I quickly found I enjoyed the FLCC coursework and was able to do well.” He credits his success in part to Dave Ghidiu, assistant professor in computing sciences. “I really appreciated his style of teaching. He encouraged all of us to foster a sense of creativity and curiosity. If we didn’t know what a button did, press it.” His advice to students today borrows from his FLCC experience. “So many times I’ve learned something just by getting curious and reading a Wikipedia page. Then that led to some creative thought or some technical thought that has helped me in my work or in my personal projects. If you find yourself wondering what something does or how it works, pursue it because there may be an opportunity to use that knowledge later.” That, and check your email often, because as Seth put it, “Life can change so fast.” – Lenore Friend Where to see Seth’s work The Artemis tracker website will begin working shortly after the crewed Orion spacecraft takes off in late 2024. After the launch, visit nasa.gov/specials/trackartemis/ or search for Artemis Real-time Orbit Website (AROW). theLAKER | 5 Images generated by the Artemis Real-time Orbit Website. Seth, too, is a contractor. His internship involved designing a kiosk application for conventions and museums to familiarize users with the Orion spacecraft. He then developed a Twitter bot that could take telemetry data from a spacecraft and generate text for a tweet. When his internship ended, NASA contractor MORI Associates hired him full-time. He has continued the work as an employee of Logical Innovations and Barrios Technology. Still, Seth is part of a larger NASA culture of exploration. “I’ve only worked at Johnson Space Center and in pretty narrow fields, but my experience of NASA has been that it’s a terrific community of learning,” he said. “One of the things that I really appreciated as an intern was just how willing everybody was to talk about what they’re working on and to hear about what you’re working on. There’s just this kind of communal excitement around the work being done.” Learning to be curious Both of Seth’s degrees are in game design, a field he selected after finishing high school in Seattle. His family moved east when his mom, Lori Vail, became a humanities instructor at FLCC. He applied to RIT first but couldn’t swing it financially, then learned about FLCC’s transfer arrangement with RIT. “I really didn’t know what to expect going into it. I had very, very limited experience with any kind of programming in high school. Seth Lambert’s mother, Lori Vail, who was a member of the humanities faculty while he attended, greets him at commencement in 2018. photo by rikki van camp
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