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Applied
Technology
Lab

About the ATL

The ATL is a honey pot to attract and inspire the best and the brightest of the next generation of software engineering researchers.

It is also sand box where strange software and strangers can freely meet and mix up ideas. Since we hold no state or space secrets, the ATL has no need for the security measures of a standard government site.

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Location

The lab is located in room G29, Eisland Hall, right on the corner of Hough St and Beechurst Ave, Morgantown, WV. Access is via a WVU security card.

Directions

More info...

Welcome to the ATL !

NASA's next generation software systems offer many novel and unique challenges to engineers and scientists.

To meet these challenges, NASA's Independent Verification and Validation (IV&V) Facility in Fairmont, WV asked WVU to build a new lab, the Applied Technology Lab.

This lab has a special emphasis on software engineering technologies that improve and advance the way NASA produces reliable and safe system software- technologies that will help NASA model those systems and explore their behaviors.

New intern

The ATL would like to welcome its newest intern, Eddie Jesinsky. [more...]

Intern moving on

As of May 15, 2008 Vijaya Kotikalapudi has moved on from her work here at the ATL, and we wish her the best.

Thanks for all your hard work.

-ATL staff [more...]

Press report, lab opening

Dominion Post, March 3, 2007:




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Grand opening

A crowd watches Dr. Weete open the lab

The recently completed Applied Technology Laboratory at West Virginia University is the next step in an important partnership between WVU researchers and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration?s (NASA) Independent Verification and Validation (IV&V) Facility in Fairmont.

The focus of the laboratory and partnership is the advancement of software engineering for space exploration and aeronautics research.

The laboratory, located in Room G-29 of Eiesland Hall on WVU?s Downtown Campus, will host a grand opening at 1:30 p.m. Friday, March 2.

The event is free and open to the public.

"NASA engineers and scientists are now facing software challenges they have never seen or experienced," said Tim Menzies, ATL director and WVU professor of computer science and electrical engineering. "This laboratory will place particular emphasis on software engineering technologies that improve and advance the way NASA produces reliable and safe system software."

The new laboratory, which was previously a standard computer teaching lab, was renovated with funds from NASA, and houses an array of computer hardware and software provided by WVU. The important thing about the facility is not so much the equipment, though, said Menzies.

"The critical thing is that we are providing diverse groups of software engineering researchers with a space in which to come together and collaborate on projects," he said. "This fills an important need and will enhance the growth of this area of research at WVU."

The NASA IV&V Facility was established in 1993 with the goal of enhancing the safety and cost-effectiveness of mission-critical software, and has been partnering with WVU since 1994 to explore technologies that will help it model and explore new software systems.

"This laboratory is the next step in our important partnership with WVU," said Marcus Fisher, head of research at the IV&V Facility. "It will allow us to mature our research products so that they can be more easily integrated into NASA missions."

In addition to facilitating collaborative research, the newly renovated laboratory will help WVU attract high-quality students, said Menzies.

"We are confident that having this facility here at WVU will help us attract and inspire the best and the brightest of the next generation of software engineers and software engineering researchers," he said.

For more information, visit http://atl.wvu.edu/ or e-mail tim@menzies.us.

[more...]

WVU Physics grad finds extraterrestrial weather

It was the first interstellar weather report of its kind outside our solar system, and a West Virginia University-trained physicist helped lead the three NASA teams that pulled it off.

Dr. Jeremy Richardson?s work with the high-tech Spitizer Space Telescope revealed scorching, dark and windy conditions on two planets light-years away from Earth.

It was the first examination ever of the atmospheres of planets rotating about stars other than our own Sun, said Richardson, of NASA?s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. - and it was significant, the 1997 WVU physics graduate said - for what it didn?t reveal: water.

The team?s findings were published this week (Feb. 22) in the journal Nature and also featured in a Feb. 22 New York Times article.

The Barrackville, Marion County native, was active in the Honors Program at WVU and considers retired professor and Honors Program Director Bill Collins as one of his mentors, along with current WVU physics professors Marty Ferer and Mark Koepke.

For more, see NASA Goddard news. [more...]

Welcome to the ATL !!

The next generation of NASA's software systems are going to provide opportunities for our engineers and scientists to explore challenges they have never seen or experienced.

To meet these needs, as well as provide these opportunities, NASA's Independent Verification and Validation (IV&V) Facility in Fairmont granted WVU to build the NASA/WVU Applied Technology Laboratory (ATL).

A key element of NASA's IV&V Facility is its research partnerships. Research priorities are driven by the technical and operational challenges being experienced with today's missions and tomorrow's endeavors.

Here at the ATL, special emphasis is placed on software engineering technologies that improve and advance the way NASA produces reliable and safe system software- technologies that will help NASA model their systems and explore their behaviors.

[more...]

Hero(in)es of science


 Here's a small set of scientists to inspire you away from football and into a career is science.
[more...]