Textron Systems’ SASE Conference Award Winners
Each year, the Society of Asian Scientists & Engineers (SASE) hosts the SASE National Convention & STEM Career Fair. The two-and-a-half-day convention features a career fair with more than 70 companies and is the largest convention and career fair for Asian Americans in the United States. It provides both professional and leadership development opportunities in addition to a variety of networking opportunities for employers across the country.
This year, two Textron Systems employees will be presented with awards at the annual SASE conference. Susan, Digital Design Engineer III, was awarded the Promising Professional award for demonstrating potential for future contributions, and Chris, Cyber Security Engineer III, won the Professional Service Award for making important advances and discoveries in his chosen career path. Congratulations to Susan and Chris for such an outstanding honor!
Susan has been with Textron Systems for three years. In her current role, Susan helps support the XM204 production team to get boards tested for contracted builds. She also assists the Sentinel team with various tasks.
“The best part of my job is that every day is different and interesting. I have had the opportunity to design circuit boards, get hands-on in the lab troubleshooting, be involved in developing production testers and so much more,” Susan said. “Many parts of my job require interfacing with other disciplines like mechanical or software engineers and it’s always a fun challenge working through interdisciplinary problems.”
Growing up, Susan always had an interest in electronics. In high school, she had the opportunity to take engineering courses, which furthered her interest in the field.
“I loved working on the lab projects in those classes since they were very hands-on,” Susan said.
“Outside of design and development, Susan has shown strong leadership potential by mentoring interns, co-ops and early career hires from varying functions,” said Susan’s leader, Andre, Project Engineer. “Throughout her various assignments, she has seamlessly partnered with team members from multiple disciplines and earned the respect of her peers, management and our customer representatives through her professional interactions.”
Chris currently leads efforts to ensure our systems are authorized to operate within the Department of Defense (DoD) data space. As a Marine Corps veteran, Chris quickly found his path forward with the organization.
“After working on F-18’s in the Marine Corps, it was smooth transition into the world of Unmanned Aircraft Systems,” Chris said. “As my career has developed, I saw cyber security as a field that would have significant impact and growth.”
When Chris started his job at Textron, he was able to utilize the GI Bill and earn his bachelor’s degree.
“I received tremendous support from my manager and company leadership, balancing full time work and taking courses at night and on weekends,” said Chris, who has now been with the company for more than 15 years.
“Chris has been a stellar performer in his role as Cybersecurity Engineer with Textron Systems,” said Chris’ leader, Brian, Cyber Security Engineer IV. “His experience and drive for success have resulted in multiple favorable Authorization to Operate (ATO) across the programs that he supports under the Unmanned Air Systems department.”
Chris also continues to go above and beyond by maintaining his Emergency First Responder certifications, allowing him to act as one of the company's first responders in the event of an emergency.
Congratulations to both Susan and Chris for winning these awards and thank you for your hard work and dedication to Textron Systems!