By Michael Watkins

As a licensed pilot, Kirschen Seah has a first-hand understanding and appreciation for what her customers want and need. She also has a solid understanding of what aircraft manufacturers are looking for when it comes to top-notch avionics equipment.

Thanks to her work as a principal systems engineer at Rockwell Collins, Seah collaborates with people from various engineering fields on a regular basis to determine how aircraft cockpit displays and controls should look and operate.

Whether she's dealing with mechanical engineers, human factors engineers, or avionics engineers, Seah is constantly building and rebuilding prototypes, and experimenting with new concepts in aircraft cockpit displays and interactive devices.

"Being a pilot certainly helps me understand the environment that our end user - the aircraft pilot - operates under," said Seah, who works in Commercial Systems Advanced Concepts Technology. "It also influences how requirements are conceived."

Advanced prototyping

The daughter of an electrical engineer, Seah's interest in engineering began as a youngster. With a strong aptitude for math and science, the Singapore native progressed through high school and eventually had an opportunity to work with computers. She ultimately learned how to program in BASIC.

"This was the time of early microcomputers and I was fortunate to have a dad who realized computers were the next revolution," said Seah, who earned a Bachelor of Science degree in computer science and math from National University of Singapore. "In 1979, he bought me an Apple II computer, and that's really when it all began."

Seah later furthered her education at the University of Texas at Austin and eventually received a master's degree in computer science. Her software engineering expertise is what led her to Rockwell Collins in April 1999, where she's now responsible for advanced flight deck rapid prototyping.

"Rapid prototyping allows us to quickly visualize concepts with our customers and pilots - be they graphical flight displays or three-dimensional device mock-ups," explained Seah. "We can then make changes to these concepts to see a variety of potential implementations and then zero in on the appropriate one."

Seah's technical leadership and software domain expertise in this area are what prompted Senior Engineering Manager Matthew Carrico to nominate her for the Rockwell Collins 2007 Engineer of the Year award. She was one of 10 finalists recognized recently during our annual awards ceremony in San Francisco, Calif.

"Kirschen's technical contributions and innovations at Rockwell Collins, and her positive attitude and infectious enthusiasm make her such an asset to our team," said Carrico. "She played a major role in developing the Pro Line Fusion flight deck demonstrator, which definitely helped position our company for entry into the high-end business jet market segment."

According to Carrico, her work with the Reconfigurable Flight Deck Laboratory, which is equipped with flight controls and other panels in the mock-up of an aircraft flight deck, allows pilots to "fly" using the flight controls. They also can interact with display content by using the control panels.

In addition, Seah's work includes the creation of the initial prototype for our Integrated Flight Information System (IFIS) electronic chart product line.

"We're able to determine and lock down customer requirements early in an aircraft program and reduce or eliminate the amount or redesign and implementation change during product engineering," said Seah, who was nominated for our Engineer of the Year award three times prior to this year. "My group uses software tools, which are essentially the same as those used by product development, so there is capability to transfer concepts and models we've developed to product engineering and vice versa. It's very exciting."

- Michael Watkins is a freelance writer.