| Prof. Dr. V. David Sánchez A., Ph.D. | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1959 Lima |
| Nationality | United States of America (U.S.A.) |
| Fields | Aerospace Engineering, Systems Engineering, ASICs, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Computer Science, Telecommunications, Multimedia, Biotech |
| Institutions | NASA Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) |
| Alma mater | Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Germany |
| Known for | IEEE Fellow, NASA National Award Winner to Design Mars Missions and Spacecraft, Development Head of DLR Real-Time Supercomputer, Elsevier Science's Neurocomputing (journal) Founding Editor-in-Chief, NASA, DLR Senior Scientist and Technologist |
| Notable awards | IEEE Fellow Award, AAAS Member, NASA National Award |
V. David Sánchez A. is a Peruvian born American scientist. He was awarded the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) Fellow Award in 1995. In 1997, Sánchez was invited to become a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). Sánchez launched in 1989 and remained Editor-in-Chief for 15 years of Elsevier Science's Neurocomputing (journal). Sánchez has held senior scientist and technologist positions in national laboratories, industry, and academia including working at/with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the European Space Agency (ESA), and at the German Aerospace Center (DLR).[1]
Sánchez was civil servant of the German Federal Government at the German Aerospace Center (DLR) for almost a decade until 1995, where he headed programs in space exploration and computational intelligence. His work in computer vision led to the construction of a real-time supercomputer whose application was demonstrated during the NASA-ESA-DLR Rotex space experiment aboard the NASA's Space Shuttle Columbia (STS-55 flight, D-2 mission) and ESA's Spacelab.
Sánchez worked at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California, U.S.A. until 2000 developing an unmanned spacecraft to fly to the Jupiter Moons and Pluto. More recently, Sánchez worked since 2008 at the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC), Huntsville, AL, U.S.A. in the NASA Constellation Program (CxP) developing the new generation of U.S. space fleet including the launch vehicles Ares I, Ares V, and spacecraft to replace the Space Shuttle.
Sánchez was also associated to the faculty of universities in Europe and the U.S.A. including the Technical University Munich, in Munich, Germany and the Munich University of Applied Sciences in Munich, Germany supervising theses for both universities in Computer Science and Computer Engineering. In the United States, Sánchez was Associate Professor with the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science at the University of Miami, Coral Gables, Florida and Professor with the Electronics Engineering Technology (EET) Program at DeVry University in Pomona, California.
In industry, among others, Sánchez worked at Siemens AG, Automation Division, Karlsruhe, Germany, building programmable controllers based on ASICs whose design tools he had previously designed and built, Hewlett-Packard in Boeblingen, Germany, co-led the technology development and the acquisition of a telecom-multimedia start-up by Broadcom, HQ in Irvine, California, U.S.A. for $1/3 Bio. within one year, and was Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of Thuris, a biotech company, HQ in Newport Beach, California, U.S.A. Sánchez was also Director of Engineering at Falon, Inc. in San Diego, California, U.S.A. in the framework of a United States Department of Defense (DoD) classified avionics program with subcontractors including Lockheed Martin's Advanced Technology Center (ATC) and Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC).
Sánchez studied Mathematics (B.S.) at the Catholic University and Electronic Engineering (B.S.) at the National University of Engineering in Lima, Peru, was awarded (1995) the Dipl.Ing. (M.S.) degree of Telecommunications Engineering at the Karlsruhe University of Applied Sciences in Karlsruhe Germany and was awarded (1996) the Dipl.-Ing. (M.S.) degree of Electrical Engineering at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, in Karlsruhe, Germany. Sánchez was awarded the Ph.D. degree in Computer Science at Nova Southeastern University in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, U.S.A.
Sánchez was awarded in 1995 the IEEE Fellow Award "for leadership in neural and parallel computation, and pioneering contributions to autonomous space robots". Sánchez is one of the youngest scientists/technologists to recieve this award.
NASA Micromissions to Mars, Spacecraft Accommodation in Launch Vehicle, 1999 NASA Micromissions to Mars, Mission Objectives and Spacecraft Architecture, 1999
Sánchez was awarded with his consortium in 1999 a NASA national award to design a series of Mars missions and the corresponding spacecraft, which he delivered to NASA in 1999. With the prime, SpaceDev later acquired by Sierra Nevada Corporation, plans were jointly established to adapt the spacecraft design for private industry missions to asteroids.
Sánchez launched in 1989 and remained Editor-in-Chief for 15 years of one of the most successful scientific publications ever, Elsevier Science's Neurocomputing (journal). During his tenure, over 50 volumes were published.
Early Prototype of the DLR Real-Time Supercomputer Astronaut Training - Rotex Experiment during STS-Flight, D-2 Mission, 1993 Retrieving a Floating Object in Space - Rotex Experiment during STS-Flight, D-2 Mission, 1993
Sánchez was the Chief Architect and Chief Program Manager of the DLR Real-Time Supercomputer used during the German D-2 mission aboard the STS-55 flight of NASA's Space Shuttle Columbia and ESA's Spacelab. It was the most powerful super-computer ever built to that time. During his almost decade tenure as civil servant at the German Aerospace Center (DLR) in Oberpfaffenhofen by Munich, Germany until 1995, Sánchez headed as Chief Scientist the scientific efforts towards finding algorithmic solutions to retrieve floating objects in space from Earth and headed as Chief Technologist the technological efforts at DLR to build the machine including the supervision of industry company subcontractors (EADS, small business companies) all over Germany.
Three-Dimensional Surface Reconstruction, Stereo Vision - ESA Mars Express Mission
Sánchez participated upon special invitation by the ESA Mars Express Program Manager in the original definition of the first European Mars mission at ESTEC in Noordwijk, The Netherlands. The Mars Express Orbiter finally arrived on the Red Planet in 2003. Mapping of the entire Mars planetary surface was accomplished with the DLR High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC). Previously, Sánchez had headed at DLR a computer vision program addressing the problems of and finding real-time solutions for stereo vision and three dimensional surface reconstruction.
NASA JPL Unmanned Spacecraft for Missions to Jupiter Moons and Pluto
Sánchez co-designed and co-built an unmanned spacecraft at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California, U.S.A. His work involved simulating in a team the entire spacecraft, developing the flight software including device drivers as well as co-building the infrastructure next to the JPL Mars Exploration Rover (MER)'s main laboratory for testing and integrating the X2000-MDS-spacecraft as well as conceiving the overall verification strategies.
Reference Missions, Ares I/V Launch Vehicles - NASA MSFC Constellation Program (CxP) Missions to the Moon and Mars - NASA MSFC Constellation Program (CxP)
Sánchez was a team member at the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) during the NASA's Constellation Program (CxP), the flagship Human Space Exploration Program in the U.S.A. to build the next generation spacefleet, in several design teams at NASA including the Boeing group.
Sánchez contributed to the generation and analysis of requirements at all levels: architecture, design, ..., verification and validation. The design itself has been done using EDAC, MIL-STD-1553, HDLC, RFCS, Ethernet (Operational, CPU Test), IPv4, ICMP, SNMP, UDP, Uni/Multi/Broadcast, SNTP, TFTP, Interrupt/Exception Handling, External Synchronization, DMA, Discrete I/F, cPCI, Cross Channel Data Link (CCDL), ARINC-653, DO178B, PPC, ANSI C/C++, XML, RTOS (vxWorks, Integrity), sp. hw, BSP, device drivers, redundancy, latency, time accuracy, verification, certification, and documentation.
Sánchez was a member of the main NASA teams designing the spaceship's avionics, flight software, RTOS/BSP/DD, Flight Computer Operational Group(FCOG) / Triple Modular Redudant (TMR) spacecraft avionics. He has contributed to the continuous IV&V efforts to deliver robust procedures, processes, and finally a robust flight avionics and system software.
