2022 Future 5 Awardees
Each year, AOC showcases five young professionals as the year's Future 5, recognizing those who actively innovate and strive for excellence as they build their careers in the EMS/EW/IO industry.
Please join us in celebrating this year’s Future 5.
Joshua Kozak
Signals Analysis NCOIC, USAF/694th Intelligence Surveillance and Reconnaissance Group
Career Goal
The future roles that I desire to fill are not oriented around single specific positions but more so guided by my desire to maintain superiority in the electromagnetic spectrum for the US in the ways I see most fitting to my values. Ultimately, the preservation of American lives and the ability to respond safely to emerging threats is something I value immensely. After the Persian Gulf War, our near-peer adversaries took notice of our effectiveness in conventional warfare and have launched multi-decade-long military modernization efforts in an attempt to close the power gap; modernization efforts that highlight the use of asymmetric weapons in particular. Sustainability of allied C4ISR in light of adversary electronic attack is a cornerstone in our Joint Doctrine. Without it, rival powers may get the upper hand in the wars of the future. The development of electronic protection measures and the enhancement of electronic warfare support will be a lynchpin facet in ensuring our country can survive the next great conflict. Ensuring the preservation of our ability to utilize the EM spectrum freely is a ubiquitous need across all aspects of the Department of Defense and something that must be strived for by younger generations to ensure the protection of American lives and hegemony.
Career Achievement
My most significant career achievement thus far has been the opportunity to orchestrate the implementation of new tactics, techniques, and procedures for ELINT analysts across the 480th ISRW, but in particular, my former ground site at Ramstein Air Base. We handcrafted and evolved Ramstein away from its conventional processing, exploitation, and dissemination mission into a flexible and dynamic targeting mission. At first, many ELINT analysts across the ISR Wing were pessimistic and hesitant. Still, I led the building of Ramstein from a vanilla and rigid PED mission into a lean, mean, and dynamic machine. The significant degree of pride I have in this construct is due to witnessing it be put into action across the European theater, ensuring the adversary has no safe place to hide in their ongoing efforts to dismantle European freedom and democracy. Without the evolution of high-altitude ISR missions, I firmly believe we wouldn’t be nearly as ready to respond to evolving threats, and the proof is undeniable.
Education
Arizona State University, Electrical Engineering – Currently Enrolled
Piotr Kulik
Senior RF Engineer, Metamagnetics Inc
Career Goal
My ultimate career goal within the EMS/EW/IO industry is to start my own business focused on helping the warfighter. As an immigrant blessed by the opportunities of the United States and as an active patriot through my participation in Scouting and earning Eagle Scout, I always had a passion for helping our nation. Leveraging my devotion to technology through obtaining a Ph.D. in RF devices targeted toward the military and commercial communication (5G) sectors and experience in working in small businesses, I believe I can have a much larger impact if I become an entrepreneur. Employed by a small business (Metamagnetics), I am learning how to manage financial and human resources, obtain government contracts (SBIRS) and help transition research efforts into programs of records. Furthermore, traveling to various government locations and attending government conferences such as GOMACTech has allowed me to see some of the opportunities that are in the EMS/EW/IO industry, such as environment RF spectrum sensing. Such an application has potential to utilize my experience in MEMS and RF magnetic devices from my Ph.D. research to build new types of devices for the industry. To achieve my ultimate career goal, I am also pursuing an MBA at Boston University part-time to have a much broader understanding of business while building a much larger network and applying it to the defense and aerospace industry.
Career Achievement
As a principal investigator at Metamagnetics, I relentlessly seek out different funding schemes from DARPA and other government-related entities. Through collaboration, relationship building, and countless hours of experimentation, simulation, and writing, I have led the effort to secure a $1.8 million DARPA program for Metamagnetics for the development of mmWave filters for military radar and EW systems. This DARPA program named Compact Front-end Filters at the Element-level (COFFEE) pushes the limits of miniaturized magnetic filters through an integrable, scalable approach that provides a pathway toward tile array compatible filter architectures for military communication systems. This win is historical, as it is the first time Metamagnetics is the lead rather than a subcontractor, breaking that status quo. It is also the first time that Metamagnetics has a large business (Northrop Grumman) as a subcontractor. While winning this large DARPA proposal may be my biggest career achievement to date, I believe that the potential technological developments that arise from this program may have large transition opportunities for Metamagnetics, hence making it a much bigger career achievement in the future. It will also be an opportunity to train more younger electrical engineers in magnetic RF devices.
Education
Doctor of Philosophy in Electrical Engineering (Ph.D.)
Ryan Loehrlein
Engineer, Naval Surface Warfare Center, Crane Division
Career Goal
Maya Angelou once stated, "You can only become truly accomplished at something you love. Don't make money your goal. Instead, pursue the things you love doing, and then do them so well that people can't take their eyes off you". When I first saw this quote, it resonated with me immensely causing me to rethink my career goals. I realized that I needed to follow my passion, work hard, and not let anyone limit my aspirations. I took this newly founded mentality into my first internship at NSWC, Crane. I quickly grew to love my workload, which emphasized delivering innovative solutions to the Warfighters via advanced technical capabilities. My internship was filled with challenging research and development projects, a community that encouraged mentoring, and colleagues that cared about my future. I quickly realized that I found my calling and continued honing my skills within the Airborne Electronic Attack Division over the past six years. After learning about Crane's organization and opportunities within the EMSO/EW community I decided that I am aiming to become NSWC Crane's Advanced EW Senior Scientific Technical Manager (EW SSTM). I've been honored to watch Crane's EW SSTM inspire, mentor, and encourage future EMSO/EW members. This position requires passion, dedication, humility, and a profound depth of technical knowledge. I alone cannot change the entire EMSO domain, however, I can strive to inspire, mentor, and encourage the next generation of EMSO experts. If I can impact one person, I have succeeded in achieving my ultimate career goal.
Career Achievement
To date, my biggest career achievement has been establishing a cross-functional Modeling and Simulation (M&S) team called FIRES, or the Fleet Informed-operations for Research and Engineering Simulations. Overall, I established this team to begin building a robust M&S architecture that enables the Department of Defense to meet its operational and support objectives more effectively throughout the entire Digital Mission Engineering (DME) lifecycle. The main goal of this group was to increase interoperability amongst various M&S software suites, build an analytical approach capable of modeling advanced non-kinetic effects (i.e., EMSO, EW, OFM, and Cyber) in all domains, and increase the overall knowledge base around M&S/EMSO/EW at NSWC Crane via workforce development. Since the team's inception in Fiscal Year 20 (FY20), I have been able to obtain ~$1.85M to build the team while simultaneously investing in Crane's advanced M&S architecture. Due to these strategic investments, my team has been able to support over 25 internal/external Science & Technology (S&T) efforts, and I have been able to train/mentor approximately 20 engineers. The culmination of my team's dedication, hard work, and perseverance has allowed us to establish an innovative yet robust M&S approach that is changing the Status Quo. I am honored to be leading a small team of highly skilled engineers that are consistently providing vital technical insights to our nation's warfighters. Right now, my team is in its infancy, and I can't wait to watch this group grow to its full potential through hard work, perseverance, and innovation!
Education
Master of Business Administration (MBA), Bachelor of Science in Engineering (BSE), Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering (BSME)
Rachel Norris Brody
Radar Staff Systems Engineer, Maxar Technologies
Career Goal
I intend to become a technical program director and continue to be active in customer symposia, industry meetings and conferences, youth and student outreach, and community service. I hope to influence not only the projects my company chooses to pursue but the priorities of the field and the technologies in which our customers choose to invest. Electromagnetic signals and systems enable faster, smarter decisions to be made without risking life and property, but technology developed within a defense context can also be leveraged beyond the traditional needs of the warfighter. I plan to facilitate the use of radar and imaging to defend human rights and the safety of our home and resources through environmental observation and prediction. The more innovative and versatile our instrumentation solutions, the stronger and safer our world will be for the generations to come. For these reasons, I have chosen a long-term career in the EMS industry, and they motivate me to spend time and effort encouraging STEM creativity in my own company and beyond.
Career Achievement
In my three years as an early career professional, my biggest achievement has been the successful organization and moderation of a panel at the International IEEE Radar Conference in New York City for an audience of several hundred professionals. I was nominated by a senior colleague to serve as the Women in Engineering Chair for the 2022 conference. I utilized my network to connect with female leaders in the radar industry, six of whom accepted invitations to volunteer as panelists. These included several professors from around the world, a director within the European Space Agency, a CEO of multiple successful EMS startup companies, and senior technical leaders in well-known defense research and technology companies.
Education
Master of Science in Engineering — MSE, Electrical and Computer Engineering
Ethan Skemp
Chemical Engineer, NAVAIR - Navy
Career Goal
Information is the currency of the modern age, but this paradigm has barely begun to permeate the EW industry. It has failed to establish an effective foothold on the government side. This leaves the DOD lagging behind the commercial industry and its international peer competitors, placing it at avoidable risk. I aim to bring this paradigm to NAVAIR and help to implement it in such an effective manner that would allow us to maintain our asymmetric EW advantage. Part of this implementation is the necessary training and demonstration of the capabilities of data as a source of actionable information to guide and assess decisions. The DOD often struggles to overcome its complacent acceptance of “the old way” of doing things which hinders its ability to adapt to a rapidly evolving field of cognitive and interconnected radars and IADS. I have, in my short time with the Navy, begun to bring awareness of this deficit to my workgroup and have begun reaching higher and higher levels presenting to a rear admiral, the Office of the Secretary of Defense, and other administrators to help broaden the impact of my efforts. As I advance, I continue to reach higher and proselytize the advantages afforded by data-centric decision-making.
Career Achievement
I consider the greatest accomplishment of my career to be the successful execution of the Modeless Radar Model project that I led in the 2021 fiscal year. Our workgroup, Simulation Development within Electronic Warfare Integration Laboratories, has focused on the open-loop simulation of moded and framed emitters with preset modal transitions and frames, leaving out the “modeless” radars. The Modeless Radar Model project probed into this deficiency in order to bring this capability to our existing testing infrastructure without disturbing our existing testing practices. Because this is outside of the scope of our existing Simulation Development, we required significant research into existing simulator solutions and commercial applications, learning as we worked, but without mentorship or guidance. Shiloh Ryan, my co-lead, and I worked with a team composed entirely of junior engineers. We spent the majority of our time developing the skills necessary to complete the project both in ourselves and in our teammates. Every member of our team developed significantly over the course of the project and has gone on to support a variety of projects with incredible success, spanning multiple bases, organizations, and competencies. I am proud to have been a stepping stone for those employees and am extremely proud of the contributions they have made. Ultimately, we were able to demonstrate our project to Read Admiral Dillon and other NAWCWD leadership. This brought significant visibility to our project. A follow-on project that we pitched has been funded and is underway, looking to bring the Modeless Radar Model to a full closed-loop modeless radar.
Education
Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering