GEOINT: Mary Curtis Wins Standards Working Group Award

by | Sep 26, 2011

Mary Curtis is the first Riverside Research employee to receive a GWG Achievement Award.

In recent years, geospatial-intelligence (GEOINT) has progressed from a complex intelligence capability primarily used by highly trained analysts and top-level planners to user-friendly applications used by tactical operators and first responders in the field. What has enabled this change is the rapid pace of GEOINT development and, more importantly, efforts to integrate disparate sensor data into a common enterprise. The demand for integration requires a set of agreed-upon standards that ensure the compatibility and interoperability of GEOINT data and systems”ultimately, the National System for Geospatial Intelligence enterprise architecture. That's where the Geospatial-Intelligence Standards Working Group (GWG) comes in.

As a GEOINT standards body, GWG acts as an advisory group to the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, bringing together Department of Defense (DoD), intelligence, federal, civil, industry and academic partners for the vetting of GEOINT standards and standardization activities. Through this forum, information is exchanged, recommendations are made, and community consensus is established on how to best meet the requirements of GWG's member agencies, including every branch of the U.S. military.

The efforts and expertise of government and contract personnel from within these member organizations help GWG achieve its mission”namely, to establish GEOINT standards for data, systems and their interfaces, as well as ensuring interoperability with DoD and non-DoD systems. The most outstanding individual contributions are recognized through a highly prestigious and selective Awards Program. Riverside Research is proud to announce that one of their own was selected for the 2011 Achievement Award: Mary Curtis.

Curtis provides Advisory and Assistance Service support to the National Air and Space Intelligence Center (NASIC) GEOINT/MASINT Production Squadron, a 500+ person unit supporting a diverse mission set. In her role as information sharing manager, Curtis coordinates the electronic publishing, dissemination, cataloging and retrieval of products according to the Intelligence Community Standards for Metadata and XML.

 Ms. Curtis' diverse community involvement includes collaboration in the Overhead Persistent IR Focus Group, DNI Metadata Tiger Team, MASINT/Common Sensor COI, and the Air Force Unified GEOINT Operations Production Planning IPT, said Maj Joshua Stahl, director of Operations for the GEOINT/MASINT Production Squadron. Her information-sharing concepts have been used to develop processes and methods for capturing and sharing production metrics across a wide range of GEOINT/MASINT production teams.

Specifically, she authored standards that led to the discoverability of more than 200,000 GEOINT/MASINT products for NASIC, a feat for which she earned her reputation as a metadata master.

The formal presentation of awards will take place in October 2011 at the GWG Plenary Session Meeting to be held at U.S. Geological Survey headquarters. Curtis is the first Riverside Research employee to receive a GWG Achievement Award. It is such an honor to have dedicated, world-class team members that continue to represent Riverside Research in such a positive way, lauded Michael Nelson, director, Intelligence Operations Directorate. This is truly a great accomplishment.

Source: http://www.riversideresearch.org/

View the list of GWG members here.

NEWEST V1 MEDIA PUBLICATION

October Issue 2023