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I Became An Engineer: Because Of A Camera

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***Editor’s Note: The “I Became An Engineer” blog runs every Friday. To share your story email jennifer.delaosa@advantagemedia.com***

This week’s story comes to us from ECN reader Mark Fontanella.

My interest in engineering wasn’t immediate. I worked with engineers for many years in different disciplines before ever thinking about actually becoming one.

I held different occupations before finally returning to school for electrical engineering. I had formal training as an experimental machinist for a major jet engine company, right out of high school. It was there I first began interacting with engineers on new designs for fuel efficient jet engines, and technical challenges of manufacturing components that were only an engineering vision.

From there, I entered the Navy and worked as an intelligence specialist with the submarine force. It was an exciting time as new types of sonar were just being developed for submarines, which resulted in improved electronic underwater imaging that wasn’t before possible. We had a civilian sensor specialist in the command, who evaluated many of these systems. I was involved with monitoring the results. We finally had a way to take a digital electric image of what was under the water! Through this engineer, I learned the principles of how these systems worked and what improvements were necessary to operate on the submarine.

After leaving the Navy, I became a professional photographer and had a side business in camera repair and lens cleaning. In those days cameras were film, and camera electronics were limited to the light meter. As cameras continued to improve and become more complex in electronics, I decided to use my GI Bill and learn about electronics to increase my business in camera repair. My interest in electronics led me to get a BSEE. During that time, a co-op introduced me to R&D, which I’ve been involved with for over 30 years. With my background in optics along with my newfound interest in physics and electronics, I was involved in the original development of fiber-optics, designing fiber-optic gyroscopes, and a 30-year career in navigational instrumentation development. 

Working in the R&D field, I’ve seen instrumentation progress from mechanical gyros and accelerometers, to optical and integrated optics, to micro electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) instrumentation based on semiconductor fabrication. I then entered into the world of applications never imagined for inertial instrumentation. It was once only used to aid in navigation. Now, it’s used in games, every cellphone, and has become integrated in our daily lives.

Becoming an engineer has filled my life with challenges and successes I would never have dreamed of back in my machinist days, and helped bring the science fiction of my youth into reality.

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