2017

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National Aeronautics and Space Administration

www.nasa.gov

IT Talk

April - June 2017 Volume 7 • Issue 2
IT Talk

Apr - Jun 2017 Volume 7 • Issue 2

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

Copy Editor

Meredith Isaacs

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 inside.nasa.gov/ocio

 (Internal NASA network only)

v www.nasa.gov/open/

www.facebook.com/NASAcio

3

6

8

4

10

Message from

the NASA CIO

Datanauts-Growing 

Data Scientists One 

Day at a Time

NASA’s High-Tech 

Paint Helps Build 

Tougher Rockets

NASA's Deaf and Hard 

of Hearing Community 

Utilizes IT Solutions

BSA Corner

In this Issue
I’m always proud to boast about the terrific work being done at the Centers. In this 

issue, we’ll explore how the NASA Datanaut program is providing another year of 

data science discovery. Datanauts is a year-round opportunity to learn and practice 

data science skills. Datanauts are engaging with our open data to create innovative 

new thinking, processes, and products.

Also one year ago, we reached a successful milestone by implementing the Information Technology Business Services Assessment plan. The IT BSA is changing the 

way we do business and helping us to uncover savings, assist collaboration, and 

minimize redundancies.

We took a hard look at how we manage IT and outlined a series of steps the Agency 

needs to take to optimize and protect our IT assets. The BSA is ensuring that IT is 

seen as a strategic Agency resource, establishing clear direction for the NASA CIO to 

approve the Agency’s IT spending plan for oversight of non-highly specialized AND 

highly specialized IT investments. Our job is to deliver IT as a strategic partner to 

enable the mission safely and securely. We’ll take a look at where we are today and 

where we still need to go tomorrow.

And finally, technology trends continue to affect the way we do work. Employees can be more productive and more satisfied, 

and we can accomplish NASA’s mission more quickly, more securely, and at lower cost. We’ll show you something new on 

the horizon that may impact the next generation of explorers.

I hope you enjoy this issue.

NASA Women in Tech By Eldora Valentine, OCIO Communications Officer, Headquarters

A special congratulations goes to NASA Chief Information Officer Renee Wynn and Acting Deputy Associate Chief Information Officer for Technology and Innovation Beth Beck, who made FedScoop’s top women in technology list for 2017. 

You can read more at https://www.fedscoop.com/fedscoops-top-women-in-tech-2017-renee-wynn/ and https://www.

fedscoop.com/fedscoops-top-women-in-tech-2017-beth-beck/.

Additionally, NASA Chief Information Security Officer Jeanette Hanna Ruiz has been named one of the top women in 

cybersecurity by CyberScoop. For more information, visit https://www.cyberscoop.com/top-women-in-cybersecurityjeanette-hanna-ruiz/.

Renee Wynn, CIO Beth Beck, Acting DACIO for T&I Jeanette Hanna Ruiz, CISO

NASA OCIO IT Talk Apr - Jun 2017 3

Message from the NASA CIO 
NASA's Deaf and Hard of Hearing Community 

Utilizes IT Solutions to Enhance Collaboration

By Vince Whitfield, Communications Specialist, Langley Research Center

Deaf and Hard of Hearing (D/HH) employees 

across the Agency are discovering new ways to 

leverage collaboration services provided by the 

Agency’s Office of the Chief Information Officer 

(OCIO). William F. Wood is a LabVIEW developer/ 

architect and an engineer for various hardware 

prototype systems at NASA Langley Research 

Center. He is part of an initiative to enhance 

communication options for D/HH employees at 

NASA by utilizing the Agency’s Desktop Mobile 

Video Teleconferencing System (ViTS).

Wood has worked at NASA Langley Research 

Center (LaRC) for 25 years. He was born Deaf 

and utilizes interpreter Christina York to communicate with his team members and peers. 

Last year, he began collaborating with fellow D/

HH NASA employee Jessica Conner, who works 

at NASA Kennedy Space Center (KSC) and is 

the founder of the Agency-wide D/HH Interest 

Group (DHHIG). “This is an opportunity for us to 

get know each other, develop networking, share 

information and successful stories, discuss 

signs for NASA terminology, provide feedback 

about assistive technology, and more,” Conner 

Said. In April, 2016, the first NASA DHHIG ViTS 

session took place, with 19 participants connecting from conference rooms across multiple 

Centers. The DHHIG determined that since ViTS 

is not tailored to each participant’s individual 

needs, and scheduling sessions often requires 

participants to reserve the ViTS room months in 

advance, there might be better options.

What the DHHIG needed was an application 

that would work from within their own workstations and could accommodate a wider range of 

meeting schedules. Joan Roberts, who works in 

the Office of the Chief Financial Officer (OCFO) 

at NASA LaRC and whose parents are both 

deaf, connected Wood with Ed McLarney, the 

Center’s Chief Technology Officer for Information Technology. McLarney introduced the DHHIG to Desktop Mobile ViTS as an alternative to 

the conference room–based ViTS.

Wood, who is the technical point of contact for 

the DHHIG, found that Desktop Mobile ViTS is 

much better suited to the specific communication needs of D/HH users. He recently began 

meeting with trainers and developers from the 

Communications Service Office at NASA Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC), the facility 

that provides Desktop Mobile ViTS, to test various configurations of the service. The goal of 

this testing and development is to identify the 

best mobile video communication system. “I 

am very excited about our team effort to be able 

to improve the video communication technology directly with their developers, who are very 

eager to have our feedback,” Wood said.

In addition to utilizing videoconferencing to 

communicate with his fellow employees, Wood 

is also working to help NASA’s D/HH community 

agree on common sign language for technical 

terms used within NASA where none already 

exist. “Because there is no formally centralized 

Agency-wide program for D/HH employees to 

be able to collaborate with each other, we have 

developed our own sign language for many, if 

not most, of the technical words we use daily,” 

Wood explains. He also sees the technology’s 

potential to inform students about careers at 

NASA, plan events such as Deaf Awareness 

Week, and expand discussions about D/HH accessibility issues to all Centers.

Efforts such as those undertaken by Wood and 

the DHHIG are outstanding examples of the 

powerful nature of using collaborative technology in innovative ways to meet the needs 

of diverse NASA populations. To find out more 

about the Agency’s collaboration services, visit 

the NASA Communications Service Office page 

at https://cso.nasa.gov/. v

NASA DHHIG Members William Wood, 

Joan Roberts, and Christina York use 

American Sign Language (ASL) to 

discuss communication systems.

4 www.nasa.gov
A Robotic Ambassador

By Tomas Soderstrom, Chief Technology and Innovation Officer, and Michael “Mik” Cox,

IT Data Scientist, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology

How can we reach and impact the next generation of explorers? How can we make them care 

about science, engineering, and technology? 

How can we prepare them to work for NASA?

What if we built a cute, smart rover with which 

they can talk? If we built it, would they engage?

As it turns out, Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) 

actually did build one...and ROV-E is her name-o.

The Remotely Operated Vehicle for Education 

(ROV-E) was built over the course of about a 

year by six early-career hires at JPL as a way 

to learn the end-to-end process for building a 

spacecraft. They designed and built ROV-E to 

go to schools and museums and drive over 

people as they lay on the floor. The rover has 

expandable USB ports to allow future engineers 

and dreamers to give her new features.

This year, we used these USB ports to give ROVE a voice through Amazon’s Alexa, powered by 

Amazon Lex.

We demonstrated ROV-E’s new features at Amazon’s re:Invent conference in December 2016. 

ROV-E, looking a bit like the Curiosity rover, strutted her stuff in front of several thousand people, 

and they marveled at her prowess and agility.

She drove and answered questions about Mars 

(yes, by speaking). She is built from mostly open 

source software and hardware components and 

3D printed parts. She can take driving commands 

both from voice commands and from an optional 

remote control. She can automatically follow you 

around using a camera and a 3D depth sensor. 

She can avoid obstacles and even has a blinker to 

tell us where she’s going. She can do this through 

a constant connection to the Internet.

The grand finale of ROV-E’s demos happened 

when we turned off the Internet on stage—and 

ROV-E kept going. This feat constituted the worldwide launch of a new technology called Greengrass that Amazon and JPL had worked on and 

that Amazon launched at the re:Invent conference. 

It allows Lambda and IoT (Internet of Things) functions to work without Internet and to reconnect 

and continue to stream data and update themselves once Internet is available again. This type 

of technology could be really important to NASA 

in offline situations such as sending rovers under 

vast sheets of ice or automatically guiding rovers 

to help find and rescue stranded miners. 

So, did people engage? Yes, they did. ROV-E was 

the star of the show, with people even asking to 

take selfies with her. She has appeared at the 

NASA booth at the Consumer Electronics Show 

and has gone to numerous outreach events. We 

have since released the logic for ROV-E’s voice 

to the public through a custom Alexa skill called 

“NASA Mars,” where anyone can get answers 

to thousands of questions about Mars as well 

as the latest updates on what the real Curiosity 

rover is up to on Mars.

We decided to take the next step and make ROVE available to the world through inexpensive open 

source components and a simple instruction 

manual so that anyone can build one at home or 

at school. We want to make it cheaper and easier 

than it currently is to build. We also want to make 

it into a science platform, where citizen scientists 

of all ages will be able to add their own hardware 

and program their own experiments. 

By the end of this summer, ROV-E will come 

to explorers and tinkerers of all ages and to a 

school or museum near you. We hope that ROVE will be a robotic ambassador that will make 

NASA proud and inspire everyone to participate 

in NASA’s mission. v

Federal 100 

Winners 

Announced

Congratulations to 2017 Federal 100 

winners Luis Barés, Enterprise Collaboration Services Lead, KSC; Tomas 

J. Soderstrom, Chief Technology and Innovation Officer JPL; and Kevin Murphy 

Program Executive for Earth Science 

Data Systems. The Federal 100 Awards 

recognize Government and industry 

leaders who have played pivotal roles 

in the Federal Government IT community. This year's winners were honored 

at the March 30 Federal 100 Awards 

gala in Washington, DC. The full list of 

winners is available at https://fcw.com/

articles/2017/03/30/2017-fed-100-mainpage.aspx.

Luis Barés

Tom Soderstrom

Kevin Murphy

NASA OCIO IT Talk Apr - Jun 2017 5
Datanauts—Growing Data Scientists One Day at a Time

By Beth Beck, PhD, Acting Deputy Associate CIO for Technology and Innovation, Headquarters

The NASA Datanaut initiative is an innovative, agile design practice that offers a social dev-ops (software development–IT operations) environment for 

participants to beta-test coding, leadership, and project management skills using NASA data and tools, while providing NASA with unique insights into the 

data communities they represent. Each 

new class of volunteers allows NASA to 

evolve processes to take advantage of 

lessons learned from the serendipity of 

skills, personalities, interests, and engagement of the participants.

Datanauts represent varied backgrounds, experiences, and technical 

expertise with one common thread: 

Each is eager to learn and enhance 

coding skills; experiment with NASA’s 

data, tools, and techniques; and engage with subject matter experts. Selection for the program is a subjective 

process intended to create a collaborative cohort to enable experimentation 

with concepts and processes. The end 

goal is to help NASA define and develop opportunities to increase the ratio 

of women and girls in the data science 

and data analytics fields.

We started the process 3 years ago, 

when our Office of the Chief Information 

Officer (OCIO) Open Innovation team 

noticed the imbalance of men to women—80:20 ratio—among volunteer participants who engage with NASA’s open 

data initiatives. The team embarked on 

a quest to better understand how to attract more women and girls to data by 

conducting a two-part study consisting of a literature review, followed by 

dozens of interviews with leaders in the 

data, maker, and startup communities. 

The findings from the study included the 

following: Women are looking for signs 

that they will be welcome at an event, 

they want a collaborative environment 

to explore new skills and topics, and 

they look for opportunities to team and 

partner in the exploration process.

To address these insights, we created 

several new efforts, including the NASA 

Datanaut initiative, to serve as an experiment in targeted data engagement, 

using agile development practices to 

test out new concepts; keep, expand, 

and enhance what works; and fix or 

discard what does not. We designed 

NASA Datanauts to encourage women 

and newcomers to explore NASA data 

and tools in a collaborative environment with other data explorers who 

come from varied backgrounds and 

coding skill levels. 

NASA is currently hosting the third 

class of Datanauts, selected in January 

2017. The Datanaut experience encourages individual and group discovery 

through data challenges, virtual data 

chats with NASA and external experts, 

and community events hosted by class 

members. Individuals step into leadership roles to champion collaborative 

project design and development among 

their peers, as well as community 

events within their influence networks. 

Datanauts from previous classes serve 

as volunteer mentors and subject matter experts for incoming classes, modeling collaborative learning. The first 

three classes are part of a growing ecosystem of data problem-solvers. 

Our founding class of 20 female leaders in the data and tech fields served 

as informal design thinkers to help us 

understand their communities and develop tools and activities to bridge the 

gap. We intended the all-female founding class to serve as a signal for future 

classes that women are always welcome, while we opened future class 

participation to both men and women.

The founding class of Datanauts worked 

with the OCIO Open Innovation team to 

co-create the design elements for the fu6 www.nasa.gov
ture classes. Our team listened to their 

ideas, fleshed them out, and built products and experiences for future classes. 

Our team created an interactive user 

dashboard for virtual data engagements 

to learn and practice coding and data 

science as a cohort. We gave Datanauts 

the opportunity to collaborate on monthly challenges and individually focused 

code skill tracks for beginners and advanced coders, including a track to create an open-source code library for orbital dynamics enthusiasts. We worked 

with internal and external experts to design data engagement toolkits for class 

members to host community events, including a build-a-circuit kit, a starry night 

journal with a circuit board and corresponding app to mash up interactive 

space sounds, and a data visualization 

tutorial leveraging data.nasa.gov tools. 

The second class of 45 women 

and 5 men served as beta-testers for the concepts designed 

and developed with the founding class. We intentionally selected participants—artists, 

storytellers, software developers, and hardware designers—

with a blend of experiences, 

skill levels, and coding proficiency that ranged from beginner to expert. We created a 

collaborative environment for 

class members to learn from 

one another.

By the second class, our NASA 

team recognized a need for 

more facilitated conversations 

for idea sharing. We created the 

virtual data water cooler concept to bring in NASA experts 

to share mission content, interesting technologies, or new 

project ideas. We scheduled 

30-minute chats twice a week 

with beginning to advanced 

content. For example, OCIO’s 

Dr. Brian Thomas, Jason Duley, Faith Chandler, and Dr. Andrew Adrian shared topics that 

ranged from machine learning 

and natural language processing to code sharing and cybersecurity. Dan O’Neil, Marshall 

Space Flight Center (MSFC), 

was a frequent host discussing 

orbital dynamics, ontologies, and 

visualizations. Dr. Shobhana Gupta, Science Mission Directorate (SMD), shared 

the intersection of health and Earth science data. In addition to these and other 

NASA experts, we have featured outside 

experts, as well as Datanauts themselves. 

The current class, made up of 78 percent women, reflects the ratio of female 

applicants, which is a measure of success in itself. Women are indeed drawn 

to the program, as we had hoped in the 

original design. The NASA team, using 

our agile approach, made significant 

changes in the experience design this 

third round. We reworked the selection 

criteria and sought out applicants with 

project management and team-building 

skills to help fellow class members selforganize around concepts or ideas. In 

addition, we eliminated monthly challenges, focusing instead on collaborative projects; added capabilities for 

Datanauts to self-generate group projects on our internal open.nasa.gov Web 

site; and enabled the co-creation of new 

community toolkits. We are impressed 

by what they have created so far, including a book on text mining leveraging NASA datasets, a Python Webscraping tool, a data-enriched Mars 

landscape interactive game, a deeplearning tutorial using NASA data, and 

more. We expect to see more projects 

generated by the Datanaut ecosystem 

as class members step into leadership 

roles with their peers.

To learn more about Datanauts, visit:

https://open.nasa.gov/explore/

datanauts/.

2017 Datanaut Class Kickoff Meeting, February 23 2017 – NASA Headquarters

NASA OCIO IT Talk Apr - Jun 2017 7
NASA’s High-Tech Paint Helps Build Tougher Rockets

NASA’s Ames Research Center (ARC) 

has a myriad of high-tech missions and 

research projects that run around the 

clock. From creating ever-smaller cube 

satellites (CubeSats), to running everimproving rovers over landscapes similar to Mars’, to nanobots and everything in between, ARC supports some 

amazing programs benefiting all walks 

of life. Several breakthroughs in hightech paint have been made recently, 

including accomplishments in the area 

of testing rockets before they undergo 

the rigors of outer space.

A high-tech paint made a state-of-theart aerodynamics test possible at ARC 

in California’s Silicon Valley. Called Unsteady PSP (for “pressure-sensitive 

paint”), it reacts with oxygen to produce 

light in response to buffeting against 

the rocket structure. Pink in color, the 

paint is applied to a small-scale model rocket that is then tested in a wind 

tunnel, with high-speed cameras recording images under ultraviolet light. 

The pressure data are visualized as colors (red: higher than average pressure; 

blue: lower than average pressure) 

and represent the moments before the 

rocket reaches supersonic speeds.

Both aircraft and spacecraft must be 

designed to withstand these dynamic forces, called buffeting, or risk being shaken to pieces. Unsteady PSP 

had already been used in small research tunnels for several years, but a 

test conducted by the Air Force convinced the NASA Ames team, led by 

Jim Ross and Jayanta Panda, that they 

could adapt the methods for use in 

their bigger, busier wind tunnel environment. Gathered data provide researchers with vital information that should ultimately lead to improvements in the 

aerodynamic design and capabilities of 

space rockets.

More details about Ames Research 

Center and their missions and projects, 

along with videos of PSP being tested, 

are available at https://www.nasa.gov/

centers/ames/home/index.html. v

NASA’s Amber Favaregh prepares a 

model rocket for testing with pressure-sensitive paint.

8 www.nasa.gov
2017 NASA IT 

Strategic Plan

In collaboration with NASA’s Mission Directorates, Centers, and 

institutional offices, the OCIO is 

formulating the 2017 NASA IT 

Strategic Plan. The IT Strategic 

Plan sets the direction and priorities for the IT community to help 

accomplish NASA’s Strategic 

Plan.

The strategic use of IT contributes to NASA’s missions in several ways:

• shares NASA’s data 

and results,

• increases quality and 

effectiveness, 

• accelerates results, 

• increases safety 

and integrity, 

• increases costeffectiveness, and

• drives new discoveries.

To accomplish these mission-oriented strategic outcomes, NASA 

identified five strategic goals for 

IT that will change the way we 

do business. These goals focus 

on delivering excellence, capitalizing on data and innovation, 

safeguarding NASA’s data and 

IT assets, maximizing business 

value, and caring for our people 

and preparing them for tomorrow.

Strategy publication and outreach 

are planned for Spring 2017.

Security Tips – Mobile Devices

By Meredith Isaacs, OCIO Communications Specialist, NASA Headquarters

More and more, NASA’s work is conducted on devices beyond our workstations. As the number of mobile devices in circulation has increased, so 

have the opportunities and means for 

cyber attackers. Unfortunately, many 

commercial hacking apps and devices 

are available at low costs, and instructions are easily accessible online. How 

many of us know how to protect the 

Agency’s data on our mobile devices?

Gaining Access

Many times, attackers gain access to 

mobile devices through honest mistakes made by owners, but no matter 

how well-intentioned one may be, missteps can compromise NASA’s information and systems. The following are 

some ways hackers gain entry to your 

device:

• employee opens unknown links 

and e-mail attachments;

• employee connects to unsecure public Wi-Fi accounts 

(e.g., Starbucks, hotels, etc.);

• employee’s device is 

hacked via Bluetooth; 

• employee accepts counterfeit updates; or

• employee loses, and later 

recovers, the device.

Once an attacker has access to your 

mobile device, you may notice some 

disturbances while other intrusions go 

undetected. Some may see their device turn off and on independently, new 

apps appear and run, battery drain, and 

either an increase in dropped calls or 

unexpectedly good service. Without indication, attackers may skirt password 

protection, impersonate voice services 

(like Siri), and activate the microphone 

or camera.

Protect Yourself and NASA

The threat is out there. What can you do? 

• If possible, do not use public WiFi; rely on your mobile network.

• If necessary, only connect 

to the public Wi-Fi name 

provided by the business.

• Use VPN.

• Back up data regularly to 

defend against ransomware.

• Use encryption. 

• Disable unknown, thirdparty applications. 

• Maintain daily security 

practices: Set strong passwords 

and be vigilant with links/

attachments; do not share 

your passwords with others.

• Keep operating systems, 

applications, and browsers 

up to date; apply patches. 

• Secure Wi-Fi in your home 

when teleworking: Use WPA2 

security, update default settings, 

and restrict public access.

If you suspect that your NASA mobile 

device has been compromised, shut it 

off and report it to the NASA Security 

Operations Center (SOC) immediately 

at soc@nasa.gov or 877-627-2732. In 

addition to recommending preventative 

measures, NASA also employs Mobile 

Device Management (MDM) security 

precautions to protect your Agency devices and data. 

If your personal device is compromised, 

shut it off and return it to the store; they 

will reload the operating system. If your 

personal device contained NASA data, 

report it to the SOC immediately. 

For more information on mobile device security, please visit https://inside.

nasa.gov/itsd/mobile-security.

NASA OCIO IT Talk Apr - Jun 2017 9
BSA Corner By Meredith Isaacs, OCIO Communications Specialist, NASA Headquarters

This March, the Information Technology (IT) Business Services Assessment 

(BSA) Implementation Plan reached its 

one-year anniversary. Over the past 12 

months, IT personnel from across the 

Agency have met targets, from great to 

small, all to change the way IT at NASA 

works. While there is more work left to 

do, this new direction is more efficient, 

more secure, and more collaborative; 

additionally, it will yield savings to reinvest into enterprise IT services and the 

missions.

Efficiency

Through strategic sourcing, data center 

consolidation and cloud adoption, the 

zero-based review (ZBR) of IT Security 

spending, governance board adjustments, and creation of the Core Suite 

of Collaboration Tools, among others, 

the IT BSA targets duplication and inefficiency. Further, the shift of some IT 

services to enterprise management will 

increase Agency standardization.

Security 

Ongoing IT Security efforts to protect 

NASA’s data include the December 

2016 deployment of the Continuous 

Diagnostics and Mitigation (CDM) tools 

for increased NASA network protection. Also forthcoming are the Risk Information Security Compliance System 

(RISCS) tools, both part of an IT Security architecture.

Collaboration

Inclusive governance boards, with representation from Office of the Chief 

Information Officer (OCIO) leadership 

and key stakeholders such as Mission 

Directorates, institutional offices, and 

Centers, increase IT portfolio oversight. 

On the horizon are the Core Suite tools, 

with Agency-wide availability. Also in 

progress are projects to upgrade Agency firewalls, increasing security and 

making collaboration between Centers 

easier.

Savings

The IT BSA calls for savings to be reinvested in enterprise services and missions. Contract management and communications services have produced 

savings, with another $13.35 million 

saved through data center consolidation. With continued efforts in these 

areas, and others like streamlining collaboration tools, more opportunities to 

save and reinvest will arise.

IT at NASA is evolving. There is greater 

sharing, oversight, and accountability, as well as insight into the entire IT 

portfolio. IT Services are uncovering 

savings and new efficiencies and are 

also under increased security. These 

projects and results influence other IT 

priorities like Federal Information Technology Acquisition Reform Act (FITARA) 

and Federal Information 

Security Management 

Act (FISMA) scores 

and the IT Strategic 

Plan. Thank you for 

supporting these efforts.

We want to hear from you! Send your 

questions, thoughts, and suggestions 

to HQ-ASK-BSA-IT@mail.nasa.gov.

Want to know more? Visit https://inside.nasa.gov/ocio/bsa.

Thank you to everyone who participated in February’s “IT BSA Ask-MeAnything with CIO Renee Wynn.” We 

fielded questions from across all Centers, and about 300 tuned in live—we 

loved hearing from you! 

If you missed the 

conversation, visit our Web site 

above for the 

full replay.

IT BSA Ask-Me-Anything with the CIO, February 22 2017. l-r Renee Wynn, Leah 

Hollander, Jonathan Aquino, Jonathan Reaves, Meredith Isaacs

10 www.nasa.gov
Astronaut Al Drew Talks Space with the OCIO

By Eldora Valentine, OCIO Communications Officer, Headquarters

Recently, astronaut and Air Force Colonel Al Drew held a brown-bag lunch 

session with the Office of the Chief Information Officer. Drew discussed his 

STS-133 mission, which took place 

in 2011. STS-133 was one of the last 

three missions in the history of the 

Space Shuttle Program.

Drew has over 3,500 hours of flying experience and has piloted 30 different 

types of aircraft. He was selected for the 

astronaut corps in 2000. His missions included STS-118 (2007), the 119th Space 

Shuttle flight and the 20th flight for Endeavor; and STS-133 (2011), the 133rd 

Shuttle mission and the 39th (and final) 

mission of Space Shuttle Discovery.

Drew grew up in the Washington, DC, 

area and graduated from Gonzaga 

High School in the district. He holds a 

B.S. in astronautical engineering and a 

B.S. in physics from the U.S. Air Force 

Academy, a master of aerospace science from Embry Riddle University, and 

a master of strategic studies in political science from the U.S. Air Force Air 

University.

Drew is currently working at NASA 

Headquarters in the Office of International and Interagency Relations.

Glenn IT Expo

By Kristin Ratino, Communications Specialist, Glenn Research Center 

NASA Glenn held a Tech Expo on 

March 2, which drew over 150 attendees. Center personnel engaged with 

field experts to learn about the latest 

trends and emerging technologies in 

data storage management, cybersecurity, content management solutions, 

engineering simulation software, and 

more. Connecting with peers and industry partners in this informal environment enabled staff to share knowledge 

about their missions and discover innovative solutions to their current challenges. Product experts in the fields of 

cloud storage and automated testing 

participated in technology informationsharing sessions, delving further into 

details about cloud storage solutions in 

a Government environment and electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) testing software solutions that automate 

testing and report generation.

NASA OCIO IT Talk Apr - Jun 2017 11
National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Office of the Chief Information Officer

300 E Street, SW

Washington, DC 20546

www.nasa.gov

Women of NASA Lego figures featuring:

Margaret Hamilton, Katherine Johnson, Sally 

Ride, Nancy Grace Roman, and Mae Jemison

Congratulations to Sittra Battle, Assistant Program Manager for End User Services. She was selected as a Marshall Space Flight 

Center Modern Figure for her contributions to OCIO. She's third from the left on the top row.

IT Talk