National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Summer 2019 NRP 

A Publication of NASA Research Park

POST

THE

Summer 2018

Ribbon-Cutting at 

Building 19

story on page 2

Administrator

Visits SimLabs

Story on page 3

NASA

Jim Bridenstine
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1 www.nasa.gov

IN THIS ISSUE

2 | USGS Ribbon-Cutting

USGS ribbon-cutting ceremony on July 10th is a key 

milestone for USGS’ move to Moffett Field

3 | NASA Administrator Visits SimLabs

Jim Bridenstine visits SimLabs flight simulators

5 | NASA Invests in 3D Printing

3D Printing in the aviation field, a future that NASA 

and CMU wish to be on the forefront

7 | Bob Vermillion Inducted into Military

Packaging Hall of Fame

The National Institute of Packaging honors Bob 

Vermillion with induction into Military Packaging 

Hall of Fame

9 | Verdigris Helping Save Energy

New technology in the familiar app makes it even 

easier for customers to save energy

11 | CMU Working on Buffering, Burstables, 

and Better Websites

Joe-Wong and Jiang are working on issues that can 

help everyone improve their experiences on the web

13 | Eugene Tu Announces New Appointments

Janice Fried joined the Director’s staff as Mejghan 

Haider was appointed the Director of the NASA 

Research Park

14 | NASA Ames Photo Ops

Photos from the NRP

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Last Wednesday, July 10th, was an exciting day in our on-going Menlo-to-Moffett 

relocation. About 150 people—USGS and NASA officials and employees, local government 

representatives, members of Congress and the media—took part in the official 

ribbon-cutting ceremony that marks the opening of new USGS offices at Moffett Field. 

The ceremony was a key milestone event in a process that began more than six years ago, 

led by the USGS in close collaboration with Congressional representatives (notably the 

Honorable Anna Eshoo), NASA, and the General Services Administration. The event 

celebrated the first phase of employees moving from the Menlo Park campus and the Western 

Ecological Research Center to the new USGS Moffett Field campus.

An array of science centers will be housed at Moffett Field. They are the Geology, Minerals, Energy, and Geophysics Science Center; the Earthquake Science Center; the Western 

Ecological Science Center; the Western Geographic Science Center; the California Volcano Observatory; the Earth System Processes Division (Water Mission Area); and the USGS 

Innovation Center. Key science support teams who underpin and enable everything we do will 

be there as well, including the Office of Communications and Publishing, Office of Enterprise 

Information, Office of Science Quality and Integrity, and others.

These USGS employees will be united under one roof in a newly refurbished building at the 

Moffett Field campus. Though best known for housing NASA’s Ames Research Center, Moffett 

Field is also home to Carnegie Mellon University, Google and other agencies, institutions, and 

companies. This co-location creates an outstanding environment for collaboration. USGS and 

Ames have a long history of working together and have ramped up their engagement over the 

past two years. New and exciting collaborations are being formed, and innovative and cutting-edge ideas are being explored, all while leveraging the skills, the scientific assets, and the 

resources of the respective institutions housed on the Moffett Field campus. 

The move taking place this summer is just the first part of the overall Menlo-to-Moffett 

relocation. In the coming months and years, the remainder of the USGS team will move from 

Menlo Park to Moffett Field. Once the last have arrived by the end of 2022, roughly 400 USGS 

employees will be based here at Moffett. 

This move was made possible by the extraordinary work of many people within the USGS, 

NASA, GSA and many other organizations. I can’t begin to express my gratitude for the perseverance and creativity exhibited in order to make this move possible. This move ushers in 

a new era for the USGS, one that will carry on the outstanding science legacy of the Menlo 

Park campus.

By Christy Ryan July 2019

USGS Ribbon-Cutting at 

Historic Building 19

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3 www.nasa.gov

NASA Administrator “Flying” 

a Lunar Lander at SimLabs

By Sumedha Garud 

Photos: NASA/Dominic Hart 

Moffett Field, CA

On May 31, 2019, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine visited the NASA 

Ames Simulation Laboratories (SimLabs) and experienced what it’s like 

to pilot and land a spacecraft on the 

Moon at the world’s largest Vertical Motion Simulator (VMS). In a highly realistic simulation, the 

Administrator piloted a spacecraft (with a cockpit 

configured like the Apollo Lunar Module) to successfully touch down on the lunar surface. 

Administrator Bridenstine then flew Rep. Anna G. 

Eshoo in the VMS, discussing work on NASA’s 

Artemis program to go forward to the Moon by 

2024. Past VMS studies have shown that landing 

on the Moon is extremely challenging for a control point of view, and motion-based simulation is 

critical for autonomous and piloted flight to study 

sensor and dynamics issues. After the lunar simulation demonstration, both Bridenstine and Eshoo posted glowing reviews on their social media 

– with Bridenstine stating, “@NASAAmes will be 

instrumental in putting the first woman and next 

man on the surface of the Moon as part of our 

Artemis program.” 

The VMS is just one of several simulation facilities 

located at NASA SimLabs. These immersive human-in-the-loop simulation capabilities are used 

for research to develop new aerospace concepts 

and technologies. The Administrator also spoke 

with several media outlets while flying them in the 

VMS lunar lander simulation. 

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As Bridenstine said to one reporter, “So when 

our astronauts go to the Moon in 2024...

we will have not just trained our astronauts 

in this simulator here at Ames, but we will 

have used this simulator to test the various 

designs, modeled the designs... we will have had 

those astronauts assess whether or not these 

designs are working or not working, and how to 

make them better.” 

NASA SimLabs boasts nearly 40 years of successful partnering with commercial space companies, academic institutions, and other government agencies – for more information please 

visit: www.nasa.gov/simlabs. 

NRP resident Metis Flight Research Associates 

(MFRA) was proud to help make this lunar lander demonstration to the NASA Administrator a 

resounding success. The Contracting Officer’s 

Representative for SimLabs, Steve Cowart, 

stated that, “Of special note is the nearly heroic effort put forth by the VMS support contractor MFRA, and the civil service staff, to develop, fabricate, and integrate all the hardware and 

software necessary to build the lunar lander 

simulator for the Administrator’s visit... it performed flawlessly, and the support staff can take 

great pride in the workmanship that made the 

lunar lander demo a reality.”

More information on how NASA SimLabs 

can “Simulate Future Space” is available at: 

www.nasa.gov/simlabs/simulate-future-space

NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine (pictured above left) 

experiences the lunar lander simulation at the VMS. Astronaut 

Karol “Bo” Bobko (pictured above right) served as the 

“flight instructor” and guided the Administrator to complete 

several successful landings.

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5 www.nasa.gov

NASA Invests in 3D Printing 

for Aviation

Additive manufacturing (AM), also 

known as 3D printing, is a promising 

new technology for all areas of aviation manufacturing. AM’s flexibility 

in design and customization, cost reduction, 

and speed in delivering finished parts make it 

a perfect fit for creating parts used in aviation 

contexts.

At the bleeding edge of this new frontier in aviation is Carnegie Mellon University’s Next Manufacturing Center and Manufacturing Futures 

Initiative (MFI).

Carnegie Mellon has been selected by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration 

(NASA) to lead a research team dedicated to 

examining new ways to build and power aircraft 

of the future, through NASA’s University LeadBy Emily Durham

ership Initiative. As part of the Transformative 

Aeronautics Concepts Program, Carnegie Mellon will help solve the nation’s most pressing 

problems in aviation.

Carnegie Mellon’s project will be led by Tony 

Rollett and Jack Beuth, faculty co-directors of 

Next Manufacturing, and will include additional 

Carnegie Mellon faculty Erica Fuchs, Elizabeth 

Holm, and Kenji Shimada. The team will receive 

nearly $7 million over three years.

“We are truly honored to be selected for this 

NASA ULI,” said Rollett, a professor of materials science and engineering. “Over the last 

eight years, metals AM has had a significant 

impact on aviation manufacturing for jet engine 

components, airframe structural elements, and 

CMU has been selected by NASA to lead a research 

team dedicated to examining new ways to build and 

power aircraft of the future, through NASA’s University 

Leadership Initiative.

“We believe this project will continue to 

substantially advance U.S. manufacturing capa- bilities in the aerospace and aviation industries.”
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other applications. We believe this project will 

continue to substantially advance U.S. manufacturing capabilities in the aerospace and 

aviation industries.” 

The research team—which will include partners from Argonne National Laboratory, 

ANSYS, Lockheed Martin, Trumpf, Eaton, 

General Electric, Pratt & Whitney, Northrop 

Grumman, Metal Powder Works, Siemens, 

Materials Solutions, and The Barnes Group—

will explore new methods for using additive 

manufacturing to reduce costs and increase 

the speed of mass-producing aircraft without 

sacrificing quality, reliability, and safety.

Studies and testing will be carried out in Carnegie Mellon’s new advanced manufacturing 

facility in the Hazelwood neighborhood of 

Pittsburgh. The new building is being constructed entirely within the enormous skeleton of the historic steel mill known as Mill 19, 

located on the Hazelwood Green development 

site. Mill 19 will be a central hub for advanced 

collaboration in the manufacturing space, 

housing MFI, industrial-scale activities of the 

Next Manufacturing Center, and the Advanced 

Robotics for Manufacturing (ARM).

“Process qualification is one of the most important challenges for additive manufacturing 

over the next 5 to 10 years. This project, our 

university-industry team, and the facilities 

at Mill 19 are coming together at just the right 

time,” said Beuth, professor of mechanical 

engineering. 

The successful implementation of the project’s 

qualification framework for laser powder bed 

fusion 3D printing will bring down the cost of 

manufacturing, particularly for short production run parts and replacement parts, as well as 

boost economic growth through enabling small 

contractors to qualify their AM processes and 

equipment.

The NASA ULI program was created to initiate a new type of interaction between ARMD 

and the university community, where U.S. universities take the lead, build their own teams, 

and set their own research path. This initiative 

seeks new, innovative ideas that can support 

the NASA ARMD portfolio and the U.S. aviation 

community.

Carnegie Mellon faculty Elizabeth Holm (materials science and engineering), Kenji Shimada 

(mechanical engineering), and Erica Fuchs (engineering and public policy) will bring expertise 

in machine learning, robotics, and commercialization to the project. Other partners on this 

project include the University of Pittsburgh, 

Case Western Reserve University, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Colorado School of 

Mines, the University of Texas at El Paso, and 

the Air Force Research Laboratory’s Materials 

and Manufacturing Directorate.
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7 www.nasa.gov

The National Institute of Packaging, 

Handling and Logistics Engineers 

(NIPHLE) consisting of the US Army, 

US NAVY, USMC, DLA, USAF, DCMA and 

Industry, inducted Bob Vermillion, CPP, Fellow, 

RMV Technology Group, LLC (RMV) into the 

Military Packaging Hall of Fame in a special 

ceremony on 22 March 2019. 

 

 In 1990, the Military Packaging Hall of 

Fame was established for recognition of 

individuals whose leadership and technical expertise has contributed to successful development of the packaging industry.

Initially, Aberdeen Proving Ground, Aberdeen, 

Maryland honored the first recipients for 

induction into the School of Military Packaging 

Technology. 

Nominees are first voted on by a group of 

Industry Subject Matter Experts and the 

DoD Packaging Group. Those who achieve 

entry into the Hall of Fame are voted upon 

by a panel of 25 electors that represent the 

military packaging community. Inductees 

include individuals who served in the Army, 

Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, DLA, GSA and 

the private sector.

In 1999, Bob developed a Mars Mission 

Approved material followed by numerous 

developments and training programs for 

Aerospace & Defense engineers, technicians, 

scientists and supply chain professionals. 

Most recently, RMV has developed a unique 

and interactive 5-day “hands-on” instrument 

driven educational program for Space & 

Defense to meet current and future requirements for the packaging, handling, storage and transportation of flight hardware 

and traceability to the updated standards of 

NASA and the DoD in austere environments for 

mission success. 

Exclusively developed and trained by RMV 

leadership with 3rd party international certification by Exemplar Global, an affiliate of ASQ, 

Bob Vermillion Inducted Into Military 

Packaging Hall of Fame
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an individual can achieve the highest level of 

iNARTE® Certified ESD Aerospace & Defense 

Engineer or Technician certification. 

RMV developed methods for the detection 

and identification of suspect counterfeit 

and non-compliant EEE components by first 

inspecting the external packaging or material 

protection of flight hardware is also included 

in the newly developed training program for 

NASA and the DoD. Prime contractors and the 

support subcontracting community are now 

invited to register for upcoming classes. 

NASA ESD program managers center-wide 

were the first to obtain the iNARTE® Certified ESD Aerospace & Defense Engineer© 

certification in March 2018. Specifically 

designed for the technology professional, the 

iNARTE space & defense training can certify 

engineers or technicians depending upon the 

level of education and work experience as 

required by iNARTE®. 

Now open for registration, the next class is 

scheduled for March 2020. Please contact 

Renee Mitchell at 650-964-4792 or email 

Renee at irene.a.mitchell@nasa.gov for early 

placement on the attendee list. For more information, please visit the RMV training website:

www.esdaerospacetraining.org/inarte-training 

Prepared by 

Renee Mitchell, President

RMV Technology Group LLC

A NASA Industry Partner 

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9 www.nasa.gov

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Verdigris Improves Advanced Energy 

Metering Offering— expanding capabilities to allow customers to 

easily find savings in their building

By Thomas Chung

I

n the first half of 2019, we added 

powerful new capabilities to Verdigris. Customers across all segments 

can now do more with the existing 

product they are already familiar with. 

Measurement and Verification (M&V) 

dashboards are available by default for 

all customers. We have taken what we 

have learned from working with energy 

service companies to build dashboards 

that make it easy to verify savings based 

on changes to the building. 

Key performance indicators (KPIs) were 

added to weekly reports. This allows 

customers to easily monitor changes 

in the key equipment they care about 

without needing to spend a lot of time 

digging through the data. A Fortune 

10 customer has already used these reports to find substantial process changes 

that could result in $10,000s in annual 

energy savings for a single facility. 

Verdigris now has the ability to integrate with Building Management 

Systems (BMS). Combined with our 

other algorithms, this allows us to better learn a building's operation in order 

to build a full end to end solution that 

automatically generates energy savings. 

This intelligent optimization (IO) product is currently being piloted with 3 

customers including in GSA buildings. 

Please reach out to sales@verdigris.co to 

learn more about our pilot program. 

Verdigris improved the accuracy of our 

ability to detect short cycling and energy 

anomalies (e.g. a spike in chiller energy 

usage), improving our suite of intelligent alerts (IA). We make it easy to catch 

unexpected behavior in equipment that 

is not detectable through regular maintenance while not having to spend all 

day looking through spreadsheets.

KPI dashboard shows data for three customized key performance indicators
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Dashboard shows a 

comparison of energy 

usage and costs between 

two time periods

Verdigris combines proprietary hardware, artificial intelligence and software applications to deliver differentiated insights about building operation and energy consumption. Verdigris smart sensors placed at the electrical panel sample at extremely high 

frequency. We take hundreds of millions of more data points than a utility smart meter 

– every hour. This high-frequency data is fundamental to algorithmically "learning" 

a building. Our algorithms use this information to create a "virtual physical layer" of 

data, producing energy forecasts, motor fault sensor streams, and device-level energy information. Verdigris offers a suite of applications based on this innovative data 

platform. These products enable an unprecedented depth of energy analysis and enable building managers to move beyond “firefighting.” Facility and operations teams 

can proactively manage their buildings to improve operational outcomes.

About Verdigris:

Equipment failure was detected and an 

alert was sent to the customer
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Most people know the frustration of a lagging website. You 

want to watch another show 

on Netflix, but it won’t stop buffering. 

You want to open another tab, but the 

browser crashes. You want to click a link, 

but your cursor turns into the spinning 

beach ball of death. Luckily, people like 

Carlee Joe-Wong are working to make 

website performances—and the revenues of the people who run them—the 

best they can be.

Joe-Wong is an assistant professor in 

Electrical and Computing Engineering 

at Carnegie Mellon University Silicon 

Valley. She researches computer and information networks, with a particular 

focus on economics and how to apply 

theory to practice. For the last year and 

a half, she has been investigating how 

cloud providers can optimize their use 

of burstable instances.

A cloud provider is a company that 

delivers computing-based services and 

infrastructure. Users usually pay cloud 

providers for a fixed amount of resources so they can host websites and other 

information online. However, sometimes a website can get a sudden influx 

of visitors, and the fixed amount isn’t 

enough anymore. The users then have 

to choose: pay for higher services they 

normally don’t need or let their website 

buckle under the weight of the traffic. 

Burstable instances attempt to circumvent this problem. “With burstable 

instances, you get a baseline amount of 

resources most of the time,” Joe-Wong 

says, “and then you can request bursts of 

resources, which is a temporary increase 

in the amount of resources available to 

you.” This means that users can customize their resources to fit their needs.

Although burstable instances don’t cost 

much, cloud providers still need to 

regulate them to prevent people from 

bursting all the time and using up all 

available resources. Most providers 

Buffering, Burstables, and 

Better Websites By Anne Boyle May 16, 2019
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handle this with something called a token bucket. “A token is essentially a virtual piece of money,” Joe-Wong says. “You 

can accumulate tokens at a predetermined 

rate over time, and then when you want to 

request a burst, you have to spend some of 

your tokens.”

Burstable instances are relatively new, and 

the research community has done little 

to understand them from a theoretical 

perspective. Joe-Wong hopes to fill that 

gap. She worked with a visiting Ph.D. 

student, Yuxuan Jiang, and collaborators 

at Princeton on a framework that can 

be used to model, analyze, and optimize 

burstable instances.

“We were looking at a couple different 

things,” Joe-Wong says. “How fast can you 

accumulate tokens? How often can you 

burst? And how does this affect the cloud 

provider’s ability to manage everybody’s 

burst requests?”

They referenced various empirical 

papers, adjusting and adapting techniques along the way. Joe-Wong and 

Jiang mostly worked on the theoretical 

model, while the Princeton collaborators 

worked to validate it. The end result is a 

model that will be able to help both cloud 

providers and users alike.

“We used our model to figure out how 

cloud vendors should price these different 

classes of burstable instances,” Joe-Wong 

says. “And that allows them to actually 

get more revenue.” If application developers use burstable instances better, then 

that could translate to cheaper services for 

users.

The model could also help users pay for 

resources more efficiently. “Any given user 

has a profile of needs,” Joe-Wong says. 

“So we look at that and ask, which class of 

burstables is better for you? Is the baseline 

service class enough, or is it actually worth 

it for you to pay for a higher service class?”

Their paper on the topic, Burstable 

Instances for Clouds: Performance Modeling, Equilibrium Analysis, and Revenue 

Maximization, was presented at the IEEE 

International Conference on Computer 

Communications. The team has hopes 

it will inspire more conversation in the 

area. “This is really the first model about 

burstable instances, and there’s a lot of 

ways it can be refined,” Joe-Wong says. “So 

I definitely hope other people will follow 

on to this.”

The team is also going to continue investigating this topic. “We’re continuing to 

work on this project and refine the model,” 

Joe-Wong says. “We’re still trying to make 

it more realistic and investigating better 

methods for optimizing user experience.” 

With any luck, the model will only get better. Goodbye, spinning beach ball of death; 

hello, revenue and high performance.
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Eugene L. Tu

announces new appointments 

MESSAGE FROM CENTER DIRECTOR

I am pleased to announce that on June 9, 2019, Ms. Janice Fried joined the Director’s staff as a Special 

Assistant to the Center Director, and Ms. Mejghan Haider was appointed the Director of the NASA Research Park (NRP) at NASA Ames Research Center (ARC). 

As Special Assistant to Center Director, Ms. Fried provides expertise and advice on labor relations law 

and policies. Ms. Fried will also continue as the Ames Center Anti-Harassment Coordinator and support 

both the Center and Agency in this role.

Ms. Fried was appointed to the Director of the NASA Research Park (NRP) in February 2016 and previously served as the Director of the Office of Human Capital. Prior to her appointment to the Senior Executive 

Service in 2008, she served as ARC’s Deputy Chief Counsel and as an attorney for both ARC and NASA 

Headquarters for more than eight years. During 2007, Ms. Fried served as the Acting Deputy Assistant 

Administrator for Human Capital Management at NASA Headquarters, and represented NASA as the 

Deputy Chief Human Capital Officer. Her educational background includes a Masters of Law degree in 

Environmental Law from the George Washington University Law School, a J.D. from Whittier Law School, 

and a Bachelor’s degree in History from the University of California, Los Angeles.

As Director of the NRP, Ms. Haider oversees partnership development, land use planning, leasing, and 

property management.

Ms. Haider started her Federal career in 1988 working in the Army Aeroflight Dynamic organization and 

joined ARC in 1990 working in the Office of the Chief Financial Officer as a Budget Analyst. In 1998, she 

joined the External Affairs Office as a Community Relations Specialist where she was involved in early 

planning of the NASA Research Park on matters including land use, community relations, Environmental 

Impact Study, and NASA Ames Development Planning. In 2004, Ms. Haider was named Deputy Director 

of the NRP. As the Deputy Director, she has been instrumental in the Center’s large-scale lease negotiations including Bay View, Moffett, and the Housing development. She has also recently been an influential 

contributor to the U.S. Geological Survey’s relocation to NASA Ames and is considered an expert in lease 

negotiations within the Agency. Ms. Haider earned a Bachelor’s Degree from San Jose State University 

and the University of Phoenix and she holds a MBA from Golden Gate University. 

Please join me in welcoming Ms. Fried and Ms. Haider to their new roles. 

Eugene L. Tu

Mejghan Haider

Director, NASA Research Park
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NASA Ames Photo Ops

February 25, 2019 NASA Deputy Administrator 

Morhard to ARC and tour of NRP

UC Berkley Chancellor Carol Christ and 

Executive Vice Chancellor & Provost Paul 

Alivisatos along with UC delegation, visited 

the NRP on July 11, 2019. They discussed 

numerous collaborative and development 

opportunities with Dr. Tu, Carol Carroll and Dr. 

Korsmeyer.

June 4, 2019 GSA Commissioner visit to 

NASA Ames

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National Aeronautics and Space Administration

NRP 

A Publication of NASA Research Park

POST

NP-2019-08-02-ARC

NASA Research Park

Editor, Layout and Design: TED TRIANO

Phone: (650) 604-2NRP

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

Website: www.nasa.gov/researchpark