Projects

AWSIM - Air Force’s primary tool for training battle staffs to conduct modern air warfare. AWSIM simulates real-time operations that take place during an air-war campaign: the orders issued to personnel, aircraft flight, sensors, engagements, damage, flightline and maintenance activities, etcetera.

Solidus staff includes Lead System Engineers, Modeling and Simulation Experts, Object Oriented Design Experts, Software Developers, System Administers and Test Engineers. Team designs, develops and implements models used in the simulation; writes the related requirement specifications; formally tests and validates models. Directs programming staff. Solves system issues related to the development and testing of the software. Manages and maintains software installations, both secure and non-secure products. Supports large-scale joint military training exercises around the world.

Solidus is also supporting the development of generic system architectures to serve as basis for future AF simulations, and the exploration of iterative prototyping techniques to simplify and shorten the software development cycle of large-scale systems.

DPRS – Solidus personnel developed a graphic simulator to design and manage the human interface issues. Wrote the Rapid Prototype users manual. Wrote the computer program product specifications, code and review, and unit test plans. Tested and demonstrated the simulation module.

Air Force Mission Support System (AFMSS) – USAF wing-level, mission planning system. Headed team that documented the models, algorithms and architectural components. Supported and developed algorithms, including spherical earth geometries, polar coordinate systems, air pressure and temperature modeling etcetera. Chaired the performance problem evaluation team and the program trouble and change report team. Created common Requirements Development Practice.

TAMPA – Proposal performance and resource sizing analysis. Developed throughput and data requirements estimates, performance estimates, operational scenarios and timeline projections. Managed 6-9 Systems Engineers focusing on software analysis, performance, Mapping, Cartography, Geodesy and Imagery (MCG&I), and algorithm development. Developed performance metrics for timing and sizing. Responsible for systems engineering functions related to external interfaces and devices.

EA-6B Improved Mission Capabilities Upgrade - Technical oversight of subcontractor software. Coordinated requirements, software interface specifications, and design. Supported the integration of firmware loader and Onboard Flight Program software. Participated in the following working groups: LAN TCP/IP and User Datagram Protocols design (chaired), Reactive Assignments, and Built in Tests.

Joint Air Surveillance (JASA) - Developed software Interface Requirements Specifications for the LAN communications. Monitored and reported Technical Performance Measures.

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HAVE STARE – Radar Systems Acquisition for USAF-ESC/ULTRA. Provided system engineering support. Reviewed system documents and cost and scheduling estimates. Managed corrections to documents. Verified feasibility of software and hardware interface design, architecture, development, design, and testing. Generated parallel estimates on program modification to bracket costs, schedule, and milestones. Defined estimates of proposed language changes and effects on future funding.

Logistics Training Systems - Responsible for development and planning of logistics and training systems for the defense community, application of this technology to the civilian sector.

Crisis Management System - Performed analysis and wrote the Operational Concept Document for the Task Manager component. Task Manager helps crisis management personnel manage the performance of emergency actions by documenting, distributing and tracking the performance of tasks. System combined functions from e-mail, distributed networks, project management, command-and-control and map display systems. System capabilities included task templates, subtask generation, distribution, activity logging, form/order generation, security, operator alerts, and multi-media data. Researched existing crisis management; developed emergency scenario for demonstration given to state and city level crisis management personnel.

Air Defense Planning Systems - Worked with retired US Army Air Defense General to develop a set of tools and procedures to help military personnel determine the optimum placement of radars and missile launchers to defend against ballistic missile attacks. Developed graphical concepts for determining attacking missile corridors, analyzing radar and launcher coverage, identifying effectiveness gradients. Also developed techniques for jamming and weather effects, electromagnetic interference, radar saturation and complications arising from multiple-system integrations. Reviewed existing air defense field manuals and wrote proposals for new procedures and doctrine to address ballistic missile threats. Presented concepts to US Army Air Defense Training School personnel at Ft. Bliss, Texas. Helped develop a prototype demonstration system applying these concepts to short-range air defense systems for the international market. Also researched and wrote study of Japanese air defense planning needs and how these needs could be addressed with available planning technology.

Theater High Altitude Air Defense (THAAD) System - Anti-ballistic missile for short and intermediate range ballistic missiles. Developed the algorithms to simulate attacking ballistic missiles and defending interceptor missiles including: simulation of the boost, free-flight, and re-entry phases of flight; fourth-order integration to account for the physical forces; numerical search for optimum missile launch parameters; and curve fitting to provide runtime calculation flight positional data. Also designed the initial system object-oriented model for THAAD operator training and specified the radar modeling algorithms.

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Fault Tolerant and Real-time Systems Manual - Under U.S. Air Force contract, wrote a book to assist designers developing control software for real-time, fault tolerant systems. The book covered design considerations applicable to most critical fault tolerant application areas using sensor satellite systems as the example application. Introduced readers to the typical set of requirements associated with sensor satellites and then provided a tutorial of how a fault tolerant system might be developed in response. Book emphasized operating system design approaches used in proven fault tolerant systems. Key topics covered included: hardware and software allocations; performance vs. fault tolerance tradeoffs; error detection and reporting; process recovery; communication protocols; reconfigurations; managing critical state data; operator controls; system start-up and restarts; approaches to testing and verification; networks and multiprocessing.

Space-base Visible Satellite (SBV) Processing and Operations Command Center (SPOCC) - An experimental on-orbit sensor designed for space surveillance. Provided Senior Software Engineering to the Mission Planning Team. Led software design and development for the command generation and vetting. Developed the user interface software, interactive and automatic command generators, queue management utilities for the mission simulator, and command vetting and binary translation software.

Boost Surveillance and Tracking System (BSTS) - Performed software design studies for the Strategic Defense Initiative's (SDI) space-borne sensor to detect and track ballistic missiles during their boost phase. Supervised the writing of the initial system-level specification for the spacecraft's operating system software. Wrote the requirements for the operating system, file management, communications, diagnostics, and fault tolerant control software. Developed and documented the project-wide approach for developing fault tolerant software. Analyzed Ada language for its BSTS suitability. Studied Ada's tasking model and other real time and fault tolerant limitations. Designed and documented task control scheme to meet the BSTS needs.

Wrote Operational Concept Document for the spacecraft's network of multi- processing front-end, scalar and vector processors. The document functionally described each processing device, the multiprocessing and networking mechanisms, and the operating system software. For the Network Manager portion of the BSTS operating system, wrote Software Requirements Specification and Software Design Description.

Developed and gave numerous technical presentations to the prime contractor, Air Force/Aerospace system review personnel, and the SDI Fault Tolerance Expert Committee

Parallel Vector Library (PVL) - Lead Engineer for team ptototyping a new library to support parallel signal processing. Provided technical leadership for the design of library and its components

Programmable Signal Processor (PSP) - Technical lead for the design of a signal processing library. Chief integrator of multi-computer, processing network. Scaled system to efficiently use ~1000 DSP processors and ~25 PPCs and attain real-time. Embedded and integrated processing network into a larger system.

Radar Surveillance and Real-time Signal Processing (RSTER) - Radar Surveillance Technology Experimental Radar project. Team members that built and fielded real-time signal processing system for experimental radar. Responsibilities included: systems programming, integration, development of start-up prom code, configuration management, software communications protocol, development of a GUI based debugger, and diagnostics.

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Chicago Personal Rapid Transit (PRT) – System Design and Feasibility Study. Designed and documented the high-level software design describing the system control software modules and their interfaces for vehicle, station, and network control. Developed the management plan describing the expected software development tasks to be performed, personnel required, associated costs and schedule, support equipment needed, and commercial purchases to be made. Wrote “white paper” describing how the system’s fault tolerance capabilities could be developed and tested. Gave presentations to the Chicago Regional Transportation Authorities reviewing the software design for future implementation of the first PRT.

RAMP - Replacement of the display site portion of Canada's enroute air traffic control system. System provided controllers with a display of aircraft position, weather and flight plan data. System's hardware architecture made extended use of microprocessors as building blocks to create a fault-tolerant hierarchy of (up to 175) processors partitioned into functional roles and tied together by multiprocessor buses, LANs and communication links. Participated in the early requirements analysis and system design tradeoffs phases of the project. Developed the software architecture and algorithms that allows the system to detect failures and reconfigure itself without affecting air traffic control operations. Wrote functional specifications for system's fault tolerant capability; defined software interfaces; and consulted with the group that implemented the design.

Integrated Terminal Weather and Terminal Weather Information for Pilots Systems - Supported the FAA Acquisition team reviewing System Specifications, ORD’s, and vendor proposals. Wrote and edited algorithms documents used as basis for software design specifications. Aided technical lead in system engineering and task management. Reviewed 2167A documents and provided expertise in software methodology. Assessed engineering across project for cohesiveness, design, and test prior to government reviews. Government Tester for one CSCI, and aided testing effort of other CSCIs. Evaluated Prime Contractor’s cost and scheduling estimates.

Personal Wearable Defibrillator (PWD) - Provided the software development management and lead software systems engineering for medical device startup engaged in the development of first miniature wearable defibrillator. “Walkman-size” device is worn by patients subject to possible Sudden Cardiac Death. Developed the system and software specifications, real-time control architecture, risk analysis, software-hardware FMECA, and formal acceptance tests. Wrote software development, safety analysis, and testing guidelines to fulfill FDA safety regulations for life-sustaining equipment and to meet applicable medical standards. Analyzed ECG algorithms; designed user interface; specified error detection and recovery mechanisms. Performed systems engineering for a variety of technical issues varying from EMI testing to Y2K issues. Provided software group management, supervised installation of system network and development tools. Trained technical staff to develop next version of device; wrote technical specifications and development plans.

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