I work on software that's used by NASA (and other organizations) to model spacecraft missions. This project spans the gambit of interesting problems in computer science: numerical methods, high-fidelity orbit modeling, orbit determination (using Kalman filters to estimate spacecraft state), complex 3D visualization, language parsing, IDE design, and many more topics.
It's definitely one of the most interesting projects I've ever worked on!
> Another issue is that employees jump around companies these days making companies less likely to invest in employees.
Alvin and Heidi Toffler predicted this with profound accuracy in their 1970 book Future Shock. I highly recommend reading the chapter on Adhocracy, or for a TLDR: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adhocracy
I'm lucky to have transitioned from web development to working on scientific computing desktop software. I started my career in aerospace engineering, but left it to chase the glitter and unicorns of fast-moving tech companies where I did a handful of Rails development and data science. After a few years, I really missed working on the technical challenges related to modeling complex simulation systems and managed to loop back around to work for the first company I worked for out of school.
It's definitely one of the most interesting projects I've ever worked on!