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He designs test programs to simulate the behavior of the F/A-18 aircraft, but Charles Wilson ’82 can’t see the results – he’s been blind since childhood.
The electrical engineering graduate is senior software engineer at L-3 Communications Link Simulation and Training division in Arlington, Texas. Wilson works to make his blindness a non-factor in his job, but this hasn’t always been easy, particularly with the increasing popularity of graphical user interfaces on computers.
“Ten to 15 years ago, I could operate and test the simulator systems myself,” he says. “Now I rely on sighted colleagues to run tests on the systems for me and tell me what they ‘see.’ I can design the test, interpret the results, and fix the problems, but the actual execution of the test on the simulator has become a point-and-click affair with a mouse, which is a bit past my ability to overcome. At least, I haven’t figured out a good way around it yet.”
As a child, he learned Braille and typing, and adapted. “My mother learned Braille very soon after I lost my vision,” he recalls, “because, as she puts it, she didn’t want me bringing home papers she couldn’t read.”
His sixth-grade teacher shared her love of math and encouraged his interest in the subject.
“I am and I think probably always have been an analytical person and a puzzle doer, so math and science were always an obvious fit for me,” he says. “I’ve always been good at them.”
At Lafayette, he found a learning environment where his disciplined process helped him flourish.
“Did I spend more time completing assignments than other students? Yes, but that’s what I had to do so I did it. The learning environment wasn’t that different, so I can’t say that it was any more difficult; challenging would be the term I’d use.”
Working with flight simulators was a challenge he didn’t anticipate.
“I had no idea that I’d be doing aircraft simulation as a profession or career when I was at Lafayette,” he says. “Honestly, I can’t say that I knew precisely what I was going to do when I graduated from college, but I believed that I’d find my niche, and I did.”
Wilson recalls several professors fondly, mostly in the electrical engineering department: Warren Guy, Charles Best, John Greco, Tom Riley, John Schwar, and John Reifsnyder. The more surprising name to hear, however, was then-English professor David Johnson, now associate provost, whom he credits for single-handedly changing his mind about literature courses. Wilson even enrolled in upper-level English classes, “where engineering students fear to tread — and didn’t back in those days.”
“When I think back,” he says, “there were so many professors that so prepared me, not specifically for what I’ve wound up doing but truly educated me, which I believe was their goal.”