News

Congratulations and thank you to all Goddard innovators for submitting New Technology Reports (NTRs).  The Innovative Technology Partnerships Office (ITPO) is pleased to announce that the Center exceeded its FY2014 goal with over 300 NTRs submitted!

It’s not too early to start submitting your New Technology Reports (NTR) for FY2015 in order to showcase your innovative work and protect the Center’s interest.  Completed NTRs are submitted to the ITPO for processing in conjunction with GSFC’s Office of Patent Counsel (OPC).

For questions and assistance completing a NASA Form 1679, please contact ITPO at techtransfer@nasa.gov or 301-286-5810.

The NASA Goddard TRANSFORMERS OPTIMUS PRIME Spinoff Challenge, hosted by the Innovative Technology Partnerships Office (ITPO) at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, is launching its 2014-2015 academic year competition. The purpose of the challenge is to raise awareness of NASA’s Technology Transfer Program and to inspire interest in all NASA missions, programs and projects.

This year the scope of the contest is being expanded to include two challenges. The first challenge is very similar to previous years’ contests. Students in grades 3 through 12 are asked to submit a video describing their favorite NASA Goddard spinoff. In a new twist, participants in this year’s contest must also use the engineering design process to develop and propose a new spinoff application of their own for the technology. Spinoffs are technologies originally created for space and modified into everyday products used on Earth. Examples include memory foam, invisible braces and scratch-resistant lenses for eyeglasses.

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OPTIMUS PRIME winners visited NASA Goddard. Peter Cullen, the voice of the official OPTIMUS PRIME character, came to the center to work with each group of students on Thursday, April 24, 2014.  Image Credit: NASA/Goddard

As students prepare to return to school for the 2014-2015 academic year, the Innovative Technology Partnerships Office at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland is pleased to announce educational scholarships for top-placing students in NASA’s most recent OPTIMUS PRIME Spinoff Video Contest. The scholarships for the first, second and third place winners in each age category (elementary, middle school and high school) are being sponsored by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) Foundation and may be used to support current and future educational pursuits.
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ITPO team member Lara Zitterkopf speaks with Thomas Jefferson High School students

On May 28, the Innovative Technology Partnerships Office (ITPO) participated in Thomas Jefferson High School’s Symposium to Advance Research (tjSTAR) in Alexandria, VA.  Senior Technology Manager Darryl Mitchell presented to a group of students about Technology Transfer and the upcoming launch of the Goddard OPTIMUS PRIME Spinoff Challenge.  The ITPO’s interactive booth featured a thermographic camera where students took part in various demonstrations.  800+ students stopped by the booth to learn more about Tech Transfer & spinoffs.  Approximately 150 students signed up for the Goddard OPTIMUS PRIME Spinoff Challenge.

Cullen worked with the contest winners to film short videos highlighting NASA spinoff technologies.

Students visiting NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., experienced a touch of science and Hollywood on Thursday, April 24.

The students visited the center not just to celebrate their winning the recent OPTIMUS PRIME Spinoff Video Contest, but also to raise awareness of NASA technology spinoffs being used in different industries.

The contest itself, developed by the Innovative Technology Partnerships Office (ITPO), challenged students across the country—the contest winners came from Maryland, Tennessee and Florida—to highlight NASA technology spinoffs by creating original videos.

As part of the contest, ITPO worked with Omniangle Technologies LLC to invite the seven students—ranging from elementary to high school—to visit the center and take their winning videos one step further. During their two-day visit, the students highlighted NASA Goddard spinoff technologies in videos they wrote and produced in the center’s television studios. The videos may be featured on NASA’s official television channel, NASA TV, later this year.
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The NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Innovative Technology Partnerships Office (ITPO) is excited to announce a special partnership forged between Goddard’s ITPO and Tor Books in releasing the new book, which is the first title in a new series of “NASA-Inspired Works of Fiction” that are intended to not only educate, but also encourage young adults to examine the rewarding careers that science and technology have to offer. With the enormous popularity of science fiction—countless people who work in the fields of science and technology credit science fiction as a significant inspiration for their career choice—the ultimate goal of the series is to raise awareness and inspire the study of the STEM subjects (science, technology, engineering and mathematics), while educating the general public on the significant role NASA plays in everyday lives.

“We continue to look for innovative ways to communicate current and past achievements,” said Nona Cheeks, Chief, ITPO. “This partnership allows us to make the fiction of our past a reality of our future.”

In PILLAR TO THE SKY, Forstchen explores the concept of trying to solve very real problems of the 21st century—dwindling oil supplies, increasingly dangerous pollution levels—through construction of a space elevator that could enable unprecedented access to space.

Pictured left to right: Jacquline Lemoigne-Stewart, Dennis Andrucyk and Nona Cheeks

In recognition of the innovators who participate in the Goddard new technology reporting and technology transfer process or have been awarded a patent, guests were invited to attend the ITPO’s 21^st Annual New Technology Reporting Program on March 27, 2014 at the National Agricultural Library in Beltsville, MD. During FY2013, Goddard innovators submitted 270 new technology reports and sixteen patents were awarded.  Geoffrey Bland and Ted Miles were presented the James J. Kerley Award in recognition of technical leadership and technology commercial achievement for aeropods. Michael Thacker, Senior Vice President, Engineering at Cessna Aircraft Company, was the keynote speaker. His discussion included drawing a parallel between fostering an appreciation for commercialization at Cessna and at Goddard.

Pictured left to right: Nona Cheeks, Michael Thacker and Dr. Ron Adner

To facilitate a conversation about managing innovations (both technology and business management practices), Goddard management, scientists, and engineers were invited to participate in the ITPO’s Innovative Initiatives Workshop Spring 2014 on March 27, 2014. Dr. Ron Adner, Professor of Strategy at Tuck School of Business, Dartmouth University, and author of the bestseller The Wide Lens:  What Successful Innovators See that Others Miss,  led a discussion on the importance of interdependent interests of collaborating individual innovators and managers to the collective interest—“big picture”—of Goddard and vice versa.