SPOTLIGHT
SSC PACIFIC
July 2015 NEWSLETTER
Local team wins annual international RoboSub Competition at SSC Pacific
More than 30 schools worldwide and roughly 300 students
competed during the 18th International RoboSub Competition
July 23-26 at SSC Pacific’s TRANSDEC research pool facility on
Point Loma.
The goal of the annual competition, hosted by the Association for
Unmanned Vehicles Systems International (AUVSI) Foundation
and co-sponsored by the U.S. Office of Naval Research (ONR), is to
advance the development of Autonomous Underwater Vehicles
(AUVs) by challenging a new generation of engineers to perform
realistic missions in an underwater environment. Spectators
were able to watch the teams prepare and launch their vehicles
for the competition while a large screen overhead broadcast the
underwater action for bystanders in real-time.
San Diego State University’s (SDSU) Mechatronics Club was this
year’s winner.
Austin Owens, president and founder of the SDSU club and
software team leader, was thrilled by the event, its challenges, and
the outcome.
“It just blew me away, how many teams were participating in
RoboSub 2015 and the caliber of the competition,” Owens said.
“Robosub is a real-world demonstration of students against the
obstacle course, not each other. We gained hands-on experience
solving real-world problems. Following the win, we must have
received 50 emails from faculty, staff, other teams, and old
sponsors. Twitter went crazy with congratulations. Job offers are
coming in. NASA has contacted me about an internship.”
“RoboSub really opened my eyes,” Owens continued. “It’s the best
event I’ve ever been to. It’s the best thing we could possibly do to
become better engineers.”
Maryanne Ibrahim, embedded systems team leader, RoboSub
Project, secretary, graphic designer and marketing for the club,
was equally as happy.
“The competition was beneficial for all of us,” Ibrahim said. “Whether you’re a business, mechanical engineer, electrical, or marketing
major, we all learned something from the competition. In many
ways, it’s like having a startup company. You work to solve the
problem together. Our involvement in science, technology, mathematics, and engineering (STEM) is allowing us to help the younger
generation who are going to be the future. Countless people have
changed their majors after being exposed to this event.”
Speaking on behalf of the Navy and SSC Pacific, the commanding
officer agreed the event was a resounding success.
“SSC Pacific continues to be a key innovator for the Navy in Unmanned and Autonomous Systems for the Fleet. We are honored
to cohost with the Office of Naval Research, AUVSI’s annual event
to bring together future leaders in robotics: students, engineers,
and other experts from around the world,” said SSC Pacific Commanding Officer Capt. Kurt Rothenhaus. “It is exciting to watch
the students integrate new technology and see the energy and
comradery between teams from around the globe.”
For more coverage, see the Trending Now section on page 4.
SSC Pacific aids in
Coast Guard modernization
Developing military systems
in a 3D environment
The US Coast Guard (USCG), as part of the Department of
Homeland Security (DHS), is a key player in the overall national
defense strategy which includes the Navy. Interoperability of Coast
Guard (CG) and Navy assets support this joint mission.
SSC Pacific’s engineers and technicians are
designing a new communications equipment
shelter for the Marine Corps Deployable Air
Traffic Control tower, the AN/TSQ-120.
The USCG C4ISR Integration Project at SSC Pacific joined with the
USCG Acquisition Directorate, CG-9, to assist the CG as it undergoes
a major effort to modernize its assets to meet current and future
mission requirements.
The current tower system supported combat
operations in Iraq, Afghanistan, and other
forward-deployed locations. This shelter requires
heavy equipment to transport from the home
unit into theater. The teams’ objective is to design
an agile Humvee-based system that aligns the
existing tower system with the high-mobility
mission of the Marine Corps.
This investment will upgrade and replace
aging aircraft, ships and mission systems,
including weapons, sensors, and command,
control, communications, computers,
intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance
(C4ISR) electronics.
SSC Pacific continues to provide technical and programmatic
subject matter experts to support the USCG in systems
engineering, information operations, certification/accreditation,
information assurance, security engineering, acquisition, test and
evaluation, integration, proof of concept, and intelligence
systems development.
SSC Pacific provides a wide portfolio of SPAWAR C4ISR systems to
the USCG. These products include Radiant Mercury, navigation
sensor systems interface, extremely high frequency satellite
communication terminals, and more.
SSC Pacific recently added a new C4ISR capability to the new Coast
Guard Cutter Waesche (WMSL 751) by integrating a Common
Data Link Management (CDLMS) system. For the first time it
enabled the USCG to have a send/receive Link-11 capability to
participate in tactical data links. This new upgrade permitted
Waesche to interoperate with 22 other U.S. and allied units, as was
demonstrated at the RIMPAC 2014 exercise. With this successful
demonstration, the USCG decided to add a CDLMS upgrade to all
of its new WMSL cutters.
The Marine Corps Expeditionary Air Traffic Control Tower used at a
forward-operating base during combat operations in Afghanistan.
SSC Pacific engineering teams are pioneering
methods for military system design by
integrating the latest tools and techniques to
develop the system in a 3D virtual environment.
They used the SolidWorks, a commercial offthe-shelf software suite, to start their design
in 3D when creating the initial concept. The
teams leveraged the 3D model information and
metadata and streamlined the entire engineering
process, automated many mundane tasks,
eliminated errors and simplified procurement.
SSC Pacific can now simulate environmental
stresses on assemblies prior to construction,
automatically route cables through the shelter
in 3D, and generate reports and bills of materials
with the click of a button. Their integration of
new software tools is paving the way for SSC
Pacific to transition to a model-based enterprise
and bring modern, high-quality, battle-ready
products to the warfighter.
Will Fitzgerald, program manager for USCG C4ISR Integration Project
2015 PUBLICATION AWARDS
salutes authors’ technical efforts
Authors and contributors of the Center’s top publications
were recognized during the 2015 SSC Pacific Publications
Awards ceremony June 30 in the Center’s auditorium,
Building 33.
The ceremony, hosted by SSC Pacific Commanding Officer
Capt. Kurt Rothenhaus and Executive Director Carmela
Keeney, recognized those at SSC Pacific who contributed
to the Department of the Navy and SSC Pacific by
publishing their scientific and technical research, and
administrative work.
This year, 311 publications by 50 authors were reviewed by
members of four panels.
Winners of the 2015 Publications Awards pose with SSC Pacific Commanding Officer
Capt. Kurt Rothenhaus (far left) and Executive Director Carmela Keeney (right).
Formal reporting is a Department of Defense and Navy
requirement that promotes and advances Research
Development Test and Evaluation (RDT&E) efforts.
Publications boost funding for projects and enable
SSC Pacific to account for funding. The awards recognize
and encourage excellence in technical communication. Keeney emphasized the important contributions of
publishing one’s work.
Winners of the 2015 Publications Awards pose with SSC Pacific Commanding Officer
Capt. Kurt Rothenhaus (far left) and Executive Director Carmela Keeney (right).
“Documenting the work we do is
vitally important,” she said. “These
documents are important to the Navy, the
Department of Defense and the future.”
NITES-Next
Staying ahead of the weather
SSC Pacific is on the forefront of developing technology that
increases environmental awareness and enables warfighters to
predict and exploit the battlespace.
The Naval Integrated Tactical Environmental System–Next
Generation (NITES-Next) directly integrates precision weather
forecasting onto a common operational picture (COP). The COP
overlay assists warfighters in multidimensional decision making.
SSC Pacific’s Information Operations Division, manages
NITES-Next.
Warfighters will use NITES-Next to create weather products
with continuously updated information overlaid on tactical
displays. This enhancement is superior to existing weather
prediction systems.
The overall NITES-Next program objective is
to migrate existing/legacy operational naval
oceanography applications to an interoperable
net-centric environment.
The NITES-Next suite of software will include enhanced
geospatial visualization and manipulation capabilities that
support meteorology and oceanology (METOC) professionals,
reach-back cells, and forward-deployed warfighters.
NITES-Next’s net-centric and geo-spatially enabled capabilities
interoperate within the Department of Defense (DoD)
Information Enterprise Architecture (IEA), providing naval
oceanography capabilities to Navy, Marine Corps, joint, and
coalition forces supporting DoD operations worldwide, both
afloat and ashore.
SSC Pacific conducts system-level testing, verification and
validation at its Integrated Test Facility. Warfighters will learn how
to take advantage of NITES-Next capabilities through cloud-based
software training at Navy schoolhouses.
The NITES-Next acquisition strategy is to deliver fleet capabilities
in a series of up to five planned fleet capability releases (FCRs)
under the Program Executive Office for Command, Control,
Communications, Computers, and Intelligence (PEO C4I)
streamlined information technology (IT) acquisition process.
Hometown Innovator
Dr. Irwin Jacobs, the founder of Qualcomm, visited
SSC Pacific July 15. After receiving a tour of the
center, he spoke to SSC Pacific employees about his
career and accomplishments.
Integration test facility
Providing network testing and
integration support to the Fleet
SSC Pacific’s Integration Test Facility (ITF) was established in 1998
to provide integration, engineering, and testing support for the
Integrated Shipboard Network System (ISNS).
ISNS provides a common network and computer services baseline
configuration for the shipboard warfighter. Initial efforts to field
ISNS demonstrated a need to manage the baseline configuration
and to build support engineering facilities. The ITF was stood up to
provide those necessary services here at SSC Pacific.
(l-r) SSC Pacific Executive Director, Carmela Keeney; Founder of
Qualcomm, Dr. Irwin Jacobs; SSC Pacific Director of Science and
Technology, Dr. Stephen Russell; SSC Pacific Head of Technology Transfer,
Brian Suh; and SSC Pacific Executive Officer, Capt. Giselle Bonitz meet in
SSC Pacific Loby before Jacob’s presentation.
The chief concern for the ITF is to protect the
baseline and ensure new capabilities can
successfully integrate with ISNS without causing
disruption with other services.
Jacobs was teaching at Massachusetts Institute of
Technology when he received an offer to teach at
the University of California, San Diego. When he
arrived at UCSD, he became a part-time consultant
and began a relationship with Naval Electronics
Laboratory Center employees. The demand for
consulting grew and he started Linkabit in 1968.
Linkabit focused on innovation. Dr. Jacobs and his
team moved beyond making things better and
focused making significant improvements while still
profiting with client services. More than 100 San
Diego companies trace their origins to Linakbit’s
innovative approach, including Qualcomm.
When Dr. Jacobs used code division multiple access
(CDMA) in 1989 to place a phone call, Qualcomm
demonstrated the code’s capability, initiating
a revolution in communications technology.
Qualcomm created the first CDMA smartphone
and first CDMA chipset to integrate the Global
Positioning System (GPS).
Dr. Jacobs retired from the Qualcomm board of
directors in 2011. He serves as chairman of the Salk
Institute for Biological Studies and of the National
Academy of Engineering.
Members of SSC Pacific’s Integration Test Facility.
Working under the purview of PMW-160, SSC Pacific’s ITF has
supported the integration of many different baseline configurations
from the early asynchronous transfer mode systems to the more
recent common computing environment (CCE). The ISNS CCE
features the first major afloat system with server virtualization, used
as a stepping stone to the new Consolidated Afloat Networks and
Enterprise Services (CANES) system.
TRENDING NOW
SSC Pacific in the News
SSC Pacific maintains 28 ISNS test beds inside the ITF, representing
real-world shipboard configurations. Facilities include a network
operation center and satellite simulators for battle group level
integration testing.
SAN DIEGO UNION TRIBUNE
SSC Pacific’a areas of responsiblity include:
FOX 5 SAN DIEGO
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CBS 8
KPBS
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CHIPS
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Supporting fleet casualty reports (CASREP) by transforming
ISNS test beds to model shipboard configurations for
troubleshooting ashore.
Providing CANES testing and integration services in partnership
with the Enterprise Engineering and Certification (E2C) Lab.
Performing tests and evaluations on the interoperability of
CANES and ISNS baseline to ease fleet modernization.
SD1433-JULY 2015-EX-Approved for public release.