 |
Bill Joo |
Hawaii Beckons
Bill Joo
February 2008
MITRE's Bill Joo enjoys the perspective from his new MITRE office.
Since his relatively recent transfer to the corporation's site in
Honolulu, Hawaii, Joo is settling in and enjoying many of the amenities
to what he affectionately refers to as "life on the rock."
Joo, a lead systems engineer, began his MITRE career seven years
ago in San Diego. While he enjoyed his time in California, last
year he decided he'd like a change of scenery and began looking
at job openings at other MITRE sites. Initially he thought he would
be taking an assignment in his native Korea but ultimately took
a position in Hawaii. He moved in July 2007.
Since his move to Honolulu, Joo has been supporting the Defense
Intelligence Agency's (DIA) Pacific Regional Support Center. "I'm
assigned to information assurance programs and other information
technology projects for the DIA," he says. These tasks build on
his work areas—including electrical engineering, radio and
satellite communications, network systems, and information technology—that
he was involved with while living in San Diego. There he supported
a wide variety of projects including the Navy Marine Corps Intranet,
the Navy's SSN-774 Virginia Class submarine common submarine
radio room network design, the mobile user objective satellite system,
the Army's Future Combat System, and the Joint Tactical Radio System
One of Joo's favorite projects while based in California was supporting
what became known as the "MITRE Ao Calculator." The project focused
on using a Microsoft Visio-based functional interface drawing as
a means to perform analysis such as route calculation, customized
display of the functional interface diagram content, and computation
of the probability that a system will operate satisfactorily at
any point in time. "I really enjoyed that project, in part because
I got to work with really talented MITRE staff, including Deborah
Goldsmith, Ed Olechna, and Kathryn Nelson," he says. "I often tout
the MITRE Ao Calculator as a symbol of the company's innovation,
ability, and willingness to tackle problems in niche areas that
are deemed unprofitable by the commercial sector."
Prior to coming to MITRE, Joo was a government electronics engineer
in Fort Monmouth, New Jersey, and on occasion worked with MITRE
staff there. His experience collaborating with MITRE left an indelible
impression. "As a civil servant I was always impressed with the
talent and modus operandi of my MITRE support contractors," he says.
"Further, I dealt with a family of MITRE staff that always exceeded
expectations. I was quite impressed with how they enforced the need
to spread the expertise across multiple programs for synergies and
for continual staff development. There was no doubt in my mind that
if I had to work for any DoD contractor it would be MITRE."
Island Life
Since his move to Honolulu last summer, Joo has been busy settling
in at both work and home. He and his wife and their two children
have found that they enjoy many aspects of island life, which is
very different from southern California.
 |
Bill Joo and family |
"I think diversity is what we like best about Hawaii," says Joo.
"The diversity of people is significantly greater than any other
part of the mainland. Plus, we have access to many different types
of foods and goods that are usually only available in Asian countries.
Another thing we love about Hawaii is the ocean and the beaches.
We go snorkeling regularly, something we never did when we lived
in San Diego."
When he transferred to Hawaii, Joo did not expect significant changes
in his work life but instead has found the opposite to be true—in
a positive direction. "Because much of my work is classified, I
now keep fairly set hours and have little ability to perform work
at home," he explains."This has greatly improved the quality of
my life."
Although he loves life in the 50th state, Joo admits he underestimated
the challenges of relocating his family 2,500 miles across the ocean.
"MITRE's relocation program is very good, but moving is always stressful.
I'm not looking forward to another move, so I may have to stay put,"
he says with a laugh.
|
MITRE's Honolulu, Hawaii, site
Established in 1974, MITRE's Honolulu, Hawaii, site is comprised
of 16 staff. Their primary customers are the United States
Pacific Command (USPACOM) and the Defense Intelligence Agency,
Pacific Regional Support Center (DIA PA-RSC).
|
—by Kay M. Upham
Related Information
Articles and News
Technical Papers and Presentations
Websites
|
