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Gerardo Roa

Balmy weather, spectacular views, intriguing projects, submarine trips, and terrific mentors—they are all part of Gerardo Roa's experience at MITRE's San Diego site. Established in 1980, MITRE's site in San Diego works in close partnership with the U.S. Navy's Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command (SPAWAR) and its associated Program Executive Offices. Roa, a network and distributed systems engineer in MITRE's Washington Command, Control and Communications Center, came to the company as a recent graduate a few years ago and has happily settled into his job as a lead systems engineer for the Seawolf class submarine radio room for the PMW 770 Submarine Integration Program Office.

The Common Submarine Radio Room program encompasses several types of submarines—the Seawolf, Virginia, Los Angeles, and Ohio classes—and multiple program offices. The mission is to upgrade submarine legacy radio systems to an Internet Protocol (IP) based communication system. As Roa describes it, "An IP-based communication system is a system of systems—it puts multiple systems into one common radio room. The new radio room includes communication components from several different program offices and includes a number of different systems—it is a large-scale integration project."

Roa revels in the challenges inherent in this type of project. "I enjoy bringing together all the different programs and getting them to function together. With the dates already set for the Seawolf developmental testing and the operational testing next year, the project maintains a fast pace and keeps you on your toes," he explains. "During operational testing a third party comes in and evaluates the system and the crew operating it—by challenging and stressing the system's capabilities—so we have to plan for all sorts of contingencies."

Not Your Average Business Trip

Few people can say that their business travel includes time spent on a submarine, but for Roa it's a logical extension of his work. "When you're working on a submarine's communications systems it's important that you have a good understanding of how the submarine works and its space limitations. This is a key factor when you're planning equipment and integration," he says. "So yes, I have been on a submarine before, but I'm really looking forward to my upcoming trip on a Seawolf submarine and going underway for three or four days. I'll be able to meet with the crew, participate in the crew's training of the new communications equipment, and collect operations information. Hopefully, we can find and eliminate potential problems before the operational testing occurs."

Roa has also made several trips to the New London, Connecticut, submarine base where the Seawolf is based and to MITRE's McLean, Virginia, corporate offices where he participated in the Submarine Transformational Communications Working Group looking ahead at future submarine communications capabilities.

Benefits of the MITRE/SPAWAR Community

Since MITRE's San Diego site is located at SPAWAR, Roa can easily communicate with the many other program offices involved in the development of the submarine radio room program. "The close proximity to both the sponsor and the other program offices is very helpful," he says. This naval base location has an additional benefit for Roa. He recently started a two-year master's program in systems engineering at the Naval Post Graduate School; although the school is actually located in Monterey, California, he will be attending most classes at a satellite location at SPAWAR, where he spends most of his time.

A native of Tennessee, Roa completed his undergraduate degree and moved to San Diego immediately prior to starting at MITRE in 2002. When he reflects on those first few months, he is very grateful for the professional and personal help he received from his MITRE colleagues. "When I first started working at MITRE I'd just gotten out of college and moved half-way across the country with friends. On a professional level, several people took the time to help me understand how everything works at SPAWAR and at MITRE. Even on a personal level, they offered help in getting the many things we needed to get settled. Everyone was very helpful."

Now married and father to a baby girl, Roa continues to appreciate the supportive atmosphere at MITRE. "The ability to take time off when my wife had the baby, working from home when necessary, and starting a master's degree program where I work, have all been great benefits," he says. "I love living and working in San Diego. I feel incredibly fortunate to have had everything work out so well."

—by Kay M. Upham