Innovation Council -
2011 Innovation Award Winners
Congratulations to the following Coast Guard individuals or teams who have created or implemented innovative solutions to Coast Guard challenges. For more detailed information, use the links on each award name.
Science or Technology
COTHEN/ALE for Legacy SunAir HF Radios
ESU MIAMI
This initiative targeted the inherit communication challenges faced throughout
the District 7 AOR by reverse engineering a COTHEN/ALE capability within legacy
organizational HF radio systems. Surface assets rely heavily on HF systems for
beyond line-of-sight, however HF is very susceptible to environmental factors.
COTHEN automatically determines the best possible frequency to use in any given
environment, thus operators must have COTHEN access for reliable HF
communications. Recent changes in the COTHEN network have made Coast Guard
assets with Sunair HF radios incompatible with COTHEN. Through diligent research
and effort ET3 Iams devised a solution to reprogram the legacy system thereby
“refreshing” its mission capability for the next decade by enabling the Sunair
radios to once again operate over the COTHEN network. CWO Steve Nowell enabled a
Gov’t Industry team to implement the results.
Innovators: CWO Steve Nowell, ET3 John Iams, Mr.Terry Longest (COTHEN Technical
Service Center), Mr. James Hamilton (Sunair Inc), Charles Huthmaker (C3CEN)
WLB Post-Spill Internal Decontamination
USCGC JUNIPER (WLB-201) USCGC
ELM (WLB-204)
The Coast Guard and maritime industry lacks a tested, efficient, and cost
minimizing method to decontaminate internal sea water systems to achieve Clean
Water Act Standards for vessels engaged in oil skimming operations. Working
collaboratively, the crews of JUNIPER and ELM worked to developed and
implemented procedures for DOCKSIDE internal sea water systems cleaning upon
completion of their Deepwater Horizon oil spill response activities. These
procedures need to be more fully developed and included as part of any spill
incident demobilization plan. The results achieved with the dockside flushing
process met Clean Water Act Standards, reduced WLB dry-dock availability time by
a minimum of a week, and saved approximately $380K per cutter (as compared to
having the work performed in a dry-dock).
Innovators: ENG3 Andrew Molnar, MKC William Horsman, ETC Ben Ruel, DC1 Eric
Osborne, EM1 Sean Erickson, MK1 John Brown, EM2 Chad Cortes, MK2 Joshua Gomez,
EM3 Andrei Negrila, MK3 Mark Robinson, MK3 Monika Curtis, FN Matthew Spina, and
FN Philip Sgrignoli. All implementers were attached to USCGC JUNIPER.
Operations or Readiness
HC-144 Flare Tube CAPSTONE Project
USCG Academy Mechanical Engineering Cadets
The OEM provided HC-144 Ocean Sentry flare launch tube is difficult and timely
to remove. The location of the flare launch tube obstructs an emergency escape
hatch on the starboard side of the aircraft and prevents an aircrew seat from
completely rotating within its operating range. It further makes rapid
reconfigurations of the aircraft extremely difficult in the field. As part of
their Senior Capstone design in Mechanical Engineering at the Academy, a group
of four cadets created a quick release system for the HC-144 flare tube. The
cadets teamed up with ALC on this design as part of their class and it includes
a working prototype, maintenance manual, ACCB 1 request for a test flight of the
part, design analysis, and material selection. The prototype is designed to be
removed in just a few minutes. The cadet team completed a load and destructive
test on the prototype part to ensure a crashworthy design. The final assembly is
a part that can be removed with push pins and no tools. Pictures and design
information is available upon request. Once this part is incorporated into the
HC-144 fleet, it is projected to have a cost avoidance of over $1M in labor &
parts.
Innovators: Cadet Trent Meyers, Cadet
Katie Spira, Cadet Alex Brown, Cadet Thomas Morrow.
Team Advisor: CDR Charles “Chip” Hatfield
HC-130 Cargo Ramp Improvements (HONORABLE MENTION)
ALC
C-130 Extended cargo ramps in fleet were cracking. This impeded cargo loading
operations, limited operational flexibility and resulted in restrictions on
useful loads that could be put into aircraft (vehicles, etc). The cracks
resulted in a load restriction down from 8,000 pounds per wheel to 6,500 pounds
per. An ALC IOD "Skunk works" team came together to redesign ramps, improve
design and restore operational capabilities.
Innovators: CDR Neil Wilson, Mr. Michael
Lopes, Mr. Chris Turner, Mr. Mark Midyette (ALC Industrial Operations Division),
Al Radtke, LCDR Brian Erickson, LCDR Torrence Wilson (ALC), Mr James Generette
(NC A&T intern).
Admin, Training or Support
Funding Orders and Reserve Management (FORM)
DOG
FORM collects data from existing Coast Guard data systems to allow for accurate
cost estimates and reserve member information. The process saves DXR Shops and
Reserve Management Branches hours of time by allowing visibility on orders
requirements and budgeting needs. Cost Estimates: the built in cost estimate
calculator provides 99% accurate cost estimates with only member name and number
of days of duty. Funding: It bridges the time gap between FPD and DA feeds by
taking the FPD Transaction Summary and comparing it to the TONO query in DA.
TONOs that have not been transferred to FPD will be subtracted from the balance.
This will give the funding manager “real time” information so as to allocate
funding to the appropriate location. Member Information: For order approving
authorities, accurate reserve member readiness is needed for orders approval.
The program enables a view of readiness information from both CGBI and DA
quickly alongside the orders information. This reduces “look up” time by up to
50% by having all information needed to approve orders in one location.
Innovator: YN2 Jared Dunn (DG-13)
University Programs
USCG AUX (Flotilla 054-25-12)
The Auxiliary has initiated a college/university based introductory training
program aimed at promoting the Auxiliary to a new generation. A growing
initiative, the Auxiliary University Program has been deployed to six major
universities around the country. The program knowledge, doctrine and performance
record elements required to further expand the program are already established.
The program seeks to increase its value to the Service by educating tomorrow’s
potential Shipmates on leadership and professional development, operational
training and real-world mission experience. A bi-product of this program,
participating Auxiliary University program members contribute 100s of patrol and
operational support hours to their local Sectors and stations. CG-095 currently
has two Aux University Program interns augmenting our staff.
Innovators: Commodore Dante J. Laurino,
Mr. Andrew Welch, Ms. Carolyn Olsen, Mr. Stephen McElroy, Mr. Jake Shaw
CDR Joel Magnussen Award for Management
Joint Interagency Alternative Tech Assessment Program
CG-926
In the early days of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, it became apparent that BP
was overwhelmed by the influx innovative spill response technologies submitted
from all levels of government, academia, industry, and the public at large. BP
wasn’t acting on the submissions and offerors were not being notification about
idea disposition. This directly resulted in growing public distrust in the
response, a series of extremely negative media stories, and direct complaints
from Congress. In response, the NIC established the IATAP effort. CG-926 took
the lead in this effort and devised a management strategy to implement a
systematic, fair, and government-managed technology assessment program to
evaluate potential alternate response strategies. This is the first time that a
program like this has been established, and marked a significant departure from
the Research and Development Program’s normal world of work. Based on its
unqualified success, this program will be executed during future Incidents of
National Significance where rapid, fair, and systematic technology assessment is
required.
Innovators: CG-926 and R&DCEN – Numerous
Partners and Team Members.
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