Nercy Escobedo
Christine Ianuzzi
Professor Keith W. Ross
Iryna Zenyuk

A summer of soldering:
How I worked the national conventions from the inside
By Nercy Escobedo ’06CompE

“Ready on three, on two, on one…live!” shouted one of the head operators in the master-control room during the five a.m. hit. My day had just begun at New York 1 News, where I spent the past summer as an intern in the engineering department. NY1 News is a 24-hour local news channel reaching 1.5 million viewers throughout the city’s five boroughs. There are 20 engineers and technicians at NY1—all men. The last time the station had a female engineer was five years ago, so I knew I had to prove myself. It must have worked, because a month into my internship, I was handed a press pass and was on my way to work at both the Democratic and Republican national conventions.

Interning for NY1 News opened my eyes to the amount of action done behind the curtain. When people think media, they think on-air hosts and cameramen and producers; they don’t think engineers. However, engineers are the majority in the media operation, be it electricians or audio and video engineers. Each day, I arrived at the Boston FleetCenter, and then Madison Square Garden, hours before the red carpet, balloons and crowds. Among my duties, I tested the equipment to ensure it was ready for prime time. I also made audio and video cables, which involved soldering and putting together pin in/out definitions. Soldering came easy to me because I had done it in a mechatronics course taught by Professor Vikram Kapila. Mechatronics—a mixture of electronics, control theory, computer science and mechanical engineering—gave me a background that I was able to use and see in practice in my internship.

Although my days were long, I was having a great time. I was also the only female engineer at the conventions. On one occasion, an electrician from a set-up crew called out to me: “Hey, girl, you lost? What are you doing here?” I responded with a smile, “I’m an engineer with NY1.” He then said, “To be working here, you must know what you’re doing,” and nodded with approval. Later that day, he saw me soldering and shouted, “I’ve never seen a woman handle solder that well. I’ll give you work any day,” and went off to tell his buddies what he witnessed. That was just the rush I needed to bolster my desire to be an engineer.

My summer at NY1 was one of the best experiences I’ve had. I met a lot of people, gained hands-on skills and developed a better understanding of engineering and all its applications. I’ve enjoyed it so much, I continue to work there will taking classes at Poly.

Editor’s note: In addition to continuing her NY1 internship, Nercy is shadowing Dr. Steven Mirones, who gave computerized prosthetics to one of the victims of the Staten Island Ferry crash, to learn more about prosthetic engineering.