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[ Music ]

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>> For the past seven years,

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Shedrick Bessent has been
an instrumentation engineer

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at NASA's Dryden
Flight Research Center.

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He currently works on design,
development, installation,

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and testing of research
instrumentation

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for three modified
aircraft, a Gulfstream III,

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SOFIA Flying Observatory,

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and the Ikhana Predator
B unmanned aircraft.

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He's helped develop and
test instrumentation

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for a wide variety of highly
technical aerospace research

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projects at Dryden
during his career.

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Bessent holds an undergraduate
degree in Electrical Engineering

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from North Carolina Agricultural
and Technical State University

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and a Master's in Electrical
and Computer Engineering

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from Purdue University.

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>> Well right now I'm working
on the new G III project.

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This is a brand new
aircraft to Dryden.

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It hasn't been flight
tested at all

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so it just right
off the factory lot.

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So it's a lot of fun, lot
of work but we get to do it

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from the ground floor up and
there's going to be a lot

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of learning that's
going to take place.

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It started at a young age, my
mom noticed, she's an educator,

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she noticed that when I had a
little turbo hoppers or RC cars,

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I wouldn't just play with them.

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I would actually take them apart

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and have the electrical
components flying all

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over the place.

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I wasn't too good at the time
at putting it all back together

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but I was really interested
in how things work.

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At that point, she knew
exactly I was an engineer,

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didn't know if I was mechanical
or electrical but from

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that point on it
was a done deal.

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I'm actually a product of
NASA's great recruiting program

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and at the National Society of
Black Engineers' Conference;

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I came by the NASA booth.

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I knew an engineer at the
time who I graduated with,

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he was working behind
the scenes.

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He asked myself and my future
wife at the time if we'd

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like to drop off our
résumés, sure did,

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we came as a package deal,
and the rest is history.

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One of my biggest challenges
was just trying to learn how

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to do my job the best I could.

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Like I said, I had
no aero background

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and I was a rookie coming out
as an electrical engineer,

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which is you have book smarts

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but you don't have the real
live on-the-job training smarts.

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It's really a great place
to work, open door policy;

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everyone's willing
and able to help you.

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So it took me about three
or five years but after

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that point I really kind
of understood the NASA way

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of business and now I
really feel comfortable

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in what I'm doing now.

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Finally, most about working
here at NASA is the flexibility

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to take a design and build
and test and see a product

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from its baby state all the
way to its final growth state.

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I worked at other places
before and you always just kind

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of work a piece of the puzzle

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but you don't really understand
the full pie, if you will.

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But here, you're designing,
you're purchasing, you're coming

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up with things from scratch,

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and then seeing it
all the way through.

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So by the time it gets to the
plane, I can tell you exactly

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where that wire was, what
company I bought it with,

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and why we put it in
there in the first place.

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In my short career here, I've
gotten to work on a UAV, 747,

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a G III, F-15, each plane
is totally different.

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I grew up with my
mom, my grandmother,

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my great-grandmother,
all educators,

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so education was very
important to my life

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and I'm living the
fruits of it now.

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Only 30-years-old, I could
never see myself here before

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and I really have
a solid career.

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Key is also to try to
find what you are good at,

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what you like to do because
the most important thing is