CWU engineering graduate, ROTC cadet is already rising through the ranks

Just because Joshua Beddall has completed his college degree doesn't mean he plans to slow down anytime soon.

Recent CWU engineering technologies graduate Joshua Beddall, right, is now working for Lockheed Martin. He's also training to be a helicopter pilot in the Army.

The 2023 Central Washington University engineering technologies graduate has already started a job with international aeronautics company Lockheed Martin, where he will be working with high-end laser technology in the Rotary and Mission Systems division in Bothell.

As if that weren't enough, Beddall is also training to be a helicopter pilot with the Army National Guard as part of an elite military aviation program. The former Eagle Scout has never met a challenge he couldn't overcome.

"I never knew I could become a pilot because I didn't realize what opportunities were available to me until I joined the ROTC," said Beddall, who graduated from Rochester High School near Centralia after moving from Washington, D.C., with his mother. "But when I got to fly in a helicopter with our captain a couple years ago, I fell in love with it."

Beddall has no intentions of becoming a commercial pilot; he just wants to do it for the military, he said. But there's just something about flying that enthralls him.

"My first time flying in a helicopter was one of the best feelings I've ever had, and it clicked with me at that moment that this is something I want to do," he said. "It was one of the most intense experiences I've ever had."

When he's not working at Lockheed Martin, Beddall will be attending Army flight school so he can become a certified pilot for the National Guard. Beginning in January, he will enroll in the Basic Officer Leadership Course (BOLC), which will qualify him to be an aviation lieutenant. After that, he will complete Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape (SERE) training.

Upon earning his military flight certification, he plans to use that expertise to fight wildfires.

"The more experienced you are, the more they let you be in charge of those missions," said Beddall, who earned the Distinguished Military Graduate honor with the ROTC, a distinction awarded to only the top 10% of cadets nationwide. "The air assault company that I've been working with is one of the greatest groups of people I've ever met. For me, the people matter just as much as the work."

Excelling at engineering

The same can be said for his experience in the CWU engineering technologies, safety, and construction (ETSC) department. Beddall credited the training he received from faculty members including Greg Lyman, Jeff Wilcox, Lad Holden, and Peter Zencak for his rapid ascent in the engineering technologies discipline.

Lyman, now the department chair, helped Beddall identify engineering as a possible degree path during his freshman year. Wilcox gave him a 12-hour crash course in fiberoptics, worked with him on his resume, and served as a job reference.

Beddall said he can't thank the ETSC faculty enough for their guidance and expertise. He also credited Lieutenant Colonel (LTC) Joe Paolilli and Master Sergeant (MSG) Todd Brockman in ROTC for their mentorship and support.

"The CWU faculty is the best," Beddall said. "Jeff (Wilcox) is at least partly responsible for helping me get my job at Lockheed, but all of the engineering instructors go out of their way to help their students be successful. They create an environment where people want to be there working on projects day and night. We all just liked being in the lab with them. It didn't feel like work most of the time."

Beddall said the highlight of his CWU career was his senior capstone project that he presented at the annual SOURCE conference in May. As part of his industrial robotics class, he figured out a way to add sensors to the end effector (claw) so his robot knew how many grams of pressure were needed to pick up a specific object.

"Depending on how you program it, the robot can either move an object gently or crush it," Beddall explained.

The element that was missing in prior iterations of the program was a function to stop the robot from applying too much pressure that could injure the operator. Beddall wrote a program in LabVIEW that makes the robot stop applying pressure every time, and he proved the effectiveness of the technology at SOURCE.

"I asked people to put their hand in the claw and told the robot to crush it," Beddall said. "But the robot wouldn't do it. The program and the sensors make it stop before it can do any harm."

Hands-on learning experiences like these are what ultimately helped Beddall catch the attention of his new employer. Lockheed Martin uses the same LabVIEW program for its laser tehnology work, and they knew right away that Beddall would be a valuable asset.

"They were pretty excited when I talked about that experience in my interview," he said. "They knew I could come in and help them right away."

All of those long hours in the CWU engineering lab are already paying dividends for Beddall, who said he couldn't have asked for more from his college experience. Now he's going to put his skills to the test for a multibillion-dollar defense company.

"I learn a lot more by figuring things out than someone telling me what to do," Beddall said. "That's why I loved the CWU engineering program so much. We didn't have to go to a bunch of lectures; we just worked on projects. And now, I get to do something I really enjoy for my career."