The Importance of Inspiration

	
     To paraphrase a recent speech by Burt Rutan, one of the most prolific aircraft and spacecraft designers in modern times: 
‘The leaders, experts, and engineers of tomorrow are inspired by what they see and do as children between 3 and 15’.  Not only do 
I strongly agree with Mr. Rutan, but also my own experience bears out and lends support to his theory.  As a young boy I participated 
in the STARBASE program at Selfridge ANGB, MI.  Not only was playing with model rockets and learning about airplanes fascinating to
me as a young boy, but I am now finishing a PhD (University of South Florida) focusing on artificial intelligence in aerial robotic 
systems, and this summer I will be working as a propulsion systems engineer for a private space flight company.  As a nation, our
international prestige and standing is driven by our technical expertise, and to maintain this prestige such expertise must be
actively fostered.

     Being a successful engineer requires a certain outlook, a certain mental state.  To an engineer the answer to: “How does that work?” 
is always “Lets measure it, lets test it, lets find out.”  This perspective does not come naturally to many children however.  It 
must be taught by demonstration, by hands-on learning, by exemplary role models demonstrating it as a method for looking at the world.
STARBASE does this.  From my time in the program I still have strong memories of building model rockets and being excited to bring my p
parents to the launch to show them what I’d done, strong memories of puzzling out how to drop a raw egg off the roof and not break it
(we failed valiantly), strong memories of looking at jets awestruck and sitting in and flying the same simulators the real pilots used. 
I have been fascinated by rockets and aircraft since then.

     After leaving STARBASE I have indeed maintained this engineer’s outlook of inquisitiveness and experimentation.  Since my time in
the program: I have gone on to be the lead engineer on a student run solar-electric vehicle team which raced on three continents and 
achieved the top American finish in a pre-Olympic Greek race, I developed my own rocket fuel as a chemistry project and convinced my 
physics professor to teach a “Basics of Rocket Science” course, I graduated with Honors and a BS in Computer Science, during my first 
summer after entering graduate school I was selected as a Naval Research Experience Intern working on robotic systems at Naval Surface
Warfare Center in Panama City, I completed my Masters with a thesis on the first use of UAVs during emergency response operations 
following Hurricane Katrina.  Looking to the future I have been hired this summer as an intern working as a propulsion systems engineer
and I am currently writing my dissertation focusing on UAV flight in urban environments.

During my education I have been fortunate to have numerous teachers who actively encouraged me to pursue my interests in science and
engineering and gave me the tools to do so successfully.  Thus it would be a disservice to claim that career path was determined only 
by my time at STARBASE.  But as Rutan argues, STARBASE provided that critical early inspiration and fascination with science, technology,
and engineering that helped guide me towards my current career path.  STARBASE was a valuable experience for me, and in order to maintain
 our international standing such opportunities need to be presented to as many young students as possible.

Kevin S. Pratt
1993 STARBASE graduate