By Michael Watkins

When Scott Bruner began his studies at The University of Iowa in the early 1970s, he had no intention of one day becoming an engineer. In fact, his perception of that particular field, and of those who chose to pursue the profession, was more nerdy than creatively innovative.

"Engineering students were the ones walking around campus with slide rules hanging off their belts," recalled Bruner, now a technical project manager in Project and Systems Engineering at Rockwell Collins. "I wanted to be a doctor and make some medical breakthroughs via research and medical practice."

But, when that field of study proved to be a poor fit, Bruner switched to the other end of the career life spectrum and began classes in pre-mortuary science - as in funeral homes and embalming fluid.

With college funds extremely limited and a serious girlfriend - now his wife - who didn't like the idea of spending her life with a mortician, Bruner decided to enlist in the U.S. Navy. After spending six years as a nuclear power plant electrician, his opinion of engineers and the work they did had changed.

In 1983, he left the Navy behind and enrolled at Iowa State University intent on majoring in electrical engineering in power generation. But, once again, his plans changed.

"I went into the Navy because I knew I could get the GI Bill to help pay for college, and I found a career in the process," said Bruner, a native of Des Moines, Iowa. "I ended up majoring in computer engineering at Iowa State, and later worked for five years in cockpit displays at one of our competitors before returning to Iowa and joining Rockwell Collins in 1991."

Forward-thinking architecture

Sixteen years later, Bruner received enterprise-wide accolades for technical contributions toward the development of display systems architecture for both the Airbus A350 and Boeing 787 aircraft. In fact, he was one of 10 finalists for our 2007 Corporate Engineer of the Year award.

"Being nominated for an award like that isn't something you actually work toward - but it's extremely nice recognition," said Bruner, who earned his master's degree from Iowa State in computer engineering in 1996. "This recognition isn't only for my work, but also for the work of a lot of talented engineers that I have the luxury of working with."

Bruner's innovative, forward-thinking approach to hardware architecture with both aircraft models created new packaging solutions for our customers - reducing costs for both sides. Selecting hardware components and their combinations for our customers also is part of Bruner's responsibilities, and one he takes very seriously.

"It's up to me to ensure that there is - for example - sufficient microprocessor throughput for the software team and bandwidth on communications interfaces to get the necessary data routed through bottlenecks," explained Bruner. "I also watch redundancy and monitor safety requirements while maximizing reliability and also minimizing cost, power consumption and weight.

"Finding that optimum solution for our customer that minimizes overall system costs and also maximizes safety and performance is really what it's all about," continued Bruner. "Optimum solutions lead to customer program awards, satisfied customers and more revenue for our company."

Innovative approach

This kind of positive attitude and outlook is what prompted Senior Engineering Manager Mark Perlwitz to nominate Bruner for our company's Engineer of the Year award.

"The A350 installation and display resolution requirements meant Scott needed to take an innovative technical approach and break through barriers to achieve a superior technical solution," said Perlwitz. "He used multiple innovations in the areas of Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) design, Light Emitting-Diode (LED) technology, power supply topology and mechanical packaging."

Bruner then combined those areas to form a display unit concept that ultimately became the baseline for Commercial Systems display systems offerings.

"Scott's technical contributions have made a significant affect on our future sales and profitability in display market segments," said Perlwitz. "He's done and continues to do an incredible job for our company."

- Michael Watkins is a freelance writer.