Project Description: 

Major: Computer Science Company: SGT, Inc. Mentor: Jay Kovacs Code: 590 - Mission Engineering and System Analysis

Multidisciplinary Engineering and Technology Services (METS) at NASA/Goddard team of SGT, Inc. is a contract to provide engineering and related services such as Instrument Systems and Engineering, Flight and Ground Software Design, Analysis, Development and Test, Engineering Support Functions, and Research and Technology Services. These services are defined through performance-based Task Orders, issued through GSFC’s Task Order Management System (TOMS.) METS contract works with a few other subcontractors on over 100 tasks.

The database is needed to organize the tasks, personnel and subcontractors. The data needs to correspond to GSFC’s Task Order Management System as well as the data of the Human Resource departments of the company team members, which will be updated monthly. This database can be sorted in many different ways, such as by the task status, by the task number or by subcontractor. This database is to be used by METS managers to monitor the progress of each task. It is designed to be user friendly, which will be accessed by staff not familiar with database structure as well as the secured part, which will be accessed only by a few managers.

This project required more than 80 hours designing the data model. The identification of data object and relationship and the Entity-Relationship (ER) diagram are modeled first and are the keys to a good database modeling. It is set up to be a self sustaining system so that the minimal maintenances will only be required in the future and it can easily be done by someone else.

Contribution:

Panita spent her internship at SGT, Inc., an aerospace engineering company. She was employed as a Junior Software Engineer supporting their Multidisciplinary Engineering and Technology Services (METS) Contract. Panita’s assignment was to the database for the METS Contract. For this project, she worked to design the data model, as well as develop a user friendly, self-sustaining and effective program management database. The database design was to parallel Goddard Space Flight Center’s Task Order Management System and SGT’s Human Resources Information database. For this project, Panita had to hone her skills in Microsoft Access and Visual Basic Programming. The process, as she learned over the weeks, involved the entire program design which went well beyond coding software programs. The SGT experience introduced her to an understanding of the complete development of large-scale engineering and product management. Although focusing on the area of computer science for her second bachelor’s degree, her experience at SGT has made her want to include aerospace engineering as an undergraduate minor or second major.