DOD SMART 2021 Scholar and Mentor of the Year Awards by Maison Piedfort,
Naval Information Warfare Center Pacific
March 1, 2022
Four Naval Information Warfare Center
(NIWC) Pacific employees were recognized by the Department of
Defense Science, Mathematics, and Research for Transformation
(SMART) Scholarship-for-Service Program for their
achievements in the pursuit of their SMART-sponsored degree.
Out of the six awardees for fiscal year 2021, two-thirds are NIWC
Pacific employees: scholars Dr. Regina Guazzo and Khaldoon Ishmael;
and mentors Dr. Tyler Helble and Dr. Richard Ordoñez.
November 1, 2021 - Dr. Richard Ordoñez (right), electrical engineer at Naval Information Warfare Center (NIWC) Pacific in Hawaii, poses with Khaldoon Ishmael, electrical engineering student at University of Hawaii at Manoa and intern at NIWC Pacific. Ishmael is a Science, Mathematics, and Research for Transformation (SMART) scholar and Ordoñez is his mentor; they are two of four fiscal year 2021 Scholar and Mentor of the Year awardees from NIWC Pacific. (Naval Information Warfare Center Pacific courtesy photo)
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Awardees
were recognized by senior DoD leadership in a virtual
ceremony during February 2022 at which awardees will have the opportunity
to discuss their work through the SMART program with the DoD
technical community and other SMART scholars.
“I am
constantly impressed by the quality of the SMART scholars and their
mentors,” said NIWC Pacific Executive Director Bill Bonwit. “Our
highly technical mission demands that our team includes some of the
country’s best and brightest, and the SMART scholars and their
mentors have been key contributors to growing that team. I look
forward to NIWC Pacific’s continued participation in this valuable
program.”
The awards recognize SMART scholar and mentor pairs
throughout the three phases of the SMART program: “Phase 1” scholars
are pursuing their SMART-sponsored degree; “Phase 2” scholars are
working at a DoD facility as part of their employment commitment;
and “Phase 3” scholars are seasoned DoD science and technology
professionals post-service commitment.
Dr. Regina Guazzo, a
Phase 2 awardee, and her mentor Dr. Tyler Helble, a Phase 3 scholar,
have been recognized by the SMART program for their partnership in
Guazzo’s contributions to ocean acoustics. Her research in whale
populations and behaviors is helping the Navy assess and quantify
the environmental impact of its acoustic systems. Guazzo was
recently awarded a SMART Scholar Seed Grant (SEED) to further her
research on the environmental impacts of low-frequency sonars.
“When I was a Ph.D. student, Tyler treated me like a colleague
instead of like a student,” Guazzo said. “Collaborating together at
NIWC Pacific has been so much fun as we have gotten to use the
Navy's data to ask really cool questions about whale behavior, which
allows the Navy to continue to be good stewards of the ocean.”
Both Guazzo and Helble are oceanographers working under NIWC
Pacific’s Environmental Readiness Program.
Khaldoon Ishmael,
a Phase 1 awardee, and his mentor Dr. Richard Ordoñez, a seasoned
SMART mentor, are teaming with military end users to remotely
monitor human vital signs in operational environments.
“My
mentor provided me with unique opportunities to align my academic
research with current military requirements,” said Ishmael. “My
current trajectory is to complete my research that will advance the
DoD's radiofrequency and millimeter wave biosensor technology
areas.”
Ishmael is a former Army combat interpreter and is
currently pursuing a degree in electrical engineering from the
University of Hawaii at Manoa while working as an intern at NIWC
Pacific. Ordoñez is an electrical engineer; both work at NIWC
Pacific’s Hawaii location.
SMART is a science, technology,
engineering, and mathematics (STEM)-focused
scholarship-for-service-program and the largest education and
workforce initiative under DoD STEM, the Department’s comprehensive
K-20 STEM education and talent development effort. SMART sponsors
undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral study in 21 academic
disciplines critical to national security and the future of the DoD
by providing full tuition, a generous stipend, summer internships,
and guaranteed employment at a DoD laboratory or agency.
In
return, scholars commit to a one-for-one employment commitment at
their DoD sponsoring facility after obtaining their degree. Since
its inception in 2006, the program has awarded more than 3,700
scholarships.
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NIWC Pacific’s mission is to conduct
research, development, engineering, and support of integrated
command, control, communications, computers, intelligence,
surveillance and reconnaissance, cyber, and space systems across all
warfighting domains, and to rapidly prototype, conduct test and
evaluation, and provide acquisition, installation, and in-service
engineering support.
SMART
Scholarship-for-Service
Program
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