Barrios Announces Silver BEAR Award Recipients
BARRIOS TECHNOLOGY (Houston, TX): Barrios Technology recently presented employees with Silver BEAR (Barrios Employee Award and Recognition) awards for the fourth quarter of 2020. Recipients were recognized for their outstanding performance and dedication in supporting Barrios’ contracts with NASA’s Human Space Flight Program. Employees recognized included Robbin Cagle, Sierra Matlock, Robert Maurer, Dr. Prashant Rao, and the five member Payload Developer (PD) Guide Team members Chris Getteau, Carrie Gilder, Mary Lins, Tracy Parr, and Roger Weiss.
Robbin Cagle was presented with a Silver BEAR Award for her exceptional contribution to the success of the Dream Chaser Commercial Resupply Services 2 (CRS2) design, development, and verification. Cagle, while being a Barrios contractor, has fully embraced and embodies the Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC) values of integrity, innovation, agility, service, and tenacity. Cagle was recognized for providing solutions to problems and developing tools to streamline communication. She created training materials such as “Document Marking for Delivery to NASA” that will help disseminate her expertise to the rest of the team. Her dependability, positive attitude, and strong work ethic have been recognized not only internally by the SNC customer, but also by the NASA customer as well. Cagle’s efforts have built strong confidence in Barrios’ ability to provide strong technical expertise to the Dream Chaser Program.
Sierra Matlock was recognized with a Silver BEAR Award for the development and roll-out of a new automated process for open work tracking and burn down reporting for the Gateway Program. This solution is yet another step towards NASA’s adoption of Model Based System Engineering (MBSE) approaches. The implementation of this new tracking system reduces program overhead, improved accuracy, and more agile program lifecycle reviews across the Program. The successful implementation of this system displayed the value of the IBM DOORS Next Generation (DNG) requirements management tool and enhances Barrios’ Model Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) services provided to the Gateway Program. Matlock consistently demonstrates professional maturity and technical credibility in her work and has become a widely respected member of the Gateway Digital Architecture Working Group (DAWG). In this instance, she not only developed a much-needed solution for tracking program-wide open work but she is also training key NASA users in use of the tool.
Robert Maurer was recognized with a Silver BEAR Award for his outstanding support to Orion and the Human Space Flight Technical Integration Contract (HSFTIC) operations in the areas of Security Management and Export Control. Maurer led an expedited Orion program level assessment of the Solar Winds security breach in which hackers inserted malware into a service that provided software updates for its Orion platform, a suite of products broadly used across the U.S. federal government. He also led an expedited activity to secure an Orion Technical Assistance Agreement (TAA) with the US Department of State (DoS) that allows HSFTIC personnel to exchange/export technical data to Orion International Partners on behalf of NASA. His coordination and integration with the HSFTIC contractor team as well as 20 International Partner teammates, spread over 10 countries, led to the successful submission of the TAA to the DoS. Maurer’s focus expedited the TAA development and reduced what would normally take a year to complete to a 3-month effort.
Dr. Prashant Rao was recognized with a Silver BEAR Award for his exemplary analysis and simulation of the Orion/Artemis hatch opening system under environments ranging from the launch pad to recovery at sea. Through that analysis, he discovered that the hatch system hold-open baseline approach was unable to meet safety requirements. Working with NASA/JSC design, he produced a lock-out mechanism which was configured to structurally block the hatches from closing. Dr. Rao also participated in the JETS kickstarter program, where he worked with a team of engineers and designers to build equipment that could be retrofitted to the existing ARED (Advanced Resistance Exercise Device) which would enable the Station crew to perform additional load bearing exercises, enhancing crew health on the Station. Dr. Rao’s problem-solving attitude, efficient model creation, and the ability to absorb the uncertain nature of the operating environments has directly affected the mission success of Artemis 2 and beyond as evidenced by the successful Orion hatch opening sea state tests.
The five member Payload Developer (PD) Guide Team were each recognized with a Silver BEAR Award for their outstanding and creative response to a special request made by the NASA customer. NASA requested this team to review and improve the overall tone and customer support of the PD Guide tool. Team members Chris Getteau, Carrie Gilder, Mary Lins, Tracy Parr, and Roger Weiss assembled to “reimagine” a document intended to aid prospective PDs in designing their payloads to successfully launch and operate on the Station. After reading through more than 100 pages of technically heavy and detailed source material the team revolutionized the guide to contain “Tips and Tricks” for PDs as well as a helpful and customer centric tone. The length of the book was reduced by three quarters, relevant graphics were added, and salient information was captured in an accessible way.
Roger Weiss Mary Lins
Carrie Gilder
The Barrios Employee Awards and Recognition or BEAR Award recognizes quality performance and outstanding support of customer and company goals. Up to one percent of the current number of employees can receive the Silver Award each quarter. Silver award winners automatically qualify for the annual Gold award which is presented at an annual awards and recognition reception.
About Us:
Headquartered in Houston, TX, with an additional office in Huntsville, AL, Barrios Technology is a woman owned AS9100 certified engineering services company specializing in mission integration and operations, software engineering, systems engineering, and program management. Since 1980, Barrios has demonstrated their purpose of passionately advancing humanity, on and off the planet, with innovative technology integration solutions. For more information on Barrios Technology visit www.barrios.com.