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>> KARLA: My name is Karla Vega, I’m part of the Visualization Group, and my job here
at TACC is the manager of the Visualization Interfaces and Applications Group. I oversee
the Visualization Lab here on campus, and I also address all the needs of the local
research community, in terms of visualization. I love working at a university in academic
environments, especially at The University of Texas and at TACC, with their motto, “What
starts here changes the world.” And at TACC, you know, they empower us to do that. So I
love being able to be in an atmosphere that actually promotes that in their staff. That’s
what I enjoy the most. Ever since I was little – my dad is an engineer, and I was very
close to both my dad and my brother. He’s also … my brother’s also an engineer.
And when I was around 10 years old, I started becoming very interested in the stars, and
so I decided to start looking into either astronomy or kind of an engineering that I
could explore space with. So that’s around when I was 10 or 13. I really enjoyed it.
And I was always very good at math and science when I was in high school and middle school.
Throughout my career as an undergrad and grad student, I actually have put 3 satellites
in space. Little ones, you know, they were like toy satellites. It was very cool to work
on it. You know, I’ve learned lots of different things about satellites. Not really rocket
science, but it’s great to know I became an aerospace engineer to do something like
that, and I was able to achieve it while I was still a student.
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