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Southeast Division Holiday Gift Giving 2009
December 2009
Southeast Division Manager David Hope is shown with food and toys that SED employees collected this holiday season for the Women’s Center of Wake County. SED raised more than $900 in cash, checks and gift cards. Employees also collected bags of nonperishable food and dozens of toys.
This was the 13th annual gift drive to support the women’s center. The center supports indigent and homeless women and children in the community by providing shelter and food. The center also offers legal, financial, crisis and employment counseling. During the holidays the center supports its clients by holding a holiday party and providing gifts to women and children who might otherwise be neglected during the holiday season.
David Hope Promoted to
Southeast Division Manager
December 2009
David Hope has been named Division Manager of the Southeast Division in Raleigh, succeeding Dr. Allen York, who now leads the newly organized Software, Systems and Modeling Sector.
As the Group Leader for SED’s Advanced Modeling and Simulation Software group, David has extensive experience in project management, enterprise architecture, and software design and development. He most recently served as the project manager and lead developer for Defense Threat Reduction Agency’s System Nuclear Survivability Assessment Module (SAM). Before running the SAM project, David was project manager of DTRA’s Nuclear Capability Services project, and he initiated the process improvement program that led to SED’s CMMI Level 3 appraisal.
At SED, David will lead about 140 employees.
“Our biggest challenge will be to continue the legacy of success at SED,” David said. “We have several significant opportunities and have an excellent staff in place, and I look forward to taking on this challenge.”
Before joining ARA and SED in 1998, David was a senior software engineer at Nexus Software, Inc., and he also worked as a software developer at IBM. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Computer Science and a master’s degree in Engineering from North Carolina State University.
Applied Research Associates Achieves
CMMI® Maturity Level 3
May 2009
Applied Research Associates’ (ARA) Southeast Division achieved a Maturity Level 3 rating during its recent Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI®) appraisal. CMMI®, developed by the federally funded Software Engineering Institute (SEI)provides a benchmark for evaluating the effectiveness of management, engineering, and support processes.
ARA’s Southeast Division(SED),headquartered in Raleigh, NC, demonstrated performance at Maturity Level 3 of CMMI for Development (CMMI®-DEV), version 1.2. CMMI®-DEV characterizes a set of best practices that encompass the full product development lifecycle, from inception through delivery and sustainment. The independent appraisal was conducted using the Standard CMMI® Appraisal Method for Process Improvement (SCAMPISM).
“As a growing and maturing organization we want a proven, repeatable process that will deliver more value to our clients while minimizing program/project risks,” said Dr. Allen York, SED Division Manager. “Achieving a Level 3 rating means that ARA customers can have confidence that SED has institutionalized proven processes and has a commitment to continued improvement.”
ARA produces a range of software products including geographic information systems (GIS), 3D visualization systems, enterprise architectures, synthetic and virtual environment generators, intelligence fusion systems, blast effects and propagation software, RF-modeling software, and physics-based effects simulations.
June 2008
On 1 June, the Southeast Division announced the opening of an office in the DSTA building in Fayetteville. The office address is 455 Ramsey St., Fayetteville, NC 28301. The Fayetteville location will service ARA’s growing high technology services and products business to Army organizations such as SOCOM and FORSCOM.
April 2008
This year’s biennial ES&S Conference was held in Orlando, FL, giving ARA employees from across the country the opportunity to observe the latest technical achievements of their peers.
One of the highlights of the event is the company awards, where employees are recognized for outstanding achievements in the prior year. This year, 20 SED employees took home awards in the categories of Business Development, Technical Achievement, and Entrepreneurship, among others. Award winners included the employees pictured below, who were recognized for their outstanding work on the Nuclear Capabilities Services (NuCS) project.
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Team members Jessica Pratt, Kevin Garner, Michelle TerMaath, Aaron Bray, Stacie Hanna, and D.J. Malmberg
Team members Mark Etheridge, Martin Cardenas, David Hope, Chris Volpe, Jim Kainz, and Corey Jackson
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November 2007
One of ARA’s demonstrations at IITSEC was of the Scene Extraction and Autonomous Generation of Urban Landscapes (SEAGUL) software. This technology extracts earth digital elevation models (DEMS), vegetation, and reconstructs 3D building models from unprocessed LIDAR data. The demonstration simulated LIDAR collection from an airborne laser scanner using a low-powered and relatively inexpensive flash LIDAR camera. Point cloud data of a 1/36 scaled scene of complex buildings situated among tall vegetation was generated in real-time. The demo then instantiated SEAGUL which imported the point cloud and extracted the earth, buildings, and trees, and exported the 3D building models to Goggle Earth The complete process from data acquisition to the generation of the 3D building models took less than two minutes. Conference attendees could literally watch the progress of ARA’s algorithms as LIDAR data was collected by the sensor, processed by SEAGUL, and the final polygonal models were displayed in Goggle Earth
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LIDAR acquisition and processing
demonstration setup
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November 2007
ARA's Vulnerability Analysis and Protection Option (VAPO) software was featured in the Fall 2007 volume of The Guardian. The article espouses VAPO's powerful analysis capabilities to rapidly perform complex blast and retrofit calculations in urban environments. It also shows several 3D urban scenes, including overlays of predicted downwind hazards from a CB expulsion event.
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November 2007
Phil Egly and Brian Marchand of ARA's Southeast Division attended the DTRA Hardened Facility Manager’s Conference in Cheyenne, Colorado, to present advancements in characterization and analysis capabilities in the upcoming release of the Integrated Munitions Effects Assessment (IMEA) & Underground Targeting & Analysis System (UTAS) application.
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Brian and Phil, standing in front of one of the 25-ton blast doors leading into the Cheyenne Mountain underground facility
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SED Tours Nevada Test Site, Sedan Crater
October 2007
Folks from the Southeast Division toured the Nevada Test Site as part of the IMEA User's Group meeting at Nellis AFB (Las Vegas), NV. The tour included areas where above-ground nuclear tests were used to determine structural integrity of bunkers like that shown below. The group also toured Sedan crater, site of an underground nuclear test that left an enormous crater in the earth (inset).
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Leadership Conference Held in St. Louis
March 2007
This year’s biennial Leadership Conference was held in St Louis, MO. Formal Group Leaders (first-level managers) and other senior leaders are invited to the conference. This year’s theme was “Gateway to our Future.” At the conference we discussed ARA’s strategic direction, shared success strategies and lessons learned, discussed growth initiatives, participated in workshops, and received training.
Here (l-r) Allen York, Steve Snarski, John Incerti, Bob Frank,
Kris Matson, Dave Pyle, Jim Kainz, Phil Egly, and David Hope pose near the St. Louis Arch, Gateway to the West.
ARA Participates in Live-Fire Combat Training
March 2007
Members of Southeast division traveled to Ft. Polk, Louisiana to participate in live-fire convoy combat training. Principal Scientist Todd Sherrill, shown right, and others rode with the convoy during the training and saw thousands of rounds, including 0.50 caliber, expended against training targets.
Todd’s group, Information Exploitation Systems, is developing next generation training systems using advanced sensors and computational techniques that will make this training more effective for our soldiers.
ARA Supports Successful PEO STRI
Congressional Demonstration
February 2007
ARA participated in the US Army Program Executive Office Simulation, Training & Instrumentation (PEO STRI) Congressional Demonstration to the House (on February 6th) and the Senate (on February 8th). This annual demonstration to Congressional members and staff is in its 10th year and highlights some of the best that PEO STRI has to offer the warfighting community.
John Mann (CFD), Graham Rhodes (SED), and Jim Kainz (SED) presented PEO STRI Research, Development and Engineering Command (RDECOM) funded efforts that improve the efficiency and realism of the urban training environment through the rapid generation of realistic, fully featured buildings and structures.
The introduction of ARA technologies has decreased the training environment development time from months to hours and enables a more dynamic training simulation environment.
The RDECOM display was presented to six House members as well as numerous high ranking staff members from both the House and Senate. Comments were very positive and supportive of the work.
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Phase 1 of Intelligent Mapping Effort Complete
January 2007
ARA announces a successful phase 1 internal R&D effort to develop an intelligent mapping capability to generate high-confidence floor layouts of building interiors based on limited user observables.
The ability to find precise locations of hallways, doors, and rooms, whether integrated on an unmanned vehicle or as part of a human-borne sensing system, could provide critical support to intelligence gathering and/or life saving operations in the military, law enforcement, and disaster response sectors where rapid understanding of unknown interior layouts is required to save lives, maintain covertness, enhance situational awareness, or minimize costs.
To demonstrate this intelligent mapping capability, an unmanned ground vehicle (UGV) platform was prototyped. The platform maps its surroundings using a suite of on-board environmental imaging sensors including a lidar camera and short-range and long-range IR rangefinders. From this data, the intelligent mapping system
generates a most-probable interior layout and a subsequent course of action to follow to minimize layout uncertainty. The core predictive mapping algorithms are an outgrowth of ARA’s U2MG (Urban and Underground Model Generator) terrain model generation software. The speed and accuracy of the system is quite compelling. Extensions of this UGV-based intelligent mapping capability to human-borne (soldier, police officer, urban search and rescue personnel) systems in interior environments or to low altitude UAVs for 3D mapping of dense urban environments are envisioned.
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ARA's Nemesis Trainer Recognized
December 2006
Through its Internal Research and Development program, ARA’s Southeast Division has produced a prototype trainer for the US Army Humanitarian Demining Program’s hardware system, dubbed “Nemesis.” (ARA’s New England Division is developing the Nemesis hardware.) This trainer uses simulation-learning (aka game-based learning) technologies to train operators in the techniques used in demining.
Within the past year, several web and print publications have featured the Nemesis trainer. The website for the Delta3D game engine, www.delta3d.org, has dedicated an entire page to Nemesis that describes the prototype and includes several screenshots. In autumn 2006, the UK edition of PC Gamer featured the Nemesis trainer in the simulation section of the monthly publication #165, dated September 2006. Most recently, Thomson Learning published a new book, C++ for Game Programmers, 2nd Edition by Mike Dickheiser (see book cover image on right), with in-game assets from the project gracing the book’s cover.
Currently, the simulation-learning business area is estimated to have a market cap of more than six billion dollars and is predicted to double within the next few years. Public exposure of projects such as ARA’s prototype Nemesis trainer is raising awareness of ARA’s contributions to the industry.
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Charles River Media, Inc. © 2006 All Rights Reserved.
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Dole Announces $2.1 Million Boost to Defense Research in N.C.
October 2006
Washington, D.C. - U.S. Senator Elizabeth Dole today announced that the U.S. Army has awarded over $2 million to North Carolina researchers to develop enhanced training and mission rehearsal capabilities for the military.
“I applaud the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Applied Research Associates for receiving this significant funding,” said Dole. “Their research will help ensure that when our soldiers are called into harm’s way, they have the very best training possible to conduct operations in the field.”
UNC-Chapel Hill received $1 million to research and develop more realistic training simulations of urban combat zones. Applied Research Associates in Raleigh received two contracts totaling $1.1 million to simulate structures like subways, sewers and tunnels in military training systems.
“I am so impressed with the quality and innovation behind the growing defense industry in our state,” said Dole. “North Carolina can not only be proud of our fine military installations, but also the universities and other contractors that have earned a strong reputation in defense research and development.”
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ARA Announces a New Agreement with Spatial Corporation
June 2006
Raleigh, NC – ARA announces a new agreement with Spatial Corporation. The new agreement facilitates insertion of ARA-developed technologies using Spatial’s 3D geometric modeling capabilities into government products. For certain contracts, this agreement eliminates the requirement for detailed tracking of individual installations for many of ARA’s products produced for the federal government. Dr. Allen York, Southeast Division Manager, commented “Our new agreement with Spatial enables ARA to provide the most advanced 3D technologies to customers in the flexible way that they want it.” Users operating in a classified environment will particularly benefit. In addition, the new agreement encourages using ARA-developed technologies leveraging Spatial’s ACIS product for smaller projects by providing favorable license terms.
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Weaponeering
Training at Holloman AFB
June 2006
Three SED employees traveled to Holloman AFB in
Alamogordo, New Mexico to take part in weaponeering training. ARA’s Mr.
Mark “Speedy” Peruse (a former F-117 pilot) gave the training as a part of the Targeting and
Weaponeering Assistance Cell’s (TWAC) hard target academics course. The training focused on using the Integrated Munitions Effects Assessment
(IMEA) program in an operational environment to defeat hard targets.
The figure shows, from left to right, Ryan Steffes, Josh
Blomberg, Steve Lorenc, Speedy, and Lt Col Gary Fellows (DTRA/CXSS) during a
personal tour of the F-117A hangars at Holloman AFB.
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Improvised Explosive Device Awareness Day
April 2006
On April 27th, 2006, ARA Senior Scientist
Kris Matson attended an IED (Improvised Explosive Device) Awareness Day at US Marine Corps MAGTF Air Ground Combat Center at Twentynine Palms, CA. The event was held to enhance industry
leaders' understanding of the greatest danger facing our troops in Iraq and
Afghanistan, and assist in developing new strategies, technologies and approaches to
counter the growing IED problem. The Marines demonstrated several of their training programs over the course of the day, including the Virtual Combat Convoy Trainer (VCCT), static displays of equipment with IED device display and a robotics demonstration, a live fire convoy course with an IED attack, a live fire urban patrol training event with simulators and live actors, and IED explosive demonstrations.
The event gave industry participants an understanding of
the training (nicknamed 'Mojave Viper') that the Marines are
exposed to prior to deployment to Iraq. It also gave us
a better understanding of the nature of IEDs, the enemy’s
mode of operations, and their triggering mechanisms –
knowledge that will be important in building our counter-IED
programs at ARA.
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IMEA 7.0 Beta Test
April 2006
On April 11-13, ARA’s Southeast Division
hosted a highly successful beta test for version 7.0 of the IMEA software.
Over 50 government and civilian users and user representatives attended
the test. Participants from DTRA, NGIT, SAIC, Titan, HTRAC, TWAC, NWSC
Dahlgren, STRATCOM, 49th OSS/INT/Holloman AFB, 86FWS/Eglin AFB, and
72TES/Whiteman AFB tested our software extensively. This was the largest
number of users to ever attend an IMEA beta test.
During testing, users found the beta software to be quite stable and were
impressed with its improved functionality. New functionality includes the
Warfighter Wizard, an enhanced weapon manager, the ability to place mobile
targets in the open, and 3D model editing. The feedback provided at these
test events is invaluable for improving the current version and in
defining functionality requirements for future versions.
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Vulnerability Assessment and Protection Option (VAPO), Version 1.0
Released
November 2005
The Defense Threat
Reduction Agency (DTRA) announced the release of VAPO 1.0, developed by
ARA under contract to DTRA.
VAPO is
designed to support force protection evaluators and planners with the
ability to address modern asymmetric threats such as improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and chemical and biological weapons.
VAPO uses fast running, physics-based algorithms to predict cratering,
fragmentation, blast damage and subsequent collateral effects due to
chemical or biological agent dispersion. It calculates the blast and
fragmentation environment for urban scenes, to include effects of
reflection and diffraction of blast pressures off and around structures.
It also models progressive collapse of buildings.
Collateral effects from
chemical or biological agents are determined using capabilities from the
Hazard Prediction and Assessment Capability (HPAC) and are presented
graphically, indicating area and percentage of personnel affected.
Glazing blunt and penetration effects are also determined. VAPO includes
extensive Geographic Information Systems (GIS)-based site viewing and
modeling capabilities.VAPO features a
component-based architecture that enables easy expansion for new threats
or improved models, as well as decision aids that simplify analyses and
reduce the need for specialized expertise.
VAPO can be requested
through DTRA’s ACE Center. Requests for additional information can be addressed to cjerrett@ara.com.
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Southeast Division Bi-Annual Offsite Training
October 2005
As part of our ongoing quest to facilitate a culture of knowledge and
excellence, the Southeast Division recently held our bi-annual offsite
training event at Carolina Beach, North Carolina. Every other year employees are
invited to attend two days of technical training, with families welcome to
enjoy the sun and sand.
This
year's, 2005, topics included a diverse range of presentations and technical
papers, from Counter-Improvised Explosive Devices to Game-Based Learning.
But some of the most inspiring sessions came from demonstrations of our
recent software successes and those soon to be launched: FightSight,
Integrated Munitions Effects Assessment (IMEA) and Underground Targeting
and Analysis System (UTAS), Vulnerability Analysis and Protection Option (VAPO),
and Integrated Weapons of Mass Destruction Toolset (IWMDT).
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Integrated
Munitions Effects Assessment (IMEA) News
May
2005
ARA Southeast Division groups EMSS, AMSS and C&P participated in IMEA
6.0 Acceptance Testing for the upcoming release candidate. Testing took
place in ARA’s Capital Area Division office in Alexandria, VA on
February 17-18. Representatives from major IMEA funding organizations at DTRA were present,
including TDOS, TDSD, TDSH, and TDSP. Many positive comments were
generated from the testing, such as compliments on the stability of the
software as well as increases in loading and calculation speed. Based on
feedback, the IMEA team will work over the next two weeks to finalize
the release candidate for delivery. The release candidate will be sent
to subject matter experts, security analysts, and the accreditation
community for review prior to the planned final delivery of IMEA 6.0 in
summer of 2005. |
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Leadership Conference Held in Reno
March 2005
Every two years ARA holds its annual Leadership Conference. This year the conference was in Reno, Nevada. Formal Group Leaders (first-level managers) and other senior leaders are invited to the conference. Attendees are offered training and attend workshops to refine their management and business development skills.
Of course, some at the conference participate in extracurricular activities. Here Rob Sues, Jim Kainz, Allen York, and Matt Kraus find some time to hit the ski slopes in Lake Tahoe.
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Automated Exercises
Assessment System Training
March
2005
Applied Research
Associates, Inc. (ARA) received notice the week of January 24, 2005,
that the National Guard Bureau will be adding funding to support
additional training exercises using the popular AEAS (Automated
Exercises Assessment System) software. ARA is currently supporting the
National Guard in the AEAS program by staffing a helpdesk, creating
and maintaining a web site, and facilitating exercises around the country.
The
Automated Exercise and Assessment System (AEAS) is a sophisticated
simulation-based program that enhances training and coordination of
emergency response personnel engaged in the management of incidents
involving Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD). The system simulates WMD
incidents and allows emergency responders to utilize the Incident
Command System (ICS) to exercise decision making and other cognitive
skills. The WMD scenarios cover a variety of incidents, including
chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, and high explosive (CBRNE)
attacks. The training audience consists of command-level personnel on
the scene and in the Emergency Operations Center rather than the
responders on the scene performing physical tasks. AEAS allows
decision makers to command their simulated resources, coordinate with
other decision makers, and to see the consequences of their decisions.
More Information
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IMEA/UTAS Team Receives SEI CMMI Level 2 Certification
December 2004
Applied Research
Associates’ (ARA) Integrated Munitions Effects Assessment/Underground
Targeting and Analysis System (IMEA/UTAS) software development team from
the Southeast Division office in Raleigh, North Carolina, has achieved
the Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI) Level 2 certification
developed by Carnegie
Mellon's Software Engineering Institute’s (SEI).
This
CMMI certification is an important indicator to ARA customers that the
Southeast Division and the IMEA/UTAS team has worked vigorously to
improve the quality and dependability of their software products. Many
U.S. military requests for proposals now include a CMMI certification
requirement. CMMI certification gives Applied Research Associates a
competitive advantage.
"The
strengths of this team are the high levels of both customer and internal
communications, high levels of teamwork, and the organization of the
process documentation" said the CMMI Lead Appraiser. He commended the
process improvement team for excellent preparation for the appraisal and
noted that this extra effort made for an efficient appraisal. ARA’s self-funded CMMI effort started in 2003.
The
process improvement team, lead by David Hope, plans to embark on a
course charted to first make the Level 2 processes available to ARA
company wide, then follow with the implementation of additional levels,
targeting a larger organizational appraisal for 2006.
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