2007 New Mexico IT Excellence Award Winners
SOLUTION AWARDS• The IT Excellence Award for Best Solution – Commercial Software
Ultramain Systems – efbFlightLogs
Ultramain efbFlightLogs is Electronic Flight Bag software that allows pilots to capture flight log information in real time and alert ground-based maintenance systems prior to arrival, thereby minimizing delays. The software completely replaces FAA-mandated paper flight logs, benefiting fleet operations, ground and air traffic controllers, pilots, and passengers. The system works as a standalone system on aircraft as well as on ground servers, communicating via the Internet or offline.
• The IT Excellence Award for Best Solution – Custom Software
POD – Public Education Automated Budget Management System
Managing the State of New Mexico’s education budget and accounting tasks is a very tall order, one of the largest and most complex software system challenges in the state. POD delivered the new 6-module web-enabled Automated Budget Management System to the Public Education Department to meet this challenge. ABMS performs a wide range of budget and accounting management functions critical to keeping our schools running as efficiently as possible.
• The IT Excellence Award for Best Solution – Innovative Research
Sandia National Laboratories – Adaptive Thinking and Leadership Simulation
The Adaptive Thinking and Leadership (ATL) simulation uses computer game technology to train Special Forces soldiers in critical skills. The ATL simulation allows players to discover their strengths and weaknesses in mental agility, cultural awareness, interpersonal adaptability, and communication. By role-playing in a dynamically changing environment, users sharpen their ability to anticipate the consequences of different courses of action for problems that may not have a "right" answer.
• The IT Excellence Award for Best Solution – Integrated Systems
Game Production Services / Abalone Studios – Future Combat Systems Mobile Demonstration Trailer
Abalone Studios created custom video-game-like hi-fidelity modeling and simulation environments and intuitive interfaces for the Boeing Company and the US Army’s Future Combat Systems. Abalone’s work is integrated into a Mobile Demonstration Trailer that provides hands-on, interactive experiences for the general public, military, and governmental decision makers.
• The IT Excellence Award for Best Solution – IT Infrastructure
Blue Jay Enterprises – Santa Fe Public Schools QMOE Project
The main internet infrastructure at Santa Fe Public Schools (SFPS) is virtually humming after Blue Jay designed and installed the QMOE system – a combination of Ethernet and fiber optic technology that enabled a 20-fold increase in internet throughput-speeds, from 1.5 Mbps to 30 Mbps. These dramatic improvements greatly enhance distance learning programs and other bandwidth intensive educational programming in SFPS.
• The IT Excellence Award for Best Solution – IT Support
First Community Bank – Virtualization of the Corporate Desktop Using Microsoft SoftGrid and Citrix
FCB has implemented a very robust and redundant thin-client infrastructure and server farm that can be deployed to a new branch with only 25% of the resources needed to deploy a full PC environment. The bank also implemented a web interface using RSA two factor token authentication, permitting secure remote access to authorized users from any internet-connected PC in the world.
• The IT Excellence Award for Best Solution – Hardware and Embedded Systems
Avistar – Wireless Substation Monitoring
Avistar, a subsidiary of PNM Resources, has devised a low-cost, easily installed multipoint sensor system that monitors circuit breakers and then wirelessly transmits data to a central location for monitoring multiple substations from a single Web page. The communication system is a proof of concept for other possible substation monitoring applications and is currently the subject of a national Electric Power Research Institute project.
• The IT Excellence Award for Best Solution – Internet Solutions
Ultramain Systems – efbFlightLogs
Also winner for Best Solution Commercial Software.
ACHIEVEMENT AWARDS
• The IT Excellence Award for Achievement in Industry Leadership
Sponsored by NMITSA
Eric Renz-Whitmore, Program Coordinator, UNM ARTS (Art, Research, Technology & Science) Lab
Eric has been a vital force behind the development of a digital media consortium in New Mexico, stitching together a community out of a fledgling game-development industry, blooming digital media industry, and booming film industry. He has served as catalyst, choreographer, connector and enabler to create very real careers, tangible infrastructure, and economic development based upon digital media.
• The IT Excellence Award for Achievement in Industry Support
Sponsored by the New Mexico Business Weekly
New Mexico State Investment Council
The New Mexico State Investment Council manages the New Mexico Regional Program, which makes investments into venture capital firms that in turn commit to make investments in New Mexico. Since the formation of the program, the NMSIC has made investment commitments that have resulted in investments in over 20 software and IT companies with many others making significant use of information technology.
• The IT Excellence Award for Achievement in Information Technology in Education – Organization
Sponsored by QinetiQ North America
The Uptime Institute
The Uptime Institute has, for a decade, helped some of the US's largest organizations improve data center uptime through a unique collaborative learning environment called the Site Uptime Network. In March 2007, the Institute held a symposium for hundreds of key IT professionals to discuss how IT performance is driving the economic meltdown of Moore's Law.
• The IT Excellence Award for Achievement in Information Technology in Education – Individual
Sponsored by TIG Technology Integration Group
Tom Ryan, Executive Director of Technology, Albuquerque Public Schools
Dr. Tom Ryan provided visionary leadership in establishing the statewide Cyber Academy while chairman of IDEAL-NM, the Innovative Digital Education And Learning in New Mexico team. Tom led the legislative effort to commit $7.5 million to start the Cyber Academy, a program that brings the vast world of knowledge digitally to any student in any public school in New Mexico.
Sponsorship of these awards benefits:
• The New Mexico Supercomputing Challenge, a non-profit program committed to helping students in grades 7 to 12 solve real-world problems using high-performance supercomputers
• The Albuquerque High School Academy of Advanced Technology, a school within a school that provides opportunities for students interested in the application and utilization of technology in the twenty-first century
• The Fractal Foundation, a non-profit organization whose mission is to use the beauty of fractals to educate and inspire students about math, art, science, nature and chaos theory
• Computers for Kids, a partnership between NMITSA and Technology Integration Group that provides new computers to support innovative teaching opportunities in high school classrooms statewide.
Posted on 11/16/2007
Other Recent Announcements
NMITSA Announces Women in IT WinnersPosted on 04/03/2008
NMITSA Announces Details for 2008 Women in Technology Celebration
Posted on 01/17/2008
2007 New Mexico IT Excellence Award Winners
Posted on 11/16/2007
