Sandia robotics experts are working on a way to intercept enemy unmanned aircraft systems midflight. They recently completed a successful test using a swarm of four unmanned aircraft systems to intercept a flying target, using a net to trap it in air like an insect caught in a web and safely lower it to the ground.
Building Sandia, Part 2, is the second in a series of three articles about the history of architecture at the Labs. Part 2 focuses on the functions and needs that drove the construction of buildings and facilities at the Labs from the late 1960s to the mid-1990s.
Labs Director Steve Younger gave his annual State of the Labs address on Oct. 30, encouraging Sandians to pause and think about what we’ve accomplished and where Sandia is headed. He described numerous accomplishments and praised Labs employees for taking intellectual leadership in defining the future of nuclear deterrence.
Nearly 200 people gathered around the flagpole at the Sandia/California campus on Nov. 11 to honor and respect America’s veterans. The ceremony marking Veterans Day was organized by the Military Support Committee.
Sandia celebrated the 100th anniversary of Veteran’s Day in the Steve Schiff Auditorium on Nov. 7. President Woodrow Wilson first enacted the day honoring veterans one year after the Armistice ending World War One.
For Justin LaPierre, helping maintain an atmospheric research station at the northern tip of Alaska is “eerily reminiscent” of being deployed in the deserts of Afghanistan — just much colder. A U.S. Marine Corps veteran, LaPierre has worked as an observer at Oliktok Point for two years.
Sandia's Strategic Priority No. 7 is a call to action to identify better, easier ways to do our job on behalf of the nation. We need to be more agile, make more focused decisions to create and sustain an exceptional institution and remove organizational barriers that are slowing us down and reducing our impact.
Army veteran Mark Small started working at Sandia as an intern through the former Wounded Warrior Career Development Program, now called the Exceptional Warrior Career Development Program. Working with Sandia mentors, he completed bachelor's and master's degrees and secured a staff position at the Labs. He is one of the program’s success stories, and he now works to recruit other veterans to Sandia.
Sandia is collaborating with a New Mexico small business to test and develop a biometric security system based on the human heartbeat. Sandia signed an agreement with Albuquerque-based Aquila Inc. to develop and test a wearable prototype that can stream in real time an identifying signature based on the electrical activity of a person’s heart.
A reflection on past successes and a look at future challenges in a changing geopolitical world were highlighted at Sandia’s Sept. 26 Nuclear Deterrence all-hands meeting, “2020 and Beyond.” Associate Labs Director and Chief Engineer for Nuclear Weapons Steve Girrens and other Sandia leaders in ND touched on accomplishments, the division’s reorganization and the evolving stockpile stewardship mission of the Labs.