Matt Power is a software engineer at General Dynamics Mission Systems who specializes the Rust programming language. Matt works at our Dedham, MA facility which is home to the teams who support high assurance data protection products and command, control and communications (C3) systems.
Matt Power's journey into the world of Rust began during his junior year at the University of Rhode Island. As a computer science major with a minor in business, he had the option to take a programming class in either C or Rust. Opting for Rust, he found himself intrigued by the language's emphasis on memory safety and its efficiency in coding.
Rust is a fast, memory-safe programming language that can run on embedded devices, web services, and more. Throughout his college courses where he first interacted with and used Rust programming, his professor would typically compare code solutions in Rust with the same solution in C.
"Rust was a ‘safer’ language, not having to worry about memory management, and it almost always required fewer lines of code," he explains. This initial exposure laid a solid foundation for his future endeavors, highlighting Rust's standout features like speed, versatile capabilities and robust error handling with options and results. The package manager Cargo also impressed him with its ease of dependency control.
From Internship to Full-Time Role: A Seamless Transition
Matt's path to General Dynamics Mission Systems was paved through a summer internship at General Dynamics Electric Boat. This experience piqued his interest in the broader scope of work at General Dynamics.
Encouraged by a friend during his senior year, he explored opportunities at General Dynamics Mission Systems, attracted by the company's reputation for a strong team, excellent work-life balance, and interesting projects. By October, he applied, and by December, he had secured an offer, seamlessly transitioning to a full-time role after his graduation in May 2024.
With over a year at General Dynamics Mission Systems, Matt has made great strides and settled into our Dedham, MA office. This facility is home to the teams that develop high assurance data protection products as well as command, control and communications (C3) systems.
A Typical Day Embracing Change and Innovation
Matt's day-to-day responsibilities at General Dynamics Mission Systems are a blend of architectural design, coding and testing, with Rust making the testing process particularly efficient. Reviewing colleagues' code is another integral part of his routine, offering him insights into innovative uses of Rust and opportunities to provide constructive feedback.
While his tasks maintain a certain consistency, the varied coding assignments keep him engaged and learning across the entire codebase. A noteworthy project he's involved in is making Rust available on all company networks, leveraging the panamax crate to facilitate offline availability and selective crate filtering.
For Rust software engineers considering General Dynamics Mission Systems, Matt points out the company's commitment to leveraging new technologies and its continuous drive for improvement, including the shift to newer languages like Rust. Matt's journey illustrates the impact of a supportive environment that fosters innovation and growth.
