MINNEAPOLIS, Minn., 5 January 2005. NASA announced today that a team led by the Universities Space Research Association (USRA) in Columbia, Md. won a $13.65 million research proposal for "verification and validation of autonomy software."
NASA leaders posted the list of USRA team members at http://exploration.nasa.gov/acquisition/hrtbaa_092004_awards.pdf .
The program is in response to President Bush's January 14 announcement for a new vision for NASA, including:
-- Implement a sustained and affordable human and robotic program to explore the solar system and beyond;
-- Extend human presence across the solar system, starting with a human return to the Moon by the year 2020, in preparation for human exploration of Mars and other destinations;
-- Develop the innovative technology, knowledge, and infrastructures both to explore and to support decisions about the destinations for human exploration; and
-- Promote international and commercial participation in exploration to further U.S. scientific, security, and economic interests.
One of the USRA members is Minneapolis-based Adventium Enterprises, which won a share of just over $1.4 million over four years, including $204,000 for phase I (first year).
"We were fortunate to be selected, since only about 1 in 50 (or 2%) of the initial proposals received funding," said Bonnie Bennett, Adventium Enterprises' CEO.
This represents the first major research funding for Adventium Enterprises, a new company established by Adventium Labs, a two-year-old research and development laboratory located in Minneapolis, and its founder, Bonnie Bennett, Ph.D.
Adventium Enterprises is a Minneapolis-based research and development company focused on developing advanced software applications for complex systems, with a particular emphasis on automated reasoning, human-system interaction and supporting architectures. Like its affiliate company, Adventium Labs, its goal is to advance the state of the art, provide effective solutions to important problems and foster high-tech job creation.
Adventium Labs is a non-profit research and development lab dedicated to performing and publishing scientific research, and to intellectual property creation, maturation and commercialization. Its goal is to advance the state of the art, provide effective solutions to important problems and foster high- tech job creation. For more information, see www.adventiumlabs.org.
