Professor Heyer was a flight instructor at Starfleet Academy in the 24th century. Tom Paris was one of her students. Her first words on the first day of classes was "Piloting a starship is really boring. Except, of course, when it's not." She recommended that pilots wear thin-soled shoes so they could feel the deck plates vibrate under their feet and therefore know when the engines needed tuning. (VOY - String Theory novel: Cohesion)