Celebrating National Engineers Week
Sunday, Feb. 16 kicked off National Engineers Week and provides us the opportunity to celebrate how our engineers make a difference in the world.
For more than 80 years, MRIGlobal’s scientific and engineering research contributions have been advancing knowledge and shaping the world. These are but two of our many engineers whom we celebrate.
Aaron Twombly
As a teenager, Twombly stayed after school with his aunt, who was a network administrator for a school district. During their time together, he began to learn how computer networks operate. It wasn’t long before Twombly received a call from the superintendent, but not because he was in trouble. Instead, the district offered him a job for a few hours each day to automate system processes and keep them current.
In college, he did work study and gained experience in software development, creating his own administration software. After a year of doing system administration for the federal government, he joined MRIGlobal to integrate these skills to perform complex implementations for our customers. This includes the development and support of various web applications, including military sensor integration systems, sample control systems, and chemical knowledge management systems.
One such project Twombly has worked on is the Open Architecture Data Management System (OADMS), which was profiled in our 2022 Impact Report, and features dozens of devices pulled together into a single interface so the user has complete awareness of the environment around them. Twombly’s work helped integrate Test Grid fielded assets like point and standoff detectors, meteorological sensors, and simulated threat cloud production systems. The system automatically collects and synchronizes data from these numerous disparate devices and presents it to the analysis team in a standardized format, enabling rapid evaluation of candidate detection systems. This streamlines the development of effective threat detection sensors and protection equipment that keep warfighters safe in the field.
“It is especially exciting when there are new devices integrated. We work with that cutting-edge instrumentation, taking its capabilities and making it part of the bigger system,” says Twombly. “The challenge is then adding user interfaces that help the user easily understand what’s going on. Anytime a user can interpret and utilize the system without first reading the manual, that’s rewarding because we know we’ve developed an interface that is intuitive.”
Alec Jorns
Growing up, Jorns was dubbed the “IKEA build-it kid” by his parents, tasked with using his interest in taking things apart and putting them together to assemble everything for his family. In high school, he was introduced to cars through an automotive technology program and believed he might one day design them for a living.
After working on rockets, e-bikes, and even biological systems in his exploration of different types of engineering, Jorns now uses this diverse background to benefit our customers. His expertise in designing and building mechanical systems, automating fluidic transfer (microfluidics), automating the chemistry for projects like DARPA DIGET, nano-engineering, and managing software programs to integrate wearable sensors for real-time CBRN monitoring of soldiers make him an invaluable asset. He even helped develop an automated nucleic acid sample-to-answer system for field-forward sequencing, reducing the time and complexity of obtaining sequencing results, thus speeding sample to answer.
“Given the breadth of our work and that we’re doing research that has never been performed before, there’s never a dull moment. Working on DIGET, which is at the intersection of fluidics, software, biology, imaging, mechanical engineering, chemistry, and mass manufacturing, our role is to engineer them all into a technology that works,” says Jorns. “I pride myself on being able to communicate with subject matter experts across those diverse disciplines. Through this multidisciplinary approach, we successfully integrate complex systems that enable our customers to realize success and improve the lives of people around the world.”