fdl handbook
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HANDBOOK
WELCOME TO FDL
P3
NASA FRONTIER DEVELOPMENT LAB IS AN
APPLIED RESEARCH ACCELERATOR DESIGNED
TO ENHANCE NASA’S CAPABILITIES BY COMBINING
THE EXPERTISE OF NASA, ACADEMIA, AND
THE PRIVATE RESEARCH COMMUNITY.
—
6 WEEKS AT NASA AMES & SETI INSTITUTE
P3
WELCOME TO FDL
WELCOME TO FDL P6
KEY FACES P9
BRIEFING P11
THE WORK P12
TEAM NEW TOOLS P14
TEAM NEW APPROACHES P20
TEAM NEW DISCOVERIES P26
HOW FDL WORKS P34
VIRTUAL MENTORS P36
ACCELERATOR METHODOLOGY P38
MILESTONES P40
SCHEDULE P41
AFTER HOURS P47
LODGING P48
MAPS P50
CONTACT P55
P5
WELCOME TO FDL
JIM ADAMS | DEPUTY CHIEF TECHNOLOGIST, NASAAdvancing exciting new technology has always helped NASA extend the reach of its mission capabilities. Defending our planet from potentially hazardous asteroids is no different, and consequently I welcome you to our Planetary Defense Accelerator at NASA Ames this summer. I look forward to meeting you.
BRUCE PITTMAN | CHIEF SYSTEMS ENGINEER, NASANASA Ames is delighted to be bringing back the summer study series that we started back in 1975, and we are excited about the results that will come from this 6 week effort from such a talented group of participants.
JEN-HSUN HUANG | CEO, NVIDIANVIDIA dedicates itself to advances in computing and giving the world the power to do impactful science. For as long as we have been designing computers, AI has been the final frontier. Building intelligent machines that can perceive the world as we do, understand our language, and learn from example has been the life’s work of computer scientists for over five decades.
Recently, the combination of advances in machine learning algorithms and the development of GPU’s has sparked the deep learning revolution. We now have a powerful new tool to tackle some of the world’s greatest challenges. Finding dangerous asteroids is surely one of those challenges that is potentially existential. So, it is with great pleasure that NVIDIA can partner with NASA in this innovative program to bring together the most advanced deep learning, machine vision, and supercomputing technologies with the world’s brightest minds and take on this challenge.
Using AI to find asteroid threats to human populations and to know what to do about them is a mission we should all support. I look forward to seeing the results of your work.
WELCOME TO FDL
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BILL DIAMOND | PRESIDENT & CEO, SETI INSTITUTERecent advances in deep learning and artificial intelligence are offering powerful new tools for the more effective and comprehensive analysis of massive and complex datasets.
At the same time, research endeavors across every branch of science are generating data that demand new algorithms to extract meaningful patterns, reveal unanticipated correlations and process results with much higher speed.
The SETI Institute is delighted to be a partner in hosting this summer’s Frontier Development Lab, bringing together leading post-doctoral research talent in machine learning and planetary science for the study of near earth objects. It’s all about accelerated learning and understanding in a branch of planetary science where the stakes are particularly high!
JAMES PARR | FDL CO-DIRECTORNASA Ames has a great tradition of summer programs - some of which, such as the space settlement studies led by Gerard O’Neill, have inspired a generation of rocketeers and scientists to imagine the impossible.
Our Summer Program aims to recreate this spirit of possibility, and by partnering with NVIDIA, Autodesk and the SETI Institute we’re also tapping into the indomitable energy of Silicon Valley to make these imaginings real. We’re looking forward to an amazing six weeks with you.
JONATHAN KNOWLES | EXPLORER IN RESIDENCE, AUTODESKWelcome to the frontier, a place truly on the outer limit of knowledge and understanding. NASA and its partners have a long history of fostering meaningful innovation, and you are about to be a part of creating it. Glad to have you on board.
WELCOME TO FDL
MEET THE FDL TEAM
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KEY FACESJAMES PARR FDL CO-DIRECTOR
JORDAN MCRAE FDL CO-DIRECTOR
[email protected] [email protected]
JIM ADAMS DEPUTY CHIEF TECHNOLOGIST, NASA
BRUCE PITTMAN CHIEF SYSTEMS ENGINEER, NASA
[email protected] [email protected]
BILL DIAMOND CEO, THE SETI INSTITUTE
DARLENE M. WIEDEMANNPLANETARY SUSTAINABILITY, NASA
[email protected]@nasa.gov
JONATHAN KNOWLES EXPLORER IN RESIDENCE, AUTODESK
DEBBIE KOLYER GRANTS MANAGER, THE SETI INSTITUTE
[email protected] [email protected]
ALISON LOWNDES DEEP LEARNING SOLUTIONS, NVIDIA
J.L GALACHE ASTRONOMER, MINOR PLANET CENTER
[email protected] [email protected]
ERIC DAHLSTROM PRESIDENT INTERNATIONAL SPACE
ARMINÉ SAROIAN HR DIRECTOR, THE SETI INSTITUTE
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BRIEFING
In 2013, NASA embarked on the “Asteroid Grand Challenge” (AGC), a White House supported initiative to supplement the NEOO Program with a mission:
“FIND ALL ASTEROID THREATS TO HUMAN POPULATIONS AND KNOW WHAT TO DO ABOUT THEM.”
There remain a number of unresolved gaps in addressing this mission, both in terms of discovery of threats and characterization and eventual mitigation strategies in the event that a potentially hazardous asteroid (PHA) is discovered.
The Asteroid Grand Challenge has supported this effort by leveraging non-traditional and multi-disciplinary collaborations through a variety of partnerships with industry, academia, and citizen scientists. Its goal is to accelerate the work of the NEO Program.
By using new approaches in computer science - such as deep learning and machine vision – and bringing to bear new skills to tackle specific aspects of the
problem, solutions may be uncovered that, combined with existing processes, will significantly benefit the community dealing with the asteroid threat.
The NASA Frontier Development Lab brings together a team of post-grad researchers with significant backing from industry and bolstered by feedback from experts
The intention is to give participants a meaningful research opportunity, as well as support the work of the planetary defense community. Lastly, it will demonstrate the potential of this kind of applied research methodology to deliver breakthroughs of significant value to NASA.
To develop new approaches to the asteroid threat by combining the expertise of NASA, academia, and the private research community with the powerful techniques of machine learning.
The following are the descriptions of STARTING POINTS for the three project teams. As the primary goal of FDL is to encourage breakthroughs of significant value, it is understood that – during the course of the six week program – the focus of the investigations may change as understanding of the problem matures.
NEW APPROACHESTwo possibiliites are currently being examined for this group.
(1) Visualization of asteroid orbits and properties. The current quantity of data on the 14,400+ near-Earth objects (NEOs) and ~550,000 main-belt asteroids (including both asteroids and comets) is overwhelming, and a challenge to visualize and analyze.
This project attempts to make use of orbit visualizations combined with methods to tag individual objects with relevant information (binary object, rotation, brightness, spectral classification, etc.) to assist in visualizing and analyzing the asteroid population as a class. Visualization tools may include the application of commercially available virtual reality systems as well as a smartphone app.
(2) Examination of future space missions to aid in asteroid discovery. Most current asteroid discoveries are made by optical survey telescopes operating at night and avoiding the bright phases of the Moon.
This project seeks to determine if small spacecraft, such as a swarm of cubesats, could be used for discovering asteroids during close approaches to Earth. It is anticipated that the project would use a simulated population of asteroids to represent, for example, what a set of cubesat spacecraft might detect from low Earth orbit, and how the data from this ensemble might be combined to allow rapid identification of interplanetary objects and their orbits.
Simulating the images potentially available from such spacecraft would not require access to (or detailed design of) space hardware, or other export controlled space technology.
THE WORK
THE WORK
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NEW TOOLSCreating three-dimensional shape models of asteroids using radar data and optical light curves.
Currently, the best information about the shapes of asteroids that pass close to Earth is obtained with high-power radar transmitters on large radio telescopes. The Arecibo Observatory’s 305-meter antenna and the NASA Goldstone Solar System Radar’s 70-meter antenna illuminate asteroids with radar beams and receive the reflected echoes, together with other telescopes. The resulting delay-Doppler radar signals are many-to-one mappings of the targets’ shapes and spin states.
Currently the identification of the 3D shape of an asteroid is an iterative and time-consuming process requiring extensive human intervention.
This project will explore improving the speed and automation of radar shape modeling using machine learning and other techniques. This project will only analyze archived radar data (potentially in combination with archived optical light curves) and will not involve the specifics of the radar transmitters or the radio receivers.
NEW DISCOVERIESDevelop an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) to aid in finding meteorites in the field.
Currently meteorites from recent falls are identified visually through a labor-intensive manual search in the field. Smaller falls, which are more frequent, are hard to recover. As a result, the number of recovered meteorites on known approach orbits is small.
This project will aim to develop a small UAV (such as a commercially available quadcopter) equipped with cameras and onboard processors that can identify potential meteorite targets in the search areas calculated from triangulated meteor observations. This will make it possible to discover meteorites even from smaller falls.
Machine learning techniques will be applied to sample images in the lab, and then the resulting search algorithms will be transferred to small processors onboard the UAV.
The machine learning will be developed using NVIDIA computing hardware - which will remain in the lab under NASA and SETI Institute control.
It is anticipated that the UAV, cameras, and onboard computing processing hardware will all be commercially available items.
THE WORK
TEAM NEW TOOLS
TEAM
NEW TOOLS
MICHAEL BUSCH | [email protected]
A planetary astronomer specializing in the physical characterization of near-Earth asteroids, Busch received
his PhD at Caltech in 2010 and worked as a postdoc at UCLA and at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory before joining the SETI Institute as a research scientist
in 2013. Most recently, he has worked on characterizing potential targets for future asteroid space missions.
P15TEAM NEW TOOLS
MEHDI LAMEEPLANETARY SCIENTIST
Lamee is an astrophysics PhD candidate at the University of Minnesota. Currently, he is working
on the polarization properties of extragalactic radio sources at multiple frequencies. He also has a few
independent projects related to the synchrotron radiation in the intracluster medium of merging
galaxy clusters and the reionization of the universe.
He completed his undergraduate studies in physics at Shiraz University in Iran, and moved to Leiden
University in The Netherlands to pursue his masters degree in astronomy in 2009. Lamee studied the
spectrum of the double-peaked emission line galaxies in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, and classified
each component as an AGN or star-forming galaxy.
TEAM NEW TOOLS
CORINNE VASSALLODATA SCIENTIST
Vassallo is a doctoral student of aerospace engineering at the University of Texas, Austin, and has a background in physics and music.
Her current research applies machine learning algorithms to data from the Gravity Recovery and
Climate Experiment (GRACE) mission. GRACE satellites contribute to the study of Earth’s climate
by modelling its gravity field, which provides information about global land water storage
over time.
While at Carnegie Mellon University, Vassalo worked with Red Whittaker’s Astrobotics Team to research and develop the technologies which contributed to the pursuit of the Google Lunar X-Prize. She used her computer science and physics background to develop a means for landing a spacecraft on the
Moon based on images taken of the lunar surface in flight. When not working on orbital mechanics,
she enjoys music, cycling, and yoga.
P17TEAM NEW TOOLS
OLORATO MOSIANEPLANETARY SCIENTIST
Mosiane currently works at the Square Kilometer Array South Africa as a junior science process developer. He is developing machine learning applications for detecting and mitigating radio
frequency interference (RFI). He also enjoys skateboarding and coding, and developing strategies
that will give him an edge in market trading.
TEAM NEW TOOLS
CHEDY RAISSIDATA SCIENTIST
Raissi received his doctorate in computer science from the University of Montpellier and the
Ecole des Mines d’alas, France in 2008.
He has worked on topics such as data streams and sequential pattern mining. Raissi also worked at the National University of Singapore as a post-doctoral
researcher on privacy-preserving data mining.
In 2009, he joined the Institut National de Recherche en Informatique et Automatique (INRIA) in France,
and is currently a permanent research scientist within the Orpailleur team working on data mining
and machine learning problems.
P19TEAM NEW TOOLS
TEAM NEW APPROACHES
TEAM
NEW APPROACHES
FRANCK MARCHIS | [email protected]
Marchis is a Senior Researcher and Chair of the Exoplanet Group at the Carl Sagan Center of the SETI Institute, where
he has been since July 2007.
For the past 19 years he has researched the solar system, and more specifically the hunt for asteroids with moons, using mainly ground-
based telescopes equipped with adaptive optics (AO). More recently he has been involved in the definition of a new generation of AO for 8 -10
m class telescopes and still-to-come Extremely Large Telescopes
P21TEAM NEW APPROACHES
ERIKA NESVOLDPLANETARY [email protected]
Nesvold received a B.S. in mathematics, an M.S. in applied physics, and a Ph.D. in physics from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.
Her doctoral research was developing a computer model of the dynamics and collisions
of asteroids in other solar systems at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.
Currently, she is a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Terrestrial Magnetism at the
Carnegie Institution of Washington.
TEAM NEW APPROACHES
ADAM GREENBERGPLANETARY SCIENTIST
A graduate student in astrophysics at UCLA, Greenberg’s thesis work is focussed on shape
modeling of asteroids from radar data, as well as the orbital dynamics of near-earth asteroids and measuring subtle non-secular variations in these
orbits. He also likes logic and math puzzles, and enjoys bouldering.
P23TEAM NEW APPROACHES
ELMARIE VAN HEERDENDATA SCIENTIST
Heerden is currently a student at the University of Oxford reading for a D. Phil. in engineering
with application to astrophysics, more specifically radio astronomy and pulsar searching. She
hails from South Africa.
A research interest of Heerden’s is the development of novel artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms to autonomously exploit large data sets.
She is also intrigued by the crossovers between machine learning, big data and astrophysics because they present wonderful opportunities to do ground-
breaking science.
In her spare time she plays on the University of Oxford Women’s rugby team. Heerden is also keen on good coffee and delicious food, and has a yen
for travel. She admits that her Achilles’ heel is the Wikipedia-vortex going on in her browser. She
never manages to open just one Wiki page.
TEAM NEW APPROACHES
NICOLAS ERASMUSPLANETARY SCIENTIST
Erasmus is a physicist originally specializing in femtosecond lasers and applying these lasers in the relatively new field of ultrafast electron diffraction.
He recently changed research fields and joined an astronomy group that specializes in designing,
manufacturing and installing instrumentation (CCD cameras, focal reducers, spectrographs etc.)
for medium-sized optical telescopes.
He considers himself to be highly motivated, goal oriented and a methodical worker. His
background in fundamental physics, together with a strong focus on hands-on experimental approaches in a team environment, helps him to develop fresh ideas and approaches with a
coherent and pragmatic perspective.
P25TEAM NEW APPROACHES
TEAM NEW DISCOVERIES
PETER JENNISKENS | [email protected]
Peter Jenniskens is a senior research scientist and meteor astronomer with the SETI Institute. He is best known for recovering, with students and staff of the University of
Khartoum, the first meteorite samples from an asteroid studied in space. Small 4-m sized asteroid 2008 TC3 was observed for 20h before impacting near Station 6 (“Almahata Sitta”) in the Nubian Desert of Sudan on
October 7, 2008. Jenniskens found pristine fragments of the Sutter’s Mill carbonaceous chondrite in California’s gold
country in 2012, and organized consortium studies for the Novato and Misfits Flat ordinary chondrites. He is author of the 790 page book “Meteor Showers and their Parent
Comets” (Cambridge University Press).
TEAM
NEW DISCOVERIES
P27TEAM NEW DISCOVERIES
SRAVANTHI SINHADATA SCIENTIST
Sinha is a full stack software engineer who is excited about the future of AI research.
Currently one of 32 students selected world-wide to be part of the first class Holberton School, Sinha
was a student intern at the National Resource for Network Biology (NRNB) in 2012 . She is also
a member of the NRNB Academy Alumni. She successfully completed the Google Summer of Code
in 2013 and 2014, first as a student and then as a mentor. She published WikiPathways: capturing
the full diversity of pathway knowledge (2015) in Oxford Journals.
Sinha earned a bachelor’s degree in electronics and communication engineering from Jawaharlal Nehru
Technological University in Hyderabad, India.
TEAM NEW DISCOVERIES
CHRISTOPHER WATKINSDATA SCIENTIST
Watkins was born and raised on the Mornington Peninsula in Victoria, Australia where he still
resides. He has spent over 10 years completing two first-class honors degrees in mechanical engineering and science (applied maths and
physics), and is working on a doctorate in ultracold computational physics.Watkins currently works at CSIRO in the scientific computing team, helping
researchers with CSIRO’s high performance computing systems and the development of
numerical algorithms. He likes the broad range of scientific domains encountered in his work as well
as the ongoing challenge.
Watkins enjoys the area where he lives for its surfing, mountain biking, trail running and
bushwalking. He has been a student of martial arts for over 15 years. He also has a one-year old
son, and a beautiful partner. Watkins admits to love learning new things and being challenged, and
hates it when things are easy and boring.
P29TEAM NEW DISCOVERIES
ROBERT CITRONPLANETARY SCIENTIST
Citron is currently a doctoral student in planetary science at the University of California, Berkeley. He has participated in the NASA Ames Academy
for Space Exploration, JPL’s Planetary Science Summer School and the Sao Paulo Summer
School for Astrobiology.
He is working on using computational fluid dynamics code to examine impact cratering on planetary surfaces, and spent nearly a year as telescope
technician for the South Pole Telescope.
TEAM NEW DISCOVERIES
AMAR SHAHDATA SCIENTIST
A machine learning PhD student at the University of Cambridge, Shah’s research has predominantly been on Bayesian nonparametric modelling and inference, including Gaussian and beta processes. In particular,
he has spent most of his time considering model based optimization, the task of finding the optimum
of a continuous function by judicious, sequential, point-wise evaluation, directed by modelling the
unknown function, and trading off exploration and exploitation. This is useful for functions which do
not return derivatives and are expensive to evaluate, e.g. functions which require slow simulation. More recently, he has also been interested in
deep representation learning and optimization. His undergraduate and masters studies were in mathematics and statistics, also in Cambridge.
Prior to starting his PhD, Shah worked as a quantitative strategist in the Investment Banking
Division of Goldman Sachs.
P31TEAM NEW DISCOVERIES
NOTES
P33
NOTES
HOW FDL WORKS
CORE MENTOR:MICHAEL BUSCH
“NEW TOOLS”
CORE MENTOR:PETER JENNISKINS
“NEW DISCOVERIES”
CORE MENTOR:FRANCK MARCHIS
“NEW APPROACHES”
4 X VIRTUAL MENTORS
PLANETARY SCIENTIST COACHJL GALACHE
PLANETARY SCIENTIST COACHERIC DAHLSTROM
DATA SCIENTIST COACHYARIN GAL
DATA SCIENTIST COACHALISON LOWNDES
4 X COACHES = CROSS FERTILIZING ROLE(PART TIME)
3 X CORE MENTORS = SINGLE DIRECTION FOCUS
DATA PLANETARY DATA PLANETARY
DATA PLANETARY
KEY: 12 X PARTICIPANTS; BALANCE OF DATA AND PLANETARY SCIENTISTS (FULL TIME)
1 X LAB FACILITATORS: RUNNING SYLLABUS
OTHER NASARESOURCES
EXTERNAL SPEAKERS AND GUEST EXPERTS
HOW FDL WORKS
P35
CORE MENTOR:MICHAEL BUSCH
“NEW TOOLS”
CORE MENTOR:PETER JENNISKINS
“NEW DISCOVERIES”
CORE MENTOR:FRANCK MARCHIS
“NEW APPROACHES”
4 X VIRTUAL MENTORS
PLANETARY SCIENTIST COACHJL GALACHE
PLANETARY SCIENTIST COACHERIC DAHLSTROM
DATA SCIENTIST COACHYARIN GAL
DATA SCIENTIST COACHALISON LOWNDES
4 X COACHES = CROSS FERTILIZING ROLE(PART TIME)
3 X CORE MENTORS = SINGLE DIRECTION FOCUS
DATA PLANETARY DATA PLANETARY
DATA PLANETARY
KEY: 12 X PARTICIPANTS; BALANCE OF DATA AND PLANETARY SCIENTISTS (FULL TIME)
1 X LAB FACILITATORS: RUNNING SYLLABUS
OTHER NASARESOURCES
EXTERNAL SPEAKERS AND GUEST EXPERTS
HOW FDL WORKS
P35
MEET THE FDL TEAM
DR. KAREN R. STOCKSTILL-CAHILL | [email protected]. Cahill’s research utilizes an interdisciplinary approach integrating remote sensing and geochemistry to better understand the geologic history of planetary bodies. She has done this with a number of NASA mission data sets (e.g., Galileo, Clementine, Mars Global Surveyor, Mars Odyssey, and MESSENGER) and a variety of rocks (terrestrial volcanic rocks, Apollo 17 impact melt breccias, and Martian meteorites). She participated on the MGS-TES, MO-THEMIS, MER rover, and MESSENGER science teams, performing spectral and petrologic modeling and has previously worked with a team examining Galileo SSI data of Gaspra. For her Ph.D., she characterized parental melts of the Nakhla meteorite by rehomogenizing melt inclusions to determine the composition of the parent melts that erupted to form this rock.
DR. LINDA WELZENBACH | [email protected]. Welzenbach is a geologist, whose specialty is in sedimentary petrology. Her current focus is the characterization, curation, and analysis of planetary materials, namely meteorites and spacecraft returned samples (asteroid and lunar). Her research interests include examining chondrite regolith breccias and applying her findings to the theories regarding their formation and origins. As part of the U.S. Antarctic Meteorite program, she has classified and characterized over 10,000 meteorites from Antarctica, participated in two ANSMET expeditions to the trans-Antarctica mountains to collect meteorites, and managed the development and installation of the Smithsonian’s new Antarctic Meteorite cleanroom storage facility. She currently serves on the Nomenclature Committee of the Meteoritical Society.
VIRTUAL MENTORS
VIRTUAL MENTORS
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VIRTUAL MENTORS
DR. JIM RICE | [email protected]. Rice received his PhD in Geological Sciences in 1997 from Arizona State University where he studied aqueous sedimentary basins on Mars. He is a Co-Investigator and Geology Team Leader on the Mars Exploration Rover Project (Spirit and Opportunity) and also has mission experience working on the Mars Odyssey Orbiter and Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Projects. He has been a team member on numerous international geological field expeditions around the world including a 6 month long joint NASA/Russian expedition to Antarctica. This work included being a member of the SCUBA diving team to first investigate the perennially frozen lakes of eastern Antarctica. He was also a NASA Astronaut Candidate Finalist in 2000 and 2009.
YARIN GAL | [email protected] Gal is a third year PhD student in the machine learning group supervised by Prof Zoubin Ghahramani, advised by Prof Carl E. Rasmussen, and funded by the Google Europe Doctoral Fellowship. Before arriving at Cambridge, Gal studied at the Computer Science department at Oxford for a Master’s degree under the supervision of Prof Phil Blunsom. In Gal’s research at Oxford he worked on machine learning and natural language processing, and in particular on machine translation and the development of new probabilistic word alignment models. Prior to his MSc he worked as a software engineer for 3 years at IDesia Biometrics developing code and UI for mobile platforms. He did his undergraduate in mathematics and computer science at the Open University in Israel, where he worked on computational biology, deep learning, and game theory as a fourth year project.
1. START WITH LASER-FOCUSED PROBLEM DEFINITION By starting with a tightly articulated goal, FDL contributors can more effectively search for relevancy - in other words, focus matters - especially as a team learns to work together.
2. TEAMS OF INTERDISCIPLINARY EXPERTS Breakthroughs invariably happen when domain specialties collide, or to use a visual metaphor, at the edges of the bell curve. Psychologists point to group think, attention blindness and other cognitive biases (such as the Asch conformity bias) as the reasons why seasoned experts often can’t see what fresh eyes can.
3. CO-OPETITIONRather than working competitively on the same problem (without sharing resources), our FDL teams are tasked to work on related but adjacent challenges within a culture of co-operation and open discussion - building on each other’s work in a generative way. The net result is a much broader set of skills - and fresh heads - applied to the challenges at hand.
4. ENCOURAGE OBLIQUE DISCOVERY THROUGH RAPID ITERATION Doing things, iterating, making mistakes and learning comprise the unspoken engine of invention. However, as Stephen Covey points out in his book, ‘Where good ideas come from’, chance favors the prepared mind. Where experience has immense benefit is the ability to see the value in a wrong turn or accidental (‘oblique’) discovery. Everything from Superglue to the Big Bang was discovered this way. Hence we are supporting our FDL teams with seasoned mentors and coaches, and access to Autodesk’s TechShop.
ACCELERATION METHODOLOGY
ACCELERATION METHODOLOGY
P39
5. ALLOW FOR INDIRECT INSPIRATION Indirect inspiration is the ability of our brains to see a pattern in one place and apply it in a different context to discover something completely new. This is sometimes called ‘analogous inspiration’ and is the mechanism behind methodologies such as biomimicry. At FDL we are building this into the 6 week syllabus by inviting guests and speakers from multiple industries, as well as organizing field trips and other opportunities for inspiration.
6. PLAN FOR COLLECTIVE RECOGNITIONAs a team makes its journey of discovery, it self-educates, creating a deeper understanding of a problem. This mature understanding allows collective recognition when a solution presents itself. Invariably true breakthroughs take this form - rather than a light bulb moment, or lone act of genius, the team arrives at a powerful piece of thinking in the form of a ‘slow hunch’.
ACCELERATION METHODOLOGY
MILESTONES
Each team will conduct weekly Mentor Reviews and rotating Peer Reviews as well as share their thinking with ‘virtual coaches’, who act as an external steering team.
WEEK 2 CONCEPT DIRECTIONIn week 2 we will ask the participants to present and sign off on a concept direction that their team will work on for the upcoming weeks. This will help us provide needed assistance and resources during the rest of the lab.
WEEK 3 RESEARCH / PROTOTYPE METHODOLOGYIn week 3 we ask the participants to provide a planned methodology for prototyping their work.
WEEK 5 EXTERNAL CRITIQUE At the end of week 5 we will have a feedback and critique session to help the teams take their projects to the next level.
WEEK 6 FINAL PRESENTATIONSDuring week six we will help the teams plan their presentations and develop the story around their project. FINAL PRESENTATIONS WILL BE ON WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 3.
SCHEDULE OVERVIEW
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P47
AFTER HOURS
NASA ON-SITE RESTAURANTSSpace Bar (Building 3) Saturday - Sunday: CLOSED Monday - Friday: 11:00am - 7:00pm
The Mega Bites Cafe (Building 235) Saturday - Sunday: CLOSED Monday - Friday: 6:00am - 2:00pm
GYMThe Swim Center (650) 603-8025 Monday - Friday only 10:00am - 1:00pm, 3:00pm - 6:00pm
Daily fee for non-members or guests: $5.00 Westcoat and corner of Bailey Road Building #109
TRANSPORTCaltrain (good for visiting San Francisco or San Jose) www.caltrain.com
VTA (Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority) www.vta.org Bus 81 at stop on North Akron and Mc Cord. Every 30 min Monday - Friday, and every 60 min on Saturdays
LAUNDRYThe laundry facility is located in building 547B, within walking distance from NASA Lodge.
• Washing machine: $1.50 • Drying machine: $0.50 • The machines only accept quarters (25¢ coins).
US POST OFFICE (USPS)On-site: Building 67 Monday - Friday 10:00am - 3:00pm
Off-site: 211 Hope Street, Mountain View, CA 94041
LOGISTICS
LODGING
HOME AWAY FROM HOMEParticipants will be hosted at NASA Ames, Moffett Field for the duration of the Frontier Development Lab.
CHECK IN:NASA Ames, Building 19 Moffett Field, CA 94034
During the course of the program, you will live on-site at NASA Lodge Exchange.
NASA offers only dormitory accommodations, with each room providing double occupancy. FDL participants will be paired-up and assigned rooms upon check-in.
Each room is of good size and has two twin size beds, a microwave, full size refrigerator, basic bathroom facility, and internet access.
Toiletries and items such as hair dryers and irons are not provided in the rooms.
NASA LODGE MAIL ADDRESSNASA Ames Lodge at Moffett Field PO Box 17, M/S 19-1 Moffett Field, CA 94035
FRONT DESK(650) 603-7100 or (650) 603-7101
SETI INSTITUTE: FDL HQSETI Institute, 189 Bernardo Avenue, Suite 200 Mountain View, CA 94043
While working at SETI Institute, keep in mind that we are guests and please abide by the location’s rules and regulations.
P49
P49
NASA Ames Research Park
NASA Ames Lodge CHECK-IN
Entrance to the SETI Institute Car Park
WAYFINDING
P50FINDING YOUR WAY
101
101
Central Expressway
Southbay Freeway
N Bernardo Avenue
E Evelyn Ave
E Middlefield Road
N W
hism
an R
oad
N W
hism
an R
oad
Gladys Avenue
W Maude Avenue
Clyde Avenue
Tyre
lla A
venu
e
Ellis
Str
eet
Bayshore Freeway
Clark Road
Stev
ens
Cree
k Fr
eew
ay
Perimeter Road
Cody Road
E Middlefield Road
Mof
fet B
oule
vard
NASA AMES | BUILDING 19Moffett Field, CA 94035
SETI INSTITUTE189 North Bernardo Avenue Mountain View, CA 94043
GETTING TO SETI INSTITUTE
P51
IMPORTANT PLACES
ACCOMMODATION NASA AMES, Building 19, Moffett Field, CA 94035
WORKPLACE SETI Institute, 189 North Bernardo Avenue #200, Mountain View, CA 94043
GETTING TO SETI
FINDING YOUR WAY
19
26
547d
547b
555
67
109
Clark Road
ENTRANCE TO NASA AMES
S. Akron
N. Akron
Bushnell Road
Westcoat Road
South Perimeter Road
Macon Drive
Berry
Court WestENTRANCE TO RESEARCH PARK
CHECK IN
Bayshore Freeway
NASA AMES MAP
P53
KEY
Bldg. 26 Main Gate / Badging
Bldg. 19 NASA Lodge Registration / Check-in
Bldg. 547D NASA Lodge rooms
Bldg. 555 NASA Space Portal
Bldg. 547B Laundry Facility
Bldg. 109 Gym
Bldg. 67 USPS
P53
NASA AMES MAP
P55
CONTACT DETAILS
GENERAL INFORMATION
NASA POINT OF CONTACT
Darlene M. Wiedermann [email protected] Office: 650.604.1857 Mobile: 408.807.0348 Space Portal Office: Building 555, Office Room 105B
FDL CO-DIRECTOR
FDL CO-DIRECTOR
@nasa_fdl
frontierdevelopmentlab.org