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4.8 Development and Testing Group (DTG) Staff and Budget
The Development and Testing Group staff in FY96 included:
Meertens, Chuck (Head, Development and Testing Group); Responsible for developing new applications of emerging technology and testing new capabilities to keep the UNAVCO GPS research community in the science and technology forefront. He is responsible for applying theory and principles of electronic, mechanical, and software engineering, electrical/mechanical testing procedures, mathematics, physics, chemistry, and related subjects to evaluate and apply new technologies to improve the accuracy and precision of GPS measurements and broaden the application of GPS to new disciplines. Manages the group's budgets. Member of the UNAVCO Management Team.
Rocken, Chris (Scientist); Contributes to developing new applications of emerging technology and testing new capabilities to keep the UNAVCO GPS research community in the science and technology forefront. He is responsible for applying theory and principles of electronic, mechanical, and software engineering, electrical/mechanical testing procedures, mathematics, physics, chemistry, and related subjects to evaluate and apply new technologies to improve the accuracy and precision of GPS measurements and broaden the application of GPS to new disciplines.
Braun, John (Associate Scientist); Organizes, manages, and operates in-field data collection, processing, and analysis in support of equipment tests. Works on the maintenance, development, application, distribution, support, and training of the Bernese Processing Software. Develops and modifies both Bourne-shell and C-shell scripts used for data analysis and interpretation. Writes equipment test reports and presents results.
Johnson, Jim (Software Engineer/Programmer); Develops, improves, and maintains software for the analysis, visualization, and collection of GPS and GPS-related data. Supports the GPS receiver and antenna testing and prepares reports. Writes documentation for computer programs and algorithms used by the UNAVCO community. Provides in-house support for quality check software and assists the Data Management Group with X-Windows programming.
Van Hove, Teresa (Associate Scientist); Responsible for application and development of high accuracy GPS data analysis techniques. Works with scientists on the development of new techniques toward using GPS as a research tool. Supports research on improving GPS accuracies. Trains field engineers in GPS analysis and participates in teaching software classes. In-house expert on GIPSY GPS data analysis software.
Alber, Chris (Student Visitor); Responsible for providing support for specific projects as necessary. In-house expert on GIPSY GPS data analysis software.
The Development and Testing Group as organized in FY96 under Chuck Meertens had responsibility for all of the equipment testing as described in the previous sections. In addition, this group supported software development related to data translation, editing and quality control (under Purchased Services as temporary help) and supported the Field Engineering Group in the development and implementation of hardware and software tools for implementation of permanent stations. DTG staff were augmented by support from staff of Chris Rocken's GPS Research Group which is organized independently within UCAR. Bruce Stephens was an integral part of the DTG activities in FY96 but as former Head of the Equipment Services Group his salary was captured within the budget for that group. The Equipment Services Group has historically had a major role in equipment testing by providing equipment, setting up equipment at the Boulder Facility and Table Mountain test sites, and by downloading test data for analysis by DTG staff. Staff were budgeted at 1.45 FTE and expended at 1.29 FTE, excluding the contribution of Bruce Stephens. Overall spending on development and testing activities in FY96 were within budget, with total expenditures at $167,482 exceeding the budget by only $2,721 (Table 4-2).
Table 4-2: Development and Testing Group Budget and Actuals for FY96
| FY96 - Development and Testing | Budget | Actual |
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Based on the October 1996 NSF-EAR/IF Panel decision that development and testing activities by the UNAVCO Community should be separated out from the Facility proposal and resubmitted as an independent proposal, the DTG was disestablished at the end of FY96. Chuck Meertens moved to head the Data Management and Archiving Group, Bruce Stephen's position was terminated, and Chris Rocken's staff are no longer partially funded under the Facility budget. Chuck Meertens is a Co-PI under the collaborative proposal submitted by Jim Davis of the Smithsonian Institution, Astrophysical Observatory to the NSF in December of 1996. No funding for support of development and testing activities is anticipated until early FY98 and the scope of work is uncertain until an NSF funding decision is finalized and the Co-PI's determine an appropriate response to available funding based on prioritization of the proposed tasks. Future Boulder Facility development and testing activities will be described in the FY97 Annual Report.
1996 Annual Report - 30 SEP 1997
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Last modified Tuesday, 08-Nov-2005 02:34:56 UTC