Don't let the baseball field in the background fool you. See the hat that Annemarie Pringle, B.E.E. 1999, is wearing? Look again — did you notice the Australian flag? That's just one small souvenir from the many trips abroad that this globe-trotting CUA alumna has made in her career as a computer systems engineer.
After graduating from CUA, Pringle decided to put her engineering degree to use with ArgonST (formerly Argon Engineering). "I didn't know what I actually wanted to do in the real world," said Pringle, "and so I told the company to place me anywhere they saw fit."
Pringle soon began work as a Java programmer, spending just shy of one year in the field before making the jump over to C++ programming — a skill she honed for an additional year and a half. After two and a half years as a computer programmer, Pringle moved over to system testing, which involved writing test procedures and performing formal tests and demonstrations for customers on a variety of programs. It was in this role that she was introduced to integration — the portion of system development where all the different components of a computer system must be made to synchronize. "This activity is commonly referred to as black magic in my company," jokes Pringle, "because there are very few people who want to do it, and even fewer who can do it." That notwithstanding, Pringle says that she found it to be "one of the most fun activities I've ever performed in the workplace."
As she was finishing her first integration effort, Pringle was "thrilled" to learn that her company was creating a field services department, which would be responsible for installing and troubleshooting of all company systems once they left the corporate headquarters. In her new role, Pringle was given the opportunity to travel to locations where ArgonST systems were being installed — Hawaii, Japan and Australia. ArgonST also provides a number of computer systems for the U.S. Navy, and so this civilian CUA alumna has had the opportunity to visit and work for extended stays aboard a number of Navy vessels. "Having never actually served in the Navy, I love being underway on ships. It's probably one of the most amazing experiences I've ever had."
