Ryan Patterson considers
himself lucky. As a toddler,
he started "tinkering"
by stuffing knives
into electrical outlets
and twisting light bulbs
into sockets. He
watched his dad wire
their family home, and he absorbed the basics
like current flow and hooking up motors and
switches. By the time he was going off to high
school, he had built two robots.
"I feel really lucky because I've always had a
natural interest in electronics," Patterson says. "A
lot of people don't have that natural interest and
might spend their whole life trying to figure it out."
Patterson's passion for electronics earned
him the title of "Electric Boy Genius" from GQ
Magazine in an article on his victory at the 2001
Intel International Science and Engineering Fair. It
also earned him his current "dream job," working
on aerospace robotics for Lockheed Martin in a
position the company let him design himself.
A Hands-On Dream Job
Patterson's gig has him hands-on in the construction
of Orion, NASA's next-generation spacecraft.
He's been designing and testing docking
systems that will allow Orion to connect with
satellites, refueling vehicles, or the International
Space Station.
"I really like doing internal R&D because I like
designing things that haven't been designed
before," he says, lamenting one internship where
he spent the entire summer determining if a fourcent
part could be removed from a circuit. "I didn't
want to spend my career taking four months
to determine the effects on a circuit if a product
is removed. I wanted to be working on much
more creative programs."
He's certainly found that at Lockheed Martin.
When he's not on Orion, three other space-related
R&D projects keep him busy. Since taking the
job in June 2006, he's been working on a robotic
excavator that will dig up lunar soil.
Robotics has always interested Patterson
because he likes working on embedded control
systems, and "robotics do a lot of that," he says.
Though he currently does everything from software
design and engineering to electric circuitry
and hardware engineering as well as systems
engineering, he started at Lockheed as an intern
in the robotics lab - the right place for someone
who started building robots when he was a kid.
Cultivating An Electric Boy Genius
Before Patterson knew what Lockheed Martin
was, his parents were encouraging his natural
curiosity and talent. When his father, an electrical
contractor, taught his son all he could about electronics,
the search for a new mentor began.
Luckily for the Pattersons, particle physicist
John McConnell relocated to their hometown of
Grand Junction, Colo., after retiring from Los
Alamos National Laboratory. For the next seven
years, McConnell spent his Saturdays molding
the boy genius into an electrical engineer.
"My dad inspired me to have an inquisitive
mind, to want to know how things worked,"
Patterson says. "He taught me how to learn.
John got me started with soldering. After that,
my robots became more sophisticated, and then
the science fairs started taking off."
Patterson's talents were acknowledged at the
2001 Intel International Science and Engineering
Fair when his invention, a glove that could translate
sign language into text on an LCD, took first
place. Other recognition like winning the 2002
Intel Science Talent Search, taking first place at
the 2001 Siemens Westinghouse Science &
Technology Competition, and being awarded the
Junior Nobel Prize in Sweden made him a hot
commodity when looking at colleges.
He toured big-name tech schools like MIT, but
found the right match in the University of Colorado
at Boulder's L3D (Life Long Learning in Design)
program, led by professor Jim Sullivan. Sullivan
promised Patterson he would get his hands dirty
immediately, a key for someone who approached
choosing a college the way he chose a project.
"When I would look for a project to do, I'd have
two criteria," he says. "One part is that it's interesting
and challenging, the other that it's something
useful that will help people."
By senior year, Patterson had designed an
ultrasound-based indoor GPS that would help
hospitals remotely keep tabs on patients with
cognitive disabilities.
Inspiring the Next Generation
After graduation, he says, a lot of his classmates
went to grad school because it was tough
to find work. FPGA programming was another big
draw, as were related fields like semiconductor
marketing. While these are great jobs for young
engineers, Patterson believes the kind of innovation
that will maintain the U.S. as a major player
in electrical engineering is lacking.
"I think the underlying problem is that the curriculum
is not pushing science," he says. He worries
that countries like China, where science is
more prominent, will eventually produce more top
engineers than the U.S. But he is intent on encouraging
science and has convinced the University of
Colorado to contribute $30,000 a year to the
Colorado State Science and Engineering Fair,
which helped launch Patterson's career.
"It had a big impact on my life, so I've become
involved in it," he says. "And I plan to stay involved
the rest of my life."