which is the lowest form of management at JPL.

And I am proud of it.

My joy this evening<br /> is to introduce a young man,

that I have a privilege of hiring,

after being assigned<br /> a very ambitious project called,

"Eyes on the Solar System".

It's a project to allow you<br /> to explore the solar system

using your web browser.

But I needed somebody.

So I asked another one<br /> of our young engineers,

"Hey, do you know anybody<br /> that can program well?"

He said, "Sure,

you should talk to my friend Jon."

So I spoke with Jon, I hired him,

and assigned him this project

just to bide this time<br /> while the other programmers finished,

"The Eyes on the Earth".

But in the short time that<br /> Jon was given this project,

he worked so hard and so well<br /> that he established himself,

as the team lead,

and went on to design and be<br /> the chief developer of a piece of software

that he is going to demonstrate to you shortly.

So without further delay,<br /> I would like to introduce Jon Nguyen.

(Applause)

Jon Nguyen: Hi everyone.

As mentioned, I am Jon Nguyen.

I have been working for JPL for about a year now.

And to be honest,

I am actually working at the organization<br /> that I've dreamed of working for.

When I tell young students<br /> like yourselves advice,

advice for school,

I always try to tell them,<br /> "Join a student group,

join a student group."

And there's two good reasons for that.

One is you learn a lot in your classes.

You learn a lot in your classes.

And until you actually apply that knowledge that you've learned,

you haven't really learn it yet.

And thiese students groups are great

because they give you a means

to apply what you learned in students projects.

So the group that I joined,

well, we made a plane,

we did aerospace engineering<br /> and we made a plane.

That was our project.

All the student groups, they made rockets.

And when they actually applied that knowledge,

they knew it spot on.

The second reason <br />why student groups are great is

the people you meet,<br /> the friends you meet ,

the connections you make.

And you've got to realize something:

the connections you make<br /> generate opportunities down the line.

And I have two personal examples about that.

So when I was a student at UCLA,

JPL was looking for<br /> an academic part-time hire.

Well, they contacted<br /> a student group organizer at UCLA,

who forwarded to a student group leader,

who forwarded to another student group leader,

who happened to be my friend in AIAA.

He forwarded the email to me,

and immediately when I saw JPL on there,

I sent my resume off.

Because, I want to work for JPL,<br /> that's what I want to do.

And luckily they accepted me,

and I did active part-time internship at UCLA,

sorry, at JPL.

And I did that for nine months as a systems engineer

on the Mars science laboratory.

And think about this,

I was a young student<br /> and I got to do systems engineering

on the Mars science laboratory,

that was that big six-wheel rover that Jim Adam showed,

I got to work on that and it was incredible.

Now, that only lasted nine months,

because I had to go back to UCLA<br /> and finish my education,

I wanted to graduate, of course!

And I graduated June 2009,

and the problem is June 2009,

that's in a global recession.

And JPL couldn't guarantee me<br /> a job after I graduated.

A lot of us, a lot of my friends,<br /> we were anxious,

we weren't sure<br /> if we were going to have a job.

Well, I was actually lucky enough,

to have a job offer when I graduated.

But the thing was, it wasn't for JPL.

It was for another engineering firm,

and it wasn't in aerospace, but I love aerospace.

And so I took a gamble,

I told myself, you know what,

this passion means so much to me,

that I actually turned down that job offer.

Luckily, I have pretty supportive parents,

but my friends, they thought I was crazy,

because, you know,<br /> it was really hard to get a job,

they told me, "You should taken that."

Well, I was unemployed, obviously,

and I was unemployed for about six months,

but I want to go back to<br /> why connections are so important.

Six months into my unemployment,<br /> a friend called me,

just as Kevin mentioned,

my friend Anton,<br /> he's an old high school friend.

He called me and he said,

"You know what,

our group is looking for a new programmer,

do you think you can do it?

I jumped right on,

it was at JPL,<br /> it was in programming which I love,

and it had to do with space.

Of course, I got to jump on that.

And so I got the job, as Kevin mentioned,

and we have been working for the past

about a year,

working on<br /> The Eyes on the Solar System program.

And so now I have kind of come full circle,

because as a kid,

I was inspired to be a space enthusiast

because of those pretty pictures.

Well, now I am in a position to inspire a whole new generation

of space enthusiasts, hopefully you guys are here,

because I'm working on Eyes on the Solar System.

And I hope that after seeing the solar system for yourselves,

you'll be inspired as I was when I was a kid.

Thank you.

(Applause)