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By Ed Stiles
October 6, 2005

A UA professor and one of his master's students have received the highest award given to civilian contractors by Ft. Huachuca's Joint Interoperability Test Command (JITC).

Professor Bernard Zeigler and master's student Eddie Mak, from UA's Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) Department, won the award for their work on developing an Automated Test Case Generator (ATC-Gen). This software toolset — based on computer modeling and simulation — is modernizing and automating the testing of new systems being used by the military and other government agencies.

The software includes tests to verify that new systems can share information and are jointly operable by all U.S. forces and their allies. This means that radar systems used by the Army, Air Force and Navy, for instance, must be compatible and that data can be shared among the systems rapidly in real-time situations.

JITC is the test organization responsible for certifying that all Department of Defense systems will be jointly operable.

In 2003, a contractor team under Northrop Grumman Information Technology, which includes ECE's Arizona Center for Integrative Modeling and Simulation (ACIMS), led the effort to formalize the standards for JITC tests and the sequences of those tests.

"At first, there were a lot of reservations that we could do this," Zeigler noted. The specification document that sets the standards for tests and interoperability is more than 1,000 pages long, with many interdependent elements. Just interpreting the standards was time intensive and prone to error.

"Others have tried to automate the tests but failed," Zeigler said. "So there were some doubters. But when we got our software and simulations working and convinced them that this was they way to go, our approach became the basis for developing the testing procedures. We have a long-term contract to continue developing this system through 2010 and beyond."

"The main system we're working to test right now is a network of different sensors and their associated computers and command systems," he added. "It's a very advanced and complicated radar system that is intended to produce a single integrated air picture.

"The various units have to share information especially when threats are happening very fast. They might have radar signals from airplanes, ships and ground-based units and these have to be shared and combined for the best view of what's occurring out there. It's important because they all need to come to a quick decision to take action or not."

The awards recognize that the "leadership, guidance and knowledge" of Zeigler and the "systems engineering and software development skills" of Mak were instrumental in the "highly successful effort to provide a valuable testing tool to the testing community."