Please join us in welcoming our special guest for ROBOTICON 2018, Kurt Leucht, of NASA-Kennedy Space Center. In keeping with our space themed event this year, Mr. Leucht will be sharing his experience working at NASA, and talking to students and guests throughout the day on Saturday, September 29. We asked him to tell more about himself and what he’ll be doing at ROBOTICON.
ROBOTICON: Can you tell us a bit about yourself and your work?
KL: My degree is in Electrical Engineering and I started my career with NASA in an electronics and circuits group at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) on Florida’s east coast. It was a great job, but I’ve always had a knack for software design and development. NASA was flexible enough to allow me to switch to a software group here at KSC and they even trained me for my new job.
And so I’ve been designing, implementing, and testing lots of different types of software for NASA for more than 20 years now. Monitor and control software that’s connected to critical support equipment out at the launch pad. Advisory tools that help NASA engineers and their support contractor workforce gain better insight and do their jobs better. Software for intelligent systems, like robots that will someday help us live off the land on the Moon and eventually on Mars during manned exploration missions.
During ROBOTICON, I’ll be giving some talks and presentations that show some of the different technologies that NASA is working on to support future long duration human missions to the Moon and to Mars.
ROBOTICON: What do you find most interesting about what you do?
One of the robots that Kurt Leucht has worked on.
KL: As an engineer I love that we are allowed – encouraged even – to be creative and to think outside the box. When the problem you’re trying to solve involves keeping humans alive during long duration Moon or Mars missions, out of the box thinking isn’t just encouraged. It’s pretty much required.
I work in a research and development lab at KSC, called Swamp Works, where creativity and innovative thinking are the norm. Sometimes we come up with multiple ideas that we think might be the solution. And sometimes we’re allowed to try out multiple ideas. If some ideas fail to work, that isn’t viewed as a failure. It’s just how we learn in that environment. And that’s a great way to work!
ROBOTICON: What would you tell youth interested in a career in aerospace?
KL: I would definitely encourage them! The aviation and spaceflight fields are really growing fast right now. Technology is being advanced very quickly. So there are lots of opportunities and great jobs available in these fields.
I would encourage them to work hard in school and to get good grades. And consider getting some sort of work experience while they’re in school. Internships are a great way to gain real-world work experience. And it doesn’t even need to be an internship with a technical company to be beneficial. An internship at any type of company will likely end up teaching important life skills and work skills. And it looks pretty good on a resume too!
ROBOTICON: What do you think is the most exciting thing on the horizon at NASA?
KL: The Moon! And Mars too!
NASA is right now building the rockets and the spacecraft that will take humans back to the Moon for long duration missions. We’ll set up a small lunar base and we’ll do some more detailed exploring there. This will all be great practice for sending human explorers to Mars. Which is where we will go next!
The students that are competing in your ROBOTICON event could end up working on those Moon missions or even those Mars missions in the future! And that’s pretty exciting for all of us!
ROBOTICON: Why is what our students are doing on their FIRST robotics teams important, or how does it prepare them for their futures?
KL: Robotics clubs and events are a pretty great way for students to get technical experience that will be quite useful when they enter the workforce. I believe the students that are attending your ROBOTICON event are going to do great things and advance new technologies when they enter the workforce. They have a great future ahead of them!
You can meet Kurt Leucht at ROBOTICON on Saturday, September 29 and learn more about the cool stuff going on at Swamp Works! Free public tickets can be secured at Eventbrite. Team registration information is here.
Get Free Public Tickets at Eventbrite!