Azimuth Corporation Newsletter
VISION A trusted partner
delivering unmatched services and products to
our national security customers.
MISSION Provide exceptional
leadership and expertise, creative and innovative
solutions, and agile customer service to solve
national security problems.
CORE VALUES
We were established in 2001 to serve the
customer as a trusted partner.
We are a Woman Owned Small Business with the intent to remain flexible
and affordable.
We listen and respond to the needs of our
customers.
Office Move!!
I hope everyone is enjoying this great weather we’ve been having!!
With the addition of the AAIM Lab, our corporate office has moved into bigger digs. Please note our new address and change your email signature accordingly.
We are now located at:
2970 Presidential Drive, Suite 200 Beavercreek, OH 45324
Our phone number and fax number remain the same.
Stay Safe. Stay Healthy.
In this issue News from Corporate P.2
Kudos P.3
Azimuth Family News P.4
Employee Spotlight P.6
E D I T I O N 4 I S S U E
J U L Y 2 0 2 0
03
News from Corporate
Azimuth is excited to announce our initial AAIM Lab contract awards! Two concept
briefings were delivered by Azimuth Senior Scientist Dr. Perry Rice during the AFRL
Quantum Collider Pitch Day event on 15-16 June, resulting in two instantaneous Phase I
STTR (small business/academia collaboration) contract awards. The brain children of
Perry, the AAIM Lab will be working with the University of Arizona on Quantum
Networking and Communication concepts, and with the Air Force Institute of Technology
on Quantum Error Correction Concepts – both projects driven, of course, by AI/ML
technology. These projects are sponsored by AFRL/RI under contract numbers FA8650-
20-P-1719 and FA8650-20-P-1707.
A Phase I is a short-term (less than six month) concept development or demonstration of
feasibility, that, if successful, may lead to a longer-term Phase II (one to two year) product
development effort, or even a final Phase III that would put the product into production.
Be on the lookout for a new and improved Azimuth Employee Referral Program on our intranet site. A notice will go out to everyone when it’s available.
EMPLOYEE REFERRALS
2
Robert Cook The site lead for the Defense Legal Services Agency (DLSA) support team, Mr. Robert Cook, was recognized by the
government customer for his persistent “positive attitude and good spirits”, an attribute all the more important and
worthy of recognition in light of Rob and his Team being one of few essential support teams working 100% on-site
during the Coronavirus pandemic.
Mr. Cook has done a wonderful job dealing with day-to-day operational matters and more importantly, pandemic
induced issues that seem to plague his building. His positive attitude is infectious (pun intended) and keeps the whole
Team focused on their mission. Thank you to the entire DLSA Team for their continued support; and, to Mr. Cook, for
leading the team with an upbeat attitude during such a difficult time in the world.
Azimuth is proud to report that two of our employees received praise from our customers this quarter. Receiving feedback like this means a great deal and Azimuth is both fortunate and thankful to have such outstanding employees on its staff.
A special thank you to Robert and Rockney. Your hard work and dedication to our customers and to life are what make Azimuth a great company!
Rockney Nelson Rockney (Rocky) Nelson is a Future Requirements and Capabilities Subject Matter Expert supporting the ISR
Operations Directorate in the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence and Security (OUSD (I&S)). Over
the past 4 years Rocky has become the go-to guy for all things counter UAS in OUSD (I&S). Recently we received a
glowing note about how important Rocky is to the success of their mission from his customer in the Pentagon. In part,
the customer wrote:
Rockney has earned a place of pride in my organization because he can consistently perform at the very highest levels … [he] is able to accomplish difficult tasks that I would not consider assigning to others, by himself, with minimal guidance and absolutely no supervision. He will get the job done right, the first time, ahead of time, every time.
He is the lead for the ISR requirements team [and] the senior of six contractors responsible for identifying warfighter urgent ISR requirements and delivering new capabilities to the battlefield.
Rocky has also been extremely helpful to Azimuth and our business development efforts. He is always vigilant for areas
where the customers need additional help and recommends areas where Azimuth’s expertise, experiences and core
competencies can help customers solve their issues. Most recently, he was a key technical contributor to our recent
OUSDI(I&S) directorate contract win (ISR SME).
Rocky is a retired US Army officer with several tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. He joined Azimuth in November of 2015
after spending 10 years supporting the Joint Staff J8. He is an integral part of our success and a valued member of the
Azimuth family.
3
Dayton
H a n n a h K e m p e l
K a r e n P a s s mo r e
E r i c S c h n e e ma n n
R i c h a r d W a t t e r s
DC
K y l e Me a r s
NEW HIRES
AZIMUTH FAMILY NEWS
Our very own Perry Rice is publishing a book in September by the Institute of
Physics (London). This book introduces the quantum statistical methods used in
quantum physics, pitched at undergraduate students.
Beginning with an introduction on quantum optics and open quantum physics, the
book reviews classical electromagnetism and linear optics, and quantum mechanics,
before moving on to examine two level dynamics, quantum electromagnetic fields,
and two-level atoms coupled to quantized fields. Later chapters discuss coherence
and detection and the density matrix, before ending with quantum trajectory theory
and quasiprobability distributions.
Classroom tested and developed over the course of 30 years, this book is written in a
simplified, tutorial format for better understanding of complex concepts. It is an
essential guide for any students beginning their studies in quantum physics.
4
Thank you all for being a part of the Azimuth Team!
FUTURE NEWSLETTERS
Do you have a fun and unique
hobby? Are you a part of any
charitable organizations or like
to donate your time? Have
anything you’d like to share?
Azimuth would like to feature
YOU in our next newsletter!
Please feel welcome to submit
any pictures, write-ups, or ideas
you may have. Our employees
are what make Azimuth such a
great company to work for and
we want to hear from all of you!
Please remember, Azimuth
reserves editorial rights of all
write-ups and images submitted.
Any submissions can be sent to
JULY
AUGUST
SEPTEMBER
Sandra Vaughan 01 Karen Passmore 03 Bruce Van Newkirk 03 Claudia Westover 06 Karra Sushma 06 Gabby Keller 06 Liz Dougherty 09 Lirong Sun 11 Larry Nelson 13 Zack Marsh 18 Sharon Davis 19 Brent Boyd 24 Rockney Nelson 30
Peter Stevenson 01 Shawn Reece 05 Steve Hess 06 Joe Paley 09 Lara Brown 12 Laura Filson 13 Sandra Abrams 15 Perry Rice 16 Jonathan Meyer 27
Kafi Hall 06 Shondra Duran 12 Josh Solove 12 Roletha Grant 13 Dee Lawhorn 16 Cindy Brinkmeyer 21 Scott Pearce 21 Ighor Idehenre 22 Coogan Rencz 26 Eleanor Coyle 27 Jonah Nelson 28 Rachelle Credle 30
Steve Haiar 5 Lara Brown 10 Steve Durrant 10
Joe Paley 1 Liz Dougherty 2 Jackie Castelan 2 Sergey Basun 9
Zack Marsh 1 Tyrone Crawford 2 Abby Neal 4 Robert McGrath 5 Brad Bloom 6 Alex Wathen 6 Charles Rossi 18 Valerie Rossi 19
APRIL
JUNE
Years of Service
MAY
5
Joshua Melnick
My name is Josh Melnick, I received my BS in Electrical Engineering from Ohio State and my
MS in Microelectronics from RIT. I joined Azimuth in March 2020, working in AFRL/RXAN
with Dr. Shin Mou as a semiconductor research engineer. We are working on development
of Gallium Oxide as a new semiconducting material for Ultra-Wide Band Gap devices.
Today I’m talking about my 3d printing hobby. I began with FDM printing, followed by resin
3d printing. As I became more involved, I found myself interested in more advanced
methods like metal 3d printing and Generative Design, a cool design tool that I want to
focus on below.
Generative design is an exciting new form of CAD. With the advent of Machine Learning,
Cloud Computing, and 3d Printing we are at a sort of technological schwerpunkt where the
complex and expensive computations can be outsourced to a server and the bizarre, H. R.
Giger like, forms created by the AI of Generative Design, can be made via 3d printing.
Figure 1 below is an example of Generative Design and an experiment I ran to compare two
different methods to 3d print a hangar bracket.
Figure 1, is a wall mounted headphone stand, designed by Generative Design from another person, the black color is 3d
Printed via FDM method and the grey is printed via the Resin method, notice the far smoother form of the grey.
Generative Design works by specifying the direction of forces, gravity, preserve geometries
and obstacle geometries as show in Figure 2. The Fusion 360 algorithms know what
minimum and maximum constraints are necessary to solve for the object. We input a series
of limits such as materials to use and whether to solve for minimum mass or maximize
stiffness and it presents the modeler with an array of possible solutions that it has solved on
the cloud, as shown in Figure 3.
Continued on next page.
6
Figure 2 Left is the AI created solution in Fusion 360, middle is the preserve geometries of the shelf bracket and far right is
the preserve geometries with the obstacle geometries, those are places in the model where we do not want material,
because that is where the wall would be, or screws are used to anchor the part to the wall and shelf.
Figure 3 is an array of solutions that the Fusion 360 software has solved for the shelf bracket, given the constraints of
force, geometries and materials. The design differences are subtle, mostly in the number or thickness of spanners.
Generative Design has amazing potential to reimagine many parts in the Aerospace industry
where weight is of great importance, it can also be a factor in high performance industry such
as racing in Automotive and perhaps even in Architecture.
7