Thiago T. Pires
Mobile (443) 756 2387
E-mail address: thiago.t.pires@nasa.gov
EDUCATION
MS, Reliability Engineering, December 2004, University of Maryland, College Park, MD
GPA: 3.8 (out of 4)
MS, Production Engineering, July 2001, Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, Recife, Brazil
GPA: 3.8 (out of 4)
BS, Mechanical Engineering, July 1999, Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, Recife, Brazil
GPA: 7.4 (out of 10)
EMPLOYMENT
ManTech SRS (July 2008 to Present)
Title: Principal Reliability Engineer
Activities:
1) Lead the reliability assessments and Probabilistic Risk Analysis (PRA) efforts for unmanned
space mission designed at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC).
2) Developed Probabilistic Risk Assessment models, failure mode and effect analysis (FMEA),
fault trees and event trees analysis, reliability block diagrams, parts count analysis, parts
derating and stress analysis, sensitivity analysis, human reliability analysis and software
reliability analysis for space systems (e.g., power systems electronics, solar power
generation, spacecraft guidance and navigation systems, digital sun sensors, command and
data handling systems, propulsion systems, telecommunication systems, deployment
systems, mechanical systems, flight software, etc.).
3) Established and maintained collaborative interface with civil servants in order to collect
reliability and design data.
4) Presented reliability related deliverables informally and formally to civil servants (i.e. at
mission Preliminary Design Review and Critical Design Review)
5) Supported various GDFC mission in analyzing and approving various reliability related
reports (e.g., parts stress analysis and worst case analysis) developed by 3 rd party
organizations and submitted to GSFC.
6) Analyzed test data of spacecraft components test units.
7) Developed algorithm in C++ in order to evaluate the impact of different spacecraft maneuver
frequency on accomplishing full mission success, given fuel constraints.
8) Provided tutoring support to civil servant to familiarize with reliability tools and methodologies
9) Performed spacecraft reliability assessment at GSFC’s Mission Design Lab (MDL).
(Supervisor: Aron Bral, Phone: (301) 286-3281)
Volvo Powertrains North America (January 2008 to July 2008)
Title: Staff Engineer
Activities:
1) Lead the reliability growth program for diesel engine project,
2) Analyzed reliability test data to estimate reliability growth of diesel engines
3) Analyzed accelerated life testing of diesel engines and proposed changes in test
configuration
4) Managed various root cause analysis activities for various engine components (e.g., turbo
charger, urea dosage system, etc.). For example, developed root cause failure analysis on
diesel engine diagnosis system as a response to increasing warranty claims. The analysis
resulted in software design changes to improve its reliability and reduce warranty costs.
5) Developed fault tree models and failure mode and effect analysis (FMEA) for engine
subsystems.
6) Performed various training sessions in order to educate design engineers and managers
about reliability engineering science
7) Developed algorithm in C++ that builds various reliability growth plans for diesel engines. The
algorithm was built in order to replace the time consuming excel spreadsheet originally used.
The algorithm had the capability to provide the optimum reliability growth plan through
computer interaction, which replaced the company’s necessity to hire contractors to perform
this task.
(Supervisor: John Bartel, Phone: (301) 573-2219)
Science Application International Corporation (SAIC) (January 2005 to January 2008)
Title: Risk Engineer
Activities:
1) Worked on a PRA project for a Westinghouse 4-loop nuclear power plant. The main tasks
were to modify an existing SGTR PRA model (Fault Tree and Event Tree using CAFTA and
PRAQuant).
2) Performed fire PRA on commercial nuclear power plants (e.g., VC summers, Farley and
Diablo Canyon), in compliance with appendix R.
3) Developed Fault trees/event tree analysis, FMEA, root cause failure analysis, human
reliability analysis, etc. for chemical weapons disposal facilities,
4) Performed design review for chemical weapons disposal facilities. Proposed various design
changes to improve system's reliability and operability for the ACWA (Assembled Chemical
Weapons Alternatives) program,
5) Developed algorithm in C++ that formats large output files. The output files are created by
atmospheric dispersion software (i.e., CHEMACCS) used to estimate the risks of chemical
weapons spills and evaporation in the atmosphere. Before the algorithm was developed, the
task of introducing the results from CHEMMACCS output files on an excel spreadsheet took
in average 5 minutes per simulation. Since, for each analysis, hundreds of CHEMACCS
simulations were necessary, the task was very time consuming and human error prone. After
the formatting algorithm was developed, the task took seconds, which reduced a lot of the
time used on this task and reduced largely the probability of human error. Since the
organization charges the client by man/hour, the organization profited from the development
of this algorithm.
(Supervisor: Bijan Najafi, Phone: (408) 207-2003)
X-Ware Systems Reliability Laboratory (July 2002 to December 2004)
Title: Research Assistant
Activities:
1) Conducted research in the area of human reliability for nuclear power generation domain,
2) Performed literature research to collect evidences in the areas of artificial intelligence,
cognitive psychology, human reliability, human factors, ergonomics, etc.,
3) Designed and built algorithm to simulate human cognitive behavior in nuclear power plant
emergency situations,
4) Participated on software development team in charge of building a PRA simulation tool for
the space shuttle. The contract was awarded by NASA and the team interacted for various
months in order to put the various parts of the software together. Developed the human
reliability portion of the tool in C++. The tool included human, hardware and software
reliability modules, coupled with a scheduler and dynamic event tree creator modules.
(Supervisor: Dr. Ali Mosleh, Phone: (301) 405-5215)
Prediction Technologies (April 2004 to June 2004)
Title: Consultant
Activities:
1) Performed human reliability assessment for the space shuttle wire risk assessment
technology (WRAT) project sponsored by NASA,
2) Performed root cause analysis to identify causes of space shuttle wire damage during wire
maintenance procedures,
3) Analyzed and reclassified human failures in the SMART database,
4) Identified performance shaping factors that influence wire related maintenance procedures,
5) Applied human reliability techniques (e.g., THERP, SLIM) on space shuttle wire maintenance
activities,
6) Proposed procedure changes for space shuttle wire maintenance in order to improve human
reliability
(Supervisor: Dr. Frank Groen, Phone: 240-988-2203)
RISCTEC (January 1999 to July 2002)
Title: Reliability Program Manager
Activities:
Project 1: 230Kva Substation
1. Primary responsibility was to support the fire risk management project for a 230Kva
substation.
2. Negotiated project steps and deliverables with client
3. Coordinated activities for a team of 5 engineers
4. Performed root cause analysis to identify causes of transformer explosion
5. Applied FMEA to identify failure modes on transformers
6. Applied fault tree analysis to estimated probability of transformer explosion
7. Carried out various walk through inspections to detect hazardous situations
8. Gathered data for mathematical modeling to estimate transformer explosion blast waves
9. Edited project report
Project 2: Natural Gas Supply System
1) Primary responsibility was to manage the reliability centered maintenance project.
2) Negotiated project steps and deliverables with client
3) Coordinated activities of a team of 8 engineers
4) Planned, organized and executed various walk through inspections to detect hazardous
situations
5) Applied failure mode and effect analysis techniques on systems components
6) Performed root cause analysis to detect failure modes and mechanisms on pressure control
valves
7) Developed reliability centered maintenance plan for pressure control valves including
condition monitoring using vibration analysis, failure data collection, MTBF estimation,
predictive and preventive maintenance scheduling.
8) Assisted on the development of reliability data bank software
9) Coordinated staff
10) Accomplished various staff training
11) Edited project reports
(Supervisor: Dr. Dayse Duarte, Phone: 1 55 81 2126-8728 x-32)
Padron Ar Condicionado LTDA (January 1998 to December 1998)
Title: HVAC System Project Manager
Activities:
1) Designed HVAC systems of different capacities for industrial clients
2) Managed manufacturing and installation of HVAC systems
3) Inspected manufacturing process of HVAC ducts for quality
4) Controlled logistics (e.g., material purchase, supply; storage, transportation, etc.)
5) Defined project scheduling (using Microsoft project)
6) Coordinated technicians and support personnel
(Supervisor: Antonio Vicente, Phone: 1 55 81 2125-2380)
PUBLICATIONS
1) Pires, T. T. A knowledge representation model for nuclear power generation domain. Data
and Knowledge Engineering, Volume 63, Issue 2, , November 2007, Pages 270-292.
2) Pires, T. T. An approach for modeling human cognition on evacuation models. Fire Safety
Journal, 40, pp.177-189, 2005.
3) Pires, T. T, Almeida, A. T. and Duarte, D. C. L. An ELECTRE I aided fire risk analysis method
for poor fire safety culture countries. Fire Technology Journal, 43, pp. 25-35, 2005.
4) Pires, T. T. and Duarte, D. C. L. Use logic diagrams to identify failure mechanisms. Chemical
Engineering Progress, June 2005.
5) Duarte, D. & Pires, T. T. Hazard Identification using new logic diagrams and descriptors.
Process Safety Progress, 2001.
6) Araujo, A. M and Pires, T. T. Simulation of tidal effects on hydrodynamic transport and
circulation of Pina’s basin. Brazilian Magazine of Water Sources, 1996. (Original in
Portuguese).
TECHNICAL SKILLS
1) Experience with computer algorithm development in C++ and Java languages
2) Familiar with statistical analysis software including MiniTab, SPSS and Statistica
3) Experience with reliability analysis software including CAFTA, SAPHIRE, Crystal Ball,
Weibull++ and Relex
4) Experience with Windows 98/NT/2000/XP Platforms
5) Experience with Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Access
6) Portuguese proficiency
7) Security clearance: Gidep background investigation