Jake Dodd grew up in Northern Virginia, just outside of Washington D.C. In 2007, I made the decision to leave high school after my Junior year—before graduating—to attend USC. Part of my decisionto jump ship to college was my passion for spaceflight, and at USC I had found a program thatwas right up my alley. On that note, I received my B.S in Astronautics and Space TechnologyEngineering (ASTE) from the USC Viterbi School of Engineering in May 2011. In December 2012, I will complete my M.S. in the same program. I've worked in the systems engineering field for the last two years for TASC Inc. Since August 2011, my work there has centered on one of the Air Force’s space programs. Over the last few years, I’ve also been actively developing business/product concepts, both for school and for a startup that I co-founded. Some of these projects are space-related, but I’ve also developed an appetite for web technologies. I’m not certain what the future holds for me—whether it’s a career in space, the web, or an intersection of the two—but I am certain that concept development and execution are my passion.