The NSI family has grown again. Travis Otey is the new Project Manager for the Center for National Security Initiatives (NSI) at the ÁńÁ«ĘÓƵ18. Travis served in the United States Army as a signal officer and military advisor where he led cross-functional teams to enhance military system interoperability across Europe and the Middle East. He is a graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York where he earned a B.S. in Operations Research. Travis is currently a candidate for an MS in data analytics at Georgia Institute of Technology.

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Dr. Greg Furlich and Dr. Angie Crews of NSI had the opportunity to brief General Guetlein, Vice Chief of Space Operations (VSCO), on their launch site characterization and launch detection with weather satellites at the Space Domain Awareness (SDA) Tools, Applications, and Processing (TAP) Lab in Colorado Springs, CO. General Guetlein smiled after the research brief and stated “I love it!”. He was also “ecstactic” with progress of the SDA TAP Lab under the leadership of Major Sean Allen. Dr. Furlich also had the opportunity to brief Lieutenant General Garrant, Commander of  USSF Space Systems Command (SSC), on the same work. Dr. Furlich and Dr Crews’ research has produced an abundance of attention in the SDA TAP Lab and has been a fruitful venue for collaboration and partnership with industry and government entities leading toward funded research.

Prior to briefing General Guetlein, the pair briefed members from Senator Gillibrand and Senator Fischers’ Office, and the Department of the Airforce Senate Liaison.

Dr. Furlich submitted an abstract as primary author along with co-author Dr. Crews and the SDA TAP Lab inaugural Project Apollo Tech Accelerator Cohort members to the 2024 Advanced Maui Optical and Space Surveillance Technologies Conference (AMOS). The abstract focused on their applied research in SDA TAP Lab.

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Also in November, NSI hosted a distinguished group of visitors, including Gen John Shaw (Vice Commander of U.S. Space Command), Dr. Ron Sega (former astronaut and former head of all Department of Defense Research & Engineering), leadership from industry (Lockheed-Martin, Ball, Raytheon, Northrop-Grumman), and Mr. Ted Harms (The Anschutz Foundation), in the Provost’s luxury box at the football game between the University of Colorado and the University of Oregon.

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NSI was a founding member of the National Security Strategic Studies Partnership (N3SP), a collaboration between CU, the University of Colorado – Colorado Springs, and the United States Air Force Academy.

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In November, NSI hosted leadership from U.S. Space Command’s Education & Training Division on campus to discuss educational partnership programs. As a result, CU has been formally accepted as a member of Space Command’s Academic Engagement Enterprise (AEE) program.

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In October, in collaboration with the CU Air Force Reserve Officers Training Corps (AFROTC), NSI hosted Col Marc Brock, Commander, United States Space Force Delta-2 Unit, which executes the Space Domain Awareness mission. Colonel Brock is one of two “champions” for CU in the Space Force University Partnership Program.

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NSI continues to develop CU’s participation in N3SP through support of the Designing For Defense (D4D) course on campus.

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Greg Furlich attended the IARPA REASON Proposer’s day in Washington DC to present on Aerospace Engineering Science Associate Professor Nisar Ahmed’s Collaborative Analyst Machine Perception (CAMP) research project. 

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NSI is particularly excited to welcome Captain Jacob Shepherd, United States Army, as a Program Manager through the Hiring Our Heroes Corporate Fellowship Program.

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