HUNTSVILLE — Until recently, Noblis has been one of Huntsville’s youngest government contractors. The company established themselves here less than two years ago when Huntsville began proving itself a nationwide technology and science hub.
That changed when Noblis held an open house and ribbon-cutting ceremony for its 10,000 square-foot expanded office space in Cummings Research Park.
“Noblis is growing in Huntsville,” said Mile Corrigan, executive vice president and incoming CEO, to a large gathering at the new headquarters on Discovery Drive. “As an innovator, I’ve worked with the federal government for 25 years and we are proud of our science, technology and engineering heritage. But we are committed to continuing to grow those capabilities as we advance our relationships with the federal government on behalf of our country’s national interests.
“Huntsville has been an outstanding innovation and collaboration hub, and we are excited to share our expansion with you as well as our new facilities.”
Huntsville Mayor Tommy Battle stepped in to thank Noblis for investing in Huntsville.
“Your success is our success and one of the great things about our Huntsville community is we come together, we work together on big projects and we get the big projects done,” Battle said. “We can do the job better than anyone else in the world can do it, and that is something for which I am very proud.
“Our centers of excellence are shown across Huntsville, and they reflect what makes our country great.”
One of the unique aspects of the ceremony, eight product and service exhibits set up throughout the new office space, showcasing each of Noblis’ capabilities.
Each exhibit was manned by Noblis experts in 5G network modeling; artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML); the company’s SYM-3 condition-based maintenance system; CBRNE: Noblis’ Portable Sequencing system and Bio-Sensor; cyber research and solutions; digital solutions; model-based systems engineering; and the unmanned aircraft systems/military installation maintenance system.
Dr. Jim Soltys, PMP Senior Fellow for Federal Civilian Solutions at Noblis, discussed RunCyberAssurance and RunAcquisitions.
“As you can imagine, the government uses cloud services but first they run a program called FedRAMP that makes sure all the cloud service providers, before they are used by the federal government, have passed all these security assessments,” he said. “But because there are relentless attacks and vulnerabilities found on an ongoing basis, Noblis also has to make sure the government is using new tools and cloud solutions that stay secure all the time.”
Soltys said the monitoring process is ordinarily cumbersome, but Noblis’ RunCyberAssurance manages that. The system allows a customer’s software applications to assess vulnerabilities. Then it better manages the process to ensure the government is addressing and fixing the systems quickly when the threats arise.
At the SYM-3 exhibit, Chuck Bristow, a senior executive with the SYM-3, explained how that system works.
SYM-3 started as a Small Business Innovation Research program. It is the company’s one-size-fits-all general-purpose system for its prime contract with the Navy and other military branches with air and sea operations.
“Imagine you have OnStar on your vehicle, constantly monitoring tire pressure, oil pressure and the engine,” he said. “Now, imagine a similar system on a Navy ship with radars and missile launchers as part of its make-up. When your OnStar sees a trend it doesn’t like, or recognizes a flat-out failure with your vehicle, it notifies you and the car manufacturer.
“Noblis is building the ‘OnStar-type’ system that will monitor those things for the Navy, as well as other military disciplines. SYM-3 helps us get the right skill and correct tools and parts moving all in the right direction to get the problem fixed.”
Dr. Nick Bartlow, a senior principal engineer, is an expert in Noblis’ artificial intelligence and machine learning platforms. At his exhibit, he explains how Noblis’ AI/ML platform uses incoming data algorithms to recognize data patterns and predict outcomes.
“Noblis has four mission areas within the company: defense systems, intelligence and law enforcement, Homeland Security and federal and civilian systems with cyber scattered among all four,” he said. “Over the past decade, it has been about whether we can make the algorithms predict the right things, and will they be accurate?
“This raises the bar and says, not only can we be accurate and predict the right outcomes, but can it explain why the customer made the decisions they made in a transparent way, so people can feel good about the process, to make sure we mitigate bias, and are doing the right things for the right reasons.”
As Corrigan said after cutting the ribbon on their growing operation in Huntsville, “We are expecting big things in Huntsville, and we are proud to be a part of it.”
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