Author Archives: Editor

NASA May Extend BEAM’s Time on the International Space Station

NASA is exploring options with Bigelow Aerospace to extend the life of the privately owned Bigelow Expandable Activity Module. Known as BEAM, the module is attached to the International Space Station and continues to perform well during its technology demonstration mission. NASA has issued a synopsis of an intended contract action to partner with Bigelow Aerospace to extend the life of the expandable habitat and use it for long-term in-orbit storage. This step continues NASA’s commitment to expand private-public partnerships, scientific research and commercial applications aboard station to maximize the benefits from humanity’s premiere laboratory in microgravity.

NASA’s use of BEAM as part of a human-rated system will allow Bigelow Aerospace to demonstrate its technology for future commercial applications in low-Earth Orbit. Initial studies have shown that soft materials can perform as well as rigid materials for habitation volumes in space and that BEAM has performed as designed in resistance to space debris.

BEAM launched on the eighth SpaceX Commercial Resupply Service mission in 2016. After being attached to the Tranquility Node using the station’s robotic Canadarm2, it was filled with air to expand it for a two-year test period to validate overall performance and capability of expandable habitats. Since the initial expansion, a suite of sensors installed by the crew automatically take measurements and monitor BEAM’s performance to help inform designs for future habitat systems. Learning how an expandable habitat performs in the thermal environment of space and how it reacts to radiation, micrometeoroids and orbital debris will provide information to address key concerns about living in the harsh environment of space. This extension activity will deepen NASA’s understanding of expandable space systems by making the BEAM a more operational element of the space station to be actively used in storage and crew operations.

Space station crew members have entered BEAM 13 times since its expansion in May 2016. The crew has conducted radiation shielding experiments, installed passive radiation badges called Radiation Area Monitors, and they routinely collect microbial air and surface samples. These badges and samples are returned to Earth for standard microbial and radiation analysis at the Johnson Space Center.

The original plan called for engineers to robotically jettison BEAM from the space station following the two-year test and validation period, allowing it to burn up during its descent through Earth’s atmosphere. However, after almost a year and a half into the demonstration with positive performance, NASA now intends to continue supporting BEAM for stowage use and to allow Bigelow Aerospace to use the module as a test-bed for new technology demonstrations. A new contract would likely begin later this year, overlapping the original planned test period, for a minimum of three years, with two options to extend for one additional year. At the end of the new contract, the agency may consider further life extension or could again consider jettisoning BEAM from the station.

Using the space inside BEAM would allow NASA to hold between 109 to 130 Cargo Transfer Bags of in-orbit stowage, and long-term use of BEAM would enable NASA to gather additional performance data on the module’s structural integrity, thermal stability and resistance to space debris, radiation and microbial growth to help NASA advance and learn about expandable space habitat technology in low-Earth orbit for application toward future human exploration missions. Given that the volume of each Cargo Transfer Bag is about 1.87 cubic feet (0.53 cubic meters), use of BEAM for stowage will free an equivalent space of about 3.7 to 4.4 International Standard Payload Racks, enabling more space in the ISS for research.

With an extension of the partnership, Bigelow also would be able to continue to demonstrate its technology for future commercial applications in low-Earth orbit. The public-private partnership between NASA and Bigelow supports NASA’s objective to develop deep space habitation capabilities for human missions beyond Earth orbit while fostering commercial capabilities for non-government applications to stimulate the growth of the space economy.

Source: NASA

Michael K. Wirth Named Chairman and CEO of Chevron

Chevron Corporation announced that its Board of Directors elected Michael K. Wirth chairman of the board and chief executive officer, effective February 1, 2018. Wirth, who is currently vice chairman of the board and executive vice president of Midstream and Development, succeeds John S. Watson, who will retire from the company and its board on February 1, 2018, after 37 years of distinguished service, including eight years as chairman and CEO.

“Mike is a proven leader who is ideally suited to lead Chevron into the next chapter of our history,” said Watson. “He has the right values, knowledge and experience, and has established a strong record of accomplishment in his 35 years with the company.”

Wirth, 56, said, “I appreciate the confidence that John and the board have placed in me. Chevron has a proud 138-year history of developing the energy that improves lives and powers the world forward. I am honored to have been selected to carry on that tradition.

“Under John’s leadership, we’ve developed legacy assets in Kazakhstan, Australia and the Permian Basin that will underpin our portfolio for decades to come. John will also be remembered for his plain-spoken and principled views on company business and energy policy matters,” Wirth added.

Wirth joined Chevron in 1982 as a design engineer. Since that time, he advanced through a number of engineering, construction and operations positions. Wirth was named vice chairman of the board of directors in February 2017. He is also executive vice president of Midstream and Development, a position he has held since 2016. Previously, he was executive vice president of Downstream & Chemicals for nearly a decade. Prior to that he served as president of Global Supply and Trading and president of Marketing for Chevron’s Asia/Middle East/Africa business, based in Singapore. He also served on the board of directors for Caltex Australia Limited and GS Caltex in South Korea.

Ronald D. Sugar, lead independent director for Chevron’s Board of Directors, said, “John has done an outstanding job in guiding the company through one of the industry’s most tumultuous periods. During John’s tenure, Chevron’s stock has outperformed its peer companies by a wide margin and he leaves the company well prepared for the future.” Sugar added, “Mike is ready to be Chevron’s next chairman and CEO. He has the right business experience and leadership qualities to extend the company’s success, and the board has full confidence in his ability to do so.”

Watson, who turns 61 in October, joined Chevron in 1980 as a financial analyst and went on to hold financial, analytical and supervisory positions before being appointed president of Chevron Canada Limited in 1996. In 1998, he was named a corporate vice president with responsibility for strategic planning and mergers and acquisitions.

In 2000, Watson led the company’s integration effort following the Chevron-Texaco merger and then became the corporation’s chief financial officer. In 2005, he became president of Chevron International Exploration and Production. In April 2009, he was named vice chairman of the company, before being elected chairman and CEO in September of that year.

“I have been blessed to have had the extraordinary opportunity to lead Chevron, and I will miss my daily interactions with our dedicated employees around the world,” said Watson. “I am proud of many Chevron accomplishments, but none more so than the improvements we made in process safety and leadership development.”

In a related move, Watson said that Mark A. Nelson will become vice president of Midstream, Strategy & Policy, effective February 1, 2018. In his new role, Nelson will be responsible for the company’s supply and trading, shipping, pipeline and power operating units. He will also oversee corporate strategy, as well as policy, government and public affairs.

Prior to his current position, Nelson, 54, served as the president of International Products, responsible for the refining and marketing businesses in Europe, Africa, Middle East, and Asia. Before that, he was president of Chevron Canada Limited, an upstream business headquartered in Calgary, Alberta.

Chevron Corporation is one of the world’s leading integrated energy companies. Through its subsidiaries that conduct business worldwide, the company is involved in virtually every facet of the energy industry. Chevron explores for, produces and transports crude oil and natural gas; refines, markets and distributes transportation fuels and lubricants; manufactures and sells petrochemicals and additives; generates power; and develops and deploys technologies that enhance business value in every aspect of the company’s operations. Chevron is based in San Ramon, Calif. More information about Chevron is available at www.chevron.com.

NASA’s Voyager Spacecraft Still Reaching for the Stars After 40 Years

Humanity’s farthest and longest-lived spacecraft, Voyager 1 and 2, achieve 40 years of operation and exploration this August and September. Despite their vast distance, they continue to communicate with NASA daily, still probing the final frontier.
Their story has not only impacted generations of current and future scientists and engineers, but also Earth’s culture, including film, art and music. Each spacecraft carries a Golden Record of Earth sounds, pictures and messages. Since the spacecraft could last billions of years, these circular time capsules could one day be the only traces of human civilization.

“I believe that few missions can ever match the achievements of the Voyager spacecraft during their four decades of exploration,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate (SMD) at NASA Headquarters. “They have educated us to the unknown wonders of the universe and truly inspired humanity to continue to explore our solar system and beyond.”

The Voyagers have set numerous records in their unparalleled journeys. In 2012, Voyager 1, which launched on Sept. 5, 1977, became the only spacecraft to have entered interstellar space. Voyager 2, launched on Aug. 20, 1977, is the only spacecraft to have flown by all four outer planets — Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. Their numerous planetary encounters include discovering the first active volcanoes beyond Earth, on Jupiter’s moon Io; hints of a subsurface ocean on Jupiter’s moon Europa; the most Earth-like atmosphere in the solar system, on Saturn’s moon Titan; the jumbled-up, icy moon Miranda at Uranus; and icy-cold geysers on Neptune’s moon Triton.

Though the spacecraft have left the planets far behind — and neither will come remotely close to another star for 40,000 years — the two probes still send back observations about conditions where our Sun’s influence diminishes and interstellar space begins.

Voyager 1, now almost 13 billion miles from Earth, travels through interstellar space northward out of the plane of the planets. The probe has informed researchers that cosmic rays, atomic nuclei accelerated to nearly the speed of light, are as much as four times more abundant in interstellar space than in the vicinity of Earth. This means the heliosphere, the bubble-like volume containing our solar system’s planets and solar wind, effectively acts as a radiation shield for the planets. Voyager 1 also hinted that the magnetic field of the local interstellar medium is wrapped around the heliosphere.

Voyager 2, now almost 11 billion miles from Earth, travels south and is expected to enter interstellar space in the next few years. The different locations of the two Voyagers allow scientists to compare right now two regions of space where the heliosphere interacts with the surrounding interstellar medium using instruments that measure charged particles, magnetic fields, low-frequency radio waves and solar wind plasma. Once Voyager 2 crosses into the interstellar medium, they will also be able to sample the medium from two different locations simultaneously.

“None of us knew, when we launched 40 years ago, that anything would still be working, and continuing on this pioneering journey,” said Ed Stone, Voyager project scientist based at Caltech in Pasadena, California. “The most exciting thing they find in the next five years is likely to be something that we didn’t know was out there to be discovered.”

The twin Voyagers have been cosmic overachievers, thanks to the foresight of mission designers. By preparing for the radiation environment at Jupiter, the harshest of all planets in our solar system, the spacecraft were well equipped for their subsequent journeys. Both Voyagers carry redundant systems that allow the spacecraft to switch to backup systems autonomously when necessary, as well as long-lasting power supplies. Each Voyager has three radioisotope thermoelectric generators, devices that use the heat energy generated from the decay of plutonium-238 — only half of it will be gone after 88 years.

Space is almost empty, so the Voyagers are not at a significant level of risk of bombardment by large objects. However, Voyager 1’s interstellar space environment is not a complete void. It’s filled with clouds of dilute material remaining from stars that exploded as supernovae millions of years ago. This material doesn’t pose a danger to the spacecraft, but is a key part of the environment that the Voyager mission is helping scientists study and characterize.

Because the Voyagers’ power decreases by four watts per year, engineers are learning how to operate the spacecraft under ever-tighter power constraints. And to maximize the Voyagers’ lifespans, they also have to consult documents written decade’s earlier describing commands and software, in addition to the expertise of former Voyager engineers.

“The technology is many generations old, and it takes someone with 1970s design experience to understand how the spacecraft operate and what updates can be made to permit them to continue operating today and into the future,” said Suzanne Dodd, Voyager project manager based at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena.

Team members estimate they will have to turn off the last science instrument by 2030. However, even after the spacecraft go silent, they’ll continue on their trajectories at their present speed of more than 30,000 mph (48,280 kilometers per hour), completing an orbit within the Milky Way every 225 million years.

The Voyager spacecraft were built by JPL, which continues to operate both. The Voyager missions are part of the NASA Heliophysics System Observatory, sponsored by the Heliophysics Division of the Science Mission Directorate.

Source: NASA

DuPont Celebrates Diversity & Inclusion, Commits to Further Action

With 46,000 employees operating in 90 countries worldwide, DuPont understands that to thrive we must not only cultivate a diverse and inclusive workplace that attracts the best talent but also ensure that our people intimately understand the needs of a global customer base. Respect for People – one of our four Core Values – is the signpost that guides our efforts. We believe it translates to competitive advantage by fostering a diverse and inclusive workforce with equally diverse insight into customer needs. “Diversity and inclusion is not a ‘nice to have’ feature in an organization,” says Marc Doyle, an executive vice president at DuPont. “It is absolutely critical in healthy, high-performing organizations with a future focus.”

Building on a long legacy of promoting diversity and inclusion not only within our employee ranks but also in our communities, DuPont recently received recognition for its efforts and – led by DuPont Chair & CEO Ed Breen – committed to further action.

Catalyst CEO Champion for Change: DuPont CEO Ed Breen recently joined with more than 40 other global business leaders in pledging to continue driving and reporting measurable results in the advancement of gender equality. Catalyst – a global thought leader and partner in accelerating the progress of women at work for more than 50 years – developed the Champions of Change effort.

“As leaders, we must hold ourselves and our teams accountable to make this change happen,” Ed noted in signing the Catalyst pledge. “DuPont,” he added, “can succeed by working together to build a more inclusive workplace culture, not only because it’s the right thing to do, but it’s also the smart thing to do.”

As a Catalyst CEO Champion of Change, Ed committed to:

•Strengthening the diversity and inclusion metrics, policies and practices across DuPont;
•Reviewing and improving the pipeline of women of diverse backgrounds for advancement and empowering them with a strong support system; and
•Identifying and working to reduce any structural barriers or unconscious bias that may exist in our businesses and functions and doing more to continue to build an inclusive workplace culture at DuPont locations across the globe.

With founding member companies involved in the Catalyst CEO Champions for Change initiative representing more than 8.7 million employees, the positive ripple effect from this commitment by Ed and the other business leaders is expected to help to go a long way in building work environments where everyone has a fair chance to succeed.

Executive Leadership Council Fortune 500 CEO Action for Diversity and Inclusion™: On June 12, 2017, The Executive Leadership Council launched the F500 (Fortune 500) CEO Action for Diversity and Inclusion™ pledgesigned by more than 100 CEOs, including DuPont CEO Ed Breen. The pledge is largest CEO-driven business commitment to date in advancing diversity and inclusion in the workplace.

Through this show of support, Ed and his fellow corporate CEOs have committed to advancing diversity and inclusion in the workplace by:

•Continuing to make the workplace a trusting and safe place to have complex and sometimes difficult conversations about diversity and inclusion.
•Implementing and expanding unconscious bias education.
•Openly sharing best practices and learnings among companies on what is and is not working to improve diversity and inclusion.

By implementing these three actions, CEOs, in partnership with The Executive Leadership Council (ELC), will build a more diverse and inclusive workplace. This commitment is driven by a realization that addressing diversity and inclusion is not a competitive issue, but a societal issue that CEOs can play a critical role in addressing. The pledge is meant to be the first step in leveraging the collective power of the business community to advance such an important issue.

US Business Leadership Network® Going for Gold Project: In 2017, DuPont signed on to be part of the USBLN Going for Gold Project. Joining this initiative will provide DuPont with access to subject matter experts and programs to strengthen our disability inclusion initiatives. The access to leading practices and tools will enable DuPont to enhance our existing programs in this important area.

Top Score on Disability Equality Index: The Disability Equality Index (DEI) is a joint initiative of the American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD) and the US Business Leadership Network (USBLN). It was developed by a diverse group of experts to assess companies on their disability inclusion policies and practices. Companies submit responses on several categories, including: Culture & Leadership, Enterprise–Wide Access, Employment Practices, and Community Engagement & Support Services. In 2016, DuPont received a ‘100’, the highest possible score companies can receive on the index.

DuPont’s commitment to diversity and inclusion is both a Core Value and business strategy for our company. The value of a diverse and inclusive workplace can be seen in every aspect of our business, including talent development and recruitment, customer orientation, corporate strategy, and even our innovation processes. In addition to the new commitments described above, DuPont continues to be recognized as a leading company for its diversity and inclusion commitments. In 2017, DuPont was named to DiversityInc’s “Top Companies for Global Diversity”. We were also named to Working Mother’s 100 Best Companies for the 27th year; to the National Association of Female Executives “Top Companies for Executive Women” for the 9th consecutive year (and 13th in total), and; earned a 100% on the Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality Index and earning placement on the Index for the 10th time.

“DuPont strives to embed diversity and inclusion into its business in many ways,” says Benito Cachinero- Sánchez, DuPont Senior Vice President of Human Resources. “We have a Global D&I Leadership Council made up of senior leaders (doing other important roles in the company) who can reinforce D&I at the strategic level across our organizations. In addition, we develop education for employees and leaders, and regularly communicate our commitment to D&I through employee stories and examples. We set goals and objectives and monitor our progress. But, just like our R&D teams, we’re always looking for new ways to innovate — better ways to understand our people and enabling them to flourish.”

To learn more about DuPont’s commitment to diversity and inclusion, please visit: http://www.dupont.com/corporate-functions/careers/why-dupont/articles/diversity.html

Credit: DuPont

Cisco Distinguished Quality Engineer Alka Jarvis shares why passion and persistence has gotten her to where she is today.

Alka Jarvis needed to make sure this interview happened.

We had scheduled several meet-ups before this chat, and for some reason or another— either an absence of Wi-Fi, unexpected meetings—something had always come up.

“I got up today and I thought, I must make sure I attend this meeting,” Jarvis tells me during our interview, “At any expense.”

It’s this kind of tenacity that finally brought us to our chat—the same tenacity that has sparked fire to Jarvis’ career throughout her time as an engineer.

“Why don’t you do something about it?”

Jarvis, who was born and raised in Nairobi, Kenya, is of Indian ancestry. She says that culturally, she grew up in Kenya under a lot of British influence. The engineer—who is now known as Cisco’s only Distinguished Quality Engineer–first entered the world of quality in a fateful job on a sales team of a small company.

“I accompanied the sales teams as they did demos,” says Jarvis, “The sales person would try to show customers certain files but the files weren’t there. With my experience in computer science and software development, I continued to raise concerns: It was a small company and I was the only one saying that our software doesn’t work. One time I was finally challenged by the senior VP of operations, ‘Why don’t you do something about it?'”

It was that one challenge that got Jarvis on her path towards quality assurance.

“I went to Golden Gate University Library and learned everything I could about software testing and quality assurance,” says Jarvis. At that time she also co-founded Bay Area Quality Assurance Association by contacting companies through the Yellow Pages to discuss the field of software quality and processes. 

Software quality assurance, Jarvis tells me, is making sure that all of the products and services work according to the customer requirements and exceed their expectations.

Learning to teach

In her in-depth studies of quality assurance, Jarvis started looking at the UC Berkeley-Extension curriculum in software engineering. She found out that all of the classes taught programming but none were actually about quality and testing.  After approaching one of the Directors at UC Berkeley, the school asked her to develop and teach a class.

After 21 years, Jarvis is still manning teaching podiums and teaching quality at UC Berkeley, UC Santa Cruz-Extension, Santa Clara University, and has published seven books. 

“This is where Cisco shows industry leadership,” says Jarvis, “When an employee teaches or participates in industry events—it shows Cisco as the leader. This type of industry participation makes students and people more aware of Cisco and of the talents we have within the company.”

Quality work

Persistence, Jarvis stresses, is what got her to this point in her work. She encourages others also to take an active pursuit of their interests in life and career.

“If you have a passion for any topic within Cisco, take it upon yourself and go after it,” says Jarvis, “You are the master of your career. It might just seem like a very small thing right now that you’re involved in. I was only on the sales team to watch demos, but I thought that I had to get involved and did not stop at that.” 

And she doesn’t plan to stop any time soon. Her next venture into telemetry—within the Technology and Quality functional organization of Supply Chain—has just begun. Jarvis would like to emphasize on leading indicators like “predictive” telemetry to track issues and stay steps ahead of customers.  

 If we can predict the way Jarvis has pursued her career, and even this interview, we can expect big things for her in this next step. 

Source: Cisco

What it will take for us to trust AI Like humans, computers need to behave as we would expect

What it will take for us to trust AI
Like humans, computers need to behave as we would expect
By Guru Banavar, IBM Research

The early days of artificial intelligence (AI) have been met with some very public hand wringing. Well-respected technologists and business leaders have voiced their concerns over the (responsible) development of AI. And Hollywood’s appetite for dystopian AI narratives appears to be bottomless. This is not unusual, nor is it unreasonable. Change, technological or otherwise, always excites the imagination. And it often makes us a little uncomfortable.

But in my opinion, we have never known a technology with more potential to benefit society than artificial intelligence. We now have AI systems that learn from vast amounts of complex, unstructured information and turn it into actionable insight. It is not unreasonable to expect that within this growing body of digital data — 2.5 exabytes every day — lie the secrets to defeating cancer, reversing climate change, or managing the complexity of the global economy.

We also expect AI systems to pervasively support the decisions we make in our professional and personal lives in just a few years. In fact, this is already happening in many industries and governments.
However, if we are ever to reap the full spectrum of societal and industrial benefits from artificial intelligence, we will first need to trust it.

Trust of AI systems will be earned over time, just as in any personal relationship. Put simply, we trust things that behave as we expect them to. But that does not mean that time alone will solve the problem of trust in AI. AI systems must be built from the get-go to operate in trust-based partnerships with people.

The most urgent work is to recognize and minimize bias. Bias could be introduced into an AI system through the training data or the algorithms. The curated data that is used to train the system could have inherent biases, e.g., towards a specific demographic, either because the data itself is skewed, or because the human curators displayed bias in their choices. The algorithms that process that information could also have biases in the code, introduced by a developer, intentionally or not. The developer community is just starting to grapple with this topic in earnest. But most experts believe that by thoroughly testing these systems, we can detect and mitigate bias before the system is deployed.

Managing bias is an element of the larger issue of algorithmic accountability. That is to say, AI systems must be able to explain how and why they arrived at a particular conclusion so that a human can evaluate the system’s rationale. Many professions, such as medicine, finance, and law, already require evidence-based audit ability as a normal practice for providing transparency of decision-making and managing liability. In many cases, AI systems may need to explain rationale through a conversational interaction (rather than a report), so that a person can dig into as much detail as necessary.
In addition, AI systems can and should have mechanisms to insert a variety of ethical values appropriate to the context, such as the task, the individual, the profession, or the culture. This is not as difficult as it sounds. Ethical systems are built around rules, just like computer algorithms. These rules can be inserted during development, deployment, or use. And because these are learning systems, researchers believe that AI systems can, over time, observe human behavior to fill in some of the gaps.

It is incumbent upon the developers of AI systems to answer these questions in a way that satisfies both the industry and the general public. This is already well understood throughout the technology industry, which is why IBM is working together with some of its fiercest competitors — including Google, Microsoft, Amazon and Facebook — on the “Partnership on AI,” a unique and open collaboration designed to guide the ethical development of artificial intelligence.

Business leaders considering artificial intelligence solutions should include trust and accountability as part of their criteria for adoption. They should be thoughtful about how and where this technology is introduced throughout the organization. And they should work with their technology vendors to identify any unwanted behaviors and correct them if necessary.

But delaying the implementation of artificial intelligence is not an option. We pay a significant price every day for not knowing what can be known: not knowing what’s wrong with a patient, not knowing where to find a critical natural resource, or not knowing the hidden risks in the global economy. We believe that many of these ambiguities and inefficiencies can be eliminated with artificial intelligence.
Artificial intelligence is an undeniably powerful technology. And as with any powerful technology, great care must be taken in its development and deployment. Just as it is our obligation to apply this technology to complex, societal problems, it is our obligation to develop it in a way that engenders trust and safeguards humanity. In other words, building trust is essential to the adoption of artificial intelligence.

And we believe that its adoption is essential to humanity.

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