United States Geospatial Intelligence Foundation Announces Winners of 2004 Awards Program

OAK HILL, VA-At the Hall of Fame Awards Dinner held last Thursday at GEOINT 2004 in New Orleans, the United States Geospatial Intelligence Foundation (USGIF) recognized recipients of the 2004 USGIF Awards Program.

This year’s recipients are Mr. Jeff Newby of the Geospatial Intelligence Training Program (Academic Achievement Award); Dr. Andy Lee of Harris Corporation (Research Achievement Award); Future Intelligence Requirements Environment (FIRE) Program team of the Frontiers Division, In no Visions Directorate, National Geospatial Intelligence-Agency (Government Achievement Award); the Geospatial Intelligence Database Integration (GIDI) Team from Raytheon Intelligence and Information Systems (Industry Achievement Award); and the Joint Intelligence, Reconnaissance, Surveillance (JISR) Advanced Concept Technical Demonstration Program (ACTD) of the U.S. Army’s Joint Precision Strike Demonstration Office (Military Achievement Award); and Dr. Leo Hazlewood of Science Applications International Corporation (Lifetime Achievement Award).

“On behalf of the USGIF membership and board of directors, I applaud the accomplishments of these distinguished Awards Program winners,” said K. Stuart Shea, chairman of the board of directors, USGIF. “Their work dramatically represents the commitment to excellence exhibited throughout our tradecraft.”

The USGIF sponsors three Awards Programs to recognize influential and innovative members of the geospatial intelligence community. The annual Geospatial Academic Achievement Award commends the achievements of the top graduate of a nationally recognized Geospatial Intelligence academic program as well as the organization that demonstrates the top geospatial intelligence research program or project. The Geospatial Intelligence Achievement Award recognizes outstanding achievement in the tradecraft by an individual or team from each of three sectors: government, industry, and military. The Lifetime Achievement Award is presented, upon selection by the USGIF board, to an influential member of the geospatial intelligence community.

Specifically, this year’s Awards Program recipients received recognition for:

Lifetime Achievement -Dr. Leo Hazlewood was selected for his outstanding contribution and commitment to the geospatial community and dedication to promoting the tradecraft. Dr. Hazlewood has a storied career in the intelligence community starting from academia to multiple positions in the Central Intelligence Agency, including the Comptroller, Director of the National Photographic Interpretations Center (NPIC) and eventually the Executive Director. He also was Deputy Director of the Implementation Team for the NIA Task Force, which created the National Imagery and Mapping Agency (NIMA). Currently, he is a corporate vice president at Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC), where he leads the company’s Mission Integration Business Unit.

Academic Achievement -Mr. Jeff Newby was selected due to his superior performance as the 2004 Student of the Year from the NGA:s Geospatial Intelligence Training Program(GITP). Completing this foundational course with a score of 98.3/100, Mr. Newby distinguished himself as a scholar as well as a leader, bringing compelling insights to class discussions and exhibiting positive, cooperative behavior throughout the training program. His technical skill and team orientation caused him to build imagery-derived digital tools, which he and other students used to prepare for exams. These tools will be incorporated into future GITP classes by instructors. Mr. Newby’s scholarship and leadership will help ensure his future success as a GI analyst.

Research Achievement -Dr. Andy Lee, a senior systems engineer with Harris Corporation, has focused his career on delivering automated solutions to the GI community. His leadership developing the Topographic Data Production Prototype (TOPP) created a viable solution for delivering large volumes of high-resolution, highly accurate Digital Elevation Models (OEMS) and other topographic products with automatic processing techniques that can be fielded in the near term. As a foundational tool, TOPP will enable a wide range of new products for development and exploitation that will support a variety of mission applications for the USGIF Awards Program Intelligence Community and the Warfighter. Dr. Lee exemplifies initiative, technical acumen and dedication to the National Security mission.

Government Achievement -The FIRE program models and simulates ISR architecture performance with multi-INT disciplines operating in an integrated fashion. By looking at intelligence issues from an information need perspective rather than a system performance perspective, FIRE provides the comprehensive information and tools necessary for multi­INT ISR analysis to be used in cross-disciplinary architecture analysis and trade studies. Fl RE provides an analytic environment and the data and tools necessary to investigate the synergistic effects of integrated ISR operations, allowing all intelligence disciplines to meet National Security objectives now and in the future through their combined efforts. Simultaneously, FIRE illustrates the importance of GI as the foundation of multi-INT analysis.

Military Achievement -The JISR ACTD provides a significantly enhanced capability to dominate situation awareness through the use of a Web-based browser and information agents, Joint Technical Architecture (JTA)-compliant sensor interfaces, commercial/government off-the-shelf complexity reduction tools, distributed database management, and improved visualization/display tools. This technology enables the Warfighter to electronically visualize the battlefield via a rapid, user-friendly, Web-based, thin-client solution. The development team, which included active military personnel, government civilians, and contractors, overcame numerous technical challenges to enable smart data and product retrieval across disparate legacy sensors and databases, accommodate additional tactical sensors, and allow user remote access from any existing joint or combined C2I workstation.

Industry Achievement -As lead contractor for the NGA:s GIDI project, Raytheon Intelligence and Information Systems led a multi-directorate team through the successful development of the agency’s Geospatial Intelligence Enterprise (GIE), the authoritative, integrated environment for production and dissemination of geospatial intelligence. GIE comprises a central feature repository plus workgroup-oriented databases that allow NGA:s Analysis and Production Directorate to create both standard and custom products and make all feature holdings available, via a single access point using a web browser, to the Intelligence Community and the Warfighter. The project was completed in an accelerated timeframe by a team that included Mr. Joseph Dancses, Ms. Angela Reece-Wilson, Mr. David Waldrup, Mr. Steven Miles, and Mr. James Gillerist.

Foundation members and the Board of Directors, as well as federal, state, and local government organizations and academic institutions were involved in nominating individuals and teams for these awards. Collectively, these programs recognize the substantive achievements of a variety of individuals and organizations, from promising students to high-achieving corporate, government, and military teams, and individuals who have demonstrated a lifetime of leadership in the geospatial intelligence field.

“The USGIF Awards Program exists to recognize exemplary professional contributions to geospatial intelligence,” Shea said. “We are pleased to reflect our dedication to the tradecraft’s current and future strength through these programs.”

The United States Geospatial Intelligence Foundation is a Virginia-based nonstock, not-for­profit corporation. The Foundation is dedicated to promoting the geospatial intelligence

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