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AUVSI Foundation Awards Luncheon
The annual tradition continued in Orlando, FL this August as four distinguished individuals were recognized for their contributions to AUVSI and the unmanned systems industry as a whole. Prior to the conference, members from around the world submitted numerous nominations in four award categories: Al Aube Outstanding Contributor Award, Member of the Year, Operations Award, and Pioneer Award. Descriptions of the four awards and a brief biography of each winner are below. For more information on the AUVSI Foundation, please visit the website.
Al Aube Outstanding Contributor Award
The Al Aube Outstanding Contributor Award recognizes an AUVSI member who plays a pivotal role in the advancement of unmanned vehicle systems and should be a leader in his/her industry, dedicated to the promotion of unmanned technologies.
 Dr. Scott Fish of SAIC was the 2006 recipient of this award for his leadership role in promoting both advanced UGV systems design and associated autonomous and semi-autonomous navigation technology. Dr. Fish’s programs showed key improvements in performance capability that are now being utilized and further explored in other programs. Since May 2003, Dr. Fish has served as the Chief Engineer for UGVs for the Army’s Future Combat Systems (FCS) Program, where he plays a key role in working with industry and academia on solutions to problems associated with a wide range of UGVs. As an AUVSI member, he has presented annually at the AUVSI Winter Program Review and has published over 20 technical papers.
Past winners of the Al Aube award are:
2005 Kyle Swanson
2004 Colonel Janice M. Morrow
2003 Nicholas Yorio
2002 Richard Alldredge
2001 CAPT Lyn Whitmer
Pioneer Award
The Pioneer Award distinguishes an AUVSI member or non-member whose innovative ideas and ground-breaking research have contributed to the development of outstanding unmanned vehicle systems.
 Helen Greiner of iRobot Corporation won this award for her unique vision and dogged perseverance. As the Cofound and Chairman of iRobot, she has been instrumental in the success of iRobot® Roomba® Vacuuming Robot and the recently released iRobot ScoobaTM Floor Washing Robot. Beyond these convenient household tools, Ms. Greiner has taken ground robots from fragile research tools to rugged military systems, which
continues as iRobot develops the Small Unmanned Ground Vehicle (SUGV). Because of her hard work and dedication, Ms. Greiner has enhanced public acceptance of robots as one of today’s most important emerging technology categories. Ms. Greiner has been recognized by a number of different organizations for her technological contributions, including being named by the Kennedy School at Harvard in conjunction with US News and World Report as one of America’s Best Leaders and by Fortune Magazine as one of its “Top 10 Innovators of 2003".
Past winners of the Pioneer Award are:
2005 Scott Myers
2004 Dr. Dominic J. Palumbo and Helmut Portmann
2003 Dr. Clint Kelly
2002 Thomas J. Cassidy, Jr.
2001 Colonel Lynch
Member of the Year Award
The Member of the Year Award recognizes an exceptionally dedicated AUVSI member who has demonstrated his/her commitment to advancing unmanned systems through the promotion of AUVSI’s member services to the unmanned systems community.
 This award was posthumously presented to Marvin Gay with AFRL for his consistent contributions to the overall success of unmanned systems in the research and development stage that ultimately places equipment in combat. At the time of his death on July 8th, 2006, Mr. Gay’s 13 years experience as a robotic equipment operator propelled him to AFRL’s number-one robotics operator. When AFRL began to get involved in Unmanned Aerial Vehicles,
he was right there to be its first pilot, demonstrating his expertise to Senators, Congressmen, and 4-star Generals. Mr. Gay is survived by his wife Yvette who accepted this award on his behalf.
Past winners of the Member of the Year award are:
2005 Dr. Jon Bornstein
2004 Bernard Theisen
2003 Robert Glomb
2002 LCDR Dave Seagle, USN
2001 David Lanman
Operations Award
The Operations Award distinguishes an AUVSI member or non-member directly involved in the testing, evaluation and/or operational deployment of unmanned vehicle systems.
 This year’s award was presented to Col Edward Ward with the Robotic Systems Joint Project Office (JPO) for his role as the key architect and manager of the Joint Robotics Repair Facility (JRRF), providing in-theater repair and supply for deployed robotic systems engaged in IED defeat missions. Col Ward was the driving force behind the application of a web-accessible supply chain management system which provides near real-time
accountability, breakage trends, mean-time to repair, automated report generation and automated repair parts reordering. His vision has resulted in a highly touted contingency support model for the Army Materiel Command for other contingency items.
Past winners of the Operations award are:
2005 Cliff Hudson
2004 Major Kirk McCauley
2003 Kenneth Sharp
2002 Capt. Scott Swanson
2001 Timothy Owings
For more information contact:
Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI)
2700 South Quincy Street, Suite 400
Arlington, Virginia 22206
USA
Tel: +1 703 845 9671
Fax: +1 703 845 9679
E-mail: info@auvsi.org
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