September 2003 Posting
During my tenure of a few months at ODOT in Salem, I had been looking for permanent positions elsewhere along with rigorously attempting to create a permanent position at ODOT. My efforts at ODOT resulted in some ideas that will hopefully be implemented, but are not going to be available until the project progresses further.
Shortly after being laid off from Siemens, I applied for an opening at the City of Lynnwood, Washington. I was interviewed and offered the position despite being underqualified. I accepted the position and have been filling a project manager spot since the beginning of September 2003. The people are great and the city seems to be well run. My official title is "ITS Program Manager" and I manage the Intelligent Transportation System and technology projects for the city.
May 2003 Posting
The present economic situation hit home at the Siemens office
and I was subsequently laid off. This worked to my advantage because
when ODOT found out that I was no longer working on their Transportation
Operations Center Project as a consultant, they contacted me to
join their team directly. For now the position is temporary, but
will likely turn into a permanent position within 6 months.
I'm pretty happy about this new direction in my career and am excited to see what comes my way during the next several months.
January 2003 Postings
Our consulting group has changed it's name after combining with another company. Eagle Controllers is now part of our company, which is called Siemens Intelligent Transportation Systems, Gardner Consulting.
Gardner Consulting is based in Concord California, where I trained for a month in June 2002. I currently work out of the Portland office with a gentleman named Kent Kacir.
The type of work we do is primarily in the Intelligent Transportation Systems arena. This involves such things as hardware and software for creating capacity, safety, and efficient transportation. Siemens ITS develops, distributes, and supports software for Traffic Management Centers. Traffic Management Centers include devices that monitor and control traffic as well as devices that deliver information to drivers. Some of the devices that might be controlled from a Traffic Management Center are: Closed Circuit Television, Ramp Meters, Signals at Intersections, Message Signs, and weather warning systems.
Here's a really silly traffic related link that was sent by Dr. Craig Roberts from AZTran:
http://www2.omnitel.net/smirlis/tmp/fahrschule.swf
June 2002 Posting:
After nearly four years with my one and only employer... since graduating with an engineering degree, I have taken employment elsewhere. I am now working for a large company--Siemens Energy and Automation.
If you are unfamiliar with Siemens, you are not alone. I had only heard the company name come up from time to time until now. Everyday I find out something more this worldwide company is involved in. Here is a website with some information.
http://www.siemens.com/index.jsp
The business unit for Siemens that I work for is called Gardner Transportation Systems. Here is the GTS link.
http://www.gts.sea.siemens.com/newsite/index2.html
Since starting at the end of May 2002, I've been working out of the Concord, California office in a work/training effort. The training is to learn as much about Advanced Transportation Management Systems (ATMS) and Traffic Management Centers (TMC) as possible, then write the specifications for Caltrans ATMS. I feel like I did when first starting at JRH, my previous employer-I'm being fed to the wolves right away. What I have realized quickly though is that I have the skills and background to perform the tasks. What I didn't expect is that I would be so intrigued about it. I find myself looking foward to working with the caliber of experts in the GTS offices. They are not only classical traffic and transportation (Civil) engineers like me, but are software engineers, network engineers, and electrical engineers. So, I'm quickly finding my place and it feels good. I do miss my home in Harrisburg though. It has also made getting with Nora for visits a little difficult too, but we had a weekend visit over June 8th-9th.
After the training work, I'll work out of the Portland office of Siemens/GTS. Until then, I'm living at the Extended Stay America Motel! June 17, 2002.