For my first STEMx externship I
visited Waveform Technology LLC a telecommunications company that provides
broadband services. We met with Bill Wichers, an electrical engineer, who
talked about the hardware and technology involved in their operation, fiber
optics, and how data is sent through the internet. Going into the externship I
had very little preexisting knowledge on the subject and had no idea what to
expect. My understanding of the internet and how data is sent was very basic,
however by the end of the visit I feel I developed a base of knowledge on the
concepts we learned about.
The area that interested me most
was Bill's discussion of fiber optics. We had covered the basics of fiber
optics in Doug Baltz's honors physics class so I had an understanding of the
basic concepts of how they worked but little understanding of how the physics
was applied in the real world. Bill showed us how they used the physics and
engineering learned in school to solve real world problems to provide a
dependable and high performing data transfer system.
The most interesting part of fiber optics to
me was the concept of splitting white light into many different wave lengths
using filters, then recombining it to send multiple streams of data through one
beam of light. This technology allows far more data to be sent through the
existing fiber optics system. After the question and answer session Bill led us
through a tour of their facilities. We got to see the servers they hosted, the
air conditioning units, the power transformers, back up generator, warehouse
and many other areas. Bill gave us a run down of what he has to do to keep
everything operational and how he applies engineering almost all the time.
He was extremely knowledgeable on a wide range
of areas involved in running the data center. Overall the trip was a very
interesting look into a STEM career and I was able to learn a lot about the
engineering and physics behind telecommunications and gain some real world
experience and knowledge.
Tom McLeod
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