The Women in Technology Club toured General Motor’s OnStar Command Center in Downtown Detroit in February. Fritz Beiermeister, one of the original six people to work on the development of OnStar, was our host.

        Upon arrival we were treated to a presentation about OnStar. As the personalized commercials have shown, OnStar can help customers with many stressful situations. There are approximately 27,000 remote car door unlocks each month! In addition, each month they receive approximately 400 requests to locate stolen vehicles, 220,000 route support calls, and 14,000 roadside assistance calls. There are approximately 40 airbag deployment calls each DAY!

        After the exciting presentation, the club members were led down the hall by Beirmeister to the actual command center itself. Behind a huge glass wall were many stations in charge of monitoring the OnStar Community. The black desks with black computers and flat panel screens were all facing a large curved wall that was covered in giant flat panel monitors.

        Each monitor displayed something different. Several of the monitor screens had multiple news channels running; another had a thoughtful greeting on it which read, “Welcome Henry Ford Community College.” Another screen had a plethora of blue dots and some red triangles. Each blue dot represented a person who had hit the famous OnStar “blue button” for assistance. The red triangles represented air bag deployments. It was clear that the East coast is in an earlier time zone, because the east side of the map was already heavily filled with blue dots.

        One of the most intriguing screens had 3D bar charts that reported the status of the entire computer network structure. As you can imagine their mission critical equipment must be operating at all times. If something begins to fail, the workers are immediately alerted. Club members were curious about the OnStar computer network. However, there are 200 cameras, and eight sets of doors that must be cleared before ever getting to the mission critical computer equipment. The security definitely prevented anyone from seeing the actual equipment being used.

        After touring the command center, the club members were shown the fully functioning broadcasting studio from which most local radio stations have broadcast. All of the awards that OnStar has received are proudly displayed in the hallway. Next to the awards are their proudest possessions, the 40 bronze plaques which OnStar holds for the technology they have developed for communication with a moving target. These plaques took up the entire wall. The tour was concluded with a Q and A session.

        The Women in Technology Club members had a great time at this tour. They are excited with the prospect of visiting next year! If you are a HFCC student and interested in becoming a member, contact us! You could take advantage of some great opportunities like the OnStar tour! Feel free to email Peggy Holcomb, Club Advisor, at pholcomb@hfcc.edu or telephone her at 313-845-9757. We look forward to hearing from you!