Tour Your Future The Girls, Math & Science Partnership

1. Tour Your FutureThe Girls, Math & Science Partnership Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center Computer Network Engineering Kathy Benninger 11 October 2008

2. What do engineers do?

3. What do engineers do? • Problem solving! • Engineers create devices, systems, structures, or processes to solve real-world problems efficiently and economically • Use scientific, physical, and mathematical principles

4. Types of Engineers • Electrical • Mechanical • Chemical • Biomedical • Civil • Aerospace • Nuclear • Industrial

5. What do you think electrical engineers do?

6. Electrical Engineers do… • Consumer electronics • Power systems • Communications systems • Computer • Processors • Mass Storage • Networks • Hardware: Switches, routers, interface cards • Software: Network protocol design

7. With further study, Electrical Engineers also do… • Medicine • Law • Business • Management • Public policy An engineering education can open many career paths

8. Education for Engineering – High School • Math • Algebra, geometry, trigonometry, calculus • Science • Chemistry • Physics • Biology • Computing • Language and communication skills

9. Education for Engineering – University • First two years • Math and science courses • Liberal arts and electives • Last two years • Engineering specialty courses • Labs and hands-on experimentation • Group projects • Other useful courses Technical writing, economics, statistics

10. My Path to Engineering • Enjoyed math and science classes • Wanted to understand “How does it work?” • Took all the available math and science courses in high school • Electrical Engineering major at Carnegie Mellon University • Four-year degree, BSEE

11. With that BSEE degree, I’ve done: • Circuit design and prototyping • Programming • Video systems • Computer cabling design for new building • Computer mass storage systems • Computer networks

12. Network Engineering at the PSC • Group of 12 people • 3ROX GigaPoP: design, build, and support networks for Pittsburgh Public Schools, PSC, CMU, Pitt, Penn State, WVU, and other regional research and educational organizations • Research: design and test new protocols and tools for maximizing network performance • Consulting: working with users to help them optimize their usage of the network

13. Day to day • Two or three primary projects at a time • University research group wants to install some experimental equipment • Performance testing of a proposed network configuration • Answer questions • E.g. “What’s the best network adapter?” • Communication • Email, IM, meetings, conference calls

14. What I Like About My Career in Engineering • Always something new to learn • Work environment • Intellectually challenging • Flexible • People • Collaborative • Professional recognition • Financially rewarding

15. Intro to computer networking • How is a network built? • How does information move through a network? • What are the components in a network?

16. How is the Internet built? • Your PC: “wired” or “wireless” connection • Home: Local Area Network (LAN) • City: Metropolitan Area Network (MAN) • Regional/National: Wide Area Network (WAN) • International

17. Network Example 60 Milliseconds in the life of a packet… (1 Millisecond = 1/1000th of a second)

18. 21 20 300 22 12 50 60 10 100 11 12 200

19. 21 20 300 22 12 50 60 100 10 11 22 200

20. 21 20 300 11 22 12 50 11 60 100 10 11 200

21. Tour 3ROX GigaPoP • Network components • Servers • Cabling • Test equipment

22. Questions?