{"id":61958,"date":"2012-08-17T16:37:11","date_gmt":"2012-08-17T16:37:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/community\/?p=2871"},"modified":"2012-08-17T16:37:11","modified_gmt":"2012-08-17T16:37:11","slug":"sensors-and-sensibility","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/2012\/08\/17\/sensors-and-sensibility\/","title":{"rendered":"Sensors and Sensibility"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"

A cavernous room for testing sensors is just part of the complex world Jacqueline Janning manages as a division chief for the Air Force Research Laboratory.<\/p><\/div>\n

Jacqueline \u201cJackie\u201d Janning has a second-floor office on Wright-Patterson Air Force Base with large windows that look out over the base.<\/p>\n

It isn\u2019t an easy place to visit. Besides being inside the base\u2019s well-protected fence, Janning\u2019s office is inside a locked building of the Air Force Research Laboratory\u2019s (AFRL\u2019s) Sensors Directorate, where she is a division chief. To gain access, a visitor needs a control badge and an escort.<\/p>\n

But once inside, you find her college diplomas hanging prominently on her office wall\u2014bachelor\u2019s and master\u2019s degrees from Wright State in systems engineering with concentrations in human factors, and a second master\u2019s in business administration from MIT.<\/p>\n

While she\u2019s proud of her degrees, Janning said she doesn\u2019t show them
\noff out of vanity. In an office that manages world-class scientists and engineers, Janning needs intellectual credibility\u2014and she knows the diplomas carry weight.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese guys are simply brilliant,\u201d Janning said of the men and women who do groundbreaking research in sensors technology within the Sensors Directorate\u2019s secure walls. \u201cTheir credibility is based on academic achievement and their work.\u201d She said the diplomas help her establish credibility quickly.<\/p>\n

Janning\u2019s interest in science and technology isn\u2019t surprising. She\u2019s the youngest of the seven children of John L. Janning, a noted Ohio inventor. Growing up, \u201cI had a lab in the basement,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

But when she was attending Beavercreek High School, Janning wasn\u2019t sure what kind of technical career she wanted to pursue. A classmate showed her some information about Wright State\u2019s program in human factors engineering.<\/p>\n

\u201cI found out Wright State was the only institution across the United States that offered a Bachelor of Science in human factors,\u201d she said. Human factors was a hot topic at the time because a subset known as ergonomics was sweeping commercial industries as companies sought to make products from hand tools to cars more user friendly. \u201cIt sounded intriguing to me,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Janning graduated from Beavercreek in 1983 and enrolled at Wright State, earning her bachelor\u2019s degree in 1988. There she was inspired by the late Anthony J. Cacioppo, Ph.D., who chaired Wright State\u2019s biomedical, industrial, and human factors engineering program after retiring as chief scientist of the Foreign Technology Division (now National Air and Space Intelligence Center) at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base (WPAFB).<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was the epitome of what I wanted to be. He was intelligent, kind, and wanted to make the world a better place,\u201d Janning said.<\/p>\n

Cacioppo made a natural connection to WPAFB, where the Air Force had pioneered human factors engineering as it sought to improve the safety and performance of its airmen in ever more complex aircraft.<\/p>\n

Janning already had some sense of WPAFB. After graduating from high school, she spent a summer working on base as an engineering intern.<\/p>\n

But she found that big employers looking for human factors skills were interested in her, even without a master\u2019s degree. \u201cMy first job offer was from Commonwealth Edison to help with nuclear reactor displays,\u201d she said. \u201cThey gave me a great offer in Chicago.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

But the Air Force offered \u201cintriguing\u201d work, Janning said. She took a position doing modeling and simulation for aircrew training systems. She found herself sitting in the cockpits of fighter or trainer simulators, flying through virtual skies projected on surrounding domes. \u201cHow cool is that?\u201d she asked.<\/p>\n

Having a university just outside the base gate quickly proved to be a key benefit. \u201cOne of the things they told us when we got here\u2014I say \u2018we\u2019 because several of us came in at once\u2014was that we had to go back and get our master\u2019s degree,\u201d Janning said. She started taking classes part time. \u201cIt was convenient. It was close by,\u201d she said. She earned her master\u2019s in 1994.<\/p>\n

Janning\u2019s systems engineering education was really aimed more at managing engineers than at being one. Modeling and simulation were just her first steps in learning about what she calls the \u201ccorporate Air Force.\u201d She wanted to experience and understand all facets of Air Force research, development, acquisition, and support\u2014the lifecycle of Air Force weapon systems from cradle to grave, as systems engineers call it.<\/p>\n

After training systems, Janning worked in the Aeronautical Systems Center, the Air Force\u2019s acquisition center for major weapon systems, and Air Force
\nMateriel Command headquarters, where she influenced policy decisions.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe last part of the great frontier for me was AFRL,\u201d Janning said. She took the job as chief planner for AFRL\u2019s $2 billion science and technology budget. From there she came to her present position as one of Sensors Directorate\u2019s division chiefs.<\/p>\n

Janning calls AFRL the Air Force\u2019s \u201cgold nugget.\u201d It\u2019s where scientists and engineers make basic discoveries and develop them into advanced technology to protect airmen or destroy enemy targets. The Sensors Directorate employs technology such as radar and lasers to give Air Force weapons better eyes and ears. \u201cIn my opinion, the future can\u2019t happen without AFRL,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

But AFRL isn\u2019t likely the last stop in Janning\u2019s career. She aspires to a more senior position, which will require her to keep broadening and deepening her knowledge of the Air Force.<\/p>\n

To that end, the Air Force supported Janning\u2019s second master\u2019s degree, a business administration degree she earned at MIT in 2004 through a Sloan fellowship. She considers it a major milestone in her career.<\/p>\n

But Janning still treasures her Wright State degrees\u2014her daughter is a current undergraduate marketing major\u2014and she serves on an advisory board to the university\u2019s College of Science and Mathematics.<\/p>\n

Janning said having Wright State next door to WPAFB is a powerful advantage to anyone interested in a technical field. \u201cYou have the ability to practice right across the street at Wright-Patterson,\u201d she said. \u201cThere\u2019s so many exciting things you can do.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jacqueline \u201cJackie\u201d Janning has a second-floor office on Wright-Patterson Air Force Base with large windows that look out over the base. It isn\u2019t an easy place to visit. Besides being inside the base\u2019s well-protected fence, Janning\u2019s office is inside a … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":37,"featured_media":60258,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4827,715],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-61958","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-magazine","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61958","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/37"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61958"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61958\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60258"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61958"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61958"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61958"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}