Page 54 - FCW, November, December 2018
P. 54

 Rising Stars
MICHAEL B. COX
Data Scientist and Team Lead for Internet of Things, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Michael Cox worked as an intern at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory after his sophomore year of college, helping to automate reports and doing other database work. “I called them back when I was at graduation time, and the group I’m in now made an opening for me,” he said.
Now the team leader for the internet of things, Cox helps identify new consumer devices that could improve the way NASA employees work.
His efforts have resulted in several projects involving connected devices across the JPL campus. For example, Cox and his colleagues on the Tech Evaluation and Infusion Team have been using Amazon’s Lex to automate processes such as finding an open conference room for a meeting
or quickly accessing contract information. Another effort involves adding safety controls to shop equipment so that people would only be allowed to use it after scanning their identification badge.
For Cox, though, the specific projects are less important than simply being part of the agency and its mission.
“I’m a kid in a candy store here,” he said. “I’ve always adored NASA and watched enthusiastically as rockets launched and as rovers landed on Mars. And I’ve always loved being a part of that and felt the sense of wonder of trying to help figure out what’s out there.”
SENIOR AIRMAN CHRISTOPHER R. DEFORGE
Geospatial Analyst/Full-Motion Video Screener, 45th Intelligence Squadron, U.S. Air Force
Senior Airman Christopher DeForge has combined leadership skills and curiosity in a way that has had an impact beyond his squadron.
“On one side, he is always looking for ways to make
data aggregation more efficient, more accurate and more accessible,” said Tech. Sgt. Bradley Beauchan, Charlie Flight Operations Chief of the 45th Intelligence Squadron. “On the other side, he is intrinsically interested in the thought processes needed to take advantage of data consolidation efforts,” including new software and databases and complementary personnel training.
DeForge is also at home with emerging technologies. This year, he paired an information system with machine learning techniques to identify tactics, techniques and procedures used by a terrorist organization. The methods not only identified ongoing activity, but revealed the true scope of the operation and facilitated the IT system’s first real mission- related product application that could be used on a tactical level.
One of his biggest accomplishments has been using
a classified data aggregation system to collect spectral imaging. DeForge’s analysis of intelligence reports and imaging data from other sources has yielded intelligence that can predict an adversary’s location for ongoing operations.
He also led the team behind the unit’s Sentinel Sim software program and a NATO intelligence training exercise on full-motion video, during which he identified ongoing miscommunications that were severely hindering the exercise’s success.
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