Name:
Mr. Michael Olka
E-mail address:
olka@worldnet.att.net
Education Information
Undergraduate Major:
Civil Engineering
Degree Received:
BS
Graduation Year:
1975
Advanced Degrees:
Masters in Civil Engineering
Activities, student organizations, leadership roles, etc. in which I was
involved at UT:
I worked for Food Services. I did material Testing for Dr. Berdette for TVA and others.
Job Information
Employer Name:
United Space Alliance
Employer Web Site:
http://www.unitedspacealliance.com/
Present Job Title:
Project Manager
Brief description of my job responsibilities, e.g. a typical week in my job:
Project Manager responsible for multiple projects in the $5 to $20 million dollar range. From program requirements extract
project requirements, perform a risk analysis, build a project team, schedule and budget. Then partner the project with the
appropriate NASA customers, obtaining the funds for the project. Assign task to team members, monitor their work progress
for technical accuracy, cost and schedule impact. Provide project status to upper management and our customers. Basically
from concept to completion for launch site facilities or ground support equipment. Along with the above responsibilities I
perform inspection and engineering resolution of structural cracks or other anomalies on Haunches and Girders on the
Mobile Launch Platforms, the Launch Towers, and other structures.
Suggestions I would give to undergraduate students with regard to courses,
internships, and other means of preparation for my career field:
The best way to learn how to design and build structures and mechanisms is to dissasemble them and test to failure. Also
learn the craft that goes with the design/erection process. If you want to be a Concrete designer, help pour and finish a
few thousand yards of concrete. If you want to be a Steel designer, erect a couple thousand tons of steel, perform bolt up
and welding. And by all means no matter what type of designer learn to survey and perform soils analysis. Take demolition
courses if offered. Take every course you can afford to take and don't worry about graduating in exactly four or five years.
Get the education you need to be able to make the decisions instead of having to wait for someone else. Apprentice during the
summer, or take a welding course at a Vocational Technical School. Intern for a small company that will allow you get your
hands dirty and be willing to let you learn a little by your own mistakes, but will keep an eye on you so you don't make any
large mistakes. Take a speech course you will be selling yourself, your ideas, or the teams ideas the rest of your life so
early.
My career path in getting to this position:
Many jobs to pay for my education, construction crafts, food service, taxi driver, home builder, US Navy, and material
tester for UT. While I worked on my Masters of Engineering at UT, I worked for the Tennessee Department of Transportation in
Construction, Maintenance and Right of Way. I built bridges, roads, inspected bridges for deteoriation, I testified in court
as a engineering witness and taught EIT and PE review courses. From there I went to work for Brown and Root teaching and
certifying Quality Control Inspectors for South Texas Nuclear and other Fossil fuel plants. Then with Bechtel design,
Construction management, and inspection for the Tennessee Eastman Coal to Chemicals facility at Kingsport. The Qasim
Saudia Arabia project, The Kingsbay Nuclear Submarine base, Refurbishment of Launch Complex 41 for Titan IV's at Cape
Canaveral and the conversion of the Launch Umbilical tower used in the Apollo program to Mobile launch platform 3 for the
Shuttle program at Launch Complex 39 at the Kennedy Space Center. I left Bechtel to do more work at the Kennedy Space
Center with Lockheed Space Systems, which later became United Space Alliance. I have designed and implemented projects on
all three of the mobile launch platforms, both Pad A and B, the Crawler transporter, the Vehicle Assembly building, all
three orbiter processing facilities, the mate demate device, the shuttle landing facility, the hypergolic processing
facility and the solid rocket booster builings as well as many other towers and facilities at the Kennedy Space Center or
on the Cape Canaveral Airforce Station. I have won numerous awards and recognitions including the Manned Space Flight
Awareness Award.
Other advice for students interested in gaining entry into and pursuing a career
in this field:
Do not dwell on what you can't do. Look at what you can do. My experiences have been in bridges, chimneys, towers, chemical
plants, nuclear and fossil fuled plants etc. and each experience has allowed me to bring information to the aerospace
community. In fact I believe a good back ground in the basics for facility construction and maintenance is better than all
theoretical aerospace education; because you need to understand the facilities that support the program and there are more
of that type of work than anything else.
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