National Aeronautics and Space Administration

A publication of NASA Research Park

NRP POST The

Winter 2013

I am extremely pleased to announce today that 

Singularity Hub has been acquired by Singularity University. Singularity Hub’s mission has always been to 

offer readers the best news coverage of sci/tech breakthroughs that are rapidly changing human abilities, 

health, and society. Now, as part of Singularity University, 

Singularity Hub will be able to fulfill this mission better 

than ever.

Singularity University has grown over the last four 

years into the epicenter of the singularity community. 

You may have noticed that an incredible number of 

speakers, faculty, CEOs, and game changers of the 

world are visiting and contributing to Singularity University on a regular basis. Now that Singularity Hub has 

been acquired by Singularity University, we will have 

direct access to this impressive and growing network 

of people, ideas, and content. The benefits to Singularity 

Hub are, in fact, already kicking in: Singularity Hub members now have access to dozens of outstanding lectures 

and presentations from the Singularity University archive within our Video Central page. Peter Diamandis, 

Ray Kurzweil, Peter Norvig, and Kevin Kelly are just a 

few of the interesting individuals that are featured.

For long-time readers of the Hub and new readers 

alike, please be assured that post-acquisition Singularity 

Hub will maintain its independence and commitment 

Singularity Hub Acquired! Now Part Of 

Singularity University

by Keith Kleiner, Founder and Editor of Singularity Hub

As printed at SingularityHub.com on November 14, 2012

From Star Trek to SCOUT: The Story of a Real-World 

Medical Tricorder

by Dr. Aaron Rowe, Research Director and 

Yvonne Cagle, M.D. Col, USAF, Ret. Senior Flight Surgeon

Tricorder cont’d on page 8

Singularity cont’d on page 16

Singularity University CEO Rob Nail talks about innovations in 

education technology with Gavin Newsom, Lieutenant Governor 

of California and host of “The Gavin Newsom Show.”

The Scanadu SCOUT reads information such as heart rate, blood 

oxygenation, electrical heart activity, pulse, and temperature.

The 1960s TV series Star Trek was as popular for its plots as for 

its imaginary, futuristic technologies. One of those 23rd century 

technologies, the tricorder, is becoming a 21st century reality. 

And it’s being developed—appropriately enough, given its scifi space origins—at NASA Ames Research Center in Mountain 

View, Calif. 

Scanadu Inc., founded in January 2011, has developed the 

Scanadu SCOUT, a medical tricorder inspired by the gadget 

the fictional Dr. Leonard McCoy on Star Trek used to collect 

data about crew members’ health. The SCOUT device has the 

potential to revolutionize medicine, both here and in space, 

for which it and Scanadu have been earning a lot of attention 

recently. The Scanadu SCOUT won the 2013 CES Best of 

Innovations prize for Personal Electronics. Scanadu has also 

been featured in Forbes’ 2013: The Year of Digital Health; was 

named Fast Company’s no. 2 on its list of Top 13 Health Stories 

of 2012; was among VentureBeat’s top 10 “med tech” stories of 

2012; and was named the Wireless Health’s 2012 Company of 

the Year. 

Scanadu’s medical tricorder SCOUT is a small handheld device 

for consumers to use in conjunction with a smartphone. Once 

the user places the SCOUT against his temple for 10 seconds, 

the device provides information on pulse transit time, heart 

rate, heart rate variability, electrical heart activity, temperature, 
NRPWelcomes CONTENTS

2 www.nasa.gov

Singularity Hub Acquired! Now Part

Of Singularity University . . . . . .1

Personal Health Tricorders Made 

at NASA Ames . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

New Partners . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

NASA Research Park Post 

Editor’s Farewell . . . . . . . . . . . . .2

Peter Diamandis Inspires Crowd at 

December 2012 NRP Lecture . . . . 3

Carnegie Mellon University 

Silicon Valley Holds 3rd Annual 

DMI Workshop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Entrepeneurship Program 

at CMUSV Opens with 

Idea Workshop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

CMUSV and NASA Researchers 

Map Underground Faults 

Using UAS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Wyle Employees Receive 

2012 Agency Honor Award 

from NASA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Verdigris Technology Plans Smart 

Grid Shakeup with Building.AI . . .10

AAC Microtec-Supported 1U 

CubeSat Successfully Launched 

from ISS in October . . . . . . . . . . . 11

Mars Institute: We are Go 

for Mars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

RMV Developments . . . . . . . . . . 14

IntraPoint Continues to Establish 

itself as the Global Leader in 

Enterprise Resiliency . . . . . . . . . 15

ARCTek 3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

Stellar Exploration

Bldg. 19, Room 2077

Commencement: 10/1/12

Stellar Exploration is small aerospace product-oriented company, 

addressing selected NASA and DOD markets. They respond best 

to challenges that can be addressed by small multi-disciplinary teams. Customers are 

supported by synergy between rigorous systems engineering and hands-on engineering 

skills. Stellar's team of energetic engineers, hand picked from Cal Poly, is guided and balanced 

by years of experience from senior engineering and management staff. They specialize in 

asking the right questions to translate customer needs into product requirements. Stellar's 

past accomplishments span a broad scope of projects, which bolsters their belief in multidisciplinary teamwork.

Game Changers, LLC

Bldg. 19, Room 2001

Commencement: 11/16/12

Game Changers, LLC is a technology development firm that is actively seeking to advance 

the readiness and marketability of breakthrough technologies. Project NMSET is the flagship 

project of Game Changers, LLC as it is poised to revolutionize the aviation industry through 

innovations in lift and thrust.

Astrotecture

Bldg. 19, Room 2074

Commencement: 12/01/12

Astotecture’s objective is to become the premier global provider of Space Architecture 

design services. Space Architecture encompasses the design of space living and working 

environments; spacecraft, lunar and planetary base configurations; plus the human system 

integration to make it all function. Astrotecture offers architectural services for the design of 

spacecraft, space habitats, lunar and planetary bases, interplanetary and interstellar vehicles, 

and terrestrial architecture, including residential, research and development recreational, and 

institutional facilities.

Diane Farrar designed NASA Research Park’s 

original marketing products and produced NRP’s 

initial Open House in 2005. In 2006 she designed 

and published the first NRP Post. She acted as 

Editor of the NRP Post from 2006 until June 2012, 

while serving as an NRP account manager. 

Informed by NASA’s earth science climate studies and Native American colleagues while on a 

fellowship, Farrar came to NASA Research Park in 

2003 believing development by the federal government should incorporate sustainable design 

principles. She brought internationally acclaimed 

green architect William McDonough to address 

Ames, and she launched an early proposal to resurface portions of Hangar 1 with building integrated photovoltaics. 

NASA Research Park Post Editor's Farewell

Farrar Assigned as NRP Lead to the Space Portal Planetary Sustainability Initiative 

Farrar is happiest that her idea to invite the 

International Space University to NRP was 

embraced by Center Director Pete Worden. 

“It has been a great privilege to work with our 

innovative academic and industry partners 

as Editor. Your determination to bring transformational knowledge and products to market is inspiring. I will miss seeing the future 

through your eyes.”

Prior to NRP, Farrar worked in the Ames 

Public Affairs Office where she received 

numerous awards, including eight Group 

Achievement awards, seven Special Act or 

Service Awards, and in 2005 the Ames Sustainability Award (at NRP).

Please welcome Carol Le as the 

editor of the NRP Post. This will 

be her 2nd issue as editor. 
www.nasa.gov/centers/ames/researchpark 3

NRP Post

Best-selling author, space entrepreneur, 

medical doctor and educational visionary Dr. Peter Diamandis gave an upbeat 

lecture to an overflow crowd at Bldg. 3 

on December 3. 

Delivering the 15th Lecture in the NRP 

Exploration Lecture Series, titled “Abundance”, Diamandis credited his early exposure to NASA as the driving force for 

his later successful ventures in the entrepreneurial space arena.

“It was my initial passion for NASA and 

space that has driven many things that 

I’ve done,” Diamandis said, opening his talk.

A self-proclaimed ‘space nut’, Diamandis 

won first place in the Estes rocket design 

contest when he was an 8th grader, and 

longed to become a NASA Astronaut 

during the Apollo years. “I knew then that 

NASA makes dreams come true,” he said.

But Diamandis quickly realized that becoming a NASA Astronaut was unreachable, due to the intense competition. “It 

was not to be,” Diamandis said, “but other 

doors opened up.” 

A key turning point in Diamandis’ evolution was reading “the Spirit of St. Louis”, 

a book by Charles Lindbergh about his 

bold attempt for the then-astronomical 

$25,000 prize offered in 1927 by Raymond Orteig to the first aviator to fly 

non-stop across the Atlantic from the 

New York to Paris. Lindbergh and his 

team meticulously designed the “Spirit” 

with aircraft manufacturer Constellation, 

then battled sleep, flew solo and won, 

becoming the golden boy of the 20’s. 

This milestone galvanized the world and 

drove the nascent field of aviation into 

overdrive. “This incentive of a monetary 

prize changed the market. People did 

not believe achieving Lindbergh’s goal 

was possible, and then, because of this 

prize, suddenly, it was,” Diamandis said.

Reading about Lindbergh gave Diamandis the idea of offering a monetary prize 

for the first private sub-orbital space 

flight. In the late 90’s, he launched the 

Ansari X Prize as CEO and Chairman of 

the X Prize Foundation, offering a $10 

million prize to the winner. Twentysix teams competed and in 2004, Burt 

Rutan’s Tier One Project won. “This kicked 

off an industry of personal sub-orbital 

space flight and opened the space frontier for humanity,” he said. The Diamandis 

legend was born.

Now, led by Diamandis, the X Prize Foundation designs and operates large-scale 

global competitions in a variety of areas, to 

solve what he calls “global market failures”. 

X Prizes are now offered to develop a 

medical tricorder for human health, a lunar lander, a better way to rapidly clean 

up oil spills and a technique for asteroid 

mining. Other X Prizes are in the works 

for a rapidly scalable global literacy model, a way to better predict earthquakes 

and for organogenesis, a process by 

which the ectoderm, endoderm and 

mesoderm of an organism can be deployed to develop the internal organs of 

the organism.

“The best way to predict the future is to 

create it yourself,” said Diamandis.

One perception that he shared with 

the audience is that global connectivity 

and ‘disruptive’ technologies are blasting through standard business models, 

creating new realities. “Small teams and 

businesses are now, due to new technologies, able to accomplish what huge 

corporations and governments once did,” 

he said. Diamandis noted Kodak as an example of the old way, a now-bankrupt giant that invented, yet could not harness, 

the digital camera.

In contrast, today’s shape-shifting world 

is powered by fleet-footed upstarts like 

Instagram, the iPhone photo-enhancer 

with 13 employees who was recently 

purchased by Facebook for $715 million.

“In today’s new world, now either you disrupt or you are disrupted,” he said.

Among Diamandis’ many accomplishments, he is the New York Times Bestselling author of the book “Abundance—

The Future Is Better Than You Think.” 

Abundance was recently #1 on Amazon 

and #2 on New York Times best seller lists.

Peter Diamandis Inspires Crowd At December 2012 NRP Lecture 

by Kathleen Burton, NASA Research Park

Dr. Peter Diamandis engages the audience during the “Abundance” lecture, part of NRP’s 

Exploration Lecture series on December 3, 2012.

Image by NASA/Dominic Hart

Lecture cont’d on page 4
NRP Post

4 www.nasa.gov

Two ideas from Abundance that Diamandis shared with the audience were “crowd sourcing” and “109

 thinking”. 

“Thanks to crowd funding, there’s a chance for the crowd to 

fund hunches, and try a lot of new directions,” he said. “I’m really 

excited about the ability of individuals and small teams to do 

bold things in science, ideas that might seem crazy at first until 

they are proved to be remarkable. Remember—the day before 

something is a breakthrough, it’s a crazy idea,” he said. 

His concept of “109

 thinking” is that today’s hot ideas need to be 

“global and exponential, not local and linear.” Creating a world of 

possibility is only limited by the hardware and software of our 

brains, Diamandis noted.

This has created “a world of abundance”, where anything is possible and intractable global problems of “a billion people” can 

be solved. 

Diamandis’ rules for blasting forward and not getting stuck in 

”incremental changes” include: “Celebrate risk”, and “Set the bar 

high above the line of Super-Credibility.” 

The Lecture was MC’d by Dr. Bob Richards, CEO and co-founder 

of Moon Express, an NRP tenant. Richards oversaw a thoughtprovoking Q&A with Diamandis after the talk.

One questioner asked about harnessing technology to solve 

global climate change. Diamandis responded that climate 

change will likely be solved by a yet-unknown disruptive technology. Citing a pre-technology “transportation” problem of the 

19th Century (disease-causing piles of horse manure in cities), 

the problem was solved by the motor car, then a new technology, he said.

Diamandis closed with a reflective answer to a questioner about 

his biggest wish for his twin toddler sons. 

Lecture cont’d from page 3

“My biggest wish for them is that they find their passion the same 

way I have,” he said.

Diamandis is the Co-Founder and Executive Chairman of Singularity University, a graduate-level Silicon Valley institution that 

studies exponentially growing technologies, and their ability to 

transform industries and solve humanity’s grand challenges. 

In the field of commercial space, Diamandis is Co-Founder/CoChairman of Planetary Resources, a company designing spacecraft to enable the detection and mining of asteroid for precious materials. He is the also Co-Founder and Vice Chairman 

of Space Adventures, the only company to have brokered the 

launches of private citizens to the International Space Station, 

and co-Founder, past-CEO of Zero Gravity Corporation providing weightless parabolic flights. 

He earned an undergraduate degree in Molecular Genetics and 

a graduate degree in Aerospace Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and received his M.D. from 

Harvard Medical School. 

In addition, Diamandis

has won multiple 

awards, including the 

first Heinlein Laureate, the 2010 Economist “No Boundaries”

Innovator of the Year 

Award, the 2007 Arthur C. Clarke Award, 

the 2006 Lindbergh 

Award, the 2006 Neil 

Armstrong Award. u

Dr. Peter Diamandis (left) with Center Deputy

Director Lewis Braxton III (right)

Image by NASA/Dominic Hart

Their hard work paying off, sixty-three 

students from Carnegie Mellon Silicon 

Valley, representing the Master of Science 

in Software Engineering, Master of Science 

in Software Management, and Master of 

Science in Information Technology, received 

their diplomas on Sunday, August 12. The 

class of 2012 represents the tenth anniversary class of students graduating from the 

Silicon Valley campus, established in 2002 

at Moffett Field in Mountain View, CA, in the 

heart of Silicon Valley. This year’s ceremony 

welcomed the Mayor of Mountain View, 

Michael Kasperzak and keynote speaker, 

Edward H. Frank, who is a Vice President 

of Apple, Inc. and a co-founder of the Silicon 

Valley campus.
NRP Post

www.nasa.gov/centers/ames/researchpark 5

Though Silicon Valley possesses the 

technology and resources to prepare for 

future disasters, community resilience 

and interoperability measures across 

sectors remains a challenge to effective 

disaster management. The recent devastation of Hurricane Sandy has shown 

that traditional telecommunications 

infrastructure is highly vulnerable, causing difficulties in communication between 

neighbors and emergency personnel. 

Carnegie Mellon Silicon Valley’s Third 

Annual Disaster Management Workshop, 

“Making Smart Communities Resilient,” 

spanned over the course of two days 

and brought together industry leaders and community first responders to 

test technologies and ideas that could 

improve disaster management before, 

during and after emergencies especially 

as it pertains to data communication. 

“The key idea of our workshop this year 

was to focus on interoperability actions 

and low cost, open source technologies 

to simplify communications among citizens, first responders and emergency vehicles,” said Martin Griss, Director of the 

Disaster Management Initiative. 

CMUSV Distinguished Research Fellow, 

Dr. Steven Ray, led an Emergency Vehicle Plugfest to collect data on measures of interoperability among mobile 

command and communication vehicles 

using primarily WiFi clouds. Emergency 

vehicles from Palo Alto, Mountain View, 

Sunnyvale, Monterey County and Cisco 

Carnegie Mellon Silicon Valley Holds Third Annual Disaster Management Initiative Workshop

by Jessie Hao, Marketing Coordinator at CMUSV

CMUSV Director Martin Griss and NASA 

Ames Protective Services Chief Phil Snyder 

at the 2012 DMI Workshop.

participated in the event. Building on 

last year’s event by taking a more structured approach to testing, Dr. Ray said, 

“Our goal is to get a much clearer picture 

of what each vehicle’s capabilities are in 

regards to data sharing.”

The Palo Alto Mobile Emergency Operations Center (MEOC) has also been 

collaborating with Carnegie Mellon University in the Survivable Social Networks 

(SSN) project, part of the Silicon Valley 

Resilient Network (SVRN). Dr. Bob Iannucci, Director of the CyLab Mobility Research Center and his team of graduate 

students led a Community/Agency Interoperability event to demonstrate the 

potential of SSN to provide an alternative 

avenue of communication when Internet 

and cell towers are down. Rather than 

relying on large telecommunications infrastructure, SSN provides a standalone 

WiFi “bubble” for emergency neighborhood communication, providing some 

web, social media and voice service. 

“There is great power in this social networking concept when it is combined 

with inexpensive, scalable and resilient 

infrastructure. We’ve created SSN such 

Kicking off its second year, the Software Management 12-month 

intensive Entrepreneurship program opened with a weeklong faculty-led Idea Workshop as part of Orientation activities. 

This year’s class wasted no time diving into the entrepreneurial 

boot camp, which aims to introduce students to a real world understanding of how a product is brought to market in Silicon Valley.

The Valley works at a breakneck speed—constant change means 

adaptation is crucial to success. Entrepreneurially minded students arrive on campus from all over the world with goals of becoming founders, software managers, innovators, and disruptors, 

and the need for entrepreneurial experiences within this hotbed 

of activity. “The Idea Workshop gives students an accelerated 

on-ramp experience to generate, evaluate and select ideas to 

pursue in the program. Daily, they practice techniques to brainstorm original ideas, critique existing ideas, and learn to identify 

affinities so that the resulting combined proposals have a higher 

Entrepreneurship Program at CMUSV Opens with Idea Workshop

by Jessie Hao, Marketing Coordinator at CMUSV

Software Management Consulting Professor Sheryl Root teaches 

key entrepreneurial skills in the 2012 Idea Workshop.

Entrepreneurship cont’d on page 7 

DMI cont’d on page 6
Carnegie Mellon Silicon Valley and NASA 

Ames research scientists recently returned 

from a successful deployment to map the 

underground geophysics of Surprise Valley, 

CA. In an expedition led by the United 

States Geological Survey (USGS), a team of 

scientists and engineers collected magnetic 

data using a UAS (Unmanned Aerial System) 

in a region for which geophysical data of the 

characteristics of the subsurface could prove 

crucial for earthquake monitoring. 

Ritchie Lee, robotics researcher, and Corey 

Ippolito, Electrical and Computer Engineering PH.D. student and research scientist 

in the Adaptive Controls and Evolvable 

Systems (ACES) Group in the Intelligent 

Systems Division at NASA Ames Research 

Center, developed the scientific instrumentation, or payload, for the UAS. The mission 

proved successful with SIERRA (Sensor Integrated Environmental Remote Research 

Aircraft) collecting baseline magnetic data 

that will be integrated into the payload for 

next year’s follow-up deployment with a 

new experimental UAS. “We’re very pleased 

with the high-quality data we’ve collected. 

The challenge now is taking the data and 

doing something with it,” said Lee. “We want 

to apply a three-level process to the data: 

see, think, and act. We need to take the data 

and process it to see what we’re really looking at, then think about how to plan future 

routes for the UAS based on what we see 

and finally, take action with the deployment 

of the new UAS in a year,” explained Ippolito. 

Carnegie Mellon Silicon Valley and NASA Researchers Map Underground Faults Using 

Unmanned Aerial System

by Jessie Hao, Marketing Coordinator at CMUSV

Scientists and researchers from Carnegie Mellon University, NASA Ames, US Geological 

Survey and Central Washington University map underground faults in Surprise Valley, CA.

The team hopes to expand the deployment of UAS to other areas where data 

on what is below the surface is integral 

to scientists’ abilities to predict the likelihood of earthquakes and the damage 

they may do. The development of UAS 

platforms is moving toward increased 

automation, which would greatly impact the earth sciences, space sciences, 

and disaster situations. “Right now, we 

can’t send a UAS into a tornado, for example, because it’d probably fly right 

into it and get destroyed. So, the ability for robotics systems to go into their 

environments and autonomously apply 

science to do something useful in response to environments is a huge step 

into the capabilities of how we operate,” 

said Ippolito.

that it requires no installation and no 

training. Our hope is that this will become 

a tool that can be self-deployed at the 

neighborhood level, affording community 

members critical resources during a disaster and the ability to be resources to each 

other,” said Dr. Iannucci. 

Bruce Mueller, Director of Next Generation Broadband Wireless Research for 

Motorola Solutions also pointed to the 

importance of community interaction 

during emergencies as shown recently on 

the East Coast. “The response from neighbors to neighbors before, during and after Hurricane Sandy is a sign of hope. It 

shows that people haven’t given up on 

community, but that it plays a critical 

role in communication during disasters,” 

said Mueller.

The Mayor of Mountain View, Michael 

Kasperzak, who participated in the SSN 

demo by announcing a simulated “fire” 

emergency, acknowledged the significance of the data collected in both the 

Plugfest and SSN demos. “We are thinking about how to incorporate these techDMI cont’d from page 5

DMI cont’d on page 7

The Surprise Valley deployment is the result of NASA and CMUSV’s extended collaboration with USGS. Lee and Ippolito, 

in conjunction with the Carnegie Mellon 

Innovations Laboratory (CMIL) became 

attached to this project after working 

on concepts for the intelligent control 

of vehicles based on magnetic payloads. 

CMIL seeks to improve forward-looking 

mobility and aerospace technologies, a 

vision that is aligned with the development of SIERRA into a more intelligent 

system for future expeditions. “We’re trying to make robots smarter so that we 

don’t need a human controlling them, 

especially in dangerous scenarios,” said 

Jason Lohn, Associate Research Professor and Director of CMIL. u

NRP Post

6 www.nasa.gov

nologies into the community.” Lynn 

Brown, Office of Emergency Services 

Coordinator of Mountain View Fire 

Department also said that SSN is an 

exciting development that Mountain 

View Community Emergency Response Teams (CERT) should consider. 

Several invited speakers emphasized 

the importance of collaboration across 

public and private sectors on the issue of preparedness. Barbara Larkin, 

CEO of the American Red Cross Silicon 

Valley chapter reported that though 
www.nasa.gov/centers/ames/researchpark 7

DMI cont’d from page 6

77% of Bay Area residents expect a severe disaster in the next 

two years, only 19% have taken the necessary steps to prepare, 

and encouraged Carnegie Mellon University and other private 

sector companies to assist the Red Cross in preparedness efforts. 

Jim Turner, Private Sector Liason for the San Francisco Department of Emergency Management (DEM) echoed this sentiment: 

“Preparedness is everyone’s job, not just the job of the Red Cross 

and the government. The space where technology meets humanity is where we’re going to thrive.”

In the closing North Counties Alliance panel discussion, Kenneth 

Dueker, Director of Emergency Services for the City of Palo Alto, 

Bard Wardle, Chief of Mountain View Fire Department and Scott 

Vermeer, Chief of Mountain View Police Department presented 

opportunities for regional efforts to improve interoperability 

and emergency management. The 2012 DMI Workshop both solidified and created new opportunities for collaborations among 

Carnegie Mellon University, community first responders and industry leaders to create practical solutions to real-world problems. 

“Our partnership with CMUSV is an asset to the Bay Area community. Because of Dr. Griss and his leadership, CMUSV is different 

from the typical academic environment where concepts are often 

purely theoretical. There’s certainly value to the academic side of 

things but we’re trying to find points of tangency where the needs 

of our practitioner world meets academia,” said Dueker.

Watch a video segment of the 2012 DMI Workshop on local news at 

ABC7 News: http://bit.ly/TFqN1S

Visit the Carnegie Mellon Silicon Valley DMI page for slides, photos 

and notes from the 2012 workshop: http://bit.ly/UaakFa u

www.nasa.gov/centers/ames/researchpark 7

Carnegie Mellon University, Silicon Valley Ranked #1 Satellite Campus

by TheBestColleges.org 

Photo courtesy of huffingtonpost.com

For a school that wants to grow its reputation of being a technology education leader, where better to set up shop than right 

in the heart of Silicon Valley. Over 2,600 miles from Pittsburgh, 

this CMU campus in Mountain View, California is surrounded 

by names like Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo. The campus has 

made a name for itself in several areas, least surprisingly in tech 

research like that done in the Mobility Research Center and in 

helping foster over a dozen startups in 10 years. But the branch 

is also a noted social good practitioner, launching the Disaster 

Management Initiative to support new solutions for crisis management, and developing a tradition of fence painting to raise 

money and awareness for worthy causes.

potential for success. Teams self-form around the most promising 

ideas and according to the individual students interests,” explains 

Gladys Mercier, Director of the Software Management program.

The workshop also included visits to startups and brought guest 

speakers, many of whom are Carnegie Mellon Silicon Valley alumni, to share insights into the startup process. “Having launched 

a startup myself, I hope to shed light on how an idea turns into 

an actual business,” said Manoj Rajshekar (MS SM ‘11), who along 

with fellow CMUSV graduate, Shekar Deo launched their startup, 

EngageClick this past year. He advised students to commit fully 

to ideas they believe in even if there is a risk of failure. “You can 

always rebuild. There is never a loss in what you’re trying to do.”

Faculty brought their own industry experience into workshop 

sessions, introducing students to entrepreneurial best practices 

and key skills in management, metrics, product definition and 

strategy. Throughout the year, faculty connections allow for numerous guest speakers such as VCs to advise students and further 

expose them to the Silicon Valley software industry. They also act 

as mentors, encouraging students to innovate. “Entrepreneurs 

are not normal. Most people are content working in big corporations promising regularized rewards. We aren’t motivated that 

way. We want to see something we’ve created on our own,” Sheryl 

Root, a Software Management professor, told students. 

For some students, the Entrepreneurship program will help them 

innovate within a larger company. Corporate teams, for example, 

have the opportunity to go through the program and develop 

products and services for their existing companies. For others, 

the classes provide valuable experience working in a startup atmosphere, forming the foundation for future career goals. “I now 

want to work on my own startup. The workshop has left me so 

inspired to dream big and work on achieving those dreams,” said 

Class of 2013 student, Medha Ghatikesh.

Last year, Carnegie Mellon University Silicon Valley debuted its 

full-time Master of Science Software Management program with 

a focus on software innovation and entrepreneurship. Five of the 

eight students who completed the inaugural program are now in 

the process of launching their own startups birthed out of ideas 

developed during the academic year. u

Entrepreneurship cont’d from page 5

NRP Post
8 www.nasa.gov

NRP Post

and blood oxygenation. The device is currently awaiting 

FDA approval and is scheduled to be available later this year 

for $150. 

Beyond Sci-Fi: The SCOUT’s Origins and Goals

Scanadu’s tricorder began its trajectory from sci-fi to realworld in 2007, when cognitive science researcher Dr. Peter 

Jansen began building tricorder-inspired handheld devices. 

In March 2012, Jansen showed off his open-source tricorder 

for the first time to the global press. Jansen’s Tricorder 

Mark 2 was built around a 180MHz Atmel AT92RM9200 

microcontroller; two 2.8 inch 320 x 240 pixel OLED displays 

and resistive touchscreens; 32MB of RAM; and a microSD, 

on which the Linux operating system and data were stored. 

Jansen’s device measured atmospheric temperature and 

humidity, pressure, magnetic fields, ambient light and 

colors. His tricorder was a ‘Swiss Army knife’ with many 

potential uses—except the ability to detect neutron fields 

or radiation from supernovas, a la the Star Trek gadget.

Also in 2012, Jansen joined Scanadu, a start-up with the 

specific mission of building the medical version of his open 

source tricorder. Walter De Brouwer founded Scanadu in 

2011 after a family medical emergency. De Brouwer was 

previously known for founding Starlab, a leading European 

research institute with such visionaries as Nicholas 

Negroponte and Stephen Wolfram on board. 

Scanadu aims to revolutionize healthcare by putting 

sophisticated medical diagnostics tools into consumers’ 

hands. “We want to arm consumers with more information 

so that when they talk to their doctors, they know exactly 

what to say,” says De Brouwer, Scanadu’s CEO and founder. 

“We see this as a Goldilocks tool to better the patient/

doctor relationship. It has the potential to be the biggest 

innovation in home medicine since the thermometer.” 

After his hiring, Jansen immediately began work with the 

Scanadu team on a medical tricorder. The team includes 

well-known inventors and entrepreneurs such as Aaron 

Rowe, Ph.D (the hacker behind CheapStat), Dan Sokol (of 

Homebrew Computer Club fame) and Brandon Woolsey. 

Other notables at Scanadu include Dr. Alan Greene, author, 

public speaker and TV personality; ex-NASA British optoelectronics legend Anthony Smart, Ph.D., who heads up 

Scanadu’s science team; and Belgian übernerd Ivo Clarisse 

who, at age 18, was a key architect of the European Internet’s backbone. 

Scanadu developed the SCOUT at the NRP in NASA Ames 

Research Center. The company benefited from advice 

offered by NASA employees and other companies on site 

with which it has a close relationship, such as Made in Space. 

Tricorder cont’d from page 1

By working with the 3D printing company, Scanadu has been 

able to quickly iterate through hardware designs—a key to the 

development of all Scanadu products.

A Futuristic Device’s Future 

Today, patients in the healthcare system are like astronauts 

on a mission, De Brouwer says. Both are in an unfamiliar 

environment and are forced to use the knowledge they have 

to the best of their abilities. Their survival depends on how 

quickly they can assess their situation. The challenge both 

face is an informational one. But in the future, healthcare will 

mutate, becoming a more efficient version of itself in which the 

patient will be discovered as the most underused resource, says 

De Brouwer. 

“The grand theory of diagnosis will welcome new players next to 

doctors: machines, algorithms, patient advocacy communities 

and the crowd,” De Brouwer explains. “The Cambrian Revolution 

of medical devices and apps is the straw that will break the 

camel’s back. For centuries, we’ve been reading our health. Now, 

we will start writing it—changing it in real time, while mobile. 

Health was born to be mobile and at our fingertips. We will wear 

it like glasses, in our smart devices and in our bodies. Instead of 

us watching our health all the time, it will be watching us.” 

Future versions of the SCOUT will have an onboard hyperspectral camera and a microfluidic lab-on-a-chip, enabling 

the device to analyze rashes and infections and process blood 

and saliva samples. Based on these and other measurements, 

the SCOUT could then provide a diagnosis and advise its user 

on which course of action to take. The SCOUT will be able to 

instantly transfer patient data to a doctor if medical assistance is 

needed. If the user’s condition is treatable at home, the SCOUT’s 

diagnosis could prevent unnecessary trips to the emergency 

room or doctor’s office.

In 2013, Scanadu plans to bring several products to market in addition to the SCOUT, including diagnostic consumer disposables. 

Coming Full Circle: Scanadu and NASA

Scanadu’s small-footprint, smart medical devices could also 

prove critical for long-duration NASA missions. For example, 

Scanadu devices will be able to capture vital signs, images, and 

conduct surveillance to identify acute respiratory and urinary 

illness before a crewmember succumbs to or spreads the illness. 

By imaging skin or wound progression, the devices will be able 

to anticipate early degradation in crew performance. 

In short, the information Scanadu devices collect will enable 

the triage and early intervention of conditions that would 

otherwise seriously compromise crewmembers’ health and 

fitness in space. Just like in Star Trek. u
Wyle team members Winnie Humberson, Steven Graham, 

Marit Jentoft-Nilsen, Mark Malanoski, and Heather Hanson 

received a Group Achievement Award from NASA during 

the 2012 Agency Honor Awards ceremony held at NASA 

Headquarters in Washington, DC. This prestigious NASA 

certificate is awarded to any combination of Government and/

or non-Government individuals for an outstanding group 

accomplishment that has contributed substantially to NASA’s 

mission. 

The group—which also included civil servants and members 

from NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio—was selected to 

receive the award for their outstanding efforts in supporting 

the Science Mission Directorate Presentation Hyperwall and 

using it to communicate the wonder and impact of NASA 

scientific endeavors. The hyperwall—a multi-screen video 

wall capable of displaying high-definition data visualizations 

and/or images—provides a unified system for NASA to 

communicate its most stunning scientific accomplishments 

in a variety of different ways, in a variety of different settings. 

A key to its success is that Wyle team members—part of the 

Earth Observing System Project Science Office’s (EOSPSO) 

outreach support team—proposed that a portable hyperwall 

system be developed to display NASA content at high-profile 

venues worldwide. After six months of intense development 

by others at NASA, the first exhibit featuring the hyperwall 

appeared at the Group on Earth Observations VII meeting in 

Beijing, China, in November 2010. With subsequent invitations 

pouring in, the number of conferences and venues that the 

hyperwall traveled to steadily increased.

The hyperwall has since become the primary focus at many 

of NASA’s outreach exhibits including those at the American 

Geophysical Union conference, American Astronomical 

Society meeting, annual American Meteorological Society 

meeting, Planet Under Pressure conference, Asia Oceania 

Geosciences Society conference, and the IEEE International 

Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium. The excitement 

that the hyperwall generated at the Asia Oceania Geosciences 

Society conference in Singapore for example, resulted in 

NASA receiving an invitation to attend the 2013 Japan 

Geoscience Union meeting in May. The hyperwall has also 

been adopted by the US Department of State to be the main 

exhibit tool used to highlight US accomplishments in Earth 

science at the upcoming United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, 18th session of the Conference of the 

Parties (COP-18), held in Doha, Qatar in November.

With a full schedule of events already lined up for 2013—

including trips to Melbourne, Australia for next year’s IEEE 

Task lead, Winnie Humberson, from Wyle accepted the award on 

behalf of the group. 

NASA’s hyperwall at the 2012 IGARSS conference in Munich, Germany. 

Wyle Employees Receive 2012 Agency Honor Award from NASA 

by Ty Bachus, Director of Communications, Wyle STE Group 

Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium conference 

and Ministerial Summit, Canada for the next Group on Earth 

Observations meeting—the hyperwall will continue to deliver 

new content and raise awareness about NASA Science across 

the globe. 

To learn more about the hyperwall or to download presentation material adopted from hyperwall content, visit: 

science.nasa.gov/hyperwall. To view pictures of the hyperwall 

at various conferences worldwide, visit the EOSPSO photostream website at www.flickr.com/photos/eospso. u

www.nasa.gov/centers/ames/researchpark 9

NRP Post
When Mark Chung, founder of Verdigris Technologies, returned from a three-week vacation to find a $500 spike in 

his electric bill, he was dumbfounded. All he had was a bill 

from PG&E detailing his aggregate usage for the month. 

A bevy of questions ran through his head: What was the 

energy hog? And why was it so hard to figure out? 

In 2008, when Mark decided to begin his search for answers, 

the market only offered smart meters, which detailed aggregate building usage at fifteen minute intervals. That information was a step up from monthly data points, but it 

still did not provide him with the granular, real-time data 

he craved about every electrical appliance in the building. 

Mark realized knowledge was power; if he had known exactly what device had been triggering such high energy 

bills, he could have adjusted the device and his behavior.

Seeing the answer to the nebulous electric bill as an achievable solution with global impact, Mark envisioned a disruptive technology. Mark wanted more, better information, 

with easy installation, and at a reasonable cost. He surmised that by getting data from the building control panels 

rather than attaching to every appliance, he would get the 

aggregate electrical draws of every appliance in a building.

Along with his NetLogic colleague and friend, Jonathan 

Chu, Mark set out to tackle these questions based on his 

knowledge of deep packet inspection, which disaggregates and routes different types of packet data, such as 

voiceover IP or email. Mark and Jon knew the answers lay in 

creating specialized algorithms to disaggregate and identify multiple electrical signatures within one current. With 

an early prototype on a plug-strip, Mark and Jon were able 

to successfully disaggregate and tag the unique electrical 

signatures of individual appliances. 

Mark and Jon patented their discoveries and officially incorporated Verdigris Technologies in June of 2010. When 

asked how they chose the name Verdigris, Mark stated, 

“Verdigris is the natural green patina that forms on copper 

over time. All over the world, electricity travels via copper 

wires. Verdigris Technologies is on a mission to “green” our 

electrical grid, building by building.”

After meeting in 2009, Archan Padmanabhan also joined 

Verdigris in late 2010, bringing experience in electrical market modeling and Cleantech technology, specifically in the 

experimental high altitude wind energy space. 

Today, Building.AI is a comprehensive platform with the 

groundbreaking ability to measure any building’s elecVerdigris Technologies Plans Smart Grid Shake-Up with Groundbreaking Platform, Building.AI

by Amanda Erickson, Marketing & Brand Development at Verdigris Technologies

tricity use down to a specific appliance. From the circuit panel, 

Building.AI can simultaneously and accurately measure as 

many as 1,000 different devices from each single sensor node, 

by sampling data 7,600 times a second. The algorithms are 

so powerful that they can sense an anomaly in an appliance’s 

“fingerprint,” indicating an imminent failure. Down the road, the 

Building.AI platform will add real-time alerts and notifications 

to optimize building efficiency, integrate with building automation systems, and participate in demand response and ancillary 

service markets.

As a leader in emerging technologies, NASA has played a pivotal role in engaging Verdigris under the Space Act Agreement 

and piloting Verdigris’ technology at the LEED-Platinum NASA 

Sustainability Base. As a federal entity leading the charge in 

environmental sustainability, NASA sees real potential in a costconscious solution to continuously optimize the operation and 

maintenance of the Sustainability Base. 

Verdigris has been largely self-funded by initial founders as well 

as friends, family, and advisors who share the vision of greening 

the grid. Verdigris is growing organically by gaining a steadily 

increasing pipeline of paying customers excited about the technology and its benefits.

Historically, electricity innovation has remained static. With the 

recent explosion of the Internet and availability of cheap data 

transmission and storage, a dynamic approach to monitoring is possible. Now, with the development of Verdigris’ brain, 

Building.AI, the future of electricity monitoring is poised for 

a major shake-up. u

In-progress installation of Verdigris buds.

NRP Post

10 www.nasa.gov
NRP Post

TechEdSat is a NASA Ames Research Center 

1U CubeSat built by San Jose State 

University student interns, in partnership 

with NRP tenant AAC Microtec. AAC 

Microtec provided the avionics and technical support to the NASA team.

Its mission is to evaluate Space Plug-andplay Avionics (SPA) designed in Sweden 

by AAC Microtec, the parent company 

of AAC Microtec, U.S. TechEdSat will perform a communications experiment utilizing the Iridium and Orbcomm satellite 

phone network.

TechEdSat was launched to the International Space Station (ISS) in July and 

was then deployed into Low Earth Orbit 

using the JAXA J-SSOD Japanese deployer. 

On October 5, TechEdSat, a small cubeshaped satellite, was launched from 

the ISS, and is being tracked by NASA 

engineers, student interns and amateur 

radio enthusiasts around the world.

TechEdSat measures about 4 inches (10 

centimeters) on a side and carries a ham 

radio transmitter. 

“TechEdSat will evaluate plug-and-play 

technologies, like avionics designed by 

commercial providers, and will allow a 

group of very talented aerospace engineering students from San Jose State 

University to experience a spaceflight 

project from formulation through decommission of a small spacecraft,” said Ames 

Director S. Pete Worden. The TechEdSat, a collaboration with JAXA.

AAC Microtec-Supported 1U CubeSat Successfully Launched from ISS

by Jorge Freyer, CEO at AAC Microtec

TechEdSats swim free in orbit.

TechEdSat’s mission showcases collaboration among NASA, academia and industry 

to set the standard for future endeavors 

with small satellites known as Cubesats. 

TechEdSat is funded by Ames and NASA’s 

Space Technology Program. The total cost 

of the device was less than $30,000 because engineers used only commercial 

off-the-shelf hardware and simplified the 

design and mission objectives. 

For more about TechEdSat, visit SJSU’s site 

at techedsat.com u

www.nasa.gov/centers/ames/researchpark 11

On September 18, 2012, the NASA Advisory Council Commercial 

Space Committee visited NASA Ames and NASA Research Park. 

Dr. Worden, Center Director, provided a welcome and Alexander 

MacDonald, Program Executive from Emerging Space Office, 

discussed commercial space opportunities. Mejghan Haider, 

Deputy Director, NASA Research Park, conducted a tour of the 

NRP, and leaders from Singularity University and Scanadu 

discussed and showcased their efforts and technology. 

Image by NASA
NRP Post

The Mars Institute (MI) is a 501(c)(3) 

not-for-profit research organization 

based at the NASA Research Park. 

MI’s mission is to advance the science, 

exploration, and public understanding 

of Mars. Celebrating its 10th anniversary 

this year, MI is a global organization 

located at the heart of the highest-tech 

hubs in their respective countries, and 

all offering access to the Arctic, a strategic region on Earth for Mars analog field 

research. MI Canada, headquartered in 

Toronto, Ontario, manages the “Mars On 

Earth” site of the NASA Haughton-Mars 

Project (HMP) on Devon Island, along 

the Northwest Passage. MI Norway, 

based in Stavanger, Norway, offers ready 

access to the Svalbard Archipelago in 

the Arctic where NASA also conducts 

analog studies.

MI currently leads, or is involved in, a 

wide range of scientific research relating 

to the climatic and geologic evolution 

of Mars. It also studies the geologic 

evolution of small bodies—in particular, near-Earth asteroids (NEAs) and the 

moons of Mars, Phobos and Deimos, 

which are viewed as stepping stones 

to Mars. Astrobiology investigations 

are also part of the mix. Kira Lorber, 

a graduate research associate and project manager at MI, has been analyzing 

planetary protection concerns associated with the exploration of Phobos and 

Deimos, and is beginning a new study 

on the astrobiology of sand dunes, a 

fundamental and ubiquitous feature 

of the Martian surface (Fig.1).

Research at MI focuses also on the 

human exploration of Mars. While an 

actual manned mission to Mars may 

still be 15 years or more away, MI has 

been working on critical long lead time 

Figure 1. MI conducts simulations of the human exploration of Mars at Dumont Dunes, 

California. Among other investigations, samples were collected in support of a new study of 

sand dunes on Earth to assess their astrobiological potential in the search for life on Mars. 

items including spacesuits and deep

drilling on Mars.

Spacesuits

A key piece of hardware for the human 

exploration of Mars is the spacesuit. 

Current spacesuits are inadequate for 

Mars for two key reasons: 1) they are too 

heavy to be used productively under 

Martian gravity (0.38g)—their mass 

needs to be cut in half; 2) they are not 

designed for extended work in dusty 

Mars Institute: We are Go for Mars

by Pascal Lee, Chairman of the Mars Institute, a senior planetary scientist at the SETI Institute, 

and Director of the NASA Haughton-Mars Project at NASA Ames Research Center. 

Figure 2. ATV-spacesuit combo tested at 

Mars on Earth on Devon Island, High Arctic, 

by the Mars Institute and aerospace company 

Hamilton Sundstrand

Photo by Mars Institute/Kira Lorber

Photo Haughton-Mars Project/Pascal Lee
www.nasa.gov/centers/ames/researchpark 13

NRP Post

environments, which makes them inadequate for other NASA destinations such 

as NEAs or the Moon. For several years 

now, MI has been working with aerospace 

company Hamilton Sundstrand (a division of United Technologies, and since 

Apollo, NASA’s main contractor for life 

support systems) on both problems.

The issue of weight is being addressed 

by a combination of fundamental rethinking of the spacesuit’s design, new 

approaches to suit operations, and new 

materials. MI proposed the use of individual all-terrain vehicles (ATVs) to 

alleviate suit weight for Mars extravehicular activities (EVAs.) MI has been 

conducting field tests with Hamilton 

Sundstrand at HMP on the use of ATVs 

in various Mars and Moon exploration 

scenarios (Fig. 2). A promising concept 

of operations is emerging: ATVs carrying external life support systems that 

can also double up as robotic scouts. 

These ATVS could be deployed on Mars 

to tag along with human explorers 

engaged in pressurized rover traverses; 

a pressurized rover is a manned rover 

in which astronauts can live, drive, work, 

and sleep in shirtsleeves. Once a site of 

interest has been reached, astronauts 

don a spacesuit, hop onto an ATV, and 

drive off for local exploration. We can 

then put a significant part of the weight 

of a suit’s portable life support system 

(PLSS, or the astronaut’s backpack) on 

the ATV rather than on the astronaut’s 

back. The nimble ATV could also accompany, transport, and resupply the astronaut during EVAs. The astronaut would 

no longer have to carry the burden of a 

full-sized PLSS, just a much lighter one.

The issue of dust is also being addressed 

by a combination of spacesuit system redesign, new concepts of operations, and 

new materials. A key problem with the 

classical use of spacesuits in conjunction 

with airlocks is that dust collected on 

suits during EVAs is brought back inside 

the habitat where it becomes a health 

hazard, destroyer of hardware, and janitorial burden for the crew. There is also 

Figure 3. Field test of concept spacesuits and suitport interfaces in the Mojave Desert, 

California, at the U.S. Army’s National Training Center at Fort Irwin. A modified Humvee, with 

aft suitports, was used as a pressurized rover simulator. 

the issue of waste of resources as large 

volumes of breathable air are lost every 

time an airlock is vented for egress. 

In recent years, NASA has been investigating a different approach: the use of 

suitports. Suitports are a setup in which 

spacesuits are never brought back into a 

habitat or rover, but dock via their backpack to a port mounted on the outside 

wall of the habitat or rover. The spacesuit always stays outside, and is donned 

and doffed by opening a double door 

containing the PLSS, and by sliding 

into, or out of, the spacesuit directly 

from, or into, the inside of the habitat/

rover. In cooperation with NASA, MI 

and Hamilton Sundstrand have been 

conducting a series of field tests to 

evaluate such suitport systems at Mars 

analog sites in the Arctic, in Arizona, 

and in the Mojave Desert of California. 

With the suitport approach, dust is 

kept outside habitable volumes very 

effectively. In addition, resources in air 

supplies and even the time required for 

egress and ingress are reduced significantly compared to airlock operations.

Deep Drilling On Mars

MI is also looking farther into the 

future and has recently initiated a 

study of how to conduct deep drilling 

on Mars. While the martian surface 

is at present cold, dry, and subject to 

intense UV and high energy space radiation, the Martian subsurface offers 

much friendlier environments, including warmer, wetter, and radiationshielded ones. Christopher Hoftun, 

an international student intern from 

Norway at MI, is analyzing the capabilities of current and foreseeable deep 

drilling technologies for Earth, and developing concepts and recommendations for future deep drilling on Mars.

The twenty-first century will undoubtedly be the century that will see humans 

reach Mars and explore our neighboring planet in detail. The Mars Institute 

views it as an endeavor that will likely 

be achieved by private and government partners worldwide working 

together. Short of being on Mars itself, 

MI’s base at the NRP is exactly where 

they want to be. u

Photo Mars Institute/Kira Lorber 2011
14 www.nasa.gov

NRP Post

RMV Developments

by Renee Mitchell, Vice President, RMV Technology Group, LLC

NRP Partner RMV Technology Group, LLC has enjoyed significant growth in expanding electrostatic discharge (ESD)/Electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) and System Level Testing with an 

expanded ESD laboratory. 

Figure 1. System Level Testing using IEC-61000-4-2

RMV has had some great projects at NASA Ames Research 

Center from personal robotics to medical device troubleshooting and development of an advanced level method to conduct 

Triboelectrification testing for space-bound materials and pharmaceutical delivery polymers to mitigate electrostatic attraction (Figure 2). 

Figure 3. Suspect Counterfeit method of removing a component’s 

lettering that does not show evidence of tampering.

RMV Technology Group is a high technology, innovation driven Service Disabled Veteran Owned Small Business (SDVOSB) 

firm that is spearheading specialized Suspect Counterfeit 

Training, Packaging Engineering Design Services, Consulting, Training and Testing for aerospace & defense, medical device, pharmaceutical delivery, biotechnology and consumer 

electronic sectors.

A third party test laboratory, RMV teaches in a “hands on” instrument driven format for Engineers and Technicians how to handle, store and ship sensitive components, parts and products.

Figure 4. RMV trained 26 NASA-Ames engineers on September 

26, 2012 and NASA is adopting this in mitigation of suspect 

counterfeit parts.

RMV trains incoming Inspection how to better protect 

the organization from Suspect Counterfeit products in the 

electronics supply chain. Participants learn how to Validate, 

Verify and Mitigate Suspect Counterfeit Materials, Packaging, 

Parts & Components for compliance to H.R. 1540 (Sec. 818) 

which is now being integrated into the Department of Defense 

(DOD) supply chain. 

Suspect Counterfeit training should include the operator, the 

supervisor, the engineer, management and procurement to 

insure implementation from the top down. u

Figure 2. Particle attraction due to electrostatic attraction (ESA)

In September 2012, Bob Vermillion, Founder, RMV Technology 

Group, conducted a “hands on” Suspect Counterfeit Awareness 

Training Seminar for NASA Ames on the detrimental aspects of 

materials that compromise the supply chain in an aerospace 

environment. RMV illustrated a new method used by counterfeiters to remove ESD sensitive component identification for 

remarking (Figure 3).
NRP Post

www.nasa.gov/centers/ames/researchpark 15

IntraPoint Continues to Establish Itself as 

the Global Leader in Enterprise Resiliency

by Edward Erickson, VP of Solutions 

and Business Development at IntraPoint,

Jasmine Rezai, Marketing Intern at IntraPoint

Government

IntraPoint continues to draw global attention from leading Enterprises and Governments alike. A recent visit by the Education 

and Research Committee of the Norwegian Parliament underscored this point. The committee wanted to understand why 

IntraPoint had decided to open an office in the Park and after 

learning more about the Enterprise Resiliency Solution they 

wanted to better understand the possible benefits of this Solution to tragedies such as that which occurred in Norway on 

July 22, 2011.

The US Government has also expressed an interest. IntraPoint 

briefed leaders at the White House last Halloween on Resiliency 

and is in discussions with NASA at the Johnson Space Center 

on a number of risk related topics. Most recently, the Solution 

drew attention by the New Jersey Fusion Center, one of 77 across 

the country.

Enterprise

In the private sector, IntraPoint continues to expand across new 

sectors and geographies. IntraPoint’s customer base was established within critical infrastructure in the Nordics. Customers 

such as Shell Oil, Stat Oil, Iceland and Alitalia Airlines as well as 

Maersk are loyal IntraPoint customers. Recently, IntraPoint has 

proven the versatility of the Solution at Tulane University where 

the solution proved itself in Hurricane Isaac. The Moffett Park 

Business Group, a consortium of Businesses, which includes 

NetApp, Infinera, Lockheed and Juniper Networks, used the solution to run their first ever-joint Crisis drill on October 30th.

Technology

The Enterprise Resilience Solution (ERS) helps clients manage 

disruptions of every severity through Cloud Native Software. 

The Solution addresses all elements of the risk Lifecycle: 1) Risk 

Assessment 2) Planning 3) Training 4) Mobilization 5) Response 

Management 6) Reporting & Refining. The Solution also incorporates Services that span from technology Integration, customization and configuration to Resiliency program design in Supply 

Chains and the Enterprise.

Collaboration

IntraPoint is focused on enhancing collaboration in the filed of 

resiliency. Edward Erickson, IntraPoint’s VP of Solutions and Business Development, founded both the Supply Chain Risk Leadership Council (SCRLC) and the Security, Resilience, & Technology 

(SRT) Integration Forum. Both of these groups connect academics and industry to propel the field of resiliency forward.

SCRLC Website: http://scrlc.com

IntraPoint Website: https://www.intrapoint.com u

ARCTek 3

by Ingrid Desilvestre, Program Executive, Office of the 

Center Chief Technologist

Members of the Ames community gathered at the invitation 

of the Ames Center Chief Technologist (CCT) at ARCTek 3 on 

October 16 to hear about the pending release of the 2013 

Center Innovation Fund (CIF) call. Associate Director Steve 

Zornetzer, Chief Technologist John Hines, and CIF Program 

Executive Minoo Dastoor of the Office of the (Agency) Chief 

Technologist (OCT) talked about how national and Agency 

objectives inspire Center-driven ideas; capturing and enabling the most promising of these new ideas is one of the 

key objectives of CIF. Ideally, these innovative ideas will catalyze follow up activities. 

For this CIF solicitation, concepts would have to be aligned 

with the Space Technology Roadmaps or with one of the 

seven Ames Strategic Initiatives, though investigators could 

also offer up unrelated concepts that nevertheless show 

great technology potential. John Hines invited feedback on 

the draft solicitation and the selection criteria. (For more information, visit http://1.usa.gov/RtrPi5)

Following that discussion, twenty-two three-minute “lightning presentations” introduced some of the more innovative concepts that might be proposed in response 

to the CIF call. Subjects included nano-devices, launch 

vehicle venting, software validation, data-mining, lunar 

plants, green satellite propulsion, and hypersonic vector 

control. The CCT’s hope was that by bringing together all 

center staff, NASA Research Park, and other industry, academic, and government organizations, the participants 

might explore potential teaming opportunities. Many of 

the presentations are available on the CCT website 

(http://1.usa.gov/YTrcNv). About 30 people who were unable to attend in person—including people from Headquarters and other NASA Centers—followed the proceedings via 

Adobe Connect.

ARCTek aims to bring the ARC technology community together in order to communicate and discuss the Center’s 

technology opportunities, focus and future directions. Previous ARCTeks sought to clarify Ames’ management vision concerning national and agency needs and directions, achieve 

a common Ames’ vision of our technology future, and 

showcase CIF investigators. They have also featured “success 

stories,” featuring PIs who have taken an idea from concept 

to flight. 

Whether ARCTek 3 succeeded in igniting ideas for collaboration will be known when the proposals are received. But the 

meeting has already received kudos from some participants.

“The ARCTek conferences/workshops are a unique opportunity to meet with our ARC partners to discuss recent and 

planned events, and hear about select projects at the Center,” 

ARCTek 3 cont’d on page 16
NRP Post

Editor, Layout and Design. . . . . . . . . . . . . . Carol Le

Phone: (650) 604-2NRP

Email: arc-dl-nrp-post@mail.nasa.gov

Website: http://www.nasa.gov/centers/ames/researchpark

Singularity cont’d from page 1

The Norwegian Parliament’s 

Education and Research 

Committee visited NASA 

Research Park on September 

20, 2012 to learn about the 

NRP as a model for publicprivate partnerships. Dr. Pete 

Worden, Ames Center Director, 

provided a Center Overview; 

Michael Marlaire, NRP 

Director, provided a NRP 

Overview. The group 

to high quality reporting. Sure, we will have coverage of 

the people and events that are spinning out of Singularity 

University. We expect, in fact, that many of the amazing people 

that have been hanging out at Singularity University will 

start spending more time here at the Hub, as readers, guest 

posters, and contributors to the Hub community! But most of 

our coverage at Singularity Hub will still be about the amazing 

things that are happening outside the University, just as it 

always has been. We will continue to provide a balanced, 

insightful, and critical view of the sci/tech developments 

around the world that we find most relevant and interesting to 

our readers.

For those that want a little history, I founded Singularity Hub 

about five years ago with the mission to create the best singularity focused news site on the planet. Well, actually, during the 

first six months or so maybe I wasn’t really sure what I was doing. 

But shortly thereafter my vision for the site quickly coalesced 

around that goal. The founding of Singularity Hub actually 

precedes the founding of Singularity University, which was 

incorporated four years ago. I was at the founding meeting of 

Singularity University, and I was an early supporter of its creation. During all of these years, however, Singularity University 

and Singularity Hub have been completely unrelated entities 

and the two companies surprisingly had never formally collaborated in any way. Recently, however, Singularity University CEO 

Rob Nail and I came to the realization that our two organizations would make a perfect combination, ultimately leading to 

today’s announcement.

I’d like to say thank you to the amazing team of writers on staff 

here at Singularity Hub that produce the fabulous content 

that we consistently offer every day. I’d also like to thank all of 

our readers for supporting us and coming here each day to read 

and discuss what we have to say. And a huge shout out to my 

awesome wife who is always by my side! Now, as the Hub joins 

Singularity University, our community and our news coverage 

will gather new energy, ideas, and people. Indeed, the best is yet 

to come!

Speaking of new people joining our community, I’ll close 

below with quotes about the acquisition from some of our 

newest members 

Peter Diamandis, Singularity University Executive Chairman and 

author of The New York Times best-seller “Abundance”: “The majority 

of the news we hear today is repeatedly negative, and follows 

the old adage: “if it bleeds it leads.” Singularity Hub is one of the 

best places to go to learn about the incredible breakthroughs and 

positive news that are transforming our world and creating an 

age of abundance. If you want to understand all of the amazing 

progress going on in the world at an increasing rate, get your 

news here.”

Rob Nail, Singularity University CEO: “We are thrilled to now have 

Singularity Hub as our media platform to increase awareness 

about the implications of fast-moving technologies, and make 

our content more accessible to the world. Keith is intimately in 

tune with exponential thinking and the vision that we have at 

SU. Singularity Hub showcases many of the rapidly accelerating 

technologies and trends that we see as disruptive forces for the 

foreseeable future.”

Ray Kurzweil, Mr. Singularity: ”I’m an avid Singularity Hub reader. 

There’s some great in-depth material that really looks at all of the 

singularity ideas. It’s really quite unique!” u

also met with Edward Erickson, 

VP of Business Development for 

IntraPoint, an NRP partner.

said Jim Juve, Director of Special Projects at Wyle Corporate 

Offices.  “ARCTek helps promote teamwork and knowledge 

of the Ames mission and key initiatives, and is a valuable resource for the Ames community.” 

NASA has been, and to a great extent still is, at the cutting 

edge of technology for the U.S. Government. The creativity and innovative spirit that fuel NASA are located 

at the NASA Centers—particularly at Ames, located as 

it is beside the NASA Research Park in the middle of Silicon 

Valley. Innovative partnerships will help maintain Ames’ 

reputation as NASA’s “go-to” center for technology 

and innovation. u

ARCTek 3 cont’d from page 15