News Archive
Here is an archive of news items that have appeared on the front page of our site.
2004
April 29. 2004
IS Project's Mobile Agents and ScienceOrganizer Field-Tested for Mars
The IS Project's ScienceOrganizer—a collaborative knowledge management tool for distributed science teams—is being field-tested with the IS Project's intelligent Mobile Agents Architecture at the Mars Society's Desert Research Station (MDRS) in Utah through May 9. Mobile Agents is a model-based distributed architecture for simulating and coordinating teams of humans and mobile software agents during planetary exploration missions. The Mobile Agents architecture includes 'personal agent' software—software to which people can speak—and 'com' software that links software and hardware devices. The objective is to test the Mobile Agents system while 'astronauts' and a robotic assistant conduct scientific investigations. They will use ScienceOrganizer to capture, store, and display the information for collaborative use by scientists on the 'Earth' and on 'Mars.' During the Mobile Agents field test, the 'astronauts' will communicate with science teams located at several universities via the Web, using ScienceOrganizer to share and annotate science data.
February 24. 2004
IS Project's MAPGEN/Constraint Editor Generates More Successful Plans for Mars Rovers
The IS-funded rover planner, MAPGEN, with its Constraint Editor (CE) for science goals, helped plan a complex interleaving of science and drive segments at "Laguna Hollow" during Spirit's 50th day (sol) on Mars, earning high praise from the operations team. During Opportunity's 28th sol, CE handled 3,127 constraints, well beyond its original test parameters. The operations team was "amazed" at how fast MAPGEN generates complex rover plans "every sol."
January 19, 2004
Mars Team Says MAPGEN Planner “Doing It Well”
The Mars Exploration Rover (MER) team first used the MAPGEN planner (funded by the IS Project) to check power levels prior to the Spirit rover's egress from its lander. The first MAPGEN activity plan for the rover, described as “exceptional,” was approved and successfully executed. MER mission principal investigator Steve Squyers, said, “The planner is doing exactly what we want it to do and doing it well.”
2003
December 16, 2003
IS Project Develops New Software for Detecting Faults in Spacecraft Thrusters
In a recently published paper (PDF, 750KB), an IS Project team describes their use of new algorithms to identify mass properties and detect and isolate faults in thruster-controlled spacecraft more quickly and accurately than previously possible. The software replaces more complex and costly hardware by using the craft's navigational sensors to analyze motion. The software is being applied to the experimental MIT SPHERES scheduled to fly on the International Space Station in 2004.
November 3, 2003
IS Project's MAPGEN Planner for Mars Rover Succeeds in Testbed
A Mars Exploration Rover (MER) testbed has successfully executed a plan generated by the MAPGEN planner and sequenced into a command load during the latest MER Post-Launch Operational Readiness Test (PORT-6), in preparation for surface operations on Mars in January. MAPGEN, funded by CICT/IS Project, is a mixed-initiative planner that supports the MER operations team in planning goals, analyzing resources, and editing plans for the Rovers' scientific and engineering activities on Mars.
October 7, 2003
CNIS Project's ILab Receives NASA Space Act Award
Members of the CNIS Project's ILab team have received the NASA Space Act Award "for the creative development of technically significant software." The ILab Parameter Study Creation and Job Launching Tool has been used to facilitate studies as diverse as helicopter blade flow, Reusable Launch Vehicle analysis, combustion problems, regression testing, and electronic circuit simulation. ILab customers include groups at NASA centers, other government agencies such as DOE, and private organizations.
September 22, 2003
IS Project's "SemanticOrganizer" wins NASA Space Act Award
SemanticOrganizer (SO), funded by CICT's Intelligent Systems (IS) Project, recently won a 2003 NASA Space Act Award for significant contributions over the past year. SO is a Web-based knowledge management and information-integration tool for distributed science and engineering investigation teams. A customized application, called InvestigationOrganizer, was used in the Columbia Accident Investigation.
August 27, 2003
CNIS Project Creates New Multi-Zone NAS Parallel Benchmarks
CICT/CNIS researchers have created a novel suite of computational benchmarks to model applications featuring multiple levels of parallelism. The NPB 3.0-MZ benchmarks can be used to measure the effectiveness of multi-level and hybrid parallelization paradigms and tools, and various types of parallel computers. Three implementations are now available: one serial, one hybrid using MPI and OpenMP, and another hybrid using a shared memory multi-level programming model (SMPlib + OpenMP). For specs and download, see: http://www.nas.nasa.gov/Software/NPB
July 23, 2003
IS Project’s Data Mining Study Reveals New History Of Natural Disasters
A new data mining study, funded by CICT’s Intelligent Systems (IS) Project and published in the journal Global Change Biology (July 20, 03), provides new insight into the history of natural disasters. Using satellite data, the research team has painted a detailed global picture of the interplay among natural disasters, human activities and the rise of carbon dioxide in the Earth's atmosphere during the past 20 years. Such studies can reveal the impact of human activities such as deforestation, biomass burning, industrialization, and urbanization on the processes and patterns of Earth’s biosphere.
July 16, 2003
IS Project’s "Personal Rover" Inspires Youth to Explore Space
The Personal Rover, funded by CICT’s Intelligent Systems (IS) Project, is a low-cost robotic platform designed to engage students in exploring the role of rovers in conducting remote science operations. The Personal Rover includes an on-board vision system, rocker-bogie six-wheel drive system, and a single-board central processor developed and sponsored by Intel. A tentative agreement has been reached with the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum, the San Francisco Exploratorium and the National Science Center to feature interactive Mars exploration exhibits during the MER landings.
June 9, 2003
Scientific American Cover Story on SC Project Research
Research on self-repairing computers by Stanford University scientists, funded by CICT’s Space Communications (SC) Project, has been published as the cover story for the June 2003 issue of Scientific American. Graduate students George Candea and James Cutler used automated Recovery Oriented Computing (ROC) principles to reduce by a factor of five the average time it takes ground stations to recover a lost satellite signal, enabling the station to continue downloading data.
June 9, 2003
Wired Magazine Interviews IS Project Researcher William Clancey
William J. Clancey was interviewed in Wired magazine (June 2003: “Mission to Mars, Utah”). He discusses his ongoing research in modeling the activities of scientists and associates living and working at the Mars Desert Research Station and the Flashline Mars Arctic Research Station. His research is funded by CICT’s Intelligent Systems (IS) Project.
April 17, 2003
Students Learn about Future Computing and Communications
Hundreds of students attended the first on-line session of the Future Computing and Communications course, presented by the CICT Program in collaboration with Wheeling Jesuit University. CICT Acting Program Manager William Van Dalsem kicked off the session with an overview of Advanced Systems Development at NASA Ames Research Center.
April 14, 2003
Using Carbon Nanotubes to Build Smaller Computer Chips
An ITSR Project bio-nanotechnology team has discovered a way to replace copper conductors in integrated circuits (ICs) with infinitesimal carbon nanotubes. The team, led by scientist Dr. Jun Li at NASA Ames Research Center, had their new method for creating IC interconnects published as the cover story for the April 14, 2003 issue of Applied Physics Letters (Vol. 82, No. 15).
March 24, 2003
IS Project Hosts Symposium on Cognitive Architectures
Dan Shapiro and Pat Langley, investigators in human-centered computing for the CICT's Intelligent Systems (IS) Project, organized The Symposium on Advances in Cognitive Architectures, which took place March 22-23 at Stanford University's Center for the Study of Language and Information.
March 14, 2003
ESTO Selects Three SC Project Tasks in Spacecraft Networks for Further Funding and Development
NASA's Earth Science Technology Office (ESTO) has awarded funding for advancement of technologies first developed and taken to Technical Readiness Level (TRL) 3 by CICT's Space Communications (SC) Project. These technologies are key to distributed spacecraft communication networks for future Earth Science space missions.
February 7, 2003
Grid Experts Lead Tutorials, Workshops at NASA IPG Conference
Experts on Grid computing from the CNIS Project conducted workshop sessions at the 2003 Information Power Grid Conference at the Crowne Plaza Cabana Hotel in Palo Alto, CA, February 4-6. In addition to CNIS Project Manager Dr. Jerry Yan, CNIS presenters included Dr. Rupak Biswas, Dr. Edward Chow, Dr. Gregory Follen, Dr. Ian Foster, Dr. Dennis Gannon, Ken Gee, Dr. Robert Hood, William E. Johnston, Anthony Lisotta, Dr. Piyush Mehrotra, Dr. Reagan Moore, George Myers, Dr. Stuart Rogers, Warren Smith, Helen Stewart, Mary Thomas, and Maurice Yarrow.
2002
December, 2002
New High-Power Traveling Wave Tubes Tested
Under supervision of the Space Communications Project, Boeing Electron Dynamics Devices Inc. has produced and tested two prototype 32-GHz, 100W traveling wave tubes (TWTs) for high-power transmission of data and video from future NASA space science missions. The new devices produce almost three times the output of current devices.
December, 2002
Mars "Dragonfly" Microflyer Takes Wing
The IS Project successfully demonstrated a 1.5 Kg microflyer prototype for a Mars flyer. It was developed by the IS-funded Biologically-inspired Engineering for Exploration (BEES) team at Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). The microflyer carries a suite of sensors derived from dragonfly ocelli, bumblebee optical flow, and insect sky-polarization sensors.
December 3, 2002
ITSR paper on protein-based nanostructures appears in journal, "Nature Materials"
An ITSR-funded research team, led by Dr. Jonathan Trent, has published a new paper about protein-based nanostructures. The paper-"Ordered nanoparticle arrays formed on engineered chaperonin protein templates," by R. Andrew Mcmillan, Chad D. Paavola, Jeanie Howard, Suzanne L. Chan, Nestor J. Zaluzec and Jonathan D. Trent-appears in Nature Materials 1, 247-252. In the paper, they demonstrate that by combining the self-assembling properties of chaperonin proteins with mutations guided by structural modelling, quantum dots can be organized into arrays for use in next-generation electronic and photonic devices.
November 21, 2002
CICT Researchers Address American Astronautical Society (AAS)
CICT-funded researchers addressed the 2002 national conference of the AAS on the theme of "Technologies and Partnerships: Innovations for Space Exploration." Dr. Butler Hine, manager of CICT's Intelligent Systems (IS) Project, co-chaired the Information Technology session, featuring CICT researchers Dr. Clark Glymour (Knowledge Discovery & Data Mining), Dr. William J. Clancey (Mobile Agents Field Work), and Dr. Benny Toomarian (Revolutionary Computing Technologies). Dr. Harry Partridge of the ITSR Project co-chaired the New Technologies session, and Dr. Jonathan Trent (Astrobiology and Nanotechnology) addressed the Biotechnology session.
October 17, 2002
CNIS Achieves Grand Challenge Milestone with AeroDB
CICT's Computing, Networking, and Information Systems (CNIS) Project team completed a key Grand Challenge milestone by successfully demonstrating the new AeroDB system, which simplifies the process of executing many computational fluid dynamics (CFD) calculations over NASA's Information Power Grid (IPG). AeroDB scripts were used to execute and monitor over a thousand CFD runs of a Liquid Glide-Back Booster configuration in less than 72 hours.
October 1, 2002
Eugene Tu chairs bio/info/nanotech session, "Challenges from NASA Missions"
CICT Program Manager Dr. Eugene Tu is chairing the first presentation session, "Challenges from NASA Missions," at the Biology/Information Science/Nanotechnology Fusion and NASA Missions Invitational Workshop, at 10:00 a.m. on Monday, October 7, 2002. The workshop takes place October 7-9 at the Moffett Training and Conference Center at NASA Ames Research Center.
September 28, 2002
IS researcher wins distinguished paper award in software verification
CICT IS Project researcher Dimitra Giannakopoulou and colleagues Corina Pasareanu and Howard Barringer received a distinguished paper award from the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) for their paper, "Assumption Generation for Software Component Verification," presented at the 17th IEEE International Conference on Automated Software Engineering in Edinburgh, Scotland.
September 1, 2002
ITSR Team Named "Leaders in Quantum Modeling"
NASA Ames Research Center's Computational Nanotechnology Group, jointly funded by CICT's Information Technology Strategic Research Project, was named by MIT's Technology Review magazine in its September 2002 issue as one of 5 "Leaders in Quantum Modeling".
August 2, 2002
Cart3D wins NASA's 2002 Software of the Year Award
Cart3D, an aerodynamic simulation tool jointly developed under the CICT Program's Computing, Networking, and Information Systems (CNIS) Project, was named today as Software of the Year 2002 by NASA's Inventions and Contributions Board. Jointly developed by Michael Aftosmis and Dr. John Melton of NASA Ames Research Center in California's Silicon Valley. and Professor Marsha Berger of the Courant Institute, New York University, Cart3D can reduce simulation time by a factor of 250, accelerating the testing of more space vehicles over wider range of flight conditions. It is in daily use by NASA centers, the U.S. military and intelligence, universities, and commercial aircraft designers across the country.
See the press release.
July 18, 2002
NASA's cutting-edge research in information technology, aeronautics and space science will be showcased as the centerpiece of the "Tech Space Pavilion" at the second annual Air Expo at Moffett Field, July 27-28. Housed in historic Hangar One, the display will feature a variety of exhibits highlighting
new and emerging technologies. CICT-sponsored research activities will be among those featured in a 12,000-square-foot interactive display within the Tech Space Pavilion.
June 10, 2002
CICT welcomes the Aeronautics and Space Engineering Board of the National Research Council to Ames Research Center June 10-13. They will be assessing the overall scientific and technical quality of several Pioneering Revolutionary Technology (PRT) programs within NASA's Aerospace Technology Enterprise, including CICT.
June 4, 2002
Developers of Cart3D win "Best Paper" Award
Co-developers of the award-winning Cart3D simulation software, NASA researcher Michael Aftosmis and colleague Marsha Berger, professor and deputy director of Courant Institute, New York University, have received the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) best paper award for 2002. Their paper, "Multilevel Error Estimation and Adaptive h-Refinement for Cartesian Meshes with Embedded Boundaries" describes the team's development of new techniques for error estimation and adaptive refinement for computational fluid dynamics (CFD) solutions.
