Professional Interview

Kent Scarbrough
Sonar Engineering
Axel Adair
POE
8th Block
10/29/14
Scarbrough Residence

Axel Adair
10/29/2014

Professional Background
Kent Scarbrough
Bachelors Degree in Physics, Masters and PH.D in Electrical Engineering
Currently works at JJ Pickle Research Campus- University of Texas
kscarbrough@arlut.utexas.edu
512-835-3364

Questions:
Please describe the field of electrical/sonar engineering in general.
Ive done a variety of things over my career, but most of it has been working on underwater
acoustics and in particular signal processing. Sonar engineering, the overall field contains
almost everything from designing the transducers or sensors to algorithm development. Most
of my work has been in the signal processing area.

What is your current job title?

My title is Research Associate but most of what Im doing these days is project management.

Please describe your particular job and duties.

Most of what I do in project management is connect with the sponsors, provide them with
status reports, manage the finances, give them finance reports, and manage the team within
the organization. There is a group that I am working with, we design and develop new sensors
and special purpose sonars as well as maintaining existing sonars. So I do both internal work
with organizations by interacting with sponsors and as well as external work by maintaining
sonars/sensors.

What is your average work schedule?

It varies a lot, but when I am not traveling it is typically 8-6 maybe a little on the weekends or a
little more in the evenings. If I am traveling, the days are usually longer. I just spent 10 days on
a submarine about a month ago since we were there for 24 hours we usually ended up working
about 18 hours.

Starting with High School, describe your educational background chronologically.

I went to Kansas State and got all of my degrees, then I traveled overseas to Germany and
enrolled in an exchange program there. While I was there I decided I didnt want to do graduate
work in physics so I decided to come back to Kansas and focus on engineering.

If you had to do it over, related to your career or education, would you do anything
differently?
No probably not, the physics and math gave a fundamental background of what I needed in
engineering but I found that I enjoyed more and more the applied side of things rather than
basic research.
What advice would you give to me as someone interested in pursuing a career path similar to
yours?
Take as much math and science as you can, physics and chemistry is directly applicable so its
not a bad thing to have in your back pocket for being able to understand materials and some of
the things that go on. During college, like High School, continue to take as much math and
science as you can but, now there are some specialty courses that are designed for signal
processing if that is what you are really interested in. If you really want to do sonar, getting
background in acoustics and underwater acoustics in particular, not many schools have courses
that cover that material. I picked up on it through other courses that had a indirect correlation
to that. I wouldnt say focus on going particularly into sonar engineering, for example most of
the work that people in my department do is for the Navy. But, some only do software,
hardware, basic electronics boards, amplifier boards, and signal processing boards which can be
applicable almost anywhere. Rather than being too deep in any one thing, its good to get a
little bit of a flavor of everything. Some software skills are good to have in any branch of
engineering is good as well as having hardware skills. Electronic design is probably my weakest
point but it is good to be able to look at a schematic and to be able to tell what it is supposed to
do and if you cant do the design, then at least be able to follow the signals to tell where to
3

troubleshoot things. But as you go through school, more than focusing on sonar engineering,
focus on what you think you will want to do as a junior or senior are you really interested in
programming or electronic design or firmware type things there is all kinds of things more than
general purpose computers which will always be around theres also special purpose boards or
things called FPGAs which stands for Fuel Programmable Gate Arrays but basically it lets you
rather than having general purpose computers produce a special purpose processing where you
design a program for a specific task instead of a general purpose processor. But there are a
variety of options when you get there so I wouldnt limit yourself just yet. In sonar engineering
there is a lot of electrical engineering but also some mechanical engineering so if thats
something you become interested in that, a lot of the tasks come across the line as both
mechanical and electrical engineering. There are a lot of material variances in sonar engineering
that affect the way the sonars/sensors run so in some cases, sonar engineering is just as much
electrical as it is mechanical. Its a very broad field, there are ways to get involved with it, there
isnt a sonar engineering degree because it takes advantage of all the branches of engineering
besides chemical so I wouldnt limit yourself just yet.

Personal Reflection
What surprised me the most about the interview was the variety of ways that sonar
engineering incorporates other fields of engineering such as electrical, mechanical, and even
computer hardware/ software. I thought it was it was heavily reliant on electrical engineering
but Mr. Scarbrough explained that it utilizes all three of those fields and more. The most
important information I learned from the interview was to not limit myself to certain fields of
engineering just yet because I may find another field more interesting as I get older and it is
hard to commit to one field of engineering and then opt out and try to pursue a career in
another. This interview has made me more anxious and excited for a job in the field of
engineering because of all of the opportunities there are and the different career paths I could
take to hopefully become a successful engineer. This interview has not changed my plans
regarding my future career because I am not currently completely engaged in one field of
engineering and as Mr. Scarbrough said, he recommends that I do not limit myself this early in
my life which was the state I was in before the interview. The next for me to pursue my plans is
to take more advanced math and science classes which I can integrate into a career in
engineering. As I get further along on my career path, I will probably have to consult Mr.
Scarbrough or another engineer on where they were at that point in time of their life so I check
if I am on the right path.