Photo By Petty Officer 2nd Class Jesse Gonzalez | Socrates Frangis, director of Afloat Cybersecurity with the Office of Technology at...... read more read more
Subscribe
Naval Surface Warfare Center, Port Hueneme Division (NSWC PHD) launched its research and development program just five short years ago, and already the work has earned national recognition as one of the winners of the 2020 Dr. Delores M. Etter Top Scientists and Engineers of the Year award.
The office of the Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Research, Development and Acquisition awarded a team from the command’s Office of Technology (00T) with the award in the category of “excellence achieved by a group of scientists and/or engineers from a single command.” The office announced recipients May 31.
Singled out were Greg DeVogel, chief technology officer, and researchers Socrates Frangis, Matt Ward and Danny Clark. However, DeVogel said, “innovation is a team effort.”
“My entire group and many other parts of the command helped make these projects successful,” he said. “Everyone should take pride in this award; the work being recognized is built on other people’s tireless efforts.”
The Etter Awards recognize significant contributions that enable, provide or contribute to major advancements in delivering technologically superior capabilities to naval forces, including the safety and health of Sailors and Marines.
00T’s research and development division specializes in creating prototypical technologies that can ultimately benefit the U.S. Navy. The division had a banner calendar year in 2019, focusing on a triple-point strategy to detect cyber vulnerabilities, to fuse shipboard targeting technologies and to create a system to optimally present tactical suggestions through a premier Artificial Intelligence (AI) application to address small-boat swarm scenarios.
To detect cyber vulnerabilities with maximum efficiency and effectiveness, the 00T team developed a prototype “bug hunting” system capable of implementing the Mayhem Sword Artificial Intelligence (MSAI) software. Team members assembled a cluster of six high-performance, low-cost workstations to run the combined software (MSAI, Cyber Independent Testing Lab, and Free and Open Source Software), adjusting multiple software functions to successfully operate on the Secure Host Baseline of Linux Testing. This prototype system produced outstanding results, DeVogel said, forging a promising future to overcome cyber vulnerabilities.
Frangis, director of Afloat Cybersecurity at PHD and project manager for Mayhem Sword, called out Ian Wilson, a computer scientist in 00T. Wilson developed a test plan for Mayhem Sword piloting and executed the bug-hunting security research and the overall effort to “break” Mayhem during the pilot phase.
“Ian was very successful in his efforts, providing valuable feedback to mature the tool and make it better for employing it against target software programs that merit bug hunting during Test and Evaluation,” Frangis said.
The same winning 00T team, led by Clark, installed an Embedded National Technical Receiver at the command’s Surface Warfare Engineering Facility and at White Sands Missile Range. This provided new capability for the command to support critical test and evaluation and enhancement of the Navy’s command and control of combat systems. The team developed innovative shipboard interfaces using National Technical Means in support of several Program Executive Office Integrated Warfare System programs.
The 00T team, led by Ward, also invented the Surface Warfare Armament Requirements Model and Tactics (SWARM-Tac), a groundbreaking AI analysis tool, for surface warfare. It addresses the small-boat swarm scenario where ships can face numerous threats simultaneously. SWARM-Tac built a simplified surface warfare model using AI techniques to present tactical suggestions, allowing users to choose optimal courses of action to engage the swarm. The system was successfully tested at-sea in 2018 during NSWC PHD’s ANTX event aboard MV Independence.
These 00T achievements significantly increase the Navy’s defensive and offensive capabilities and prepare the fleet for bold success in a technologically challenging future, said NSWC PHD Deputy Technical Director Vance Brahosky.
“Innovation is critical to the accomplishment of mission at this command,” he said. “We need to always be thinking about how to apply new technology to our existing processes in order to increase our efficiency in support of the warfighter. A culture of innovation lays the groundwork for continued improvement, and it creates excitement for our employees.”
A part-virtual awards ceremony will take place in the Washington, D.C. area in early to mid-July, with local recipients attending in person and others attending online due to COVID-19-related travel and social distancing restrictions.
Team recognition did not stop with the Etter Awards. A few days earlier, Navy leadership notified the 00T team members they also received a 2020 Warfare Centers Innovation Award for the same trio of projects. Senior leaders will present the award certificate at a future event.
“These awards are confirmation from Navy leadership that our innovation projects are relevant and impactful,” DeVogel said.
| Date Taken: | 07.07.2020 |
| Date Posted: | 07.07.2020 13:22 |
| Story ID: | 373477 |
| Location: | PORT HUENEME, CA, US |
| Web Views: | 164 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, NSWC PHD’s Office of Technology Named Dr. Delores M. Etter Top Scientists and Engineers of the Year, by Teri Carnicelli, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
No keywords found.
LEAVE A COMMENT