Kevin's World - Land of Saguaros

Many of you know that Lisa and I are planning on graduating from the University of Utah this semester and moving to the next stage of our lives.  For me especially, that means starting a career, which first and foremost means getting a job.  Luckily, I've had a little help in that category.  Last fall, at a job fair at TECHCON, I met a representative from Raytheon.  I didn't think much of it until I got a call from Raytheon Missile Systems in Tucson, Arizona last October.  They invited me to visit them to interview and see their facilities.  After a few days of wining and dining, I left very impressed with the company and with the community.  Since that time, I have accepted a job offer.  Our current plan for next summer, for those of you who don't yet know, is to move to Arizona as I start my new job.

While I was in Tucson, I took a bit of time to see the city.  The first thing that struck me was the number of saguaro cactuses (cacti?).  They are everywhere down there, and they are even larger than I realized.  This last Christmas, I told Lisa that next year we'll have to decorate a Christmas cactus instead of a Christmas tree, just like Spike from Peanuts.

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I also took some time to look for potential places to live.  After talking with a real estate agent about some of the areas on Tucson, I went to look at a planned community called Rancho Sahuarita.  It looks like a great place for kids and families and is currently at the top of places that we would like to live down there.  You may notice that the name Sahuarita seems familiar.  It is, in fact, a variant of the word saguaro.  It seems like there is no escaping them.  In a few more months, we will be writing to you from the land of the cacti (cactuses?).

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SRC TECHCON 2010

This last week (Monday and Tuesday), I attended SRC TECHCON 2010 in Austin, TX. Every year, the Semiconductor Research Corporation (SRC) funds a conference to give students working on research funded by SRC a chance to share their work. Last year, I attended the conference, but did not present a paper. After continuing my research with Dr. Chris Myers at the University of Utah, this year I was able to submit a paper, which I was fortunate enough to have accepted. I won't bore anyone with the details of what I presented, which few people would care about and fewer would understand, but the conference was a good chance to see what is going on in the semiconductor industry. From the ongoing search for the successor to CMOS to using Wall Street financial models to develop more sophisticated simulation test cases, semiconductors is a constantly changing field.

One of the primary goals of TECHCON is to give researchers in industry a chance to see what research is being done in their fields and get in touch with the students who are doing the research. At the conference, there is a career fair which gives those industry representatives the perfect chance to meet students and talk about potential career opportunities. After a disappointing experience last year where virtually no companies were hiring, this year was a much more encouraging experience. A few companies were interested in looking over my resume and talking with me, most notably IBM and Freescale, both primarily working out of Austin. After graduating at the University of Utah this year, I will be looking for opportunities to continue my education and establish my career. After making some connections at TECHCON, going to Austin seems like a very real possibility.