Earth to help people navigate. A GPS product is a device on Earth, we can call it a receiver. The receiver communicates with satellites to display where the product is, how fast it's moving, which direction it's going, and how high it is in the air. Receivers show where the product is and help plan the best way to the next destination. You probably use GPS on your phone to help your parents navigate to a place they've never been to before. Yeah, we use GPS on our phones all the time. So that same technology is in stuff like boats, planes, and fitness trackers? Essentially, yes. They all use a similar type of satellite technology. Cool. Now that I know more about what Garmin does, can you show me what you do on a day-to-day basis? Yeah, let's do it. I had no clue there were people whose whole job is to test electronic products to make them better. I also had no idea how many things in the world use GPS technology. Did you always know you wanted to be an electrical process engineer? Well, sort of. I was born in Sudan, which is in Africa. And when I was eight, my family and I migrated over to the Kansas City area. When I was in high school, I took robotics courses, shop classes, and some basic coding. I also was part of FIRST Robotics Club, which kind of teaches you some hands-on experience. I went into the Marine Corps, where I was an avionics tech for five years, which gave me a good start on my career in electrical engineering. I came back home to study at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. After graduating college, I got an internship and honed my craft a little bit. And soon after that, Garmin hired me for this job. I've been here for two and a half years now. So, what do you like best about your job? Well, I really like the hands-on aspect of testing equipment. Here at Garmin, we're always trying to make things better and a little more efficient. We're also trying to make things a little less expensive for people to buy. Every day is a little different, and you never really know what you're going to get. If I wanted to become an electrical process engineer, what should I be doing now to get ready? Well, it all comes back down to STEM, science, technology, engineering, and math courses. You'll want to take some robotics courses, maybe some shop classes, and some basic coding. They're going to help you get an understanding of how things work. You'll also want to take some math classes like trig. Algebra and calculus can be very important in the job I do. Is there anything else I can do to get ready for a job like yours? Garmin offers college students, high school students, and even recent grads opportunities to get some real-world, hands-on experience. And you can go check out our website to learn more. I'd like to thank Marjan and everybody here at Garmin for showing me what it's like to be an electrical process engineer working with GPS devices. It kind of makes me want to go home and break some stuff and rebuild it even better. Be sure to visit higherpaths.com to explore other high-demand careers. Until next time, this is Kieran signing off in Olathe for Cool Careers. Have a great day. Makes me want to go home and break some stuff. Hi, I'm Lance, and today we're at the Meridian Way Wind Farm near Concordia, Kansas. A wind farm is a place with a bunch of wind turbines, which are basically modern windmills. They generate electricity as the wind spins their blades. Kansas costs a lot of wind, so you've probably seen turbines just like these when you've driven around the state. There are nearly 70 turbines at the Meridian Way Wind Farm. Meridian Way is one of three wind farms in Kansas owned by EDP Renewables, a global leader in the renewable energy industry. EDPR is the fourth largest renewable energy producer in the world. They have 58 wind farms and 9 solar parks, which collect energy from the sun, in North America alone. And they have farms in 26 other countries. Today, we're going to learn about the job of a wind turbine technician who maintains and fixes these humongous structures. We're also going to get to climb inside one of these bad boys. Let's go. We're here at the wind farm talking with Ethan, who's worked here at Meridian Way for over 11 years. Thanks for hanging out with us today, Ethan. So could you start by telling us some advantages of wind energy? Sure. There are lots of advantages to wind energy, which is why it's such a fast-growing field. In the state of Kansas 20 years ago, there weren't hardly any wind turbines. Now there are over 3,500 wind turbines. That's enough wind turbines to generate power for 1.6 million homes and over 40% of all the electricity needs in the state of Kansas. Wow. I had no idea. That's so cool. So how does wind energy compare to other kinds of energy? There are a lot of reasons why we're using more and more wind power. It costs less to produce. We can easily generate it in the United States. It's sustainable. We'll never run out of wind. Wind turbines can be put on existing farms and ranches so they don't use a lot of land. Plus, farmers and ranchers make extra money by renting their land to energy companies. And wind energy has a very low impact on the environment. You don't have to use any water or burn anything, so they don't create any pollution. There are a lot of reasons wind energy makes sense, especially in Kansas, right? I mean, it's always windy here. Absolutely. It only takes 6 to 8 miles an hour to start producing wind energy. And in the state of Kansas, that's nearly all the time, especially 200 to 300 feet in the air. So what does a wind turbine tech do exactly? The wind turbine technicians take care of the repair and maintenance of the wind turbines. It's my job to help oversee that work and make sure we're following our safety and environmental standards. We do that to make sure we're not harming the environment or anything around the wind farm. I also help oversee the electrical grid substation where our power is connected to the nationwide supply of power. We make so much wind energy, we can share it with other states surrounding Kansas. We do a lot of different types of work in this field. We work on the electrical and mechanical parts. We also work with the turbine software and computers. And we have to understand a lot about electrical power and how it moves. Wow, that's a lot. So, could you take me up inside one of these and show me how they work? Yes, but first, are you scared of heights? Because if you are, that's going to be a problem. I think I'll be fine. Let's go. Ethan took me to Cloud County Community College in Concordia where we met Kit Thompson. Kit's the head of their Renewable Energy Department and he teaches people who want to be wind turbine techs. Ethan got his training at Cloud County right after he graduated from high school. Kit and Ethan showed me how to climb safely up inside the tower of a wind turbine. It was a lot more complicated than I thought it was going to be. And man, that tower was really tall. I'm trying to figure out what all these things do up here. Ethan showed me some of the computers and electronics that operate the turbine. There are four computers inside each turbine and they constantly monitor sensors on the outside. Those sensors measure things like wind speed, wind direction, and the air temperature. The sensors and computers tell the turbine how to adjust its blades to catch the most wind and produce maximum energy. Ethan explained to me that when the wind turns the turbine's blades, it turns a shaft inside the turbine. The shaft is connected to gears that cause a smaller shaft to drive the electrical generator. That electrical generator creates the power that will eventually get into people's homes and businesses. I'm super glad I got a chance to enjoy the view. It's crazy how far you can see from way up here. That was so cool. You guys definitely have me thinking about being a wind turbine tech someday. Glad you liked it. Renewable energy is a really fast-growing field. We need young people like you to get excited about it. Most people start in this industry as a technician and then they move up into other energy jobs as they get more experience. That's very true. Once you get your foot in the door in the wind industry, there's lots of opportunities to move up. Would you like to go see some more of what we do? For sure. Thanks for taking me up there, Kit. It was an amazing experience and I'll never forget it. You're welcome. Enjoy the rest of your tour. Don't forget to come see me when you're ready to enroll. You want to see the rest of the wind farm? Heck yeah! Ethan gave me a tour of the wind farm and showed me more about what he does every day in his job. Then he took me to the substation where the energy produced here is collected before it leaves the wind farm. Alright, you've sold me. This is a super cool job. What can I start doing now in high school to prepare? I would suggest taking as many STEM classes as you can. Science, technology, engineering, and math. Take some CTE courses like shop, electronics, or welding to get used to working with tools and your hands. And knowing some things about computer hardware and software will also help. I can do that. And then after high school, I'll have to find some kind of college program specifically for working on wind turbines? Absolutely. There are several wind energy certificate and associate degree programs available. One of the best places in the state of Kansas is Cloud County Community College to get this type of education. You can be qualified in as little as a year or two to work as a wind technician after graduating high school. Alright, that sounds awesome. I could be working here in no time. Thanks so much to Kit and Ethan for showing me around and letting me see what they do up close. I'm definitely putting wind turbine technician on my future jobs list. Maybe I'll see you up on top of a turbine soon. Can't wait to see you up there. If you like what you saw in this video, be sure to visit higherpaths.com for more videos and to explore other high demand careers. Until next time, this is Lance signing off for Cool Careers near Concordia, Kansas. Have a great day.