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Charting Multidisciplinary Team External Dynamics Using a Systems Thinking Approach

Using the formalism provided by the Systems Thinking approach, the dynamics present when operating multidisciplinary teams are examined in the context of the NASA Langley Research and Technology Group, an R&D organization organized along functional lines. The paper focuses on external dynamics and examines how an organization creates and nurtures the teams and how it disseminates and retains the lessons and expertise created by the multidisciplinary activities. Key variables are selected and the causal relationships between the variables are identified. Five "stories" are told, each of which touches on a different aspect of the dynamics. The Systems Thinking Approach provides recommendations as to interventions that will facilitate the introduction of multidisciplinary teams and that therefore will increase the likelihood of performing successful multidisciplinary developments. These interventions can be carried out either by individual researchers, line management or program management.

Barthelemy, Jean-Francois

NASA management of the Space Shuttle Program

The management system and management technology described have been developed to meet stringent cost and schedule constraints of the Space Shuttle Program. Management of resources available to this program requires control and motivation of a large number of efficient creative personnel trained in various technical specialties. This must be done while keeping track of numerous parallel, yet interdependent activities involving different functions, organizations, and products all moving together in accordance with intricate plans for budgets, schedules, performance, and interaction. Some techniques developed to identify problems at an early stage and seek immediate solutions are examined.

Peters, F.

INTEGRATION OF DATA ANALYTICS WITH SYSTEM HEALTH PROGRAMS

Industry equipment reliability and asset management programs are essential elements that help ensure the safe and economical operation of nuclear power plants. The effectiveness of these programs is addressed in several industry developed and regulatory programs. However, these programs have proven to be labor intensive and expensive. There is an opportunity to significantly enhance the collection, analysis, and use of this information to provide more cost-effective plant operation. Additionally, there is an acute industry need to leverage advanced technology to reduce costs and improve operational effectiveness. The goal of this paper is to provide effective and efficient analytical methods and tools to support risk-informed decisions for the equipment reliability and asset management programs at nuclear power plants. This is accomplished by creating a direct bridge between component health/lifecycle data and decision making (e.g., maintenance scheduling and project prioritization). Here we are supporting typical system engineer decisions regarding maintenance activity scheduling and component ageing management. This is performed in a risk-informed context where herein the term “risk” is broadly constructed to include both plant reliability and economics. This framework combines data analytics tools to analyze equipment reliability data with risk-informed methods designed to support system engineer decisions (e.g., maintenance and replacement schedules, optimal maintenance posture) in a customizable workflow. A challenge is that the structure of this workflow strongly depends on the decision that needs to be made, the type of data available, and the constraints that need to be considered. Current methods are designed to provide specific answers to specific problems; however, these methods might prove to be inadequate even when problem settings slightly change (e.g., different types of requirements, additional dependencies between system reliability and economics). We tackled this challenge by designing framework in a flexible and modular fashion such that the user can assemble and customize his/her own workflow that integrates SSC economic lifecycle models (e.g., maintenance and replacement costs), system reliability models, and optimization methods.

97 - MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING

The successful management of programs for human factors certification of advanced aviation technologies

In recent years there have been immense pressures to enact changes on the air traffic control organizations of most states. In addition, many of these states are or have been subject to great political, sociological and economic changes. Consequently, any new schemes must be considered within the context of national or even international changes. Europe has its own special problems, and many of these are particularly pertinent when considering human factors certification programs. Although these problems must also be considered in the wider context of change, it is usually very difficult to identify which forces are pressing in support of human factors aspects and which forces are resisting change. There are a large number of aspects which must be taken into account if human factors certification programs are to be successfully implemented. Certification programs would be new ventures, and like many new ventures it will be essential to ensure that managers have the skills, commitment and experience to manage the programs effectively. However, they must always be aware of the content and the degree of certainty to which the human factors principles can be applied - as Debons and Horne have carefully described. It will be essential to avoid the well known pitfalls which occur in the implementation of performance appraisal schemes. While most appraisal schemes are usually extremely well thought out, they often do not produce good results because they are not implemented properly and staff therefore do not have faith in them. If the manager does not have the commitment and interest in his/her staff as human beings, then the schemes will not be effective. Thus, one aspect of considering human factors certification schemes is within the context of a managed organization. This paper outlines some of the management factors which need to be considered for the air traffic control services. Many of the points received attention during the plenary sessions while others were covered by the working groups when the question arose of how various aspects of human factors certification programs would be managed. Management and organizational issues will certainly need to be included in any frame of reference by those who may be involved in developing certification programs.

Baldwin, Rod

STS-121/Discovery: Launch Readiness Press Conference

Participants in the briefing included: Bruce Buckingham (NASA Public Affairs), John Shannon (Chairman, Mission Management Team), Mike Suffredini (ISS Program Manager), Mike Leinbach (Shuttle Launch Director), Alan Thirkettle (ISS Program Manager, ESA) and 1st Lt. Kaleb Nordgen (USAF 45th Weather Squadron). There are no constraints to launch except for questionable weather. The crew is ready to go. PROGRESS has provided logistics and is ready to be installed. No cryogenics have been loaded because of a Phase 1 lightning advisory. The shuttle crew is in good shape, just waiting for the weather to clear. ISS is making preparations for the Columbus Mission and future plans are to increase the crew from 3 to 6 people. The floor was opened to questions from the press.

Source record

Best Practices for Fatigue Risk Management in Non-Traditional Shiftwork

Fatigue risk management programs provide effective tools to mitigate fatigue among shift workers. Although such programs are effective for typical shiftwork scenarios, where individuals of equal skill level can be divided into shifts to cover 24 hour operations, traditional programs are not sufficient for managing sleep loss among individuals with unique skill sets, in occupations where non-traditional schedules are required. Such operations are prevalent at NASA and in other high stress occupations, including among airline pilots, military personnel, and expeditioners. These types of operations require fatigue risk management programs tailored to the specific requirements of the mission. Without appropriately tailored fatigue risk management, such operations can lead to an elevated risk of operational failure, disintegration of teamwork, and increased risk of accidents and incidents. In order to design schedules for such operations, schedule planners must evaluate the impact of a given operation on circadian misalignment, acute sleep loss, chronic sleep loss and sleep inertia. In addition, individual-level factors such as morningness-eveningness preference and sleep disorders should be considered. After the impact of each of these factors has been identified, scheduling teams can design schedules that meet operational requirements, while also minimizing fatigue.

research

Detailed requirements document for common software of shuttle program information management system

Common software was investigated as a method for minimizing development and maintenance cost of the shuttle program information management system (SPIMS) applications while reducing the time-frame of their development. Those requirements satisfying these criteria are presented along with the stand-alone modules which may be used directly by applications. The SPIMS applications operating on the CYBER 74 computer, are specialized information management systems which use System 2000 as a data base manager. Common software provides the features to support user interactions on a CRT terminal using form input and command response capabilities. These features are available as subroutines to the applications.

Everette, J. M.

STS-114: Discovery Day 6 Post MMT Meeting

Wayne Hale, Space Shuttle Deputy Program Manager and Steve Poulos, Orbiter Program Manager, discuss the damage assessment from the tiles that came off the Space Shuttle Discovery during launch. Poulos presents charts and discusses in detail the following topics: 1) Composite Tile Damage/Gap Filler Sites Evaluation; 2) Protruding Ceramic Shim Aft of the Nose Landing Gear Door (NLGD); 3) Protruding Chine Gap Filler; 4) RH NLGD Tile Damage; 5) RH NLGD Damage Analysis; 6) Left Wing Tile Damage; 7) Comparison of Ground Test Results vs. FD5 Focused Inspection; 8) Current Status: Focused Inspection 721L07-01 ITVC FD5 Image of Panel 7L Apex 9) Current Status: Focused Inspection Lower Panel 7L721L07-02; 10) Current Status Focused Inspection 721L10-02 Lower Panel 10L Close-up view; and 11) Window 1 Blanket. The presentation ends with a question and answer period from the news media.

Source record

Working at the Ohio Aerospace Institute

The Ohio Aerospace Institute is a wonderful place to work. I enjoy coming to work everyday knowing that I will be surrounded by smiling faces. My mentor, Mary Auzenne, is the Program Manager of the LERCIP College Internship Program, however, I spend most of my time working with Akua Soadwa, the Assistant Program Manager. She is in charge of planning, coordinating, and managing every event that is involved with the college internship program such as the socials, picnic, banquet, workshops, and research symposium. My job is to make her job easier. I help out with the planning, coordinating, and managing of these events. When I first got on board Akua was in the process of planning the second social for the interns. The social is a way for the interns to interact with one another as well as to find out more about where the other interns are working at NASA. We ordered the food, went shopping, and set up the Guerin House for the party. I made sign-in sheets, which helped us get a rough count of the attendees. The next event was the Technical Presentation Workshop and the Professional Development Workshop. These workshops are designed to enhance skills of the interns. We were there to sign people in and direct them to the room where the presentation was to take place. I also took pictures of the workshop and provided copies for the presenters, as well as our files.

Szabo, Hortenzia

Georgia resource assessment project: Institutionalizing LANDSAT and geographic data base techniques

Digital data from LANDSAT for each 1.1-acre cell in Georgia were processed and the land cover conditions were categorized. Several test cases were completed and an operational hardware and software processing capability was established at the Georgia Institute of Technology. The operational capability was developed to process the entire state (60,000 sq. miles and 14 LANDSAT scenes) in a cooperative project between eleven divisions and agencies at the regional, state, and federal levels. Products were developed for State agencies such as in both mapped and statistical formats. A computerized geographical data base was developed for management programs. To a large extent the applications of the data base evolved as users of LANDSAT information requested that other data (i.e., soils, slope, land use, etc.) be made compatible with LANDSAT for management programs. To date, geographic data bases incorporating LANDSAT and other spatial data deal with elements of the municipal solid waste management program, and reservoir management for the Corps of Engineers. LANDSAT data are also being used for applications in wetland, wildlife, and forestry management.

Pierce, R. R.

Issues in NASA program and project management

This volume is the third in an ongoing series on aerospace project management at NASA. Articles in this volume cover the attitude of the program manager, program control and performance measurement, risk management, cost plus award fee contracting, lessons learned from the development of the Far Infrared Absolute Spectrometer (FIRAS), small projects management, and age distribution of NASA scientists and engineers. A section on resources for NASA managers rounds out the publication.

Hoban, Francis T.

Issues in NASA program and project management

This volume is the third in an ongoing series on aerospace project management at NASA. Articles in this volume cover the attitude of the program manager, program control and performance measurement, risk management, cost plus award fee contracting, lessons learned from the development of the Far Infrared Absolute Spectrometer (FIRAS), small projects management, and age distribution of NASA scientists and engineers. A section on resources for NASA managers rounds out the publication.

Hoban, Francis T.

LUMIS: Land Use Management and Information Systems; coordinate oriented program documentation

An integrated geographic information system to assist program managers and planning groups in metropolitan regions is presented. The series of computer software programs and procedures involved in data base construction uses the census DIME file and point-in-polygon architectures. The system is described in two parts: (1) instructions to operators with regard to digitizing and editing procedures, and (2) application of data base construction algorithms to achieve map registration, assure the topological integrity of polygon files, and tabulate land use acreages within administrative districts.

Source record

Associative programming language and virtual associative access manager

APL provides convenient associative data manipulation functions in a high level language. Six statements were added to PL/1 via a preprocessor: CREATE, INSERT, FIND, FOR EACH, REMOVE, and DELETE. They allow complete control of all data base operations. During execution, data base management programs perform the functions required to support the APL language. VAAM is the data base management system designed to support the APL language. APL/VAAM is used by CADANCE, an interactive graphic computer system. VAAM is designed to support heavily referenced files. Virtual memory files, which utilize the paging mechanism of the operating system, are used. VAAM supports a full network data structure. The two basic blocks in a VAAM file are entities and sets. Entities are the basic information element and correspond to PL/1 based structures defined by the user. Sets contain the relationship information and are implemented as arrays.

Carol Price

Probability of illness definition for the Skylab flight crew health stabilization program

Management and analysis of crew and environmental microbiological data from SMEAT and Skylab are discussed. Samples were collected from ten different body sites on each SMEAT and Skylab crew-member on approximately 50 occasions and since several different organisms could be isolated from each sample, several thousand lab reports were generated. These lab reports were coded and entered in a computer file and from the file various tabular summaries were constructed.

Source record

Hybrid Power Management (HPM) Program Resulted in Several New Applications

Hybrid Power Management (HPM) is the innovative integration of diverse, state-of-the-art power devices in an optimal configuration for space and terrestrial applications. The appropriate application and control of the various power devices significantly improves overall system performance and efficiency. The advanced power devices include ultracapacitors, fuel cells, and photovoltaics. HPM has extremely wide potential with applications from nanowatts to megawatts. Applications include power generation, transportation systems, biotechnology systems, and space power systems. HPM has the potential to significantly alleviate global energy concerns, improve the environment, and stimulate the economy.

Eichenberg, Dennis J.

Research Strategy for Modeling the Complexities of Turbine Heat Transfer

The subject of this paper is a NASA research program, known as the Coolant Flow Management Program, which focuses on the interaction between the internal coolant channel and the external film cooling of a turbine blade and/or vane in an aircraft gas turbine engine. The turbine gas path is really a very complex flow field. The combination of strong pressure gradients, abrupt geometry changes and intersecting surfaces, viscous forces, rotation, and unsteady blade/vane interactions all combine to offer a formidable challenge. To this, in the high pressure turbine, we add the necessity of film cooling. The ultimate goal of the turbine designer is to maintain or increase the high level of turbine performance and at the same time reduce the amount of coolant flow needed to achieve this end. Simply stated, coolant flow is a penalty on the cycle and reduces engine thermal efficiency. Accordingly, understanding the flow field and heat transfer associated with the coolant flow is a priority goal. It is important to understand both the film cooling and the internal coolant flow, particularly their interaction. Thus, the motivation for the Coolant Flow Management Program. The paper will begin with a brief discussion of the management and research strategy, will then proceed to discuss the current attack from the internal coolant side, and will conclude by looking at the film cooling effort - at all times keeping sight of the primary goal the interaction between the two. One of the themes of this paper is that complex heat transfer problems of this nature cannot be attacked by single researchers or even groups of researchers, each working alone. It truly needs the combined efforts of a well-coordinated team to make an impact. It is important to note that this is a government/industry/university team effort.

Simoneau, Robert J.

Summary of the Geocarto International Special Issue on "NASA Earth Science Satellite Data for Applications to Public Health" to be Published in Early 2014

At the 2011 Applied Science Public Health review held in Santa Fe, NM, it was announced that Dr. Dale Quattrochi from the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, John Haynes, Program Manager for the Applied Sciences Public Health program at NASA Headquarters, and Sue Estes, Deputy Program Manager for the NASA Applied Sciences Public Health Program located at the Universities Space Research Association (USRA) at the National Space Science and Technology Center (NSSTC) in Huntsville, AL, would edit a special issue of the journal Geocarto International on "NASA Earth Science Satellite Data for Applications to Public Health". This issue would be focused on compiling research papers that use NASA Earth Science satellite data for applications to public health. NASA's Public Health Program concentrates on advancing the realization of societal and economic benefits from NASA Earth Science in the areas of infectious disease, emergency preparedness and response, and environmental health (e.g., air quality). This application area as a focus of the NASA Applied Sciences program, has engaged public health institutions and officials with research scientists in exploring new applications of Earth Science satellite data as an integral part of public health decision- and policy-making at the local, state and federal levels. Of interest to this special issue are papers submitted on are topics such as epidemiologic surveillance in the areas of infectious disease, environmental health, and emergency response and preparedness, national and international activities to improve skills, share data and applications, and broaden the range of users who apply Earth Science satellite data in public health decisions, or related focus areas.. This special issue has now been completed and will be published n early 2014. This talk will present an overview of the papers that will be published in this special Geocarto International issue.

Quattrochi, Dale A.