Leigh got his start working in different companies in the US as young engineer from the UK as part of the Mutual Defense AgreementThroughout the episode we explored different themesSpecialist vs GeneralistUS vs UK hiringBig vs small companiesDefense vs Industrial companiesUK ApprenticeshipV curveSystem engineeringDeriving requirementsWhat is the atomic unit of a system engineer?F35/JSFLockheed IRAD - Internal Research and DevelopmentSandia National LabsFPGAs in defense / space"It's always cosmic rays"Single Event Upsets"Triple modular redundancy" is so commonplace in designs there are now buttons in CAD to generate the logic to triplicate a circuit and have the 3 units "vote"Bleeding edge FPGA tools vs open toolchainChris recalls Xilnx ISE with F16 on the CDsLong term supply contractsJumping the line with defense companies in the US - "DPAS - defense priorities and allocation system"Big vs smallLeigh is now back in a big companyWhen should an engineer target a big vs a small company in their career?Training / Budgets / Sampling are better at big companies.MentorshipPhillip Salmany (Phil's Lab) talked about the difficulties finding mentors as a young engineer out on his own.UK Chartered EngineerPE / EIT vs CharteredLeigh worked on nuclear weapons at a past company in the UKIt is, unsurprisingly, a heavily regulated industry.IEC61508Part of the job is verifying non-proliferation among other countriesNuclear deterrantChris referenced a Ukraine treaty where they gave up their nuclear weapons and ambitions, co-signed by the US, UK, and ... Russia. This was the 1994 Budapest Memorandum.Russia control room story about not firing when they detected launches from the US. It's widely believed that Stanislov Petrov prevented a Nuclear warThere are never active nuclear tests anymore (good), so the majority of work revolves around testing and modelingIs there a "better moustrap"?What does it look like when new requirements come down from the gov't?Did Leigh wear a white lab coat?We were introduced by former guest Carmen Parisi, who worked with Leigh at Wasatch PhotonicsOptics have tight timing requirements, especially around the image sensor.Leigh is now working on medical devices at Phillips.Medical isn't as slow as Chris thought, nor is FDA planning as dreadful as Chris thought."Trust but verify" on part specsMapping past experiences into new jobChris mentioned the discussions with Charles Aylward about not having any control mechanisms or backup as a consultant.Leigh said there are certain scenarios where a solo consultant won't be a good fit and that "Two people working in a team are worth three"You can reach Leigh on LinkedIn and elsewhere on the web as Engineer Leigh
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