VISITING COMMITTEE ON ADVANCED TECHNOLOGY (VCAT)

MINUTES OF THE OCTOBER 7-8, 2014 MEETING

BOULDER, CO

ATTENDANCE:

Visiting Committee 

Members Attending

Brooks, Rodney

Chand, Sujeet*

Chowdhry, Uma*

Colwell, Rita*

Haymet, Tony

Holt, William

Padovani, Roberto

Romig, Alton D.

Solomon, Darlene

VCAT Exec. Dir.

Lellock, Karen

NIST Leadership Board 

Boehm, Jason

Celotta, Bob

Dimeo, Robert

Fangmeyer, Robert

Harary, Howard

Kayser, Rich

Kimball, Kevin

Locascio, Laurie

May, Willie

Olthoff, Jim

Porch, Susanne

Rochford, Kent

Romine, Chuck

Royster, Cecelia

Salber, Stephen

Saunders, Mary

Schiller, Susannah

Singerman, Phillip*

Wixon, Henry

NIST Staff 

Arrisueno, Gladys

Averill, Jason

Barbosa, Nick

Briggman, Kim

Copello, Brian

Diddams, Scott

Evans, Heather

Fekete, Jim

Frechette, Simon*

Gebbie, Katharine*

Goldstein, Barbara

Grove, Tom

Jonathan Hardis*

Holbrook, Dave*

Holtzman-Bell, Virgin

Janezic, Mike

Jillavenkatesa, Ajit

Kelley, Mike

Levine, Judah

Lezec, Henri*

Lofquist, Mark

McElvaney, Tracy

Miner, Laurel

Orr, Dereck

Ost, Laura

Porter, Gail

Possolo, Antonio*

Remley, Kate

Ringen, Sonja

Scholl Matthew

Shaw, Stephanie

Skillicorn, Alan

Wang, Chin-Ming (Jack)

Yoon, Howard

Others 

Nelson, Eric, NTIA

Prafullchandra, Hemma, 

HyTrust Inc.

Swenson, Sue, FirstNet

Taylor, Thomas, DoD

*Participated Remotely 
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Tuesday, October 7, 2014

Call to Order – Dr. Tony Haymet, VCAT Chair

Dr. Haymet called the meeting to order at 12:00 p.m. and pointed out the emergency exits. Dr. Haymet 

introduced the new VCAT Executive Director, Karen Lellock and invited guest Hemma Prafullchandra, 

CTO of HyTrust, Inc. Hemma is nominated to serve on the VCAT and is moving through the vetting and 

review process. Dr. Haymet congratulated Dr. Willie May on his nomination to serve as the 

Undersecretary of Commerce for Standards and Technology. He concluded his remarks by outlining the 

schedule for the remainder of the meeting.

OVERVIEW AND SAFETY

NIST Update and Agenda Review – Dr. Willie E. May, Acting Under Secretary of Commerce for 

Standards and Technology and Acting NIST Director

Presentation Summary: Dr. May provided information on a number of organizational updates, research 

activities and staff accomplishments. He summarized the current budget requests for NIST. The 

President's request for NIST is $900 million, that's up about $50 million or so over the past year. The 

Senate mark is at $900 million and the House mark is around $856 million, which would be $6 million 

roughly over this year. NIST is currently operating under a continuing resolution that runs through 

December 11th.

Dr. May updated the VCAT on several of his priorities including filling key vacancies in the Physics and 

Engineering Laboratories, the Associate Director for Laboratory Programs, the Director of the 

Manufacturing Extension Partnership program, and the Director of the Standards Coordination Office. Dr. 

May selected Howard Harary to serve as Director of the Engineering Laboratory and Jim Olthoff will fill 

the position of Director of the Physics Laboratory. Formal vacancy announcements for the other positons 

will be posted in the coming months.

Dr. May highlighted several awards given to NIST scientific and technical staff. He also shared 

information about the performance of NIST’s Net-Zero Energy House that was able to achieve net-zero 

over the course of the first year and will now be used to test various energy efficient technologies. He 

also highlighted the Megacities project, a collaboration with NOAA, NASA, and a number of other 

organizations where NIST providing the measurement technology to allow urban environments to 

determine the total of burden for a given locality but also to investigate sources and sinks. 

Dr. May provided a brief update on the MEP program which is focusing on a pilot effort to re-compete the 

MEP system by starting with 10 states to rebalance investments in the individual centers. Also 

highlighted were the National Network of Manufacturing Institutes (NNMI) and the continued support for 

the Institutes from DOE and DOD. NIST has the statutory responsibility to coordinate the network and 

the Secretary of Commerce is interested in a commerce-supported Institute. NIST is continuing to work 

with the Secretary on options for supporting one in light of not having funds directly appropriated for an 

Institute. 

NIST is continuing to support dedicated Centers of Excellence focused on partnering with external 

stakeholders, usually led by a university, to quickly develop competencies needed to carry out the NIST 

mission in certain areas. The first one was awarded about a year ago, the CHiMaD, Center for 

Hierarchical Materials by Design in Chicago is led by the University of Chicago, Northwestern University, 
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and Argonne National Laboratories. This year NIST received additional funding in FY14 to stand up two 

additional centers of excellence. The focus of these two centers will be disaster resilience and forensic 

science.

Dr. May also describe NIST activities, partnerships, and collaborations focused on supporting a National 

Commission of Forensic Sciences, a National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence (NCCOE), CyberPhysical Systems Global City Teams Challenge, NFL Head Health Challenge, and the NIST Science & 

Technology Entrepreneurship Program

Dr. May concluded his presentation by focusing on a few operational initiatives focused on improving the 

efficiency of internal operations including, acquisitions, agreements, human resources, legal services , 

and human subjects research review process.

Discussion: The group discussed the following topics:

 The scope of the National Commission of Forensics;

 The focus of the National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence;

 How will the Cybersecurity Framework address compliance 

For more information, see Dr. May’s presentation.

Safety Update – Richard Kayser, Chief Safety Officer

Presentation Summary: With regard to safety metrics, Dr. Kayser reviewed NIST’s actual number of 

Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) recordable and Days Away, Restricted, or 

Transferred (DART) cases from FY 2011 – FY 2014, emphasizing that both metrics have decreased over 

this time period. Most of NIST’s OSHA recordable and DART cases continued to be due to slips, trips, 

and falls. 

Dr. Kayser updated the VCAT on the initial findings of the NIST safety climate survey that was conducted

based on the VCAT’s recommendation. The survey was conducted over the summer and received an 

overall response rate of 60%. More in-depth analysis of the data are planned but a few highlights were 

presented including, improvements in employee’s understanding of their safety and health responsibilities 

and the sentiment that managers at all levels of the organization recognize the importance of safety. The 

survey also identified a number of opportunities for improvements including, safety training effectiveness 

and communication of safety related resources. A full analysis of the survey findings will be conducted 

and recommended actions will be presented to NIST senior leaders in the coming months. Plans for 

communicating the results to staff are also underway.

Discussion: The group discussed the following topics:

 Growing evidence of the safety culture getting into the “DNA” of the organization;

 Need for continued analysis of the slips, trips, and falls incidents to determine opportunities for 

improvement;

 Importance of ergonomics in the consideration of employee safety and health.

For more information, see Dr. Kayser’s presentation.
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CRYPTOGRAPHIC REVIEW

NIST’s response to VCAT Recommendations, Anticipated Actions – Chuck Romne, Director 

Information Technology Laboratory

Presentation Summary: Dr. Romine updated the VCAT on the actions and planned next steps related 

to the recommendations the VCAT outlined in their July 2014 report, NIST Cryptographic Standards and 

Guidelines Development Process. He summarized the VCAT recommendations and highlighted NIST 

actions to date.

Actions to date in the area of Openness and Transparency: 

 Draft of NIST IR 7977, NIST Cryptographic Standards and Guidelines Development Process 

 Public posting of all released materials 

 Public posting of Committee Of Visitors Review briefing materials

 Open discussions on the issue, the VCAT Report, and NIST actions, to multiple stakeholders for 

awareness and input 

Actions to date in the area of Independent Strength/Capability:

 New hires, guest researchers, and faculty appointments in the Cryptographic Technology Group

 Creation of Washington DC-Area Cryptographic Group

 Strengthen the pipeline of staff and engagements 

Actions in the area of Clarification of Relationship with NSA:

 All NSA contributions to NIST guidance will be acknowledged

 NIST / NSA Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) publicly posted

 Initial introduction and discussion with new Director of NSA and NIST Director held

 Re-evaluation of the parameters of the current NIST / NSA MOU (in progress)

Actions in the area of Technical Work, Development and Processes:

 Removal of Dual_EC_DRBG from Draft SP 800-90A

 Initiated internal review of NIST cryptographic reference materials

 Re-engineering the configuration management and cryptographic development processes, with 

input from the NIST Standards Coordination Office

Dr. Romine also highlighted additional actions to continue to strengthen capabilities with new hires and 

guest researchers, improve communication and outline process improvements in tools and training. 

Discussion: The group discussed the following topics:

 Suggestions for expanding the membership of the Cryptography group to include participants 

beyond universities;

 How to measure progress in this area to assess the impact of the changes made;

 Suggestion that the actions and updated presented be captured in a written document to be 

shared with the Committee of Visitors.

For more information, see Dr. Romine’s presentation.
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DISASTER RESILIENCE PLAN

Overview of Disaster Resilience Plan Changes, Framework, and Community Resilience Center of 

Excellence – Jason Averill, Acting Division Chief, Materials and Structural Systems Divisions, 

Engineering Laboratory

Presentation Summary: Dr. Averill updated the VCAT on the discussions that began in the February 

and June 2014 meetings related to NIST’s responsibilities and activities in support of disaster resilience. 

He provide an overview of activities in several areas including: Organizational Changes to Strengthen the 

Disaster & Failure Studies Program (D&FSP), the Disaster Resilience Framework, the Resilience Fellows 

Program, and the Community Resilience Center of Excellence (COE). Organizational changes, including 

the creation of a new Community Resilience Group will bring together the work to implement the 

framework with the research program to ensure that there is a strong scientific basis to our community 

resilience efforts and continues support for D&FSP. The Disaster Resilience Framework will provide a 

conceptual structure and educational tool that indemnifies mature standards and recommends best 

practices. The initial development of the framework has involved substantial stakeholder engagement.

The Community Resilience Fellows program is new and involves having a set of experts in certain areas

work with NIST. The first set of Fellows includes 9 individuals which will be directly engaged with the 

development of the framework to ensure that we have something that is a world-class product. Through 

the Community Resilience COE, NIST will develop collaborations focused on developing competencies in 

Computational Modeling Environments, Data Management Tools and Field Studies supporting community 

resilience. NIST anticipates award decisions for the Community Resilience COE by the end of December 

2014.

Discussion: The group discussed the following topics:

 The need for cost considerations around the framework recommendations to allow decisionmakers to make informed decisions about implementing specific recommendations;

 The role of other federal agencies in the broader Disaster Resilience Framework;

 How to measure or test the models being developed against real world type applications.

For more information, see Dr. Averill’s presentation.

HEALTHY NIST: RECRUITING, TRAINING, AND RETAINING SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNICAL TALENT

Dr. May opened this session by introducing the most recently announced NIST fellows. Three of the 

fellows, Scott Diddams, Antonio Possolo, and Henri Lezec provided insights into why they originally came 

to NIST, why they stay, and what NIST can do to continue to attract and retain high quality researchers.

Current Landscape: NIST Scientific Personnel Trends and Demographics; Existing Personnel 

Authorities and Policies; Existing Authorities of Other Scientific Agencies –Susanne Porch, 

Director, Office of Human Resources Management

Presentation Summary: After the Fellow’s shared their experience, Ms. Porch presented information 

and data on the make-up of NIST’s technical workforce in terms of occupation, positions, paybands, 

gender, education, and length of service. Ms, Porch posed three questions for consideration:

1. Is NIST still competitive for talent in terms of compensation?

2. How does NIST ensure we can recruit/develop the necessary talent to fill key management and 

leadership positions at NIST?
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3. How does NIST ensure the right balance in skills to meet its core metrology mission and 

emerging national priorities?

Additional data and insights were provided to foster discussion around the questions.

Discussion: The group discussed the following topics:

 Suggestions for tracking data around acceptance rates for job offers and conducting a 

compensation study for comparable data points and developing a business case for change;

 Examples from the private sector on how retirement, retention and recruitment is handled;

 Consideration for NIST to outline what the workforce in 2018/2020 will be and identify what 

authorities or initiatives need to be in place to accommodate future workforce demands.

For more information, see Ms. Porch’s presentation.

October 8, 2014

ADVANCED COMMUNICATIONS

NIST’s Programmatic Approach to Advanced Communications – Kent Rochford, Director, 

Communications Technology Laboratory 

Presentation Summary: 

Dr. Rochford provided an overview of NIST’s newly created Communications Technology Laboratory 

(CTL) and highlighted three main priorities focused on the development of appropriate measurements 

and standards to: 

 Enable robust, mission-critical, interoperable public safety communications

 Enable effective and efficient spectrum use and sharing

 Enable advanced communications technologies

Dr. Rochford highlighted the research programs and partnerships focused on supporting these priorities. 

In the area of public safety, Dr. Rochford identified the importance of interoperability to support first 

responders. NIST is committed to supporting the FirstNet mission and have been working to identify the 

technical requirements needed. The CTL has also developed a demonstration network to start validating 

standards. Dr. Rochford discussed the role of the Center for Advanced Communication (CAC), a joint 

initiative between NIST and the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA). 

With this effort, NIST will be bringing measurement science, statistical studies, and uncertainty analysis, 

to the modeling work of NITA to help support challenges around spectrum sharing. Through the National 

Advanced Spectrum and Communications Test Network (NASCTN), Federal, academic, and commercial 

test facilities will provide testing, modeling and analysis necessary to develop and deploy spectrumsharing technologies and inform future spectrum policy and regulations. Dr. Rochford also discussed 

goals of other countries in developing 5G technologies and the work that CTL is doing in advanced 

communications and how it can support some of the key 5G technologies. Lastly, Dr. Rochford 

highlighted work with multiple-input/multiple-output antennas or MIMO that have the potential to create 

the most capacity but is fraught with measurement problems. Dr. Rochford closed his presentation with a 

discussion around the resources needed to fund the projects and his prioritization.
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Discussion: The group discussed the following topics:

 Agreement about the need for an independent, impartial body that does modeling and 

measurements for coexistence issues while also looking forward to the new advanced 

technologies;

 How do you cooperate and collaborate with industry around various innovation and applications 

to support the core infrastructure;

 How do you conduct tests and develop standards to ensure systems work in real-world disasters 

and situations not just in predictability tests environments.

For more information, see Dr. Rochford’s presentation.

National Telecommunications & Information Administration (NTIA) Programmatic Approach to 

Advanced Communications – Eric Nelson, National Telecommunications & Information 

Administration (NTIA)

Mr. Nelson of NTIA’s Institute for Telecommunication Sciences (ITS) provided a brief review of the history 

and long-term collaborations between NTIA and NIST. He highlighted the major research programs of 

NTIA that include: Radio propagation, modeling, Spectrum measurements, ITU-T and ITU-R studies, 

Audio, video and multimedia quality, Public Safety Communications, and Spectrum sharing. Mr. Nelson 

described the measurement, models and simulations NTIA is developing to support a new spectrum 

framework, including various partnerships and cross agency collaborations.

Discussion: The group discussed the following topics:

 Accolades for the long standing relationship between the two agencies;

 The need for a national initiative focused on government spectrum dependent systems, especially 

radar.

For more information, see Mr. Nelson’s presentation.

Stakeholder Perspective – Tom Taylor, DOD & Sue Swenson, FirstNet

Dr. Rochford introduced Sue Swenson, Chair of FirstNet and Tom Taylor of the CIO office within DOD. 

Ms. Swenson described the FirstNet organization that consists of a 15 person Board with representatives 

from federal, state and local entities and industry representatives along with about 100 staff that are a

combination of federal employees, detailees and contractors. Together they are focused on creating a 

dedicated public safety network for first responders. Ms. Swenson highlighted the role of the Public Safety 

Communications Research Program (PSCRP) and specifically the importance of the partnership with 

NIST in supporting the standards work.

Mr. Taylor described DOD’s perspective on spectrum sharing that includes robust implementations that 

are validated through trusted tests. He emphasized the need for trusted measures and metrics that 

everyone can adopt because reallocating spectrum is not an option for the future it will be about 

optimizing an effective spectrum sharing system that supports all users. He highlighted the need to 

reduce redundancy in testing and an unbiased trusted environment for sharing information, increasing 

coordination, and validating accurate measurements. Mr. Taylor highlighted three use cases, 3.5 GHZ, 

Spectrum Sharing Determination, and “Model City,” and outlined the issues/risks and solution 

requirements for each. 

Discussion: The group discussed the following topics:
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 The connection and relationship between DOD and FirstNet;

 Next steps to address the spectrum sharing issues; 

 The timeline for roll out of FirstNet.

For more information, see Mr. Taylor’s presentation.

CLOSE AND ADMINISTRATIVE BUSINESS

There were no public comments offered.

The VCAT discussed the February 2015 meeting and potential topics to be included in the 2014 VCAT 

Annual Report.

Adjournment

The meeting was adjourned at 12:00 p.m. on October 8, 2014

I hereby certify that to the best of my knowledge, the forgoing minutes are accurate and complete.

Karen Lellock, Executive Director, NIST Visiting Committee on Advanced Technology

Dr. Tony Haymet, Chair, NIST Visiting Committee on Advanced Technology