Join Scope AR at MRO in Chicago April 9-11, 2024!

Join Scope AR at MRO in Chicago April 9-11, 2024!

Scope AR, the leader in Enterprise Augmented Reality, set the stage for AR applications more than 10 years ago and is now a fully integrated solution in the aviation industry. Come join us at this year’s MRO conference, where you can see first-hand how far AR has come as a fully-integrated solution with proven ROI on the hangar floor.

Where to find us:

April 9-11, 2024: Scope AR 

Booth 306

Join us for Happy Hour:

April 10, 2024, 4p

Scope AR and Lockheed Martin CES Happy Hour

Lockheed Martin CES Booth 4014

In the Aviation industry, recent events have proven that it’s too easy to “miss” a few things in the MRO process if you don’t have the proper systems in place. But those systems themselves are very complex – PLM, FSM, and MES systems among countless others, that all need to work together. With AR, instructions can be given to the worker visually in real time – leading to far fewer errors (even zero), and a documentation stream most manufacturers can only dream of.

AR technology has transformed highly complex product & equipment assembly, manufacturing, maintenance & repair, field & customer support, even employee training. Innovations in hardware, data integrations, IoT, and AI have united systems across MRO management. We’re seeing real use cases, with real results.

Scope AR Unifies the Digital Thread with Industrial IoT Capability

Scope AR Unifies the Digital Thread with Industrial IoT Capability

SAN JOSE, CA – June 2, 2022 | Scope AR today announced the launch of WorkLink IoT, a platform service that enables real-time data connectivity within industrial environments for augmented reality experiences. The service enhances WorkLink, its end-to-end enterprise AR platform, with Internet of Things- (IoT-) enabled devices and real-time data fabrics. The launch marks the first-ever offering of Augmented Reality IoT connected data in a no-code AR platform.

WorkLink IoT will become a critical component of the AR-enabled digital thread for manufacturing and field service use cases. Now, real-time data from smart tools and a wide array of industrial edge devices can be aggregated into augmented reality work instructions.

“Our customers are absolutely thrilled to integrate machine data into their AR work instructions. Imagine measuring the torque of each fastening operation as you build a product, with instant feedback provided to the technician in augmented reality. That data can also be sent to any manufacturing or service systems of record in real time,” said Scott Montgomerie, CEO and founder of Scope AR. “This completely changes the quality control and compliance landscape for our customers, offering unprecedented traceability, insights, and human error avoidance.”

WorkLink IoT is the result of a pioneering collaboration between Scope AR and Litmus Automation, a flexible and scalable edge platform for Industrial IoT data connectivity. The collaboration also involved fastener expertise by Click Bond, smart tools by Atlas Copco for precision torque measurement capabilities, and advanced 3D AR wearable devices including the Microsoft Hololens 2.

“We are pleased to partner with Scope AR to provide access to all industrial data at the edge from any type of machine or tool,” said John Younes, Co-founder and COO of Litmus. “Our technology allows WorkLink IoT to connect to any device in minutes, normalize the data for easy consumption, and integrate the data with the AR platform. Now customers can focus on getting value out of their data and the AR solution rather than spending time solving operational complexity since we’ve done that work.”

Click Bond President and CEO Karl Hutter commented, “As a pioneer of advanced assembly solutions for aerospace, Click Bond recognizes the opportunity to unlock technicians’ talents using XR and IoT tools, expanding their capabilities and raising the value of their work. We are proud to partner with Scope AR in bringing this to reality!”

“Previously, customers were forced to hard-code their own data pathways or manage disparate systems in order to enable smart factory data into augmented reality experiences,” said Montgomerie. “This has limited production use cases at scale. Instead, we partnered with Litmus and built a system to allow any available edge data feed to be accessed from within our code-free AR environment, removing any compatibility or development inhibitors to scale.”

WorkLink IoT is another pillar of Scope AR’s digital thread offering, with the goal of providing real-time data to technicians and systems of record throughout the physical product lifecycle.

For more information on WorkLink IoT and other AR services, including a video of the integration in a torque-sequencing example, please visit https://www.scopear.com/worklink-iot/.

Contact: Robert COMBIER

Scope AR launches new WorkLink developer platform and API

Scope AR launches new WorkLink developer platform and API

SAN FRANCISCO – December 31 2020 – Scope AR today makes it even easier for developers to create next-generation AR integrations and deep operational analytics with the launch of the WorkLink API. This API release is the first component towards a complete development platform and greatly extends the power of WorkLink.

The WorkLink API enables Scope AR customers and partners to access a rich and flexible API endpoint to connect their IT systems of record and analytics toolsets. The developer platform will enable closed-loop functionality, such as robust deeplinking, powerful data access, a dedicated developer site, and complete documentation.

In the past, AR deployments into enterprises were limited in their operational data streams. The WorkLink API now gives Scope AR customers access to rich data needed to better optimize deployments and solve critical field challenges, improve training, and assemble complex componentry.

“The WorkLink API empowers our customers and partners to easily develop deep integrations of augmented reality into their systems” said Scott Montgomerie.  “This allows them to scale their businesses robustly, despite global travel restrictions, high product complexity and attrition of experts in their workforces. And, customers will benefit from more secure integrations and powerful analytics on their operations.”

Scope AR customers will also have access to the development platform expected in early 2021, which will allow developers to test and streamline the integration of AR into their IT systems of record. Additional services will be added to the WorkLink API in the coming months. For more details about the platform, please visit www.scopear.com/developers/.

AR brings extreme ROI

AR brings extreme ROI

Read the original article on SME here.

It is not surprising that the aerospace and defense industry exists at a higher plane of manufacturing. The components and end products being assembled must endure intense forces and pressures, are expected to perform without failure, and even the slightest mistake comes with extreme safety risks.

To meet these extraordinary demands, aerospace firms have developed highly technical and complex manufacturing processes that require significant training. Augmented reality (AR) can help improve these processes, from reducing task and training times to increasing accuracy and technician performance. The results include faster processes, fewer errors and reduced risk.

Tasks that are relatively mundane and inexpensive in other industries can be enormously expensive in the aerospace industry. Processes like torque applications, fastener attachments and drilling must be executed perfectly or will require costly rework or repair.

To avoid these costs and delays, extensive manuals are created and methodical processes defined. These types of applications are where AR shines and where the potential savings contribute to a high ROI.

While the resulting ROI from just a single task can be significant, the cost of labor and time are just two of the benefits AR can deliver.

Additional benefits of the technology include reducing or eliminating rework, improving accuracy and reducing downstream costs and potential safety risks. When you add it all up, it is easy to recognize AR’s value.

To provide some real-world perspective, aerospace vehicles typically contain thousands of miles of wire, requiring many fasteners and clips—all with precise attachment points. Simply marking the location of these attachment points can take weeks.

Lockheed Martin is using augmented reality to enable both a faster and more accurate location of the attachment points. A process that originally required eight shifts and two technicians has now been reduced to just 2.5 hours and a single technician.

AR Makes Anyone an Expert With Less Training

Training times can be lengthy in aerospace applications given the potential consequences in cost, safety and time.

Safety is an especially critical component in this industry, which adds additional pressure to perform tasks correctly. This need for “information overhead” further increases the focus on training to ensure technicians have the expertise and access to information to perform each individual task accurately. AR streamlines knowledge transfer by giving technicians the information they need when and where they need it. Instant and contextual access to information and instructions enables technicians to work without second-guesses and without work stoppages to refer to manuals or drawings. Faster training via AR also accelerates ramp-up so new technicians get to work in less time. Lastly, AR’s process traceability can surface opportunities for additional improvements in efficiency and accuracy.

Lockheed Martin first began exploring the benefits of AR during production of the Orion spacecraft.

Using Scope AR’s WorkLink platform to create AR work instructions for a drilling application, Lockheed Martin was able to reduce touch labor by 35 percent and further reduce technician training and ramp-up time by 85 percent.

In another Lockheed Martin use case, threaded fasteners require precise torque loads to enable the best performance while avoiding damage to the fastened materials and the fastener itself. Using AR, the required data is put directly in the view of technicians to reduce a torque application process from six weeks to two weeks for an ultimate touch labor savings of 50 percent and a significant reduction in training time.

AR Becomes Mainstream

AR is already returning real value across the aerospace industry. Companies large and small are turning to AR to reduce costs while simultaneously increasing safety and reducing risk. It lessens training and process times while improving accuracy and quality. While the cost of a mistake can be enormous, simply reducing the costs of everyday training, tasks, rework and more can justify the benefits of AR.

How Lockheed is using Scope AR and Hololens to build Orion Artemis

How Lockheed is using Scope AR and Hololens to build Orion Artemis

Read the original article by Jennifer Langston here.

When workers for Lockheed Martin began assembling the crew seats for a spacecraft designed to return astronauts to the moon and pave the way for human exploration to Mars, they had no need for paper instructions or tablet screens to work from.

Everything they needed to see — from animations of how pieces fit together to engineering drawings to torque values for tightening bolts — was visible in HoloLens 2 devices that they wore.

The mixed reality headsets left their hands free to manipulate hardware. Voice commands guided them through every step, with holographic instructions overlaid on the relevant parts of the four seats that will be installed inside the crew module of the Orion spacecraft, which Lockheed Martin is building to support NASA’s Artemis program to carry humans to the moon and beyond.

“They didn’t have to refer back to a computer screen or paper drawings during that entire activity,” said Shelley Peterson, Lockheed Martin principal investigator for augmented and mixed reality. “Out on the shop floor they can put on the HoloLens 2 device, power it up, and it has all the content that they need to figure out how to do that task overlaid right there on the structure.”

Building a spacecraft requires millions of tasks, each with zero room for error, from attaching electrical cables in the correct pathways to lubricating joints and precisely locating thousands of tiny devices that measure how the craft performs under stress.

Lockheed Martin, the prime contractor building Orion, has employed HoloLens 2 on a variety of assembly tasks for the spacecraft that will be used in NASA’s Artemis II mission, the first to carry a crew of astronauts aboard Orion.

For some jobs that require lots of precise measuring by hand ­— such as marking locations for hundreds of fasteners on Orion’s spacecraft adapter jettison fairings — technicians using holographic instructions have finished those repetitive tasks 90 percent faster. The mixed reality headsets have also all but eliminated assembly mistakes, Peterson said. Lockheed Martin has experienced zero errors or rework requests on tasks in which workers were assisted by HoloLens headsets, which the company first deployed at the end of 2017, she said.

“The fact that we haven’t had any errors across all of these activities is phenomenal,” said Peterson, who oversees the company’s mixed reality initiatives.

“Usually when we’re considering new technologies we’re asking if there’s improved quality, if it’s faster or if it’s less expensive, and most people say you can only get two out of the three because there are always tradeoffs. What we’re finding with the HoloLens 2 is that we can hit all three, which is pretty unique,” Peterson said.

Shelley Peterson

At its Ignite conference on Sept. 22, Microsoft announced it is expanding the global availability of HoloLens 2, which is now available for purchase in Italy, Netherlands, Switzerland, Spain, Austria, Sweden, Finland, Norway, Denmark, Belgium, Portugal, Poland, Singapore, Hong Kong and Taiwan.

“We are super inspired to see what people are doing in the wild with HoloLens, and we are very excited that we have enough supply worldwide to bring it to this next set of regions,” said Microsoft Technical Fellow Alex Kipman.

The company also announced the private preview of a new mixed reality service called Azure Object Anchors. It allows HoloLens devices to recognize an object in the real world and map relevant instructions or visuals onto it without requiring any expert knowledge or barcodes to line those things up.

If an automaker wants to help a car owner do a simple repair job at their house using mixed reality, for instance, it’s more helpful for the owner to put on a headset and see an arrow pointing right to the oil pan gasket that needs to be removed, rather than asking a novice car mechanic to locate the gasket among all the other engine parts and then start following instructions, Kipman said.

“It’s a very hard computer vision problem, but the ability to recognize an object in the real world and then graft and map holograms onto it adds a tremendous amount of value,” he said.

Since HoloLens 2 began shipping to customers last November, Microsoft has continued to see demand for the device and Azure mixed reality services, Kipman said, especially in a time when remote collaboration is essential to help limit the spread of COVID-19.

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Remote Assist, for instance, allows people in two different physical locations to collaborate and solve problems in a shared mixed reality environment. If a firstline worker assembling a spacecraft, airplane or truck finds an obstruction where the next piece of hardware needs be installed, an engineer in another room or city can see through the worker’s HoloLens 2 exactly what the problem is and offer advice on how to adjust.

Health care providers treating COVID-19 patients at the Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust in England are using HoloLens 2, Remote Assist and Microsoft Teams to minimize potential exposure to the virus. One doctor wearing a mixed reality headset can treat the patient in person, while the device sends a secure live video feed to a computer screen in a neighboring room. That allows other members of the healthcare team to see everything that doctor sees while remaining at a safe distance.

Mercedes-Benz USA is using HoloLens 2 headsets to help service technicians at its dealerships more quickly and efficiently repair vehicles. Using Remote Assist, they can troubleshoot a problem in real time by easily tapping into the company’s vast network of remote specialists with deep expertise across various car lines.

“In some industries, we’ve seen companies become willing to take the leap much faster,” Kipman said. “In a socially distanced time where travel can be risky, it’s much easier to just teleport there and see things through the eyes of the operators. Before that sounded kind of cool, like something out of a science fiction novel, but now it’s really a necessity.”1 of 5Lockheed Martin technicians at the NASA Michoud Assembly Facility use HoloLens 2 to assemble Orion’s crew seats for the Artemis II mission. This image, captured with a HoloLens 2 headset, shows the holographic instructions overlaid on the crew seats. Image courtesy of Lockheed Martin.2 of 5Shelley Peterson, Lockheed Martin principal investigator for augmented and mixed reality. Photo by Rachel Woolf Photography.3 of 5HoloLens 2 devices assisted technicians during the manufacturing process for the Artemis II heat shield. One of the most critical elements of Orion, it protects the capsule and crew during reentry through Earth’s atmosphere. Image courtesy of NASA.4 of 5Eric Nolan, a technician working at the Kennedy Space Center, wears a HoloLens 2 as he works on the heat shield for the crew module for NASA’s Artemis II mission. Image courtesy of NASA.5 of 5The Orion spacecraft is being designed to take the first woman and the next man to the moon by 2023, and to prepare the way for human missions to Mars. Image courtesy of NASA.

Lockheed Martin officials said the ability to collaborate remotely using HoloLens 2 has helped employees maintain social distance during the pandemic. It helps workers avoid passing paper or tablets back and forth, and it also allows people to problem solve without having to get on a plane or look over someone’s shoulder.

“Travel is really difficult right now, and if we can avoid just one troubleshooting trip, that HoloLens is worth it,” said Colin Sipe, an Orion and Human Landing Systems senior manager for Lockheed Martin.

The company also began seeing significant time and cost savings when technicians no longer had to break from their tasks to look at manuals or type on a computer screen, which may require crawling through tight spaces or taking off clean room gear. For a critical job like assembling the heat shield that keeps astronauts safe as they re-enter Earth’s atmosphere, written instructions are so complex that they can add up to 30 pounds’ worth of paperwork, Sipe said.

“Typically, it turns out that about half of their time is spent reviewing drawings, reviewing steps and entering data into the computer, and only about half of their time is spent turning wrenches and putting parts together,” he said. “With HoloLens, we’ve been able to reduce the amount of time that they spend dealing with or processing that data overhead by about 90 percent.”

For instance, as part of critical verification processes, technicians often have to put down their tools and walk back to a computer workstation and type in information about the step they’ve just completed. With the HoloLens 2, they can use a simple voice command to have the headset take a picture or record a video — which can be used for validation, quality assurance or training purposes — without having to break their flow.

The people who build the spacecraft also enjoy using the HoloLens 2, which allows them to focus on the work they really like to do, Sipe said. Some have even delayed retirements to spend more time working on Orion.

“They don’t particularly like digging through technical documents to find out what kind of primer to put on this particular part. They like to build stuff and work with their hands, and with the HoloLens 2 they’re able to spend almost all day doing just that,” he said. “They really feel like they’re working on a spacecraft of the future.”

Top image: Technicians used HoloLens 2 devices to assemble the crew module seats, similar to these seats in a mockup of the Orion spacecraft, for the first Orion mission to carry astronauts into space. Image courtesy of NASA.

Bakery to use augmented reality to train adults with disabilities

Bakery to use augmented reality to train adults with disabilities

Originally published by the Miami Times here.

If you’re an adult with disabilities, what do you get when you combine a Cuban-American bakery chain known for its pastelitos and café Cubano, the latest augmented reality (AR) technology and a color-coded baking system?

A recipe for success — and a potential career.

That’s the formula Pinecrest Bakery (Pinecrestbakery.com), Florida’s largest 24-hour bakery chain — with 20 locations in the Florida Keys and South Florida — is counting on as it continues its expansion with a new, 2,500-square-foot training center geared to turning adults with disabilities into bakers.

“We’re in the midst of converting one of our bakeries into a training facility and school to assist adults with autism and others with disabilities begin a meaningful career as bakers,” said Gladys Valdes, who, along with husband Efrain, founded Pinecrest Bakery in 2012.

“One of the keys to success in the bakery business — or any business for that matter — is product consistency. By using technology such as augmented reality, we’ll be able to train all of our bakers to make certain our recipes are followed on a consistent basis.”

The training facility, which is expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2021, could encompass up to 12 bakery “students” per class.

One of the key ingredients in the Pinecrest success recipe is San Francisco-based Scope AR (Scopear.com), a global leader in augmented reality solutions and a recognized pioneer in utilizing AR for industry support and training. Utilizing Scope AR’s WorkLink Platform, Pinecrest bakers will wear Microsoft’s HoloLens 2 (Microsoft.com) mixed reality device preloaded with all of Pinecrest’s mouth-watering recipes.

Then, with a color-coded baking system that Miami-based non-profit Piece of Cake Bakers (Pieceofcakebakers.com) — another part of the success recipe — has used to train people with disabilities, Pinecrest’s bakers will be able to visualize each step in creating the wide range of pastries and other foods for which the family-owned bakery is famous.

“Our platform, while not built for this purpose, is able to serve a revolutionary solution for what Pinecrest Bakery is trying to accomplish,” said Scott Montgomerie, Scope AR co-founder and CEO. “We’re delighted that AR can help bakers, including those with disabilities, to easily follow the step-by-step recipes and achieve outstanding quality throughout the entire process.”

According to Edwin Rivera, president of CG1(Cg1solutions.com), a Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business (SDVOSB) and a Scope AR Systems Integration Partner heading up the project, the Pinecrest application has far-reaching implications.

“This proof of concept will go a long way to showing the many benefits of AR in training across a variety of industries, not just food prep,” said Rivera, a recognized AR expert whose more than a decade in Augmented Reality includes projects for Walmart, Marvel and Disney. “Using Scope AR’s platform and Microsoft’s HoloLens is ideal because it provides employers with a training tool that allows their people to learn and operate in a hands-free environment. No manuals to print, update and so forth. You simply put the HoloLens on and everything you need is right there in front of you.”

For more information, visit https://www.scopear.com/partner-charliegolfone/.

There is power in diversity: With Tyler Gallagher & Shelley Peterson

There is power in diversity: With Tyler Gallagher & Shelley Peterson

Originally published by Tyler Gallagher on Thrive Global here.

There is power in diversity. In the space industry, we are often faced with unique challenges to solve. Having diverse approaches and diverse skills and abilities continually proves to enable more rapid solutions for these challenges. Diversity enables a broader range of creative solutions… just what we need when trying to solve new challenges.

I had the pleasure of interviewing Shelley Peterson, Lockheed Martin.

Shelley Peterson has supported Lockheed Martin pursuits, diving into the rapidly evolving augmented reality and wearables market to integrate emerging technologies into solutions for Lockheed Martin Space applications.

Early in her professional career, Shelley founded a business focused on emerging technology solutions, including military aircraft distributed mission training and multi-spectral imaging monoculars.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you. Can you tell us a bit about how you grew up?

Sure! I grew up in a small town of about 800 people in west Texas. At that time, our judge was also the barber. It was a great experience… like one big family. My mother was an English teacher and librarian, and my father was the county commissioner. They both encouraged me to pursue my interests, which included math, music, and sports. I had a love for aircraft, and anything related to airplanes. My older brother loved to assemble models, so of course, I had to do that too. The first model I built was an SR-71 Blackbird, and the more I learned about it, the more curious I became in aerospace.

Is there a particular life lesson that made a significant impact on you? Can you share a story or explain why it resonated with you so much?

One of the lessons I have used throughout my career is one that a mentor in college passed along. If we think of a “bullseye” target with rings, and we place “Self” in the center circle, and then “Team”, in next circle out, and fill each expanding circle with “Project”, “Program”, “Company”, “Customer”, etc., it provides a map for decisions and strategic discussions. Quite often if we disagree with colleagues on a topic, it is highly likely that we are both “right”. We are just focused on a different level within this decision map.

For example, a colleague might be focused on a solution that is best for the “Team”, while we are focused on what works best for the “Program”. If we can view through this lens and understand what’s driving the interests, we can often get on the same page with a solution that fits well and accomplishes the objectives. I have used this lesson on almost a weekly basis throughout my 23-year professional career and have been able to navigate challenging situations much more effectively with positive outcomes. I love passing it along to others who may find it useful.

Is there a particular story that inspired you to pursue a career in the space industry? We’d love to hear it.

My Uncle Cecil was an Air Force Pilot. He and three of his brothers served during WWII and would tell stories of piloting bomber and tanker aircraft. I was amazed by his stories and studied the history of flight. Of course, studying the timeline for flight led to spacecraft, and by high school I dreamed of being involved in space pursuits.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began this fascinating career?

In 2018, my team traveled to Kennedy Space Center to support with augmented reality shop aids for a manufacturing activity. We crawled inside the Orion spacecraft to assist with the effort, which took about six hours to complete. It was just an absolutely amazing feeling to have the opportunity to be inside a spacecraft design that astronauts will soon be in, but from space. That was a career highlight!

Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

Oh my. It was a busy day for my leadership team on my first day of work at my first job out of college. They handed me a printed list of Unix commands and asked me to experiment with them and figure out what they do. I was making my way through the list of commands, successfully figuring out the result of the commands. Halfway down the list was a variation of an “rm *” command. I typed it. Then some interesting things started scrolling by… I had deleted the entire library of data! It took about a day for the experts to recover the library and the team’s work for that day had been lost. It was quite embarrassing… (and led to nicknames).

None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?

There are SO many who have helped to shape my career along the way, it is difficult to triangulate on just one. Early in my career I had the opportunity to work with a fantastic manager who taught me to look at our work efforts on multiple levels and from various perspectives. This has been very useful throughout my career, and I appreciate the patience, the insight, and the willing to carve time out of a very busy schedule to work with a young engineer.

Are you working on any exciting new projects now? How do you think that will help people?

I lead our OptimEyez Team, which builds augmented reality capabilities to help our teams at Lockheed Martin build spacecraft. We are finding that we can reduce the time it takes for some activities by 90% ! There are thousands of fasteners and sensors on a spacecraft. When a technician puts on augmented reality glasses, like the Microsoft Hololens, and views the work instructions in augmented and mixed reality (created using Scope AR’s WorkLink platform), they can complete an 8-shift activity in 6 hours. They have completed an 8-hour activity in 45 minutes. We have repeated this at multiple sites on numerous programs since 2017. It’s exciting to see, and fun to be a part of!

Can you imagine traveling to deep space? What an incredible experience that must be! It will offer new opportunities to explore and learn on so many levels. It is pursuit for true pioneers!

I’m also excited about advances in manufacturing. What happens when we can complete a 10-hour task in one hour? We are using augmented reality to provide a higher quality product in a shorter time at lower cost. (The rumor is that you can only accomplish two out of three of “better/faster/cheaper”. We are breaking the rules and accomplishing all three.)

And to see a woman travel to the moon…. That’s exciting!

Are you currently satisfied with the status quo regarding women in STEM? What specific changes do you think are needed to change the status quo?

There are always areas for improvement, and we all need to do our part in making STEM accessible to all and promoting STEM concepts to all. It takes a village… or at least it works much more effectively when we have that village.

What are the “myths” that you would like to dispel about being a woman in STEM or Tech, or the space industry. Can you explain what you mean?

There are enormous opportunities for women in the space industry! For example, at Lockheed Martin it has been such a pleasure to work for our CEO, Marillyn Hewson, who just retired last month. I think all of the employees at Lockheed Martin Space are empowered to pursue their career goals and to play important roles in our space pursuits.

What are your “5 Leadership Lessons I Learned From My Experience as a Woman in STEM or Tech” and why. (Please share a story or example for each.)

There is power in diversity. In the space industry, we are often faced with unique challenges to solve. Having diverse approaches and diverse skills and abilities continually proves to enable more rapid solutions for these challenges. Diversity enables a broader range of creative solutions… just what we need when trying to solve new challenges.

You are a person of enormous influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂

I also serve on the Barbara Bush Foundation’s Technology Advisory Council, and I think that improvements in literacy could have a significant impact broadly. What if we could diagnose barriers to literacy and education (like dyslexia, ADHD, etc) at an earlier age? What if we could use eye tracking from today’s augmented and virtual reality devices to make that testing more accessible and lower cost to administer? What if we had better tools to gauge literacy levels, as well as improvements in literacy? Today’s literacy tests are fairly similar to those we have used for decades. You read a paragraph and answer some questions. What if we could use eye tracking in head mounted displays to more accurately assess literacy and comprehension? And what if we could use that same technology to assess improvements? We could optimize literacy instruction, and could reach more effective solutions on an accelerated timeline.

We are very blessed that very prominent leaders read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them 🙂

Peggy Whitson! And it would also be just absolutely amazing to have a chat with Buzz Aldrin! I’m a fan. Buzz rocks!