ETC Signs a Lease for a New Space In Indian Head

Press Release


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: NOVEMBER 12, 2020

ENERGETICS TECHNOLOGY CENTER
Luiz Lobo, Strategic Communications Leader
Phone: 202-251-5085 – llobo@etcmd.com

ETC SIGNS A LEASE FOR A NEW SPACE IN INDIAN HEAD
The Company is Committed to Supporting Indian Head Development

As part of its commitment to help develop the town of Indian Head, ETC signed a 5-year lease for a 3,000 square feet space in the CSM’s Velocity Center building at Indian Head. The office will help ETC’s growing work in Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence, and Energetics Science, Technology, and Research and Development.

Matthew Martin, ETC’s Director of Finance and Administration, says that the company is looking forward to leveraging the College of Southern Maryland’s project’s energy. “Our business is growing fast, and ETC needed more space. With support from the Charles County Commissioners, Economic Development Department, NSWC IHD, the MAC, and CSM, I see big things coming to Indian Head. I envision that ETC’s move is an added step toward increasing commercial development within the town of Indian Head.”

James Fangmeyer, Co-founder and Principal of Triumph Development, owners of the building, also shared his enthusiasm: – “With this new lease, more people will come to our building, and development will continue strongly in Indian Head.” Charles McPherson, President of CMI General Contractors, also added that “…things are starting to move at Indian Head. I am thrilled that ETC is involved in moving this initiative forward.”

“The Velocity Center is a dedicated place for innovation and learning, which aligns well with the Energetic Technology Center’s focus on research and development and technology incubations. This move will benefit our local community and economic development efforts,” said Reuben B. Collins, II, Esq., President, Charles County Board of Commissioners.

“I am proud to support and welcome Energetics Technology Center (ETC) to the CSM Velocity Center in Indian Head. It’s an economic engine that will provide an ‘innovative learning space and support workforce development’ for all of our residents. I am honored to have this venture in our County, especially in District 2,” said Charles County Commissioner Thomasina O. Coates, M.S. (District 2).

ETC is focused on creating opportunities for partnerships between private and public organizations, encouraging rapid technological advancement through research and development, attracting and retaining a highly technical workforce, and creating a more vibrant community.


About Energetics Technology Center: The Energetics Technology Center provides engineering and data analytics services, policy development, and technology development to the government, academia, and private industry. ETC is a 501 (c) (3) non-profit organization incorporated in 2006. For additional information, please visit our website at: etcmd.com/media/news

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The World Of MEMS: Examples of Microelectromechanical Systems

By: Eldy Zuniga, MEMS Engineer

My first exposure to microelectromechanical systems, MEMS, came during my time at the University of Michigan. A friend got me in contact with a professor at the Lurie Nanofabrication Facility for a part-time job. There I learned how to design and fabricate these devices, and to love their simplicity and the gratification of their systematic fabrication.

CPU drawing

MEMS encompass any device with components under 0.1 millimeters and down to 100 nanometers. The only other accepted criteria to define a MEMS device is that at least one of its parts has some mechanical functionality. However, they do not have to technically move.

MEMS components have four significant functions: microstructures, microelectronics, microsensors, and microactuators. The first two are typically present in most designs and function as the device’s foundations. A microstructure is any structure in a MEMS device that is itself inert or provides structural support for other components. One example is the free mass in many accelerometers. Microelectronics are instead electric built in the device typically made to interact with the device’s supporting electronics. Due to MEMS fabrication using similar CMOS techniques, most electronics components can be built into a MEMS device, such as capacitors, transistors, and resistors.

The final two functions are transducers due to their nature in changing their input energy to different output energy. The main difference between the two categories is where the electrical power is located. They take whatever force or event microsensors are designed to interact with and generate some electrical output calibrated to create a definable reading. A simple example is a classic pressure sensor. As the sensor deforms, it causes a pathway for the electrical current, which increases proportionally as the path’s resistance lowers due to the sensor’s deformation. This is an example of a mechanical input converting to an electrical output.

Microactuators are the complete opposite consuming electrical energy to generate some reaction. The ones I most commonly use are called thermal actuators. These actuators are designed using silicon’s natural heat expansion to allow controlled displacements. A current running through the actuator heats the structure, displaces it, and provides a mechanical push to another or simply acts as an obstacle.

These are simple examples of MEMS functions. Still, over the years, the variety of options and complexity the MEMS community has generated is impressive. This variety of components allows MEMS to be present in most modern devices. They are typically very modular and use similar fabrication methods to be easily updated for other improved designs.

Overall, with these four functions, MEMS can be as flexible as they can be versatile. This trend will continue as our fabrication technology improves. More designs, which for now are closed off, will become available to us. I am most interested in the inclusion of additive manufacturing, which will allow new materials and structures to be included in designing and fabrication, but that is a topic for another day.

Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning: What Do These Billion-Dollar Words Mean?

By: Will Durant, Program Manager

abstract chart

Artificial intelligence enables machines to simulate human behavior. Machine Learning is the black magic used to train machines to “learn” from existing data and solve the next complex problem. Both tools can act as the key to the complexity vault or a sledgehammer where a screwdriver would be. AI is a fantastic tool, but like any technology fad, it faces hype cycle issues.

At ETC, we are working on a tool we call “EWARE,” designed to become an end-to-end system that will automatically ingest existing, adjacent, and emergent data of relevance to the energetics delivering scientific knowledge and deep awareness back to the same community. We want to be the central connector for every piece of information our users want, and we are tackling this head-on. 

“EWARE” starts by pushing full-text PDFs, metadata structures, audio, notes, or any data type into the system. Unstructured information will go through a machine vision process to extract the different document components into raw text format, whereas the structured data parses according to its structure. The objective is to then prepare this information into a data object input for our machine learning models. 

Our effort is to build a key for weighted keyword extraction, text summarization, document type classification, material relationships with ontology development, and other capabilities. Combining these capabilities (now at different stages of development) will allow us to create deep statistical awareness of information to the user in the most targeted way. 

There are still two big questions: Where and how do we get the most valuable data? And what “keys” (ML Models) will unlock that information for our user. The data part is less challenging to identify than to incorporate, as every publisher has different licensing and data management rules. Energetics is a different puzzle to unlock than molecular chemistry and pharmaceutical formulations. We are, however, continuously searching for solutions within our academic, industry, and government partners.


My special thanks to our enthusiastic and dedicated core team working on this problem, including Aaron Imrie, Ian Michel-Tyler, Lloyd Hardy, John Fisher, Bill Wilson, Ruth Doherty, John Millemaci, and Peter Schramm. Also, to our academic partners Dr. Peter Chung at UMD and Dr. Zois Boukouvalas at AU and their teams.

Alarm Sounds on U.S. Military Kill Chain Capabilities

Press Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: JUNE 29, 2021

ENERGETICS TECHNOLOGY CENTER
Luiz Lobo, Strategic Communications Leader
Phone: 202-251-5085 – llobo@etcmd.com

ALARM SOUNDS ON U.S. MILITARY KILL CHAIN CAPABILITIES
Critical New Study Addresses Energetics and Lethality as US Falls Behind China, Russia

ETC – the Energetics Technology Center, has delivered compelling findings in a study commissioned by the Office of Naval Research, addressing the urgent need for the U.S. military to regain its superiority in lethality over defense rivals, China and Russia.

The study argues for a new approach in developing and using advanced energetics to regain and maintain battlefield dominance. It recommends a dramatic reshaping of energetics production and supply chains, and proposes establishing a new energetics agency with an aggressive agenda.

Energetics materials are used for explosives and propellants with multiple applications in defense, energy, and space. They range from small projectiles to large-caliber artillery, missiles of many sizes, air-dropped munitions, undersea weapons, and implosion devices that initiate nuclear weapons.

The study addresses concerns that the United States military has already ceded lethality superiority in multiple areas, in the wake of Chinese and Russian developments.

The study team, led by Dr. Theresa Mayer, Vice President of Research at Purdue University, was comprised of former military officers and subject matter experts from government, industry, and academia, who diagnosed the state of the energetics material enterprise.

The study holds a realistic set of key recommendations for decision-makers. Major General Bill Hix, a former Army’s Chief Strategy Officer, was part of the study Advisory Board and is urging immediate action, saying “Lethality is a core mission that is unique to the Defense Department that is at risk, and superior energetics is fundamental to achieving and maintaining dominance in the realm of lethality.”

Similarly, Admiral Mark Ferguson, also a member of the Study Advisory Board, notes that “We are facing near-peer adversaries who are intent on deploying capabilities superior to our own. We must retain an edge in lethality to protect and defend U.S. interests”.

Robert Kavetsky, CEO of the Energetics Technology Center, says he is confident that this study will be a catalyst for needed changes in the energetic material enterprise.

The study addressed every aspect of the process of moving energetics materials from their discovery in basic research to producing the material for use in a weapon. It found antiquated production capabilities, supply chain vulnerabilities, a research pipeline that struggled to deliver new energetics materials to weapon systems, regulatory and qualification barriers, and a depleted scientific work-force.

A parallel study was conducted by the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering in response to Congressional language in the National Defense Authorization Act.


About Energetics Technology Center: The Energetics Technology Center provides engineering and data analytics services, policy development, and technology development to the government, academia, and private industry. ETC is a 501 (c) (3) non-profit organization incorporated in 2006. For additional information, please visit our website at: etcmd.com/media/news

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A Critical Chemical Cautionary Tale …and The Moral of The Story

By: John Fischer, PhD, Principal Scientist

A long time ago, some say the saga began in aught nineteen, an observant person working in the Pentagon’s subbasement saw a looming threat. A threat to on-time deliveries of an important chemical needed for tactical rocket motors – butane triol, also known as 1,2,4-trihydroxybutane. When it reacts with a mixture of nitric and sulfuric acids, some nasty chemicals to handle, it yields the much-used plasticizer Butane Triol Trinitrate. One may now ask, what’s a plasticizer, and why should I care? Plasticizers (2) are used in everyday plastics (polymers) to improve flexibility, extensibility, and processability.

In other words, this type of additive allows the processing of plastics into articles used by everyone. In the world of rocket motors and different energetics, a plasticizer is critical to ensure safe handling and performance of the munition. Without chemicals such as Butane Triol, the safety and performance of weapon systems are at risk. So, what did this observant person, Cuthbert Snodgrass, do? Well, Cuthbert, at that time, was an aspiring GS-11 who, at the next group staff meeting, informed his boss, Wilma Flintmore, a GS-12, of his observation.

At the next branch meeting, Wilma told her boss, Edna Milner, a GS-13, that there was a looming threat to our nation’s munition production. Edna immediately worried and told her boss, Division Director Elmer Witherspoon, a GS-14. Elmer was preparing to go on two weeks of annual leave and promised to address this issue upon his return. He delayed his return as he went on a cruise on the ship Diamond Princess. Unfortunately, he was one of the first to contract the just-discovered virus, SARS-CoV-2, soon known as COVID-19. 

Fortunately, Elmer recovered without any side effects. He returned to work, not at the Pentagon, but to his home to begin 18 months of remote site telework. Because of all the trauma and confusion, he forgot about Edna’s worry until early aught 21 when Edna asked for a SITREP (3) on their previous conversation. Elmer was very apologetic and promised to take immediate action. Indeed, Elmer bypassed his GS-15 boss at much personal and professional risk and sent an email to Betsy Inglebottom, a newly promoted member of the Office of Secretary of Defense’s Senior Executive Service. Betsy immediately saw the need and tasked an outside technical expert in the field of energetics to investigate and return no later than 180 days hence with recommendations.

The outside technical expert, a group of talented people in energetics, pulled together a team of brilliant people to solve the problem. This organization, Engineers for Technical Competence (ETC), faced an immediate choice – subcontract to someone else or solve the problem themselves. ETC, an organization led and staffed by some of the most caring individuals in the country’s national security establishment, knew they had to figure this problem out for themselves. It was too important to pass through to others. What did they do? Upon reporting to Betsy and receiving financial support, ETC took on the job.

Thanks to our deep bench of talent, including super-smart consultants who share ETC’s commitment to excellence, we identified a mid-size cosmetic company. Hand Lotions Are Us (HLAU, a New York Stock Exchange symbol) in Fargo, North Dakota, produced a hand lotion that generated butane triol as a “waste product.”

We set on a trip to Fargo in January of that year (these people are dedicated as the average daily high temp was -23F) to ask the question: Can the U.S. government buy your waste product? The answer was a resounding “Yes!!!!” Their annual production of 4.7864 metric tons coincided with the military need requirement of 4.01 metric tons per year. ETC did a quick analysis and determined that the product available had been classified as a technical grade. The DoD needed Mil-Spec quality and, after purification, would yield 4.02 metric tons.

There was much joy and excitement in Fargo that day, even though a blizzard was on its way and stranded us for two extra days at the local Comfort Inn. Even though I had a low-bandwidth Wi-Fi system and ran out of coffee for the complimentary breakfast, ETC communicated its discovery to Betsy and her staff. Joy permeated the halls of the Pentagon, down to the subbasement and Cuthbert. He had since been promoted to GS-12, making his family quite proud.

We thought we had solved the problem. Well, not quite! One issue still needed to be resolved. We asked HLAU if they could purify the butane triol to Mil-Spec grade, to which ETC received an immediate “No!” HLAU was willing to give the DoD the material in question if they would pay for the shipping containers (recyclable barrels) and commit to hauling the stuff away. Upon consultation with her staff, Betsy determined that there was no better deal. She agreed to the terms within her assigned responsibilities and asked ETC to work on the details since it had done so much great work thus far in this process. 

Of course, ETC took on the challenge and first found a shipping company to haul the material someplace, but where? We asked an existing U. S. military arsenal located in Duluth, MN, to take on the job of receiving and purifying the butane triol. They said that they could retool an idle distillation tower and do the job for the low price of $56.876M (lots of thought went into this number) provided the U. S. government would guarantee a twenty-year procurement of the purified material. 

Betsy didn’t have this level of budget authority. She asked her boss, who asked his boss, who asked her boss, who asked a political appointee who informed the organization that he had been offered a lucrative job in the private sector, and was leaving the next day. After two months of waiting for a temporary person to run the show, the answer was, “wait till the election is over to see if someone new is coming in.” The election happened, and no new person was coming in, so the temporary acting boss gave a tentative “maybe.” The Duluth folks then replied with a “no can do.”

ETC, being both resilient and resourceful, then asked a lab set up to do this kind of thing, or so they thought if they could do the job of purification. They said, “What are you talking about, this is a production job, and we are a lab with prototype capabilities only.” Still undaunted, ETC proceeded to work with Congress and secured, along with state of Delaware funding, resources to build a facility dedicated to this job and the production of special glass vials for handling COVID-20 and 21 vaccines.

After only 6.3 years, the new facility came online and began purifying the butane triol. But, since the original requirement for this material was codified, the U. S. DoD lab in Guam developed a new energetic material known as Guam Lab -1 (GL-1), which was incompatible with butane triol in all formulations. And, since GL-1 was qualified (4) for all munitions, the U.S. government now had to dispose of 211.567 metric tons of butane triol. To solve this problem, Betsy (currently the subject OSD office’s political appointee) again turned to ETC to figure it out.

What’s The moral of This Story?

  • Supply chain management requires expertise and hard work to identify all the issues involved.
  • Once the issues have been identified, they most likely become obsolete before any definitive and lasting actions are taken.
  • There are three rules to always keep in mind:
    • Rule #1, everything changes all the time and without warning; Rule #2, there is no Rule #2; Rule #3, if there is no Rule #2, there can be no Rule #3.
  • A lot is riding on this task, and subcontracting to others must proceed with caution. When a company states, “We have no chemical engineers but can subcontract that out,” all involved must think hard about the next steps.
  • This type of work is expensive and takes a long time to complete.
  • Have a plan for courses of action 1 through X. Remember that a battle plan is valid to the point of engaging the enemy.
  • True experts in supply chain management are busy doing other things, and attracting their attention will take a lot of work.
  • Only some people in the DoD understand the challenges to be overcome in addressing this type of issue.
  • There will be a quiz on this material. Your grade will be reflected on your permanent record.  

___________

  1. Some of this is real, some of this is unreal
  2. https://polymer-additives.specialchem.com/selection-guide/plasticizers
  3. SITREP = Situational Report
  4. Admitted total fiction here