IST Field Trip to Washington D.C.

On 28 March, twenty IST students and staff including Penny Smith, Ali Ziab, Eileen Chan, JB Wawrzyniak, and myself took a Friday off class and went to see the nation’s capitol. We left State College, where it was below 40 degrees, around 6 and arrived in the D.C. area before noon. We were greeted with very desirable 60 degree weather.

SRA International

Our bus arrived at SRA International earlier than expected, so we took a loop around The Pentagon to kill some time. SRA International is, according to their website:

“A leading provider of technology and strategic consulting services and solutions – including systems design, development and integration; and outsourcing and managed services – to clients in national security, civil government, and health care and public health. The Company’s business solutions include business intelligence (text and data mining), contingency and disaster response planning, information assurance, environmental strategies, enterprise architecture, infrastructure management, and wireless integration.”

The welcomed us into their lobby telling us that we must leave all cell phones, digital cameras, and thumb drives on the bus as they were not allowed inside. They looked at our IDs and gave us temporary passes allowing us inside as long as we had an escort. We were taken to a conference room where too employees were clicking away at their keyboards of some top of the line laptops. They gave us their spiel about why SRA is great and then they gave us a little break with Qdoba for lunch. A definite way to get our attention. While we ate, they ran (at least it felt that way) us through what they do. For a brief second, they flashed on a powerpoint that they developed a terrorist modeling tool for the DoD. Sadly, they never showed this to us. They did show us some really cool stuff with RFIDs.

First, they showed us how an RC car, controlled from a computer could check RFID tags attached to equipment to make sure it was all there. The car drove around an office and got hits through the wall on laptops, desktops, and other carts containing the company’s equipment. They then talked about how they want to use this software in hospitals so that doctors no where all the equipment for tests and samples are at all times and so that nurses can tell where the doctors are. I liked this idea. It seemed like a great idea and a feasible fix to the speed at which people can get the necessary care at hospitals. I will be interested to see where they go with this.

After this point, they touched the surface on some other softwares, then quickly pushed us through another. We didn’t get enough information about these or I don’t remember enough about them to write about it, so I’ll wrap this up. I was very impressed with this company, they were ranked in the top 100 best companies to work for since like 1999 and the starting salaries were very attractive. SRA did not stand for Security and Risk Analysis, however, they said the letters have lost their meaning as the company grew. I also got the hint that they did not know that there was an SRA major. They only mentioned IST and I have to think that they would have mentioned at least once that our major and their company had the same acronym. I will post on how the knowledge of SRA (the major) needs to increase and my thoughts on that.

Government Accountability Office

Our next stop took us into the heart of D.C. to the GAO. The security of the place was air-tight. I had to be wanded because of the metal in my belt and we , again, could have no electronic devises. This, I was impressed with. I highly doubt anyone is ever breaking into that place. Then, they too gave us their spiel, but then we went on a tour that, honestly, didn’t really show us much. We asked and were granted permission to see the server room, which was cool.  I really left that place wanting more, maybe more interaction between them and the college would have some good outcomes.

The end of the trip

We were given a couple hours to wander around the city and got some great pics of the capitol building and the Washington Monument as the sun set. Overall, it was a great trip and I hope to go on the IST Field trip again next year. I also recommend anybody who is looking for a company to intern with, this field trip is a great way to make those connections that are so important. The planners of this trip did a great job and it went off without a hitch. I was very impressed.