For twenty-one years, technical consultant Janet Roberts Magwood has conducted challenging, and sometimes politically sensitive, analyses for the federal government and private sector.
Magwood, an MSME, is a research staff member in the system evaluation division of the Institute for Defense Analyses (IDA, Alexandria, VA). She assesses risks, feasibility and costs of equipment for various branches of the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD).
The institute is a nonprofit corporation. It administers three federally funded R&D centers which provide objective analyses of national security issues, particularly those requiring scientific and technical expertise. Magwood’s focus is in the field of military ops, so her work affects thousands of armed-service members.
“I’m proud of contributing to a range of systems evaluations that provide a wide variety of help,” Magwood says. “Our priorities change but there’s always an underlying need to help determine the best platform or system.”
Critical projects
Since she joined IDA in 2002, Magwood has had a variety of projects, usually working on two at a time. She’s studied platforms that transport special forces, the interoperability of battle management and communications systems, and strategies for counterintelligence. Some studies may last eighteen months; others have shorter deadlines.
On one short but significant project, Magwood had a principal role in analyzing rotary-wing aircraft losses U.S. forces were sustaining during combat in Afghanistan and Iraq. The analysis helped a project team identify essential R&D needed to reduce losses from direct combat or flight mishaps for a future helicopter fleet.
The study lasted just eight weeks. “Once we understood the causes for the losses, the next step was to propose technological solutions, so it was a two-part study,” Magwood explains. “Other studies will help choose among different systems. We help them find the best way to go.”
Various approaches
A project team may be a single staffer or twenty people. There are about 400 research analysts at IDA’s Alexandria location and about fifty in Magwood’s division. Most have physical and life sciences degrees; Magwood is one of the 20 percent who bring engineering degrees to the work.
Researchers take various approaches to obtaining their data. Magwood has attended war games and military exercises and has been deployed on Navy ships for weeks at a time.
“I haven’t been to Iraq or Afghanistan, but some researchers do go into the theater,” she says. “It’s a volunteer option, but there’s never any trouble filling the assignments. We want to do everything we can to help.”
MIT and beyond
Magwood grew up near Pittsburgh, PA. She earned her 1983 BSME at the University of Pittsburgh and her 1985 MSME at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). “I’ve always been interested in how mechanical systems work and enjoyed the focus on actual design and performance, so I felt best suited to the ME field,” she says.
She did her graduate research work at MIT’s Sloan automotive laboratory, and after graduation she went to work for General Motors Corp as a project engineer in the Powertrain control center in Milford, MI.
“It was a great first job,” she remembers. “We were all energetic and smart engineers just starting our careers.”
Best of all was the collaborative teamwork at the Powertrain center. Her group supported all GM car groups and her first assignment involved a virtual recreation of injector failure to learn how the problem affects emissions.
Leaps and bounds at Booz Allen
In 1988 Magwood took a job as a senior consultant in the transportation consulting practice of Booz Allen Hamilton Inc (Bethesda, MD). She was with the company for almost four years, and “I grew professionally in leaps and bounds there,” she says.
Her first assignment was on a project team for a Texas transit agency with a fleet of 200 buses. Her job was to modify and run a model predicting fuel economy. “I enjoyed working with that high-impact and relevant project,” she says.
She became an associate at the company. “I did a lot of work for transit agencies developing strategies for converting fleets from diesel to alternative fuel. We also did marketing work for commercial clients, all transportation-systems-related,” she explains.
Working for the Navy
A former colleague told her that the DOD sponsors nonprofit research organizations. “I thought long and hard about leaving the transportation industry for defense, and concluded it would be professionally rewarding,” Magwood says.
In 1992 she moved to a job with the Center for Naval Analyses (CNA, Alexandria, VA), a nonprofit like IDA. She started as a research analyst for the strike and amphibious warfare department. Then she worked for the requirements and advanced systems division.
In 1997 she had a short-term assignment as a CNA scientific analyst for the strategic studies group of the chief of naval ops. She worked with senior officers developing warfighting concepts for the next thirty years and beyond. “We’d provide preliminary analysis of the effectiveness of those concepts,” she says. For five months she was based at the Naval War College in Newport, RI.
She moved on to be study director and research analyst for CNA’s requirements and advanced systems division, and then for the integrated systems and operations division. Now she led project teams and studies. “I had to make sure the research was conducted in a credible manner and the work flow was on schedule: typical project management duties,” she says.
On to IDA
In 2002 she decided to join IDA because its reach was broader, across the entire DOD. She found that more and more younger engineers and scientists were joining the institute, and “That has changed the way women are accepted. I don’t sense any real difference in how I’m treated because I’m African American,” Magwood says.
“Long ago, I recognized the potential networking benefits of professional organizations,” she notes. She’s been a member of SWE, NSBE and the Black Alumni of MIT, and has recruited for both IDA and CNA at the organizations’ conferences.
She also likes to volunteer in her community. She’s been part of the setup team for a breast cancer walk, and she tutors elementary school students in math.
“I am mindful of achieving a balance in life,” Magwood says. “We are busy at IDA, but our teams are properly staffed and the work is fairly distributed. Of course,” she adds with a smile, “I am flexible if a last-minute meeting is called at the Pentagon.
“I have two overarching personal goals,” Magwood says. “I want to continue to learn, and I want to challenge myself by seeking more responsibility at whatever company I’m with.
“I believe I’m meeting both those goals.”
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