Editor's note: Commentary periodically spotlights research by local engineers and scientists to encourage Orange County students to see the career possibilities for themselves in science, technology, medicine and engineering, as well as to note some of today's most interesting explorations. Bill Blanning coordinates this feature.
David Seigle, a retired entrepreneur who served as president of a number of start-up enterprises, is president of the advisory board for Science@OC, established to bring inquiry-based science education to Orange County schools.
You're retired now, but what technology did you contribute to?
My first job out of college in the early 1960's was working in a computer center at the University of Michigan, helping researchers prepare their data for submission to the mainframe for various kinds of statistical analysis. This became boring, so my colleagues and I, on the side, developed a user language and a database management system, creating a user interface that allowed researchers to use the mainframe directly. This was one of the first such systems. It was eventually used by medical and social science researchers at over 1,000 universities around the world.
What was your specific role in moving this project/research forward?
In those days there were no college-level courses for programming education. Such training was conducted by computer manufacturers. Each of us had to learn from IBM manuals how the hardware and coding worked.
What was the most successful outcome of your work, and what impact did it have on how we live?
This system contributed to making computers more accessible to researchers. It became a model for subsequent developments in crafting such language, database and research tools on minicomputers and, now, on PCs.
What about this project was important to you personally? What was the best part of your job – when did you feel the most satisfaction?
There was significant creativity involved. None of this had been done before. It was also an important contribution. It enabled researchers to control and modify their work directly. It led to a time when people would control their own access to computers.
Why did you choose this career?
It was an accident. I was studying econometrics in graduate school and this job helped me pay for it. However, I fell in love with the work and that decided my career.
What made you particularly well-suited to this work?
I loved the technical challenge, and my science and math background allowed me to learn what was required to deal with it.
Where did you go to college? What degrees do you have?
I went to Yale. I studied international relations with a minor in math and worked part time in Yale's high-energy physics lab. Summers I worked monitoring Yale's particle separator at the Brookhaven National Lab's synchrotron (on the night shift).
During high school and college, which courses helped best prepare you for your career?
I had a lot of interests but no specific career intention through high school and college. My interests motivated me to study math and science, among other fields. This prepared me for new opportunities. Specifically, several U of M colleagues and I formed my first startup. We (with the university's permission) commercialized the technology. Eventually at that company and others I became responsible for the management of software-development teams, then marketing and sales teams, and, eventually, for companies as president.
Today, at Science@OC, in partnership with the National Science Resources Center, part of the National Academy of Sciences, we assist O.C. school districts in offering exemplary teacher professional development and materials for hands-on investigations that illuminate science concepts.
What is the best advice you received that has helped further your career? What advice would you give, particularly to the student who may think math, science or engineering are "too hard" for him or her?
The advice that I remember best, I didn't follow: Play it safe; stay at your dependable job. I followed my interests and accepted new challenges. I had to have reasonable comfort with science and math. Math is a language that allows one to understand natural phenomena in a precise way, a way that English can't fully replace. That's why it's important.
I have found that whenever I think something is "too hard" it is usually because it has not been presented well. So don't blame yourself if something seems difficult. If you don't understand something, seek out answers from others or online or at the library.