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Marc Pepi |
The Art of Prototype Development
Marc Pepi
December 2005
One of the many things our customers and sponsors rely on is MITRE's
ability to find solutions to their technical problems. Sometimes
this means designing and creating a prototype that specifically
meets the customer's needs. Then, with a MITRE-designed prototype
in hand, the customer can put it out to bid in industry.
Mechanical engineer Marc Pepi does this sort of thing all the
time. He is part of MITRE's Applied Engineering Technical Center—a
technical center that includes mechanical reliability and electromagnetic
and nuclear effects engineers along with machinists and draftsmen.
They provide comprehensive support to the prototype development
process—everything from the initial design to oversight support
during the project acquisition phase—for many projects and
customers throughout MITRE.
Growing up with a father who was a machinist, Pepi got an early
look at building various types of equipment. It was later, when
he was a teenager sweeping floors in a machine shop, however, that
he developed a mentoring relationship with an engineer and learned
how creative and multi-disciplinary mechanical engineering could
be. He saw the engineers working on concepts, developing drawings
and blueprints, creating prototypes, and designing functional packaging
for electronic devices. Not surprisingly, this inspired him to pursue
his own mechanical engineering degree.
Two Jobs Rolled Into One
"When I first came to MITRE I worked solely on electronics modeling
and packaging types of projects," says Pepi. "Then after two years
I moved into the Applied Engineering Technical Center. As a result,
I now spend half my time on electronics packaging and the other
half on project acquisition."
The fact that his work at MITRE is so multi-disciplinary is something
Pepi greatly appreciates. In previous jobs, he found that work often
became routine. Not so at MITRE. Each customer and project is different.
He explains, "Here I may be part of the processing, conceptualizing,
modeling, or project acquisition stage. It's great because my projects
last varying lengths of time; some may take six weeks and some may
take six months."
Much of Pepi's prototype development efforts are grounded in design
work. For example, if he is asked to design a special type of packaging
for a piece of electronics he starts by creating an initial design
on the computer. Then, he sends the computer image to a 3D printer
that builds a model out of plaster of paris—layer by microscopic
layer—to verify and validate the design. From there, Pepi
takes the detailed drawings of specific parts to a machinist who
builds the permanent version of the prototype. All the while he
confers with the customer on various specifications and modifications.
"By far the most challenging aspect of my job is meeting the program's
requirements with minimal customer input the first time," Pepi says.
"With prototypes everything you do is a first try, and then you
make modifications based on user input. If there is a problem, you
need to figure out what to do to make it work without re-machining
the entire prototype, hence the 3D model. There is an incredible
amount of iteration in prototype development."
While design skills are paramount in creating prototypes, organization
and project management skills are key to the acquisition process—when
our government sponsors put proposals out for industrial bids. Pepi's
role in this area is extensive and varied. He participates and documents
a wide variety of technical interchange meetings, which include
preliminary design reviews, critical design reviews, and technical
test plan reviews. He also reviews the contractor's mechanical designs
and will outline both potential risks and value-added design elements
of the contractor's proposal. If a problem is identified, he outlines
possible mitigation techniques. In addition, Pepi participates in
verification testing and evaluations to ensure the contractor has
properly tested the product before it is released into limited production.
"In the end," says Pepi, "we want to ensure that the prototype meets
the needs of the sponsor, is able to survive in its intended environment,
and will work as originally proposed."
Even though MITRE does have a 9,000 square foot fabrication shop
at its Bedford, Massachusetts, campus, some prototype development
projects require going to the customer and working off-site. In
fact, one of Pepi's favorite projects had him at Shaw Air Force
Base in South Carolina for an entire summer. "We were responsible
for outfitting 24 ISO [International Standards Organization] shelters
that made up transportable Air Operations Centers that were then
shipped to the Middle East as part of the Desert Falcon project
in 2002," he says. "Specifically, our job was to install racks as
well as electronic equipment and make shelter modifications for
power sources and other attachments points. It really required quick
thinking and a lot of collaboration among the 30 or so people working
on the project."
Overall, Pepi values the opportunities he has had in his six years
at MITRE. "I've really enjoyed my time here and am constantly learning
new things. There are multiple areas of the organization that you
can work in and that challenges you to grow and learn and retain
all that new knowledge. Plus, I really appreciate working with such
a good group of people."
—by Kay M. Upham
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