Intersection of computer science and aviation = null?

by philg

I had great success last summer posting a summer aviation internship. There were lots of applicants. This year, I decided that I should try to find someone who was competent with Linux, the RDBMS, and HTML, i.e., a Computer Science major with some practical skill as well. So I added a bit of software development/sysadmin skill to the job requirements. The result? Almost no interest or applications. There are plenty of guys who were good software engineers, sold their companies, then came down to Hanscom to learn to fly. Why wouldn’t there be CS undergraduates who want to learn to fly?

10 thoughts on “Intersection of computer science and aviation = null?”

  1. Any undergrad who can do everything listed in your “How To Apply” section can make much, much more than ~$10k for the whole summer and then buy his/her own flight time.

  2. I’d love to learn, but the time requirements are too big. Not enough to have a paying job.

  3. James: The requirements in the “How to Apply” section have been accomplished by quite a few 12-year-olds. I don’t think everyone who can install Linux is making big summer $$. And the budding CS nerd could learn a lot from my friends at the airport, many of whom are software guys who’ve built successful software products and/or companies.

  4. I would definitely have applied, if I weren’t in the middle of working on my PhD. So, don’t give up— there do exist qualified individuals who would be interested in aviation. This particular individual, however, is already booked up for the summer. 🙂

  5. philg: Is anyone with “a drive to excel” going to work for peanuts when they don’t have to? I agree, not everyone who can install and admin Linux, install an RDBMS, write a little SQL, and configure port-forwarding on a router can make $10k for three months’ work in the Boston area. However, the vast majority can, particularly since most have skills above and beyond those basics. Any contract recruiter would chomp at the bit to place someone with those skills at $20/hour with no benefits.

    Furthermore, you’re looking for someone who has those basic skills *and* is thin enough to fly *and* is a US citizen *and* is rich enough to only make $2k cash for the summer *and* is willing to wait until the end of the summer to get paid. All that may be SOP in the aviation world, but the market is telling you that it doesn’t work when hiring CS nerds.

  6. I’m out of school, working on aviation software and my own business ventures, but I would gladly PAY money to learn more from people like Philip. (Ever consider teaching something in the MIT summer program?? I could manage to spend a week in Boston, but it’s impractical now for me to spend a whole summer on something like this…)

    Even if I were still a student, though, I’m well over six feet tall and generally largishly built… even at my optimum weight, I’d still be too heavy for this particular assignment!

  8. That’s a real pity. If I was an undergrad (and not almost done with the PhD), I’d SO have applied – it sounds like the dream internship to me. But while I sure have no problem creating a web site and installing some software (hell, I’ve got my own Emacs distro…), time comes at a premium at this point.

    But I’ve forwarded your job ad to my fellow glider pilots here in Scotland. We’ve got a gliding cub at Edinburgh University with plenty of keen (and able) people.

  9. It looks as though I’ve got someone pretty good. The CS and engineering majors who tried to accomplish the assigned tasks (install OS, RDBMS, and Web server) all reported failure, but promised to do it later and sent in impressive-looking resumes intead (i.e., they wanted to rely on their credentials).

    A guy who was a humanities major at U. Mass did everything on a junk PC in his bedroom and gave me the IP address on Comcast in his first email (i.e., he was relying on his accomplishments and demonstrated capability). I gave him an intro lesson in the R22 and he seems to have good potential as a pilot.

  10. It frightens me that I have a 15 year old B.S. and I don’t even know what; (install OS, RDBMS, and Web server) means well enough to give a good b.s. answer.

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