Disaster workshop cont’d from page 6 www.researchpark.arc.nasa.gov 7 CMUSV DMI staff and local experts/officials at the DMI Workshop at CMUSV, the Next Generation Emergency Operations Center (EOC), demonstrated by Art Botterell, consultant with DMI. With 18 foot trailers provided by NASA Ames Disaster Assistance and Rescue Team (DART), this evolving EOC is being equipped with low energy, solar powered IT and communications technology, and connected via WiFi and other radio technology to other disaster management research systems at CMUSV. Steve Ray, associate director of the DMI, conducted a Plugfest coordinating the communication between over 30 mobile command center vehicles. The exercise was designed to test the interoperability of the vehicles and their ability to communicate with each other, pass data along to other vehicles and coordinate efforts between different types of communications systems. Even novice attendees absorbed some awareness with a session on personal emergency preparedness. The detailed course is typically given at the community level to enable families to plan in advance for disasters, but workshop attendees were offered a condensed version. Topics included home and workplace preparedness, life- threatening conditions, disaster impact, fire safety and hazardous materials. Of particular note are useful websites on emergency preparedness: www.fema.gov/areyouready and http://72hours.org/. Several CMUSV faculty led sessions on their research in a variety of topics, including sensors, machine learning, and antenna optimization. These sessions showed how their research is currently being applied to disaster response situations. One session held by Assistant Professor Ian Lane led participants in a hands-on workshop on parsing audio-to-text using sample twitter messages. “This workshop was all about breaking down the silos. Practitioners, policy makers and researchers talking to each other, seeing each other’s presentations and demos – coming together to share and learn from each other – that was what the Workshop was about for me,” said Steven Rosenberg, associate director of CMUSV. Martin Griss, director of CMUSV, said, “I thought the event exceeded our expectations. We had a great turnout, there was great energy and excitement, and many people commented that bringing practitioners, companies, academics, vehicles and technology together for an intensive set of discussions, workshops, exercises and interoperability was a unique experience.” Toward the end of the event ideas were already buzzing for next year’s workshop, which promises to be even bigger and better. NASA Ames celebrated Asian Pacific Islander Heritage Month on May 27 at Michael’s Restaurant in Mt. View. Over 100 employees enjoyed a flavorful lunch while watching a vibrant cultural fashion show that highlighted traditional costumes from Asia and the Pacific Islands modeled by Ames and NRP employees. Shown in the group photo are several NRP staff members: Mejghan Haider, NRP Deputy Chief, (Afghanistan); Sally Tateno (Japan); Cyndi Carbon-Norman (MC) and CMU partner Theresa Dao (Vietnam). NASA Ames Celebrates Asian Pacific Islander Heritage Month Photo by Orange Photography NRP Post
8
www.nasa.gov
NRP Post
FutureMed Executive Program
A First at Singularity University
by Robin Farmanfarmaian
FutureMed is a first of its kind medical program at Singularity
University for physicians, healthcare executives, innovators and
investors. Seventy attendees and over 60 faculty speakers came
to the inaugural FutureMed during the week of May 10th-15th
to explore the impact of rapidly developing technologies on
the future of health and biomedicine.
Few fields have the potential to evolve more dramatically
through disruptive, exponential technologies than healthcare.
Low cost genomic sequencing and proteomics, ever faster
and
higher
resolution
imaging,
artificial
intelligence,
telemedicine, stem cells, robotic surgery, smaller and more
capable implantable and wearable devices, ubiquitous mobile
applications, nanotechnology and synthetic biology -- these
and other game-changing technologies and innovations have
tremendous implications for the medicine, healthcare and
the biomedical industry in the decade ahead, including the
potential enablement of better, more accessible care at lower
costs.
The five-day intensive FutureMed program included lectures,
workshops and site visits to Autodesk, Intuitive Surgical and
Kaiser Garfield Innovation Center. Two of the more popular
demos featured included Vasper at NASA that many of the
participants tried and the DMAST Anti-Shock Garment that
uses NASA technology.
All lectures, demos and site visits were led by notable faculty
from the fields of medicine, biotechnology and innovation.
“We’re fortunate to have at FutureMed truly world-class
innovators and thought leading faculty, across multiple
disciplines,” said Executive Director Dr. Daniel Kraft, a Stanford
and Harvard trained physician-scientist who also chairs the
Medicine track for Singularity University.
Core tracks included those which explore the exponential
trends in Information/Data-driven and Internet enabled
Participants and faculty pose in the special FutureMed scrubs outside
Building 583C at NRP
(From left to right) Andrew Hessel, Astronaut Dan Barry MD, FutureMed
Executive Director Daniel Kraft MD and Singularity University President
Neil Jacobstein during the synthesis session May 15th
Photo courtesy of FutureMed
Photo courtesy of FutureMed
health
care,
Genomics
and
Personalized
Medicine,
Regenerative Medicine, Robotics & Future Interventional
approaches, NeuroMedicine, Device & Drug development, and
Entrepreneurship.
Over 60 FutureMed faculty came from across the globe, here
is a small sampling. The full list can be found on the FutureMed
website: http://futuremed2011.com/faculty/
-Peter Diamandis MD, Chairman of the X-PRIZE and Co-Founder
of Singularity University
-Dan Barry MD PhD, 3 time Space Shuttle NASA Astronaut and
Roboticist
-Yvonne Cagle MD, NASA Astronaut
-Dr. John Hogan, Bioengineering Branch at NASA Ames
Research Center
-Tim O’Reilly, Founder and CEO of O’Reilly Media
-Dean Ornish MD, Founder and President, Preventative
Medicine Research Institute
-Thomas Goetz MPH, Executive Editor WIRED, Author of ‘The
Decision Tree’
-Catherine Mohr MD, Director of Medical Research, Intuitive
Surgical
-David Ewing Duncan, Author of ‘Experimental Man,’ and the
‘Personalized Medicine Manifesto’
-Randy Scott PhD, Founder and Chairman of Genomic Health
-Roni Zeiger MD, Chief Health Strategist, Google
-Christopher Longhurst MD, Chief Information Officer for
Packard Children’s Hospital, Stanford Medical School
-Michael Gillam MD, Director of the Microsoft Medical Media at
Microsoft Health
-Allan May, CEO of Life Sciences Angels
-Michael West PhD, Founder of Geron and BioTime
Pharmaceuticals
www.researchpark.arc.nasa.gov 9
NRP Post
NRP’s Packing for Mars Lecture Fills the House
by Kathleen Burton
A standing room only crowd jammed the Bldg. 3 Ballroom on
May 3 to hear Dr. Pascal Lee and author Mary Roach team up for
a conversation about what it takes to go to Mars.
Subtitled “The Challenges and Oddities of a Human Mission to
Mars” , the informal conversation, complete with Tiffany lamp
and comfortable armchairs, ranged from the haunting beauty
of Mars and the
health and psycho-
logical risks of long
duration explora-
tion, to the day-to-
day, not-so-great
details like going
weeks without a
proper shower in
a confined space
capsule.
Roach, author of
the recent best
seller “Packing for
Mars: The Curious
Science of Life
in the Void” , and
called “America’s
funniest science
writer” by the
Washington Post, did not dwell on the awe-inspiring grandeur
of space exploration, but focused instead on the human
side of space travel.
She outlined some of the past unorthodox ideas for survival
in space—such as sending obese astronauts to Mars so they
could live off their stored body fat and save substantial food
payload weight. She noted that space travel makes teeth rot
and astronauts taller (spines stretch in space). Astronauts are as
much as 2.5 inches taller after a week in space, she noted. The
typical gain is 3% of an astronaut’s height due to expansion of
the discs between the vertebra, which also absorb more water
in micro-G.
As a highlight, Roach read an excerpt from “Packing for Mars”
about lunch at the Ames Cafeteria, about the experience of
drinking treated (and safe) urine which had been stored in
the Ames cafeteria refrigerator, with her lunch date, Sherwin
Gormly. Gormly, a NASA waste water engineer, designed
the mechanical rig that recycles urine on the Space Station.
“I thought the cafeteria check-out person was going to call
Security (when we came through with the bottle), ” she said.
Lee, from the other armchair, focused on the “beauty and
harshness” of Mars as he showed stunning slides of the red
planet’s canyons and of a recent summer field season at his
Mars-on-Earth analog, Haughton Crater in the Canadian Arctic.
At Haughton, teams of scientists test space suits, rovers, robots
and the psychology of isolation.
“Mars is mostly all rocks and dunes, ” Lee noted. One of the
biggest dangers about going to Mars he said is the relentless
stinging sand, which blows constantly and gums up machinery
and robots. A basic mission would require astronauts to spend
at least 540 days on Mars, before returning to Earth, he said,
with daunting psychological and health challenges such as
isolation, radiation and severe and rapid bone loss.
In spite of today’s risk-averse culture, 21st Century humans
want to go to Mars for three reasons, Lee, Roach and MC Dr.
Chris McKay, agreed: for the journey, for science, and to find
extant life.
There was lots of lively interaction with the enthusiastic audi-
ence. The discussion included what it takes to get an entire
nation motivated about going to Mars, even with today’s steep
$500 billion price tag (which is notably, the cost of the Iraq war
to-date). “It’s like when the U.S. went full boar into exploring
the Moon in the 1960’s, ” McKay said. “It was a race with Russia
back then, a challenge. We need a similar challenge now
because the political climate is obviously very different. ”
The three also floated the controversial idea of a one way Mars
mission, where astronauts would not return to Earth, but would
live out their lives there. Lee and McKay outlined the idea of
an incremental path to Mars, space hop-scotching first to the
Moon or to Phobos and Deimos, the moons of Mars, to stock -
pile resources before continuing on to Mars. The path to Mars
will be in small, incremental steps, they agreed. “A Mars orbiter
will surely proceed a Mars lander, ” Lee noted.
Previous books by Roach include “Stiff: The Curious Lives of
Human Cadavers” and “Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife” .
McKay is a planetary scientist with the Space Science division
at Ames and is one of the world’s leading researchers, studying
Jupiter’s moon, Titan, and conducting numerical modeling of
planetary atmospheres.
Lee is a planetary scientist at the SETI Institute, is Chairman of
the Mars Institute at the NRP , and Director of the Haughton-
Mars Project (HMP). HMP is an international interdisciplinary
field research project centered on the scientific study of the
Haughton impact structure and surrounding terrain, at Devon
Island in the High Arctic. The rocky polar desert setting and geo-
logic features of the site offer unique insights into the possible
evolution of Mars and the limits of life in extreme environments.
For information on HMP: http://www.marsonearth.org
For information on Mary Roach: http://www.maryroach.net
For information on the NRP Exploration Lecture Series:
http://researchpark.arc.nasa.gov
Author Mary Roach and Dr. Pascal LeePhoto courtesy of Dr. Pascal Lee
Photo courtesy of Benetech
Photo courtesy of Benetech
Photo courtesy of Benetech
10 www.nasa.gov
First Tenant of NASA Research Park
Now Thriving Social Enterprise
Benetech Celebrates More Than 20 Years of
Developing Technology For Humanity
by Ann Harrison
In 1999 a small, nonprofit organization named Arkenstone
became the very first tenant of the newly launched NASA
Research Park. Arkenstone’s founder, Jim Fruchterman, had
developed a reading machine for the blind using a new kind
of optical character recognition technology. Not only was
Arkenstone’s technology innovative, its business model was
also unique. Jim formed Arkenstone as a social enterprise
which adapted existing technology and developed low-cost
solutions to solve pressing social problems. His goal was to
bring the benefits of technology to all members of society,
including people who are marginalized or especially in need.
More than ten years later,
Jim’s pioneering social
enterprise is still thriving.
Two years after Arkenstone
moved to NRP, a for-profit
company named Freedom
Scientific made an offer to
buy the Arkenstone busi-
ness. Fruchterman sold the
business and used the pro-
ceeds to launch Benetech,
the successor social
enterprise that carried
forward Arkenstone’s goal
to create technology that
serves humanity. In 2006,
Jim was named a MacArthur Fellow for his role as a pioneering
social entrepreneur.
Today Benetech is a thriving $12 million nonprofit with 55
employees based in Palo Alto. It generates revenue from the
sales of its products, government grants and funding from
individual philanthropists and foundations. The Benetech team
and their projects have had a wide impact on underserved
communities around the world. Benetech’s Bookshare project
is now the world’s largest online library of accessible ebooks for
people with a disability that keeps them from reading standard
print. Bookshare now has more than 140,000 members with
print disabilities who depend on the library for textbooks and
recreational reading. The collection of texts has expanded to
include over 100,000 books, many of which are provided for
free to Bookshare by top publishers.
In 2007, Bookshare received a five-year award from the U.S.
Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs
(OSEP), to provide free access to books for all U.S. students
with a qualifying print disability. Last spring, Benetech won
a $5 million competition to create the DIAGRAM R&D center
that will find new ways to provide accessible images for
people with
print disabilities.
Benetech also
supports a
Human Rights
Program which
includes the
Human Rights
Data Analysis
Group that
designs and
builds informa-
tion management solutions and conducts statistical analysis
on behalf of human rights projects. Together with partners,
the scientists of HRDAG make scientifically-defensible argu-
ments about the patterns of violence based in rigorous
evidence. Benetech also developed the free and open source
Martus software which allows users to create a searchable and
encrypted database and back this data up remotely to their
choice of publicly available servers. The Martus software is used
by organizations around the world to protect sensitive informa-
tion and shield the identity of victims or witnesses who provide
testimony on human rights abuses.
The Benetech development team has also created Miradi, a
conservation project management software tool. The open
source Miradi software program is a joint venture between
Benetech and the Conservation Measures Partnership (CMP) a
consortium of conservation NGOs. Miradi helps conservation
planners to design, manage, monitor, and learn from their
projects to more effectively meet their conservation goals.
Miradi now has more than 3,500 users in over 140 countries.
From its beginnings at NRP , Benetech has expanded to become
an engine of sustainable social change. The company is now
helping to guide other social enterprises to scale new ideas that
deliver far greater social impact at the same or lower cost than
status quo solutions. NRP was the place where Benetech began.
Jim Fruchterman
Conservation planners can manage their projects using Benetech’s Miradi
software program.
Bookshare program provides ebooks for students
with print disabilities
NRP Post
www.researchpark.arc.nasa.gov 11
• Real-time playback with original video source quality and
the ability to scale video bandwidth based on destination
network limitations.
• Real-time PVR and synchronized playback of all live and
recorded streams with bookmarks and annotation
• XMPP-based real-time presence and policy-based secure
software architecture for managing sources and secure
distribution of video streams
• Ability to integrate and capture standards-based MPEG,
H.264 based Cameras and video encoders
• Real-time remote desktop/workstation control over IP
networks
The Digital Media Servers (DMSs) used in the Intrinsyx AVC
solutions allow multiple video streams to be stored during
a live session. The DMSs also allow secure playback/review
of these recorded streams for briefing/debriefing from any
location over IP networks. The accompanying windows-based
software client offers playback of multiple live or recorded
streams that can be viewed on single or multiple displays,
with the ability to bookmark and annotate during live or post-
action review sessions.
Intrinsyx AVC solutions include web-based tools and
management server software to configure and manage an
entire AVC system remotely over IP .
Where are the Intrinsyx AVC products used today?
The AVC systems available through Intrinsyx have had
success in the defense, medical, and oil & gas exploration
market segments. The systems have been deployed in flight
simulators, virtual warfare centers, mission command and
control centers, cardio-surgical theaters and telemedicine
stations and offshore oil & gas exploration stations.
Call: (408) 888-3855 or email: [email protected] to set
up a time to visit the Intrinsyx AVC Showcase.
Intrinsyx Technologies Provides New
Advanced Visual Collaboration (AVC) Solutions
by Yogesh Khare and Mike Schultz
Intrinsyx Technologies Corporation, a NASA Research Park
resident that has provided systems engineering, software
development and IT solutions to NASA for over 11 years, now
also provides the latest generation of ultra-HD, real-time
video and graphics sharing systems that transmit data over IP
Networks.
Intrinsyx invites you to visit their Advanced Visual Collaboration
Showcase at NASA Research Park, Building 19, Suite 2028,
in Moffett Field, CA. See their Enhanced Mission Record and
Review System (EMRRS) that enables globally distributed teams
to collaborate and share mission critical events in real-time over
standard data networks.
The Intrinsyx AVC system is a complete hardware and software
solution that offers real-time streaming, recording, relaying,
and distribution of ultra HD video and graphics over IP
networks. The system’s video and graphics encoders/decoders
deliver exact pixel-for-pixel quality at full monitor rates to
remote locations with very low latency (1-2 frames) over
standard data networks.
What is unique about the Intrinsyx Advanced Visual
Collaboration solution?
• Up to 4-megapixel ultra HD video (up to 2560 x 1600 or
3840 x 1200 resolution) support per encoder channel
• Low latency (1-2 frames encode/decode) at full monitor
refresh frame rates over IP networks
• Hardware and Software decoders for secure remote access
from multiple locations.
• DMS (digital media servers) capable of recording up to 50
discrete full-res HD streams per device, with time stamp
and exact frame sync
Video wall and remote-user laptop client demonstrated in the Intrinsyx AVC Showcase.
Photos courtesy of Intrinsyx
NRP Post
12
www.nasa.gov
Pete Conrad Spirit of Innovation
Award Winners 2011
Teens Invent One-of-a-Kind Products, Address Tech
Challenges
by Conrad Foundation
Moffett Field, CA
May 2, 2011
Demonstrating
they
had the most unique
approaches to solving
real world challenges in
aerospace, clean energy
and cyber security, the
winners of the Conrad
Foundation’s
2011
Innovation
Summit
were announced May 2
at the conclusion of the
four-day event at NASA
Research Park.
The annual innovation
program
encourages
high school students from across the country to solve chal-
lenges of the 21st century by creating breakthrough technolo-
gies using science, technology, engineering, and math knowl-
edge and skills.
The grand prize winners taking home the coveted title of
2011 Pete Conrad Scholars, sponsored by Lockheed Martin
Corporation, were:
- Ouroboros, Upper Clair High School, (aerospace exploration)– for their Perpetual Harvest Space Nutrition System that takes organic waste created during long duration space flight and creates compost that is used to grow fresh foods, also serving as an air filter for human habitation. -West Philly EVX Team, West Philadelphia High School Auto Academy, West Philadelphia, PA (clean energy) – their Electric Very Light Car (EVLC) is being prepared for commercial market and hopes to set the standard for electric vehicle efficiency. -Unisecurity, North Carolina School of Science & Mathematics, Durham, NC (cyber security) – for their Med PAL smartphone application that works with a Bluetooth enabled heart rate monitor worn by the user. MedPAL will automatically contact a call center and/or personal emergency contacts based on GPS coordinates should irregularities occur. Each winning team received a $5,000 Next Step Grant to con- tinue development of their product. The teams also receive assistance promoting their product in the media, and at partner events and activities. In addition to the funding and product support, each team member receives a one-year student membership in American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics and a one-year affiliate membership to Sigma Xi, the Scientific Research Society. The team coach receives a $500 stipend via the AIAA Coaches Award. “By providing an outlet for students to use their knowledge in relevant and practical ways and by connecting them with mentors who can help make their vision a reality, we open avenues for dis- covery and build interest in the careers available in STEM industries,” said Nancy Conrad, Conrad Foundation chairman and CEO. “You represent the future and you are an inspiration to us all at NASA.” said NASA Ames Director Pete Worden at the closing ceremony. The People’s Choice Award was bestowed on the team with the most votes cast during the online, public voting period. This year’s winner, Scientifica White Hats, from Northern High School in Durham, NC, received the $500 prize for their Phone Guard all-in-one master security system for smartphones. Each of the 27 finalist teams created a technical report, a busi- ness plan and a graphical representation for their product. The winning teams were selected by a panel of judges made up of top-level academia and industry representatives, with input from public voting at www.conradawards.org. After the event, all teams have the opportunity to raise addi- tional funds to facilitate the continued commercial develop- ment of their projects. Visitors to the teams’ profile pages have the opportunity to donate directly to the development of their favorite team’s project, or they can donate to the team’s sponsoring school, helping continue excellence in science and technology education. Information about each team can be found on the Pete Conrad Spirit of Innovation Awards official Web site: www.conradawards.org. In addition to Pete Worden, director, NASA Ames Research Center, the teams were joined by notable leaders such as; Adam Savage, MythBusters Co-host; Brynn Watson, Director, Software Engineering, Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company; Ed Lu, Former Astronaut, Former Head of Google Advanced Projects; and Jon Fougner, Principal, Product Marketing Monetization at Facebook. Photo courtesy of Conrad Foundation NRP Post S. Pete Worden, Ames Center Director (left); Nancy Conrad, Conrad Foundation Chairman and CEO (center); and the Ouroboros team from Upper Clair High School