Dave Lochner
Vice President
CAD Research

Our company had an enthusiastic young intern who was interested in us and our technology. I know that we got as much out of the experience as our intern did.

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As a senior at Wilkinsburg High School with no intent of going to college, any cares of what career path I would be taking and no computer experience at all; it would have been hard to imagine that I could end up where I am now.

Often described as a “…bright kid who could do some much if he just applied himself…” I used my “hidden intelligence” to do just enough to get by in high school. By getting by I mean showing up only 1/3 of the time, doing my schoolwork only in night and summer schools to pass my junior year, and doing all of my schoolwork for the year in the last month or so of my senior year instead of shooting for that 4 point 0 or scholarship.

That is until I was told about a program that I just have to try due to my feelings about going to college. This program, known as G.I.S.E.P. at the time, was a computer training/job readiness program offering instruction in some of the latest in information technologies and real world experience in a very short amount of time. My first impression was “Computers… Yeah… Right!”, but after a very persistent Wilkinsburg HS faculty member insisted, I decided to join barely meeting the minimum academic requirements.

The rest is history, as I found that working with computers didn’t feel like work at all, and after a very short time felt like a natural. I had “computer classes” before in my previous high school and I still don’t remember what it is they were trying to teach me – But G.I.S.E.P. now known as InfoLink, did an amazing job of teaching very technical computer applications in terms that just made sense to non technical kids. Considering that little to none of the students in the pilot program had any prior computer experience, this was an amazing feat.

Even though the program focused primarily on ArcView (a Geographical Information Systems application), the intense training program gave me the ability to learn new computer applications with ease.

My first job was to create a digitized map of the Monroeville Mall utilizing AutoCad and ArcView GIS from leasing plans, a scale, and a ruler. This was to demonstrate the power and possibilities of using GIS to apply information to digital maps for the owners. Since then I have had many assignments as a consultant working very closely with the Heinz School and Carnegie Mellon, the City of Pittsburgh, and Allegheny Singer Research Institute/West Penn Health System’s Center for Violence and Injury Control to name a few. Throughout my experiences my expertise shifted primarily to database development, management, and analysis; but I have a wide range of expertise and it keeps growing with every assignment.

Some of my favorite experiences include my work with the TruNorth Data Systems and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms’ Youth Crime Gun Interdiction Initiative in which we developed very successful data cleaning methods and geocoded crime gun recovery locations for 37 cities. I also had a long running joint effort between myself and Allegheny Singer Research Institute’s Center for Violence and Injury Control in which we imported massive text files obtained form multiple agencies, into a relational database management system to run extensive statistical analysis and generate reports used by many public agencies to evaluate the effectiveness of Pennsylvania's Graduated Drivers License System in preventing teen accidents.

Nothing compares however, to my favorite experience in which midway though my current 8 years as a consultant, I returned as an instructor to the InfoLink program. I look forward to future assignments like this and have started a small training program in which I will temporarily serve as head instructor to start very soon. I also plan to start an Information System Solutions company in 2005.

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