Science and technology magazine - INTERVIEWS

Translation in progress.

Last year we had a videoconference with Guillermo Conde Guerra at IES Almenara. He is an ex-student of our high school, he is a telecommunications engineer from Malaga University. He has been working as a teacher in the United States, at Idaho University for five years.

He was born in Vélez-Málaga. He was a good student. He studied 'BUP' and 'COU' at our high school from 1993 to 1997, where he received two grants to improve his English in Ireland and England.

He lives in Moscow, Idaho, in the northwest of the USA. Here there are two important universities: Washington State University and Idaho University, where he is now. The climate is extreme.

In his last year at the degree he had a grant ISEP. With that grant, he went to study to USA.






When Guillermo Conde was a young man, he was responsible, though not the typical swot (as his mum told us), but he was very active: he did a lot of sports, was an instructor of martial arts and member of a music group in Vélez. Now, he collaborates with NGOs in the USA.

He thinks that science can be boring for some people, but it depends on your preferences. So, he thinks that, in order to know if you really like something, you must study and understand it before. He says that science isn't what it looks like because his work has never prevented him from developing other activities. The word engeneering comes from the word (in)genius, so a good engineer has to be capable of solving problems. Moreover, in spite of the fact that this type of degree implies a lot of methodology and is very structured, too, it lets you be creative.

Guillermo had always been sure that he would go to University and one of his objectives was to study a master in the USA, and when he was in '2º BUP' he already wanted to study telecommunications. He studied engeneering because he likes technology a lot and also solving all kinds of problems.

He says that the subjects he studied for his degree weren't easy. For him, neither money nor success are important for a degree, the important thing for a student is to enjoy his or her job.

His recommendation is not to get obsessesed with studying and not taking it as an obligation but as something that can help you.
Guillermo began working with a company that he didn't like very much, therefore he decided to look for another job, and then he met the man who is now his boss and doctoral tutor, who was working in a NASA project.

In this project he started working with a microprocessor which is to be used in Mars missions. At NASA, any device that goes inside a spacecraft has to go through a lengthy and costly process. Nowadays they have already completed the microprocessor, although it is in Taiwan, in its due review. Meanwhile work continues to improve and solve problems at the same time.

His first project was something related to analog circuit optimization, via geometric optimization that was proposed from Spain. When he decided he was going to stay there, it happened to become his final project and then his Master's thesis. He had to work for Intel. His job was to design a wind tunnel for fans that Intel tested. His work at University has made him become more professional and have good communication with customers.

Then came the project of NASA; FPPA was a project which is nothing more than a small fleet of submarines for mine detection, which are designed to remove these so that submarines don't suffer any damage.

Nowadays he is studying his doctorate and his future plans are to finish his research and become a doctor.