The Highly Educated KSP Player - legends in our own minds? (Updated OP 16 January 2018)

[Talavar]

Well..

   information Science Tech  > Current 1 sem
  Welding Tech school Grad (Hyperbaric welding)>2 years.
  Heavy equipment certified >16 week.
  Carpentry tech school grad >2 years.
  Electrical Residential/industrial wiring cert > 1 year
  Automotive care certified > 16 week

  Jobs i've done outside of completed certifications:

  Computer Repair Tech: 20 years
  Music Teacher> Guitar: 4 years
  Pre-caster: building parking garages> 3 years
  Television repair (CRT long ago) > 2 years
  Cook! > 3 Years

  and right now.........
  Current> Laid off
     &
  Family man

  Jack of all trades.. lol
  Not real big on giving out my exact location.  All within Pennsylvania.
 
 

 
 
 

 

Edited November 12, 2016 by Talavar

[Astrofox]

Personally, I've wanted to work in the Aerospace Industry my entire life.

When I was really young, I wanted to become an astronaut. Nowadays, I want to build spacecraft (most likely unmanned) or even plan missions for such craft.

I am also interested in studying exoplanets and am very talented in mathematics.

However, I could potentially become an astronaut due to the fact that I know how to pilot an aircraft IRL.

Right now, I am only a High-Schooler with dreams to go above and beyond - and I don't think I would've gotten to where I am without KSP to teach me orbital mechanics, and even refresh my skills in piloting.

[monstah]

8 hours ago, Astrofox said:

However, I could potentially become an astronaut due to the fact that I know how to pilot an aircraft IRL.

Right now, I am only a High-Schooler with dreams to go above and beyond - and I don't think I would've gotten to where I am without KSP to teach me orbital mechanics, and even refresh my skills in piloting.

High-schooler with piloting skills? Cool!

[Fengist]

Here's one for you bud...

Truck Driver. Hiiiigly edumacated.

No excrements. That's what I do.  

I do dream about sail boats tho.

 

Edited December 15, 2016 by Fengist

[shynung]

I'm happy to report that I have recently graduated as a B.Sc. in Computer Science from Binus University in 2016.

[monstah]

\o/ Welcome to the B.Sc. club!

[Spacetraindriver]

Reading these makes me feel like the youngest member of the forums...probably because I am...

[monstah]

2 hours ago, Spacetraindriver said:

Reading these makes me feel like the youngest member of the forums...probably because I am...

I doubt so, unless you're really young. This is a game's forum after all, kids play games  It's just that this particular game draws a crowd of older peeps too (like myself, and some even older).

[adsii1970]

@Red Iron Crown: I'm no longer receiving updates for this post as I once did. Everything is checked to send me notifications, yet I am not getting them. Any suggestions?

[DarkOwl57]

Oh well if STEM is a thing, you could put me as a HS STEM student (I'm in 8th grade but our school treats like 18th graders lol). 

[adsii1970]

NOTE: Ok, I decided to check this thread today and find out what is going on with it. I no longer receive notifications about it and have asked a moderator about it. With the lack of notices in mind, I would ask that when you want me to update the information, please make sure you tag me ( @adsii1970 ) so that I get notified. Thanks!

OP Update (February 3, 2017)...

@Talavar:  Added to "Those who are currently attending..." category. He's done a lot in his life and I'm encouraged by his efforts!

@Astrofox: Added to "The aspiring dreamers..." category. He's got a lot of dreams and potential to reach the stars. He already is a pilot.

@Fengist:  Added to the "Those who have graduated..." As I stated on the OP next to his name, within the United States, many states require formal semi or tractor/trailer operating training before issuing a CDL. 

@shynung: Added to the "Those who have graduated..." Congratulations on graduating!

@DarkOwl57:  Added to "The aspiring dreamers..." category. He is a middle school/junior high school STEM student!

And... not added but meant to gather more information:

@Spacetraindriver: So what are your plans for the future? What are your goals and aspirations?

 

And on a related note:

In 2003, when I was working on my M.A., I noticed something about American society - mainly that in the world of academia -  that truly made me sick. What I noticed is the disdain that a lot of people have for those who work in what's referred to in America as "blue collar jobs." As I continued into the Ph.D. program, this dislike of what I consider the "common man" became even more evident. While I do not want to get into the politics of this, and cannot out of fear of a Forum Rule 2.2 violation, I will tell you that I have a great deal of respect for anyone that works hard regardless if their occupation is in the academics or traditional vocational field. It is one of the reasons that on this page, I hold those who complete vocational training, on-the-job training, or even self-taught to the same level of accomplishment as I do those who have earned degrees from a university or college.

One of the keys to happiness and longevity is to find a career path where you get paid to play. Do not get me wrong, not every day is going to be sunshine and butterflies. There will be days where it's go beat the brontosaurus and drag it back to the cave... But those should be the rare days. If you find yourself dreading work, then it isn't too late to find something else that interests you and make a change. In our world, the days of 20 years and then retire are over with. In fact, about three years ago, the Wall Street Journal said the new average is that a person will change jobs/vocations seven times between their first real job and retirement. Don't be bound to something just because you are afraid of change...

 

Edited February 3, 2017 by adsii1970

[Spacetraindriver]

Hmmm... I dunno really. Though right now I it seems becoming an engineer is the most admired future career choice. Pilot, MAYBE military, also is one I try to imagine myself in.  

[Red Iron Crown]

5 hours ago, adsii1970 said:

@Red Iron Crown: I'm no longer receiving updates for this post as I once did. Everything is checked to send me notifications, yet I am not getting them. Any suggestions?

I'd try unfollowing the thread and refollowing it, setting it to receive notifications.

[adsii1970]

11 minutes ago, Red Iron Crown said:

I'd try unfollowing the thread and refollowing it, setting it to receive notifications.

Thank you. I've done this and now will see if it works... thanks for the advice.

[Fengist]

On ‎2‎/‎3‎/‎2017 at 9:47 AM, adsii1970 said:

@Fengist:  Added to the "Those who have graduated..." As I stated on the OP next to his name, within the United States, many states require formal semi or tractor/trailer operating training before issuing a CDL. 

I'm not sure a 2 week, sink or swim, crash course in driving a truck would qualify as a 'trade school'.  But feel free to classify it as you wish.  And to my knowledge, no formal training is required in any state.  Only recently have requirements to 'have x number of hours behind the wheel' began to pop up.  Other than that, pass the driving and written test and you get the license.  To give an example, that was all that was required in order for me to add passenger and school bus endorsements to my license a couple of years ago.

[adsii1970]

3 minutes ago, Fengist said:

I'm not sure a 2 week, sink or swim, crash course in driving a truck would qualify as a 'trade school'.  But feel free to classify it as you wish.  And to my knowledge, no formal training is required in any state.  Only recently have requirements to 'have x number of hours behind the wheel' began to pop up.  Other than that, pass the driving and written test and you get the license.  To give an example, that was all that was required in order for me to add passenger and school bus endorsements to my license a couple of years ago.

In Kentucky and Louisiana (these two states I know for sure), although it is NOT required, it is certainly easier to meet the state standards if you have gone through a professional driving school. The way I see it, you still finished it and you've got bragging rights!

Edited February 6, 2017 by adsii1970

[Riven]

3rd year at San José State studying aerospace engineering. I intend to go straight into a masters program at either SJSU or Stanford (SJSU's AE department has all Stanford-educated professors - extremely tough profs), and mid-professional career complete a doctorate at Stanford.

My 2nd and 3rd years of college have gone extremely well; however, my first year didn't. My forum name, Riven, provides a hint. I trapped myself into a 10-12 hour routine of playing League of Legends (sometimes 16 if I felt like I was on a hot win streak) that first year, and eventually I lost track of what I was truly passionate about. At the end of the academic year I forced myself to quit because my grades were in the dumpster. Almost two years have passed after stopping, but there's one thing I won't let go from LoL: the lore. I love good lore, and the reason behind my forum name is because my favorite champion in lore is Riven.

I have recently started playing KSP again - the last time I played was on 0.24. KSP is a game that I can quit/pause when I need to quit/pause it, unlike League where you're heavily penalized for quitting mid-game.

Anyways... about my real interests. I can't quite decide between several specific fields in aeroastro, and I'm intensely interested an all of them:

> Turbomachinery: Jet engines, liquid rocket fuel pumps. There are many aspects of jet engines that can be improved - reduction of noise (NASA's innovation on the GEnx turbofan used on the 747-8 and 787-x has dramatically reduced noise (the chevrons on the exhaust)), improving fuel efficiency through higher amounts of compression and hotter combustion (in turn requires better materials engineering), improving airfoils used in the fan and turbine stage to also increase efficiency, and even scrapping the turbofan and creating propfans that have even higher bypass ratios (but require hotter combustion temperatures and single-crystal superalloys that can withstand those higher combustion temperatures). Perhaps high-bypass engines can be made smaller as well because high-bypass turbofans such as the GE90-115B1 are nothing short of enormous.

> Aerodynamics: the real meat of aerospace and the aspect that requires a lot of math. Take an airliner, for example. Wingtip vortices need to be reduced in the long run because as more and more people travel via air, landing separation needs to be reduced and wingtip vortices play a large part in determining minimum aircraft separation. If an aircraft is following too close behind another, the vortices from the leading aircraft might be severe enough to crash a plane; and if aircraft are too far apart, delays at airports would get longer and longer as airlines attempt to schedule more flights a day. Also, there is substantial room for improvement in fuselages: making them oval. Fuselages already act as lifting bodies (you've probably discovered that in KSP especially if you've used the FAR mod), so by widening the fuselage into an oval cross section, an aircraft can carry more passengers in a shorter plane, have shorter wings, and therefore reduce induced/parasitic drag (not sure which is which but I'm sure that those both types increase as speed increases) thereby increasing fuel efficiency. Wings and their airfoils are another point of improvement. Continuously varying the type of airfoil over the span of the wing and optimizing it for the unique conditions on each small section of the wing requires intense study and intense CFD (computational fluid dynamics). Therefore, improved computing power can further make aircraft more efficient for a certain regime of flight (usually cruising ;p).

> Long-duration space travel and ISRU: In-situ resource utilization (again, RoverDude's mods, Majiir's Kethane mod from long ago, and some other new ones I've still yet to familiarize myself with) is paramount to sustaining a population off-planet. While the great big habitats from Interstellar (2014) and Elysium (2013) aren't on the surface of another celestial body and have the potential to be 100% closed loop (i.e. they can sustain themselves without any supplies from the outside), ISRU technology would still be necessary to construct these habitats. Raw asteroid or lunar material for example would need to be processed into useful materials like iron, nickel, hydrogen, oxygen, and more. Ideally, you'd want 100% of that material to be used in constructing habitats or bases. Unfortunately (in my opinion), the infant private space industry isn't focused on accomplishing these goals first - they're more concerned about providing methods of getting to other planets or celestial bodies and sustaining these colonies is so far a secondary objective (I'm looking at you, Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos). But I will definitely say that fantastic progress has been made in the private space industry in getting larger and larger payloads farther out there as well as making them reusable. True, my opinion might initially seem narrow-sighted, but I would think that if humans were to make a real effort in living in space, more R&D funding and efforts would be appropriated towards ISRU.

> High speed interplanetary communication: In order to support the growing number of probes and missions out there, more dedicated communication modules or even spacecraft should be deployed. Not only that, but newer methods of communicating between endpoints should be developed, such as laser-based communication (was a brief experiment with the Messenger probe). Within a couple decades, I want someone to send a probe with a live (~20min delay) 4K/24fps video feed from the surface of Mars. But the only way for that to happen is if we expand our space-based communication infrastructure.

I am aware that this turned into an opinion piece, but I am genuinely interested in all of these subjects and it's honestly difficult for me to choose what I want to focus on because I know so much about all these subjects.

So, that's me.

~Riven

[Tada]

I have masters degree in law, I work for ministry of defense of my country...

Does it have any overlap with KSP? Yes it does, I have a lot of time to day dream about my massive crafts and daring missions!

[Shikashi]

I got accepted into the technical information technology college in perg(Austria).

exciting!

[V7 Aerospace]

Still in Grammar school (secondary school), part of the ATC, logged over an hour flying powered aircraft and have got my first set of wings for glider flying.

I want to become part of the RAF, hoping to become a pilot, or engineer. If possible after that, work on WWII aircraft (or maybe even tanks), either restoring them or being at the controls.  

[Tex]

I nearly forgot about this thread! I need an update- I am no longer Maximus97, and I'm currently studying for a B.A. in Theater. I'm not so sure about being a teacher anymore, though I'm still taking one or two courses for it, and I'm gonna be looking into mechanics.

[adsii1970]

NOTE: Ok, I decided to check this thread today and find out what is going on with it. I no longer receive notifications about it and have asked a moderator about it. With the lack of notices in mind, I would ask that when you want me to update the information, please make sure you tag me ( @adsii1970 ) so that I get notified. Thanks!

OP Update (March 30th, 2017)...

• @Riven: Added to "Those who are currently attending..." An impressive "ramble" was shared, and remember, no harm done here.  In fact, during the 17th and 18th centuries, a person of many interests, whether those interests were related or not, was considered a sage.
• @Tada: Added to "Those who have graduated a trade school, college or university" but I do need some additional information, such as graduation date and where you went for the masters degree. Also, can you provide information about your Bachelor's degree?
• @Shikashi: Added to "Those who are currently attending..." Can you tell us what your major or planned field of study is? Congrats, by the way!
• @V7 Aerospace: Added to "Those who are planning to attend..." There's nothing more noble than a person who feels led to join in their nation's military and serve in the defense of their homeland.
• @Tex (formerly known Maximus97): Name change and degree plans changed.

 

[monstah]

It's back \o/

@adsii1970 tried updating your following preferences for the thread, that pop up when you click the "Follow" button? Maybe it's set to not notify.

[Shikashi]

I once more returned from my hiatus.
I got accepted just recently, I still have the letter somewhere here.
Its a technical advanced school(Known as HTL in Austria) located in perg. It's field of specialization is information technology, and a few years ago students had a mandatory hacking Course there.

[sevenperforce]

Bachelor's degree in physics, 2012. Couldn't find a job doing physics with anything short of a PhD, so I work in law.