GIS Intern
Halff Associates

“I worked for Texas Instruments (TI) and then Raytheon in a variety of assignments. I started working as an electronic technician at TI in 1973 with hand-held calculators and then moved on to various radar — all-weather, all-terrain and attack display radar, including radar for NATO and photo interpretation systems. I worked as a procurement/quality assurance technician and final acceptance test technician for a variety of proprietary systems and then as a reliability engineering technician for both TI and Raytheon before I was laid off.

“What interested me in studying geospatial technology is the ability to expand my knowledge of graphic data systems, molding raw data to produce a final product that will tell a story. The ability of GIS to join widely separated data and to produce a graphic map of how these items are related could help prevent a worst-case scenario in the future. The data could be about such things as the state of the infrastructure of this country and the world; population density and future growth; or flood plain mapping and planning.

“The best part of my education at Brookhaven has been the instructors and the staff’s open-door policy, how they invest their time to help students reach their professional career goals. In addition, I will remember many individuals, be they members of the staff or fellow students, for just sharing the experience of being on campus.

“I am in the process of changing careers, which I am sure will be possible thanks to Brookhaven’s extensive GIS program. Other colleges seem to have far fewer GIS courses available. The changing world will demand even more use of GIS in making ‘green’ decisions. The demand will not only be within the traditional location for GIS — government — but in private industry, a demand that has already started.

“I have recommended the GIS program to other students and friends, including some with children who are still in high school. The hands-on approach with real world applications in this program reflects what you will deal with in the workplace. This type of training is invaluable and opens your eyes to what you can expect when you complete the program and then are accepted into the work force.

“The most important thing I have learned is to continue to ask why and seek out the answer or answers to that question. Never stop learning — for life is about learning how to live life.”

Mike Catron is taking courses at Brookhaven College, pursuing a GIS Specialist associate degree and a GIS Systems Technician certificate as well as a career change. He secured an internship working for Halff Associates through the college.

Mike has also taken courses at Richland College, and at Eastfield and Brookhaven colleges more than 20 years ago. He earned advanced computer education at SMU, attended the University of North Texas and holds certification as an electrical technician through the Elkins Institute of Dallas. 

Mike formerly worked as a reliability engineering technician at Raytheon and as an electronic technician at Texas Instruments. In his work as a reliability engineering technician, he implemented a set of global FoxPro databases on a shared network for multiple product lines across division sites, and archived 10 years of engineering test data by year and by product line into a common format. He also supervised conversion of two previous data collection systems (PQST - Product Quality System for Test and PQSI - Product Quality System Inspection) into the current electronic collection system format, SFDM. He was nominated by his peers for the 1998 Raytheon TI Quality Excellence Award.