>> My name is Steve Escalante [phonetic].
I'm a mechanical engineer, and I work
for the Aerospace Corporation located in El Segundo, California.
The Aerospace Corporation is a not-for-profit California corporation
that runs a federally funded research and development center.
So basically, we serve as the third party technical opinion for the government.
We support a variety of programs, civil, commercial and government.
We differ from the for-profit companies because we don't produce or manufacture anything.
So we are really able to provide the government with an unbiased opinion
because we have no stake in whatever the technical choice is that the government makes.
We come in with absolutely no conflicts of interest.
Typical day would start I would get together with my project team.
We're organized in a matrix type of organization.
So, we'll get together with our project leaders, and we'll field whatever requests happen to come
in from the various programs or agencies that we support.
The typical day can vary wildly depending on who needs help that day or what kind
of problems will be coming in the door.
For instance, a customer might have a question with say a type of system
that a contractor is recommending.
So they'll come to us and say, well, does this really meet our requirements?
And what are some of the alternatives?
And what are some of the cost impacts or what are some of the schedule impacts that are going
to affect us by taking this option?
Or, do you have any other options in your previous experience that you can suggest to us?