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>> Back in 1980 my mother wanted me to have a career
and I just didn't know the path to how to go about it.
So what she did is she paid for me to attend a vocational school
of mechanical design and engineering.
Although not an engineering school, it taught me the basics
on how to do mechanical drawings.
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My name is Kelvin Siu.
I was born in El Salvador, Central America.
My father came from China.
I'm a total mutt.
In El Salvador they had the civil war.
My mother, she decided to bring my sister and myself
out of El Salvador to live in New York for a better life.
Once I broke the news to my mom that I work
at NASA she was incredibly very excited.
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I remember one of my professors saying that a drawing is a means
of communication between an engineer
and the fabrication shop.
>> Good morning sir.
>> Morning sir.
>> Morning how's it going?
>> So here are the prints
and here's what we need to do, the bracketry.
The top brackets is going to have two pieces.
This is the top brackets.
This is the left side.
>> And it's 125 stainless.
>> 321.
>> 321 stainless steel, 19 thousand, 190 bend.
>> And you only want one.
>> And my job is to make sure that we speak the same language.
That it is clear, concise and also that the engineer is clear
in his intent of the design.
And for the shop to be clear in what needs
to be produced for that design.
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The drawings that I produce vary here.
Some are cabinets that I do, that go into the airplanes.
Others are just fixtures that go outside.
In this particular project, this is a fuel line meter
that is going to be put in into the G-III airplane
for the Flex Wing and what it's doing is measuring
accurately how much fuel it uses in any given time
that it goes up in the air.
The engineer designed the bracket.
Once he did the 3D CAD model here, he gave it to me
and I produced all the drawings on this side.
And my job, my responsibility is not only to do the drawings
of the assembly with the bill of materials on the side
and also do the parts, every single part that is to be
in that drawing and dimension it and make sure
that everything is correct.
An engineer will do the design,
then after he completes the model, then he will give me
that model and I begin putting all the parts into the drawing.
Doing the dimensions,
making sure that it matches the NASA standards
and the ASME mechanical standards.
And after I am done with the drawing,
then I return the drawing to the engineer to be checked.
Once a drawing is approved by the engineer,
I will send the drawing to configuration management.
They do a couple of things.
One is that they will release the drawing into the system,
so the engineer can write a work order
to have the design be built by the machine shop.
Second and very importantly,
is that they are the single repository for AFRC,
in which they put the drawings and the CAD files
into their system for safe keeping.
If an engineer later on needs either the CAD files or a copy
of the drawing, they will call them in order to get a copy.
A typical day here when I come
to work is I come in at 7 o'clock.
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Usually on Tuesday, we have a meeting at 8 o'clock
in the morning with my manager just to review all the projects.
Where they are, where they're going and when is the due dates.
>> Alright Kelvin, what do we got here?
>> Okay so we got this completed here.
So we want to take a look at it.
>> It's going to be passivated.
>> I put this overall dimension here.
So but you want to know more dimensions between center holes
or just from...
>> No.
>> After that I just go about my business of working
for the engineers and working on their projects.
And making sure that the timelines are met.
What I like from here that it will be different
than in the private sector manufacturing,
is that every piece that we make here in NASA
AFRC is prototype, is one of a kind and I truly enjoy that.
One is because well there's only one of a kind and second
because it's not mass produced, therefore we put the best
of our minds and mathematics into it, to make it a reality.
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>> Alright Kelvin, so I'm going
to show you the primary location.
>> Okay.
>> Where it's going to connect,
so if you look right there, the harness.
So let me go real quick right up here.
So basically we're going to connect from that screw
to this screw right here.
>> Oh okay, now I see it.
>> To get these two points.
>> As I work with the engineers here in AFRC, it is very nice
and brings a satisfaction not only
to see their personal designs, that I do the drawings
and check the drawings, that I have some kind of input,
as small as it may be, and to see that it's going into a plane
and doing research because I know that that research is going
to convey something to the scientific community.
And therefore reward humankind in a positive way and knowing
within me, that I made a real difference, albeit it's small,
but a real difference.
One of the main points that I appreciate
from doing some design is when I see something like this,
when I began my career, it was all done in paper.
There were no computers or no CAD models.
So my appreciation is all the curves,
there's no flat surfaces.
Everything has an in and out.
Everything is just flowing and now
that we have CAD we can do that, but in the past,
all this was done by pencil and paper.
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You have to be good in math and also to have the know-how on how
to come up with the solutions to a need.
The brain, yes, functions on both sides.
The creative side on what it will look like,
but also to have the math to correctly design it.
There is a pride in knowing that as I go to museums
and I see NASA and they talk about NASA,
inside I always tell myself I work there.
And I'm so thankful to make a difference as many others do.
I find it very fascinating to be here.
I have learned a lot.