Women

in Data

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

www.nasa.gov

IT Talk

July - September 2016 Volume 6 • Issue 3
IT Talk

July - Sept. 2016 Volume 6 • Issue 3

Office of the CIO

NASA Headquarters

300 E Street, SW

Washington, D.C. 20546

Chief Information Officer

Renee Wynn

Editor & Publication Manager

Eldora Valentine

Graphic & Web Designer

Michael Porterfield

IT Talk is an official publication of the 

Office of the Chief Information Officer 

of the National Aeronautics and 

Space Administration, Headquarters, 

Washington, D.C. It is published 

by the OCIO office for all NASA 

employees and external audiences.

For distribution questions or to 

suggest a story idea, email:

eldora.valentine-1@nasa.gov

To read IT Talk online visit:

www.nasa.gov/offices/ocio/ittalk

For more info on the OCIO:

v www.nasa.gov/ocio

v insidenasa.nasa.gov/ocio

 (Internal NASA network only)

v www.nasa.gov/open/

www.facebook.com/NASAcio

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Message from

the CIO

Women in Data

Center Automation 

Team (CAT)

What is BSA?

Space Apps

Challenge Winners 

Announced

In this Issue
The development of world-class talent in science, technology, engineering, and 

mathematics (STEM) is critical to America’s global leadership. While women 

are still an underrepresented minority in STEM, women in data and technology 

are no longer outliers. Data science is a critical field in which women and girls 

of all ages, backgrounds, and interests can participate today. In this issue, 

you’ll learn how women in data are achieving success and about inspiring, 

revealing insights that will widen the path for even more women in tech.

We’ll also further highlight some other innovative projects happening at the 

Centers. There are a few cloud solutions supporting NASA’s missions.

And for the last few months, the Office of the Chief Information Officer has 

been implementing the IT Business Services Assessment (BSA) plan. This 

will help us improve the delivery of IT services across the Agency. The BSA 

process establishes clear objectives for the NASA CIO to approve the Agency’s 

IT spending plan for non–highly specialized and highly specialized IT.

Finally, a special recognition goes out to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) IT 

Directorate. The team was recently recognized with a few industry honors.

We have a great lineup in this issue, so I hope you enjoy it.

Stennis Space Center's Jeff 

Henderson gives NASA CIO Renee 

Wynn a tour of the facility.

NASA's Chief Information Officer, Renee Wynn, along with 

her Executive Officer, Ruth McWilliams, recently visited 

the NSSC for a two-day working session to discuss the 

NSSC and HQ Information Technology operations.

The CIO met with the NSSC’s Senior Managers and was 

also briefed by the staff on the following topics during the 

two-day visit: NSSC Overview of the Enterprise Services 

Center, Support Operations Business Office, Service Delivery, 

Simplified Acquisitions & Enterprise License Management. 

She also met with the Information Resources Division.

NASA OCIO IT Talk Jul - Sep 2016 3

Message from the NASA CIO 
IT Business Service Assessment: Where Are We Going?

By Leah Hollander, Business Service Assessment Implementation Manager

Why Conduct a Business 

Services Assessment of IT?

Information Technology (IT) was the 

ideal pilot activity for the Business 

Service Assessment (BSA) because 

for several years preceding the BSA, 

NASA was on a path to transforming 

the IT Operating Model so that 

more IT services were managed and 

provisioned at the enterprise (Agency) 

level. Using the BSA methodology, 

we were able to evaluate the health 

of IT services, assess opportunities to 

achieve efficiencies, and evaluate the 

feasibility of moving to an enterprise 

approach for some IT services. 

The BSA was also the best way to 

understand and address how NASA 

will implement the near- and longterm requirements of the Federal 

Information Technology Acquisition 

Reform Act (FITARA) enacted in 

December 2014. Like FITARA, the 

BSA was designed to ensure that IT is 

seen as a strategic Agency resource. 

What Does This Mean to You?

The implementation of the BSA 

decisions is being managed by a 

BSA Leadership Team. Members 

include all of the CIO leadership, some 

Center CIOs, and the Agency CIO.

The IT BSA decisions focus on 

developing greater visibility of IT 

investments, along with improved 

structures for governance and decision 

making. The implementation plan lays 

out a framework that will be used to 

help decide when a consolidated or 

enterprise approach is appropriate, as 

well as to affirm that there are specific 

business drivers where a diversified 

or decentralized operating model is 

appropriate. The IT BSA plan also lays 

out a disciplined approach to measure 

and understand IT service delivery as 

we organize around the six IT domains 

(communications, applications, 

computing services, end-user services, 

information management, and security).

Moving forward, we will focus on 

optimizing and balancing IT services 

and operations. We will evaluate our 

baseline service levels, continue to 

increase insight into IT investments, 

develop criteria to assess IT program 

performance, and evaluate services 

and requirements for potential 

enterprise solutions. Some decisions 

may result in changes to organizational 

constructs and necessitate the 

realignment of resources. As we 

proceed, it is our intent to keep our 

workforce informed and enable workers 

to make decisions about the future.

What Have We Done So Far?

Implementation of the decisions 

is underway, and key tasks have 

already been completed. These major 

accomplishments include the following:

1. New IT Council (ITC)—The new 

council was established and held 

its first meeting on May 25. The 

new council includes representation 

from all Mission Directorates, 

Centers, and key functional offices 

such as the Office of the Chief 

Engineer. This council serves as the 

Agency’s senior decision authority 

for IT resource management issues 

and/or IT investments that require 

a high degree of integration, are 

deemed high-risk, are highly visible, 

or require a higher authority than 

that granted to line organizations.

2. Completion of the first Annual 

Capital Investment Reviews (ACIR)—

At the first meeting of the ITC, the 

council members reviewed the 

results of the ACIR and approved 

IT investments for FY 2017 and FY 

2018. This review is a key part of the 

implementation of BSA and FITARA, 

which mandates that NASA’s CIO 

have approval authority over the 

entire IT budget and increases the 

CIO’s responsibility. The scope of 

the review includes mission-support 

funded IT, program-funded IT and 

related acquisition strategies. v

Final Outcome

(What Will Employees See?)

When fully implemented, we 

will have greater visibility into 

cost and service quality. This 

will enable the Agency to 

make informed and intentional 

decisions about the best 

mode of IT delivery for specific 

solutions in the future and 

better address instances of 

less-than-adequate service. 

Finally, the biggest effect on 

the IT workforce over time will 

be the ability to more broadly 

leverage IT resources across 

Center boundaries. This will 

meet the growing demand 

for specialized IT skills and 

services. These changes will 

also allow us to better deploy 

our existing resources in 

order to meet demands in an 

environment where expanding 

the IT budget is not likely.

4 www.nasa.gov
IT Governance at Goddard

Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) 

has put a new federated governance 

process into operation. It includes 

governance boards and IT working 

groups to support initiatives across 

the Center, and it serves as a link 

to the Agency IT enterprise.

In 2012, the GSFC Chief Information 

Officer (CIO) was charged with 

establishing a governance model to 

ensure the alignment of Center-wide 

IT decision making with relevant 

policies and Lines of Business 

(LOBs) strategic priorities. The goal 

was to create a framework that:

Ensures transparency,

Fosters collaboration,

Improves communication,

Delivers efficiencies, and

Leverages LOBs.

Dawn McGowan, GSFC IT Governance 

Lead, seized the opportunity, 

energetically engaged with leaders 

across the Center, and established an 

IT Governance Steering Committee; 

she led the committee in creating 

a structured decision-making 

process for IT investments and IT 

architecture change management. 

McGowan’s leadership culminated 

in the development of the GSFC 

Federated IT Governance Framework, 

designed to increase accountability 

and both efficient and effective 

delivery of GSFC IT services.

In April 2013, the IT Governance 

Steering Committee presented the GSFC 

Federated IT Governance Framework 

to the GSFC Executive Council and 

gained unanimous acceptance. 

The Federated Framework ensures 

coordination of an integrated decisionmaking process for the full IT portfolio, 

executed through four governance 

boards with clearly defined roles:

The Executive Governance 

Committee (EGC) is the most 

senior leadership board, 

established to direct the vision, 

goals, and objectives for the 

execution and continuous 

monitoring of GSFC IT assets. 

The Strategic Advisory Group 

(SAG) determines what GSFC will 

do at the Center level and where 

it makes sense to elevate issues 

and tradeoffs to the most senior 

leadership. This board serves as 

the link to the Agency in cases 

where IT services involve questions 

that must be resolved across 

the entire NASA enterprise.

The Tactical Planning Group 

(TPG) determines the “how” and 

identifies resources needed to 

implement the strategic goals 

established by the SAG.

The IT Working Groups (ITWGs) 

perform requirements analysis, 

design, implementation, and 

operations for Center-wide IT 

assets. The ITWGs also make 

implementation recommendations 

to the TPG. There are currently 

six working groups: Applications, 

Communications, Data Center, End 

User, Information Security, and 

Management and Operations.

To date, the Federated IT Governance 

framework is fully operational and 

has supported multiple IT projects 

that affect the Center, including Data 

Center Consolidation and Cloud 

Computing. For additional information, 

please contact Dawn McGowan at 

dawn.w.mcgowan@nasa.gov. v

NASA OCIO IT Talk Jul - Sep 2016 5
Women in Data By Beth Beck, OCIO Open Innovation Program Manager

For the last 5 years, NASA has 

hosted the International Space 

Apps Challenge. With over 15,000 

participants coming together 

over a weekend to create nearly 

1,300 innovative solutions, Space 

Apps is more than an open-data 

watering hole. It has proven to be 

an unexpected, yet reliable, focus 

group on the usability of NASA 

data and what datasets are most 

compelling and relevant, as well 

as eyes and ears into fledgling 

innovation communities around 

the world. In addition, Space 

Apps gives us insight into the 

state of women in data science.

Two years ago, the Open Innovation 

team noticed a disparity in the 

ratio of Space Apps participants—

roughly 80 percent men to 20 

percent women. We embarked 

on a quest to better understand 

how to attract more women and 

girls to data by conducting a 

yearlong study, which included 

a literature review followed by 

dozens of interviews with leading 

women’s organizations in the data, 

tech, and startup communities. 

As we dug into the literature, we 

found that the Space Apps ratio 

reflected national trends. Although 

women in the United States earned 

57 percent of all bachelor’s degrees 

since the late 1990s, only 18.2 

percent are in the field of computer 

sciences, according to the 2015 

National Science Foundation 

report titled “Women, Minorities, 

and Persons with Disabilities in 

Science and Engineering.” In 2013, 

women represented only 26 percent 

of the professional computing 

workforce, a sharp decrease from 

35 percent in the 1990s, according 

to the American Association of 

University Women’s “Solving the 

Equation” study. A 2002 “Women 

in Computing Around the World” 

study suggested that the gender 

gap in science, technology, 

engineering, and mathematics 

(STEM) and computing is 

inconsistent across cultures, with 

the lowest participation rates 

among women in the United 

States, the United Kingdom, and 

Australia. And the gap is widening. 

As we surveyed the data landscape, 

we focused on one measurable 

goal: to increase the number 

of women and girls who attend 

Space Apps. As a side benefit, we 

hoped to enhance opportunities 

to grow the number of women 

in the new discipline of data 

science. Our focus was not how 

to engage women who are already 

professionals in the data fields, but 

how to attract women and girls 

who would not take part in Space 

Apps or data science without 

intentional program design.

Here is what we heard in our 

interviews: women are looking for 

a “safe space” in which to engage. 

Women are drawn to collaborative, 

rather than competitive, endeavors 

and seek out opportunities to 

team in a supportive environment. 

They are not looking for womenonly events or activities, but rather 

take cues from the signals around 

how events are organized to see if 

they might fit in. Women do their 

homework before determining 

how to invest their time and effort. 

For instance, they look for women 

as featured speakers or on the 

leadership team and for early 

access to an event or activity to 

allow them to gain new skills or 

form teams ahead of the main 

event. Offers of childcare or travel 

stipends send a clear signal that 

women are welcome. If we want to 

draw more women into the NASA 

data space, we need to create a 

welcoming community atmosphere.

Based on these insights, we 

created two new initiatives to signal 

that NASA open-data is a safe 

space in which to engage: Data 

Bootcamp and NASA Datanauts. 

We kicked off the inaugural 

Space Apps Data Bootcamp preevent last year to lower barriers 

to entry for newcomers to the 

hackathon experience—to share 

introductory content on coding, 

making, retrieving and manipulating 

datasets, and storytelling. This year, 

we provided the model to our 161 

global Space Apps organizers, who 

orchestrated 54 Data Bootcamps 

for 5,300 participants. At the Space 

Ellen Stofan, NASA Chief Scientist Dava Newman, NASA Deputy Administrator Megan Smith, United States CTO Beth Beck, OCIO Open Innovations Manager

6 www.nasa.gov
Apps Pasadena main-stage event 

and Data Bootcamp, 47 percent 

of participants were women—

including a majority who had never 

attended a hackathon before. 

NASA Datanauts, our second 

initiative, leverages the annual 

Space Apps challenge event by 

creating a supportive, collaborative 

environment for each class of 50 

participants, featuring monthly 

online challenges and toolkits for 

community-based data dinner 

clubs. To signal our intent to attract 

women, we selected an all-female 

founding class—though all future 

classes will also include men.

Though this is only the beginning 

of a conversation about women 

in the field of data science, it is 

one that other Federal agencies 

are eager to join. Each agency 

struggles with the lopsided ratio 

of women to men in the computer 

science and STEM-related 

disciplines. They look to NASA to 

help discover new ways to bring 

more women to the data table.

As we began the focus on women 

in data, we tracked the number 

of women represented on teams 

nominated for Space Apps global 

awards. In 2015, we discovered 

that 47 percent of the Top 60 Global 

Award semifinalists had at least 

one woman on the team. In 2016, 

more than half of the Top 25 finalists 

had women on the teams, along 

with four of the five Global Award–

winning teams. Projects with a mix 

of men and women tend to be more 

interesting, less linear and offer a 

social or humanitarian component 

to the solution. These projects 

rise to the top—a lesson for future 

teams. Women bring a different 

perspective to the problem-solving 

process. Providing women with 

opportunities to gain skills in 

data science will offer different 

perspectives on how citizens can 

better leverage NASA’s open data 

to solve community-based issues 

and concerns. In doing so, we 

grow innovation at the local level, 

which enables NASA to meet our 

Federal open-data mandates. v

In conjunction with the United State of Women Summit, NASA hosted “Engaging Women and Girls in STEM Through Data Science.” It was an 

afternoon of discussions and presentations on the role of data science at NASA; opportunities for women and girls in data science; and NASA 

initiatives designed to engage women and girls in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) through data science, such as 

the Space Apps Challenge, Data Bootcamp, and Datanauts. Speakers included Megan Smith, U.S. Chief Technology Officer; Dava Newman, 

NASA Deputy Administrator; and Ellen Stofan, NASA Chief Scientist, as well as program staff and participants from Space Apps Challenge, 

Data Bootcamp, and Datanauts. For information about the United State of Women Summit, visit http://www.theunitedstateofwomen.org/.

Photo Credits above: (NASA/Aubrey Gemignani) | Photo Credits below: (NASA/Michael Porterfield)

Michelle Easter Tina Lai Jerelyn Rodriguez Dr. Shobhana Gupta

NASA OCIO IT Talk Jul - Sep 2016 7
Reap the WorldWind: Data Visualization

By Patrick Hogan, WorldWind Program Manager; Nick Skytland, Data Evangelist; & John Sprague, Deputy, Technology & Innovation Division

Long ago and far away, in the land of NASA 

Education, one of our nobler efforts, and 

certainly an invaluable one, we have enjoyed 

a special opportunity to share knowledge 

and excite the imagination toward a 

greater understanding of our universe.

In 2002, NASA Learning Technologies, the 

Agency’s effort to place NASA content in 

classrooms, engineered the first open-source 

virtual globe. Even at 250 megabytes, due to 

the base set of BlueMarble data, there were 

successive days of almost 100,000 downloads 

per day from SourceForge, where WorldWind 

was transferred because NASA servers were 

unprepared for this level of interest at the time.

It was over a year later that Google Earth was 

to arrive on the scene. Educational models 

were built with WorldWind, from tracking the 

Lewis and Clark journey to examining a 3D 

Moon and Mars! Imagine being able to fly 

through the Valles Marineris of Mars or visit 

the far side of the Moon way back in 2003!

This was all great fun and had tremendous 

educational value that also strengthened 

the NASA name. WorldWind was a Windows 

app at the time. Since then, we have added 

a Java version in 2006, an Android version 

in 2012, an iOS version in 2013, and now 

the Web App version in JavaScript/HTML5. 

Today, the Federal Aviation Administration’s 

(FAA’s) next-generation technology for 

maintaining optimum performance of the 

National Airspace System (NAS) is based on 

WorldWind. Additionally, many U.S. Government 

agencies, including the Missile Defense Agency, 

Army, Navy, Air Force, and Drug Enforcement 

Administration (DEA), as well as European 

government agencies, including the European 

Space Agency, all use NASA WorldWind to 

visualize their operations with great success. 

Web WorldWind is written in JavaScript and 

provides a JavaScript Application Programming 

Interface (API) for controlling all aspects of 

virtual globe interaction and display. The 

WorldWind Web version enables Webpage 

and Web app developers to quickly and easily 

create interactive visualizations of geographic 

information displayed on a 3D globe or 2D map.

WorldWind won the NASA Inventions 

and Contributions Board 2009 Software 

of the Year Award. One development 

project based on WorldWind was also a 

Europa Challenge winner in 2015.

To see WorldWind in action for yourself, 

please visit http://worldwindserver.net/

webworldwind/apps/Explorer.html. v

Innovation of Business Processes Happening 

at NASA Langley Research Center

A cross-Center collaboration group, the Center 

Automation Team (CAT), plans to utilize the 

ServiceNow platform to automate a growing 

list of more than 68 business processes 

at NASA Langley Research Center. Led by 

CAT Project Leads Hope Venus, Office of 

the Chief Information Officer (OCIO), and 

Chuck Brooks, Office of the Chief Financial 

Officer (OCFO)/Advanced Analytics and 

Automation Office (AAAO), the platform, 

named OnePlace, will launch this summer. 

The Center Automation Team was formed 

when Center leadership saw an opportunity to 

improve performance and save money through 

process optimization and integration utilizing 

modern technology and methods. “It is exciting 

to be utilizing the ServiceNow enterprise 

solution cloud technology to better integrate 

our processes and information, resulting in 

more affordable, customer-focused IT services,” 

said Cathy Mangum, NASA Langley Associate 

Director and the initiative’s executive sponsor. 

ServiceNow is an enterprise cloud company 

that specializes in providing custom servicemanagement platforms that deliver automated 

business services. Founder Fred Luddy describes 

his vision for the platform as “a cloud-based 

platform that enables regular people to create 

meaningful applications to route work through 

an enterprise.” The platform was selected 

because it meets, and in many cases exceeds, 

the team’s business requirements, which are to

provide integrated process improvement 

and integration into an agile software 

development framework (processes 

and people over technology),

enable shared services to 

minimize redundancies and 

increase collaboration,

utilize a low-code (point-andclick) mobile-optimized 

automation platform, and

host in the cloud.

Hope and Chuck see the potential that 

OnePlace holds, not only to automate a 

multitude of processes across the Center, 

saving time and resources, but also to 

increase collaboration between organizations. 

When OnePlace is launched, it will initially 

focus on two capabilities: the Center’s Key 

Activities and Talent Development. Following 

this, phase two of the implementation will 

assess other automation needs and enable 

“citizen developers” within organizations 

to ultimately ensure the solution’s 

continued growth and optimization. v

8 www.nasa.gov
Cloud Computing

at NASA

Cloud computing in its modern context 

was introduced nine years ago, with 

web-age companies leading the charge. 

Since then, the industry has greatly 

expanded and matured to the point that 

the tremendous benefits of the cloud 

computing model are getting clearer every 

day for large institutions like NASA. The 

Enterprise Managed Cloud Computing 

(EMCC) program offers selected cloud 

services suitable for Agency use AND 

provides Agency-level guidance and 

instructions for other NASA entities to 

take the steps necessary, on their own, 

to leverage the universe of commercial 

cloud services in accordance with NASA's 

Enterprise Managed Cloud Program. To 

learn more about Cloud Computing at 

NASA, point your favorite browser to the 

EMCC site at https://intranet.share.nasa.

gov/agency/cloudservices. Information 

includes Center Cloud Points of Contact, 

Technical & Guidance documentation, 

News, Forums, and more. The Computing 

Services Program Office (CSPO) also hosts 

a monthly Cloud Community of Interest 

(CCOI) session, covering informative 

enterprise cloud topics of interest to 

the community. Special guest speakers 

present a variety of interesting updates, 

and the Q&A sessions are always 

informative. Recent sessions included: 

How JSC is using S3 to Expand its 

Service Offerings; Running Code without 

Thinking About Servers (AWS’ Lambda 

offering); The NASA Earth Science Data 

Systems Program's Development of a 

NASA-Compliant and Secure Cloud-Based 

Platform for Application Hosting; and, The 

Evolution of FedRAMP – Today and Moving 

Forward. To view past presentations, 

get added to the distribution, or suggest 

a topic you’d like to hear about, visit 

the CCOI site at https://intranet.share.

nasa.gov/agency/cloudservices/Pages/

CCOI.aspx. CCOI's are held the first 

Thursday of the month, at Noon (Pacific). 

We hope you will join us at a future 

NASA Cloud Community of Interest. v

WESTPrime Delivers Cloud Solutions for NASA

The Web Enterprise Services 

Technologies Prime (WESTPrime) 

contract is available to all NASA 

Centers and Headquarters to provide 

reliable, efficient, and secure cloud 

and Web services to support NASA’s 

mission. Managed by InfoZen, in 

conjunction with the NASA Web 

Services Office (WSO), these services 

include providing leading-edge cloud 

solutions, such as cloud migration, 

hosting and optimization, security and 

compliance, DevOps, big data/data 

integration, disaster recovery (DR)/

continuity of operations (COOP), and 

cloud readiness assessments for your 

applications and Websites. InfoZen 

provides WESTPrime customers with 

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), 

Software as a Service (SaaS), Platform 

as a Service (PaaS), and custom 

design and development services in 

the cloud. InfoZen has migrated over 

160 applications from NASA data 

centers to WESTPrime Cloud, which 

includes more than 65 applications 

over a record period of 13 weeks.

InfoZen’s team of architects and 

engineers has collaborated with a host 

of NASA customers, including the Extra 

Vehicular Activity (EVA) team, who 

wrote and deployed a consolidated and 

transparent Electronic Data Integration 

Application in support of the EVA 

mission. The team also supported the 

Human Exploration Research Analog 

(HERA) team, who required terabytes 

of storage in the cloud in support of 

their Human Health and Performance 

system. The WESTPrime architected, 

self-managed Storage System helped 

the customers manage their archival 

data easily and effectively in the cloud. 

In addition, the www.nasa.gov and 

Science Mission Directorate teams 

have extensively engaged WESTPrime 

to redesign and deploy their CMS and 

portal sites using a responsive design, 

open-source framework, and over 70 

applications across multiple Centers 

and missions. The InfoZen team 

established a DevOps environment for 

Continuous Integration (CI), Continuous 

Delivery (CD), collaboration, and project 

management, which was very widely 

adopted by WESTPrime customers.

The InfoZen team has incorporated 

proven security, compliance, and 

privacy practices into the entire 

migration and operations life cycle 

to manage risks and has worked 

with the Agency to ensure that cloud 

solutions meet Federal Information 

Security Management Act (FISMA) 

and Federal Risk and Authorization 

Management Program (FedRAMP) 

requirements in compliance with our 

continuously monitored ATO. Our 

enterprise cloud approach focuses on 

meeting the common needs across 

NASA, providing a holistic approach 

to cloud security, maximizing the 

performance of cloud solutions, 

and providing shared services that 

reduce costs for all stakeholders. We 

maintain independence from Cloud 

Service Providers (CSPs) and ensure 

that the best solutions are selected 

and implemented according to each 

customer’s unique requirements.

Our team architected and deployed 

an IPv6 solution in the public cloud in 

support of the customer’s requirements 

and the Federal mandate, which is a 

notable achievement considering that 

most CSPs fully support only IPv4 

addresses. WESTPrime worked with 

NASA to deploy their Enterprise Search 

solution in the cloud. By replacing the 

Google Search Appliance, Enterprise 

Search saved NASA thousands of 

dollars in licensing fees. The Enterprise 

Search architecture involved a stateof-the-art hybrid deployment model 

that met business requirements and 

reduced OpEx costs. InfoZen and 

WESTPrime have received 

several NASA awards. The 

WESTPrime cloud program 

is one of the largest 

and most successful 

cloud programs in the 

Federal market. v

NASA OCIO IT Talk Jul - Sep 2016 9
JPL IT Directorate Recognized with 2016 Industry Honors

By Whitney Haggins, IT Communication Strategist, Jet Propulsion 

Laboratory, California Institute of Technology

The Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s (JPL) IT 

Directorate was recognized in the first half of 

2016 with four prestigious industry honors.

In January, JPL was named to the Digital Edge 25

at IDG Enterprise’s AGENDA16 conference. The 

award recognizes a select group of organizations 

who are digital achievers working toward 

becoming a digital-centric business. This is JPL’s 

first time being selected to the Digital Edge 25.

In April, JPL was ranked tenth in the 

annual InformationWeek Elite 100. The 

award, celebrating its 28th year, ranks 

and honors the 100 most innovative users 

of business technology in the United 

States. The selection marks JPL’s second 

appearance on the InformationWeek Elite 

100 and its second top ten finish.

On June 1, JPL was named a CIO 100 

Honoree by CIO Magazine. The CIO 100 honors 

100 organizations that have distinguished 

themselves through their innovative use of 

technology to create business value. The award 

recognized JPL’s enhanced search capability 

and its use for analysis of data within the 

science, engineering, business, and flight 

mission communities. NASA’s Glenn Research 

Center was also named to the CIO 100. This 

marks JPL’s fifth consecutive appearance 

on the CIO 100. The 100 honorees will be 

profiled in the August issue of CIO Magazine.

On June 13, JPL was named one of the 

Best Places to Work in IT by Computerworld 

Magazine. JPL was ranked number 17 among 

large companies on the Best Places to Work in 

IT list. This is JPL’s fourth consecutive time to be 

honored with inclusion on the list, a ranking of 

the top 100 work environments for information 

technology professionals by IDG’s Computerworld 

Magazine. The list is compiled based on a 

comprehensive questionnaire regarding company 

offerings in categories such as benefits, 

career development, training, and retention. In 

addition, Computerworld conducts extensive 

surveys of IT workers, and their responses 

factor heavily in determining the rankings.

Jim Rinaldi, JPL CIO said, “I’m thrilled 

and honored that the JPL IT team’s 

accomplishments are recognized by industry, 

especially as these recognitions are focused 

on the value that IT brings to JPL.” v

JPL’s IT Expo: A Hands-on Experience of the Future

By Chris Cornwell, Manager, Customer Care and Performance Management Office, and Whitney Haggins,

IT Communications Strategist, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology

On May 19, JPL’s Office of the CIO, IT partners, 

and organizations welcomed the Laboratory 

community to its annual IT Expo, located on 

the JPL Mall. The OCIO-hosted event’s theme, 

“My Digital Life,” highlighted the power of 

technology and its ability to connect people and 

places from around the globe by embracing 

emerging technologies and best practices to 

help users thrive in JPL’s digital environment. 

Participants engaged in conversations with 

OCIO team members, partners, and industry 

vendors to learn about IT products and services 

designed to help simplify the individual’s digital 

workspace, enable process improvements, 

ensure cybersecurity, and enhance collaboration 

through innovation.

The event expanded beyond the traditional 

“big white tent” to accommodate more than 

60 exhibitors, a combination of JPL and 

industry vendors, to include areas for an 

Immersion Experience exhibit, an Internet 

of Things (IoT) tent, and a special enclosure 

created to showcase drone technology. From 

augmented reality apps to JPL’s digital data 

strategy, cybersecurity to document marking 

and handling, going paperless to customized 

tools supporting the business, engineering, 

and science communities, the event generated 

widespread enthusiasm for JPL’s IT portfolio 

of products and services. Through the use of a 

free Guidebook app available for download to 

mobile devices, attendees were able to preview 

the exhibitor list and descriptions about the 

products, services, and vendors participating 

at the Expo in advance, enabling participants 

to customize their IT Expo experience. One of 

the new technologies prototyped at the IT Expo 

by IT Solutions Strategist Gabriel Rangel was 

360-degree camera technology. JPL is testing 

360 or VR photography to capture the entire 

area’s surroundings which can be viewed in 

an immersive way with a mobile device. The 

technology could prove beneficial in labs, clean 

rooms, and conference rooms. We invite you to 

experience the IT Expo through the following 

sampling of 360-degree photos:

http://gabriel360.azurewebsites.net/ITExpo2.html

http://gabriel360.azurewebsites.net/ITExpo3.html

http://gabriel360.azurewebsites.net/ITExpo4.html 

10 www.nasa.gov
From Subterranean Communications to Mars Hopping, 

NASA Global Challenge Yields Mobile Innovations

Six teams from around the world will have 

a chance to attend a NASA launch at Cape 

Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida as the 

winners of NASA’s 2016 International Space 

Apps Challenge, a global contest to create 

mobile apps and technologies that aid in space 

exploration and help improve life here on Earth.

“The Space Apps Challenge is one vehicle for 

NASA to engage individuals and communities 

around our open-data and technology tools. 

NASA’s culture of innovation enables us to sharpen 

our focus on future exploration of our solar system 

and to make discoveries that benefit human life 

here on Earth,” said Agency Deputy Administrator 

Dava Newman. “We’re committed to unleashing 

the spirit of innovation not only at NASA, but 

with citizens around the world, and to getting 

more girls and women in data science fields. 

We’re encouraged by the enthusiastic response 

we’ve seen in these creative team solutions.”

The fifth annual code-a-thon was held April 22–24 

at 161 locations worldwide. More than 15,000 

participants took on the task of designing solutions 

for the 25 challenges in NASA’s six mission-related 

categories: Aeronautics, Earth, International Space 

Station, Journey to Mars, Solar System and Beyond, 

and Space Technology. Six “best in class” winners 

were selected from the more than 1,200 entries.

Best Use of Data

Scintilla, created at the main-stage event in 

Pasadena, CA, mitigates the impact of poor air 

quality in the global community by democratizing 

air quality data collection. Leveraging social media 

and text analysis, the Scintilla Web portal collects 

and displays real-time human sentiment on air 

pollution. Scintilla solves the AirCheck challenge to 

develop an app or platform to crowd-source data 

on environmental factors that affect human health.

Best Use of Hardware

Canaria, created by a team at the London event, 

is a 3D printed earpiece designed as a lifeline 

for the wearer, simultaneously monitoring heart 

rate, blood oxygen, and atmospheric carbon 

dioxide levels. Named for the canaries used by 

19th-century miners as a warning system for 

toxic levels of dangerous gases in the mines, 

Canaria has an audible danger threshold alarm 

to alert the wearer. Canaria addressed the 

Rock-IT Space Fashion and Design challenge 

to create high-tech fashion that can collect or 

distribute data and provide interconnectivity, 

health benefits, or entertainment.

Best Mission Concept

FractalNet, created by a Greensboro, NC team, 

is a network of wireless devices that provides 

communications in a subterranean environment 

where radio communications are not possible 

beyond short distances, such as caves or 

lava tubes on the Moon, Mars, or asteroids. 

Key to the concept is the Data Glove, the link 

between mobile nodes and a base station. 

FractalNet also solves the Rock-IT challenge.

Galactic Impact

The Live Ice Velocity Estimation (L.I.V.E.) Glacier 

Project, created at the event in Rome, Italy, 

is a Web tool that provides near-real-time 

visualizations of glacier surfaces, an indicator 

of climate change. In conjunction with the 

Glancy image-sharing app, L.I.V.E. can be 

used to collect crowdsourced glacier photos 

to support scientific analysis and awareness 

of environmental impact. L.I.V.E addresses the 

Earth Live challenge to develop a Web tool or 

app that uses NASA and/or European Space 

Agency (ESA) satellite imagery and climate data 

to illustrate impacts of our changing Earth.

Most Inspirational

Kid on the Moon, created by a team in Toronto, 

is an interactive app with a self-guided 

exploration of the Moon to inspire passion for 

space travel in children 4 to 8 years old and 

their families. This project solves the Book It 

to the Moon challenge to create an interactive 

app that children can use to locate the Moon 

and unlock lunar data, images, and stories.

People’s Choice Award

Mars Hopper, created at the event in Kiev, Ukraine, 

is a concept plane designed to investigate the 

Mars poles and their surroundings, using dry ice 

from the surface of the planet as fuel. Mars Hopper 

solves the Jet Set Mars challenge to design a 

conceptual mobility device that allows easy and 

rapid exploration of difficult Martian terrain.

To learn more about the International Space 

Apps Challenge and recent winners, visit

http://spaceappschallenge.org. v

NASA STIPO/STISS Answering the Call at JSC By Jaumarro A. Cuffee,JSC IRD Communications

NASA’s Scientific and Technical Information 

Program Office (STIPO) and Scientific and 

Technical Information Support Services Office 

(STISS) are answering the call to encourage 

responsible publication by NASA authors and 

raise awareness of the scientific and technical 

information (STI) resources available for NASA 

authors, the NASA community, and the public.

STIPO representatives Deputy, Program Manager 

Jennifer Perez and Agency Technical Publication 

Manager Gerald Steeman, along with STISS 

personnel Senior Technical Lead Annie Dash 

(LAMPS) and Project Coordination Support Zehna 

Windle, are making the rounds. During their visit to 

Johnson Space Center (JSC) May 11 to 12, STIPO 

and STISS visitors reminded JSC authors of the 

importance of submitting their work through the STI 

review process, not only for appropriate distribution, 

but also to build upon an ever-growing body of 

scientific and technical knowledge. JSC STI Program 

Manager Vanessa Beene agrees that the information 

made available through the NASA Technical Reports 

Server (NTRS) can help further the research in 

the NASA community; educate presenters and 

volunteers who champion science, technology, 

engineering, and mathematics (STEM) activities in 

their communities; and arm parents who wish to 

encourage their children and expand young minds. 

Apprehension of limited access was partly assuaged 

by the reminder that although NTRS makes STI 

information publicly available, additional information 

is made available to NASA users in NTRS Registered. 

NASA users can request access to NTRS Registered 

through the NASA Access Management System.

Responsible publication is important for preserving 

and furthering NASA’s mission and providing the 

public with a valuable resource. During their visit, 

Beene says STIPO and STISS personnel asked, 

“How can we make this easier for you? How 

can we help you?” Through their Center visits, 

willingness to provide information to groups and 

individuals, and availability for future training, 

NASA STIPO and STISS are easing hesitations 

associated with the STI review process and helping 

people better understand the wealth of information 

available as they continue to answer the call. v

NASA OCIO IT Talk Jul - Sep 2016 11
National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Office of the Chief Information Officer

300 E Street, SW

Washington, DC 20546

www.nasa.gov

Glenn Invites Public To Celebrate 75th Anniversary

NASA Glenn Research Center at Lewis Field hosted approximately 25,000 visitors during its 75th anniversary open house on May 21 

and 22, 2016. Neighbors near and far ventured to Cleveland, OH, to enjoy Glenn’s unique research and testing facilities, such as the 

Zero Gravity Drop Tower, the Icing Research Tunnel, the Telescience Support Center, and the Glenn Extreme Environments Rig. Each day 

featured special presentations by NASA astronauts and Glenn’s technologists and researchers, as well as hands-on activities for kids.

Over 4,000 guests visited the Glenn Office of the Chief Information Officer Graphics and Visualization (GVIS) Lab and the Glenn 

Reconfigurable User-interface Virtual Reality Exploration (GRUVE) Lab. Visitors had the opportunity to meet with GVIS computer researchers 

and engineers and experience how the GVIS uses scientific visualization, interactive augmented reality, gesture-based interfaces, 

and 3D displays of simulation data to support the research being conducted by NASA researchers as well as external partners. 

On June 11 and 12, 2016, NASA Glenn’s Plum Brook Station opened its doors to the public, enabling guests to tour the 

world’s largest vacuum chamber, which is housed at the Space Power Facility, the world’s largest space simulation 

facility; the Spacecraft Propulsion Research Facility, also known as the B-2; and the new Combined Effects Chamber, 

which, when completed, will simulate the conditions found on the surfaces of the Moon and Mars. v

IT Talk