SAN DIEGO - Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center Pacific (SSC Pacific), the Navy’s premiere science and technology, test, and evaluation laboratory, opened its doors June 6, 2015 for a 75th anniversary open house to an overflow crowd of employees, friends and family members.
The lab is a leader in the fields of autonomous vehicles, microbial fuel cells, photonics, novel materials and cybersecurity, and its almost eight decades of innovative research and development efforts is a salute to American ingenuity.
Flanked by SPAWAR Commander Rear Adm. Dave Lewis and SSC Pacific’s Executive Director Carmela Keeney, Commanding Officer Kurt Rothenhaus welcomed the 1,000 plus employees and family members to the sprawling event under sunny skies which featured robotics, unmanned systems, explosive ordinance disposal demonstrations, and science technology, engineering, and math (STEM) competitions, while also noting the Center’s many achievements.
“Today is a special day for SSC Pacific. Seventy-five years of delivering on-target command and control, computer and communications, intelligence (C4I), cyber and space systems to the Navy and Nation is an amazing achievement of which our more than 4,500 brilliant, dedicated and patriotic scientists, engineers and other professionals should be justifiably proud.”
Founded on the very brink of World War II, SSC Pacific currently employs a highly educated, diverse, multidisciplinary workforce of more than 4,300 scientists, researchers, engineers, technicians, technical specialists, and more who hold, currently, 162 PhD/JD degrees, and 982 Master’s degrees. The lab is ranked as a top generator of patents and license agreements (86 patent disclosures, 52 patent applications filed, and 73 patents issued during in fiscal year 2014.
In comments following the event, the executive director reflected on the center’s past, present and future roles.
“We recently celebrated our 75th anniversary as a Naval Command,” Keeney said. “We started on June 1, 1940 as a small lab with six employees and have grown over the past 75 years into a full spectrum research and development laboratory and an in-service engineering center with more than 4,500 employees and several thousand industry team members. We have a tremendous history and legacy and, I believe, a great future as we continue to provide leading edge C4ISR, cyber and space technology and superior capabilities for our national security.”
The occasion was a chance for staffers to both show off their projects and engage the next generation in events that included the hands-on engineering “Tower of Terror” demonstration and visiting the new Battlespace Exploitation of Mixed Reality (BEMR) lab where volunteers manipulated cutting-edge, low cost commercial-off-the-shelf, mixed reality technology (virtual and augmented) for an enthusiastic, engaged and over-flow audience.
“The 75th anniversary open house offered a rare opportunity for our employees and our industry team to bring family and friends to SSC Pacific to see many examples of the great work that is being done across the Center,” said Keeney. “I’ve had comments from many of our employees about how much they enjoyed seeing work done in other parts of the center. The commanding officer and I had a great time, and we really appreciate all the effort that went into making it such a resounding success!”
Visitor Josh Amberg, age 21, was especially wowed by the BEMR lab hands-on demonstrations using a modified virtual reality goggle and tablet set up and Dr. Sunny Fugate’s demonstrations of the e-Glove, an electronic glove that controls small devices and communicates via gestures. In the future, the glove technology may be used by Navy divers, NASA astronauts, firefighters, or police officers for computer control while driving or even for intuitive control of autonomous vehicles.
John Iaia, deputy executive director, was thrilled by both the turnout and attendees reaction to the technology.
“It was an amazing chance to get to see some of the really cool technologies we at the Center are developing for the warfighter,” he said. “I was really struck by the enthusiastic reactions of the kids, as they learned about what their parents and neighbors who work here do, day-to-day. I think it was fun time for both our current and our future generations. It made me proud to be part of the legacy of the center.”
SSC Pacific’s workforce also includes the largest number of active duty military personnel stationed at any Navy laboratory or warfare center. This unique arrangement combines the fleet and operational expertise of the warfighter with the skills of the center’s research staff to tackle real world problems facing the U.S. today and in future.
For more information about Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center Pacific, please visit: http://www.public.navy.mil/spawar/Pacific/Pages/default.aspx.