SBIR Road Show 2019

Economic RSF team met with Rod Chappell, Team Lead and Sharon Gates, Lead Analyst at NASA’s Minority University Research and Education Project (MUREP) program at Langley Research Center in Virginia during the 2019 SBIR Road Tour in P.R.

ERSF Team and NASA discussed how PR could be an ideal site for NASA’s R&D and testing programs. Juan Bauza explained how Roosevelt Roads offers an ideal site for testing land, sea and air unmanned systems. Mr. Chappell was very interested in continuing this discussion.

J. Bauza made an introduction to Guifre Tort of the BlueTide Ocean Institute project at Roosevelt Roads and discussed using the Ocean Institute for testing and R&D in unmanned surface and underwater systems. During the SBIR tour, NASA representatives stated their interest in looking for UAV technology and equipment that they can interchange with other federal agencies.

Mr. Chappell felt that the possible uses of the Roosevelt Roads facilities and the Ocean Institute needed further discussion and wanted to continue this discussion.

This could be an opportunity to bring NASA’s MUREP program and the PR DDEC together to discuss the possibility of using Roosevelt Roads as a NASA unmanned vehicles research and R&D center.