Where can a STEM career take you? Senior Vice President Cedric Sims and two of his Booz Allen colleagues shared their experiences—and showed robots in action—in a January episode of “Cool Jobs.” It's an online program by FIRST Chesapeake to introduce middle and high school students in the District of Columbia, Maryland, and Virginia to people working in technology and potential career paths.
Mechanical Engineer Senior Consultant Annaliese Cunniffe talked about her robotics work at Booz Allen supporting various Army and Air Force clients. In one project, for example, she’s investigating ways to get different payloads on and off a robot quickly. “This is great for use cases in the military where they might have to go to a new mission at any minute,” she said.
“Initially I thought that being an engineer meant I would be designing bridges and things like that,” Cunniffe said. “But through my coursework, I was able to see how broad the field actually is.”
Lead Robotics Engineer Chantal Murdock, a self-professed “kid who loved science but hated math,” related her robotics journey and what keeps her on this career path.
“What I really like about working with robotics is that you get the best of both worlds. Sometimes I might be at my desk, sometimes I might be in the lab working on a robot, or when we do build tests, I might actually be out in the field,” she said.
“I have been in the woods, and I have been in the sea,” Murdock said of her experiences testing robots and self-driving vehicles. “How many jobs do you know where you get to play with jet skis and get paid for it?”
