Special awards luncheon honors individuals and groups that have made significant contributions to advancing the Test and Evaluation (T&E) profession.

The International Test and Evaluation Association (ITEA) annually presents six (6) Professional T&E Awards to individuals and groups that have made significant contributions to advancing the test and evaluation profession. In addition, ITEA also presents the Board of Directors’ Award, the President’s Award, Energizer Award, the Chapter of Excellence Awards, and the Chapter of the Year Award to recognize individuals and Chapters for their significant contributions to the Association. The International Test and Evaluation Association (ITEA) Board of Directors and Stephanie Clewer, the ITEA Awards Committee Chair, relies on ITEA members and T&E leaders to identify and submit nominations of individuals and teams worthy of recognition by the 2019 ITEA T&E Professional Awards Program.

The following individuals and teams will be honored at the Annual Professional T&E Award Ceremony and Luncheon, which will be held during the 36th International Test & Evaluation Symposium, which will be held at the Kaua’i Marriott Resort, in Lihue, Hawaii, November 12-15, 2019.

Please make your plans today to join us in recognizing these significant contributors to the test and evaluation profession and community.

2019 Allen R. Matthews Award
presented to
Steven Hutchison, PhD
Department of Homeland Security (DHS)

Dr. Steven Hutchison has spent 20 plus years at the forefront of improving acquisition outcomes through the application of rigorous test and evaluation to enhance National Security. He has shaped the test and evaluation community across the Federal Government through leadership and recognized expertise in key roles at the U.S. Army, DoD, the Defense Security Information Agency, and currently as the Director, Office of Test and Evaluation, Department of Homeland Security. He fundamentally changed the T&E communities within DoD and DHS by increasing the visibility and resources focused on T&E activities prior to initial production and deployment. A vocal champion of the T&E initiative “Shift Left”, which has now become commonly referenced throughout the Federal T&E community in casual conversation, briefings, speeches, and policy. His passion for improved T&E rigor led to the creation of the Scientific Test and Analysis Techniques Center of Excellence within DoD which now also supports DHS. Advocated for enhanced cyber security and cyber resilience T&E for the past decade. Instrumental in improving the T&E workforce within DoD and DHS. As a prolific writer he has influenced our T&E community and made us think. Dr. Steve Hutchison has directly improved acquisition outcomes and National Security.

2019 Richard G. Cross Award
presented to
Laura Freeman, PhD
Virginia Tech, Hume Center for National Security and Technology

For exceptional performance while serving as the Acting Science Adviser to Director, Operational Test and Evaluation (DOT&E). Dr. Freeman distinguished herself by representing DOT&E interests in official Joint and Department of Defense committees and forums. She provided leadership, guidance on a variety of initiatives; and mentored staff, across the T&E community, in the planning and assessment of tests examining the effectiveness, suitability and survivability of multi-billion-dollar programs. Through her work in with the Chief Management Office (CMO) in advancing test science research and applications for OT and in advancing a “shift left” mentality throughout T&E, Dr. Freeman institutionalized scientific thinking in DoD testing and evaluation. Focus areas include test design, statistical data analysis, modeling and simulation validation, software testing, cybersecurity testing, reliability analysis, and human-system interactions. Dr. Freeman’s outstanding performance reflects great credit upon her, the Offices of the DOT&E, the CMO, and the Office of the Secretary of Defense.

2019 Technical Achievement Award
presented to the
Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) Big Data Analytics (BDA) Team
The Test Resource Management Center (TRMC)

The TRMC JSF BDA team, under the technical direction of Mr. Chris Moyer, Mission Enablement Software and Architecture Manager, distinguished themselves from 1 July 2019 through 30 June 2019 with the integration of commercial BDA techniques into the realm of T&E on the F-35. Their work has resulted in the discovery of previously unknown anomalies, development of predictive models for equipment failure, reduction of routine analysis processes from 9+ hours to <1 second, and the drastic optimization of F-35 post-mission data ingest which enables pilots to review video and data from their flight during AAR rather than days later. Additionally, the team developed a means for tracking changes between ICD releases, so analysts no longer had to go through timely trial and error to find where messages moved within the new ICD. This team also supported Northern Edge 2019, where pilots had auto-generated shot-sheets provided for the first time. These achieved results have led to KM tools being added into the JSF Block IV TEMP. The success of these tools, techniques, and hardware has resulted in programs across the DoD investigating how to apply the JSF BDA team’s work to their mission. The team has proven that big data analytics will revolutionize data evaluation across the DoD.

2019 Special Achievement Award
presented to the
Mk 48 Heavyweight Torpedo
Commander Operational Test and Evaluation Force (COMOPTEVFOR)

The Mk48 Heavyweight Torpedo test team is presented the 2019 ITEA Special Achievement Award for innovative approaches, practices, and management processes applied in Initial Operational Test and Evaluation of this critical weapon system capability from July 2018 to June 2019. The Mk48 Advanced Processor Build 5 variant is the first of several planned updates to this key weapon system, significantly increasing capability and lethality as the primary submarine launched weapon against current and emerging submerged and surface threats. The test team, in close coordination with the undersea warfare test and evaluation community stakeholders, developed and executed a variety of innovative strategies to successfully mitigate schedule and cost risk factors. Their combined efforts resulted in an Early Fielding Decision by PEO SUBS in April 2019, providing improved lethality in today’s Fleet. These strategies included leveraging Fleet exercises to decrease the number of dedicated OT firings by 30%, using modeling and simulation to reduce the number of in-water runs and time to execute for future variants by 50%, executing a combined cybersecurity test event to reduce time for independent OT by 40%, all while providing interim performance data and identifying tangible performance improvements and performance concerns in a relevant time frame.

2019 Junior Achiever Award
presented to
Captain Trung Q. Nguyen
DIA/ST/ATI5B, USAF

Captain Trung Q. Nguyen distinguished himself by meritorious service as a Test Director in the Defense Intelligence Agency, Directorate for Science and Technology, Office of Advanced Technologies Intelligence, Targeting and Test Division, Test and Evaluation Branch. During his first two years, Captain Nguyen’s technical competence, innovative thinking, and leadership were instrumental in the successful execution of 18 test events and 720 test hours, ensuring the success of 15 Intelligence Community projects. He led a four man, expeditious T&E team through a collective 18 weeks of testing, verifying and validating over 400 requirements, while introducing process improvements into his team and branch. Furthermore, Capt Nguyen spearheaded three operational test events resulting in direct contributions to the warfighters. Finally, his implementation of outside the box ideas has been adopted as best practices within his division. The distinctive accomplishments of Capt Nguyen reflect credit upon himself, the Defense Intelligence Agency, and the United States Air Force.

2019 Publications Award
presented to
Laura Freeman, PhD, Virginia Tech,
Kelly Avery, PhD, Institute of Defense Analysis (IDA),
and Thomas Johnson, PhD, IDA

The authors clearly described the complicated task of validating simulations for use in development and testing of new systems. The authors explained the essential need for validated engineering-level and engagement–level computer models for systems engineers and developmental testers to refine system designs and conduct trade-off analyses. The authors show how Design of Experiments and statistical analysis techniques are the foundational tools for validating computer models for test and evaluation and for other high-value DoD tasks.

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For additional information, please contact Mr. James Gaidry at jgaidry@itea.org, or at 703.631.6220
The International Test and Evaluation Association
11350 Random Hills RD, Suite 800
Fairfax, Virginia 22030-6044