MDRS Crew 88
January 9, 2010 - January 23, 2010
Daily Crew Reports

Name	Speciality
Dr. Stephen F. Wheeler, Ph.D	Commander
Laksen Sirimanne	Executive Officer / Engineer
Bianca Nowak	Health & Safety Officer
Paul McCall	Astronomer
Diego Urbina	Biologist
David Levine	Journalist

Dr. Stephen F. Wheeler, Ph.D	Steve has twenty years of corporate and academic experience in the scientific and industrial application of Computer Science and Information Systems. He is the founder and president of Computing and Information Sciences Company, a computer consulting firm, and has been a Principal Consultant for several of the largest computer consulting companies, including Cap Gemini America and Decision Consultants, Inc. He most recently served as Senior Systems Engineer for Compaq Computer Corporation in Houston, Texas. Presently, he is Senior Professor of Information Systems for the Graduate School of DeVry University in Dallas, Texas, a position he has held since 2002. He has previously held faculty appointments at East Texas State University in Computer Sciences, LeTourneau University, and Dallas Baptist University. His undergraduate (BSc.) degree is in Computer Science and Mathematics from Texas A&M University . Commerce, where he also received his Graduate (MSc.) degree in Computer Science with thesis research in Artificial Intelligence. He holds a Post Graduate (Ph.D.) degree in Artificial Intelligence from Walden University. His research domain was linear symbolic problem solving systems utilizing Aspiration Search modeled on the Iterative-Deepening Alpha-Beta search procedure known as Negamax Fail-Soft Alpha-Beta. His Doctoral research also involved Natural Language Processing (NLP), and his dissertation is titled "A Performance Analysis of the Iterative-Deepening Alpha-Beta Search Procedure Under Variations of the Ordering Interval within a Chess Program." He is presently conducting post-doctoral research in intelligent problem-solving systems employing variations of neurosymbolic morphologies for eventual publication. Steve is an avid amateur astronomer and owns and operates an observatory-quality Meade 14-inch LX200 GPS Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope. He has a keen interest in Astronomy, Astrophysics, Astronautics, and Aerospace technology. He is also interested in vertebrate and invertebrate Paleontology, and Micropaleontology. He is an FAA Licensed Commercial Pilot with an Instrument Rating and serves as a Transport Mission Pilot with the Texas Wing, Group III of the United States Air Force Auxiliary, Civil Air Patrol with the rank of Captain. He has successfully completed the Squadron Leadership School, and is the Aerospace Education Officer of the Addison Eagles Squadron and has achieved the Chuck Yeager Aerospace Education Award. He has also been trained in Emergency Services and Homeland Security, and has successfully completed the ICS-300 and ICS-400 FEMA Department of Homeland Security Incident Command System certification.
Laksen Sirimanne	Laksen has over twenty years of research and development experience in medical devices. He has pioneered many advances in the field of biomedical engineering, including coronary balloon angioplasty, fallopian tube endoscopy, biopsy and lumpectomy markers, and percutaneous left ventricular assist devices. He currently serves as Vice President of Research and Development of Edwards Lifesciences Transcatheter Heart Valve Replacement Program (THVR). THVR is the non-surgical replacement of a heart valve using a specially designed valve crimped on a catheter and navigated via a percutaneous incision in the femoral artery. The diseased heart valve is replaced in a catheterization lab while the patient is awake and on a beating heart, eliminating the need for anesthesia and open heart surgery. This technology is considered to be one of the biggest breakthroughs in Interventional Cardiology. He has fifteen issued patents and over 30 pending applications on a variety of medical devices and treatment methods. Laksen graduated from the University of California, Irvine with a BS in Physics. He has an MBA from Pepperdine University, an MS in Aerospace Engineering/Astronautics from the University of Southern California, an MS in Electrical Engineering from Columbia University, and an MS in Medical Device and Diagnostic Engineering from the University of Southern California. Laksen has traveled to all seven continents. He has summited Kilimanjaro, lived among the Dani tribe in Irian Jaya; sailed to Komodo Island and whitewater rafted the Zambezi. Two of his most memorable achievements include being a team member of the 4th Parachute Expedition to the North Pole and setting a new World Record and US Transcontinental Record in the category and class by flying a single-engine Diamondstar DA-40 from Orange County Airport to First Flight Airport in Kittyhawk, North Carolina in 17 hours, 24 minutes. Laksen has a private pilot.s license in single-engine land and sea planes and hot air balloons. He is currently building a KB-3 gyrocopter in his garage. His hobbies include sailing, running, collecting meteorites and amateur robotics. He is 45 years old, married to Mai with two daughters Kaitlyn and Taylor. Although born and raised in Colombo, Sri Lanka, he considers Southern California home. Laksen is thrilled and excited to be a part of the crew of MDRS-88 and looks forward to sharing this amazing experience with the crew.
Bianca Nowak	Bianca has a Bachelors degree in Nursing and Hospital Sciences and a postgraduate degree from the Institute for Tropical Diseases in Antwerp. She has a passion for photography and astronomy, and is extremely interested in space. She was the lucky teacher who participated for Belgium at the International Space Camp in Huntsville, Alabama. She is also a Space Teacher for the Euro Space Society. In her free time she is a staff member at the AstroLab Iris observatory in Ieper where she works with young people, trying to enthuse them about astronomy and space. Most of her time is spent with her family and her full-time job as a high school teacher at TA Diksmuide, where she teaches medical subjects.
	Paul is currently a graduate student at Florida International University in Miami, Florida. He will graduate this upcoming spring semester with an MS in electrical engineering, with his research focused on digital signal processing. He completed his undergrad degree in electrical engineering at FIU as well. He is doing a co-op with the Department of Defense over the summer, while studying during the school year. His current research focuses on automatic seizure detection techniques. This past summer Paul worked at the Navy base in Dahlgren, Virginia. He was part of a team that worked with man-portable targeting systems and 1064nm laser guided munitions for use by the United States Marine Corps. He is planning to pursue a Ph.D or another Master's degree in Engineering Physics at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. Paul has been enthused about space exploration since he was young, and would like to work for NASA after he graduates... Paul was the starting quarterback at FIU for the last two years. He has three siblings, Heather, Philip, and Sean. He enjoys playing golf, skydiving, and watching movies.
Diego Urbina	Diego is of Colombian and Italian nationalities, but considers himself as a citizen of the world. He holds a BSc (2006) and a MSc (2008) in Electronics Engineering with a focus in microelectronics and optoelectronics, both from Politecnico di Torino, in Turin, Italy. During his postgraduate research, he designed and simulated a Star Compass for the Aramis nanosatellite. In 2006 he was an ERASMUS scholar for a year at the Universidad de Cantabria, in Santander, Spain. In 2008-2009 he was an ESA and SES scholar at the International Space University (ISU). He completed the Space Studies Program (SSP) in Barcelona, Spain, working on the design of a framework for volcanic activity data convergence. Afterwards, he obtained a MSc (2009) in Space Studies from ISU in Strasbourg, France, with, among others, a project on the use of Augmented Reality (AR) in space operations and a team project on a system of in-situ data collection for Climate Change. Together with a team of students from more than 14 countries and the collaboration of CSA, ISU, NASA, ESA and CNRS, he worked on the Iris experiment that studied the perception of ambiguous figures in space, and flew this project on ESA's 50th parabolic flight campaign, before it was delivered to the International Space Station to be executed during expeditions XX and XXI. In summer 2009 he joined the Neutral Buoyancy Facility (NBF) team as an intern at the European Astronaut Centre in Cologne, Germany. Diego supported and devised new enhancements of the Extravehicular Activity (EVA) simulations, contributed to NBF personnel qualification, created a basic training lesson on EVA for the European Astronaut Candidates, and implemented an Augmented Reality system for Astronaut briefings. He is currently volunteering as a visiting lecturer in schools and the Maloka Science Museum in Colombia, motivated by his will to show the benefits of space and science to kids before he enters the space industry full time. At MDRS, he is interested in experiencing first-hand the problems that arise in a planetary settlement, and during its EVAs (helping solving them), and seeding tropical plants in the Greenhab. Diego is fluent in English, Italian, Spanish and has an intermediate level of French. He loves scuba diving, hiking, playing football (soccer) and graphic design.
David Levine	David is an award-winning science fiction writer who has been passionate about space travel all his life. His earliest memories include the Gemini space walks, and his favorite toy as a child was "Major Matt Mason, America's Astronaut in Space." But instead of growing up to be an astronaut, he wound up working as a technical writer, software engineer, and user interface designer for such companies as Tektronix, Intel, and McAfee. Although he was happy in high tech, he couldn't let go of space, and in the year 2000 he took a sabbatical from his high-tech job to attend the Clarion West science fiction writers' workshop. It seems to have worked. He made his first professional short story sale in 2001, won the Writers of the Future Contest in 2002, was nominated for the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer in 2003, was nominated for the Hugo Award and the Campbell again in 2004, and won a Hugo in 2006 (Best Short Story, for "Tk'Tk'Tk"). David retired from his day job in 2007, at the age of 46, and now spends his time traveling and writing. His science fiction and fantasy stories have been published in all the major magazines; translated into French, Spanish, Italian, Swedish, Russian, Polish, Finnish, Czech, Hebrew, and Chinese; and collected in four Year's Best anthologies. He has also written two novels and is working on a third. His "Titanium Mike Saves the Day" was nominated for a Nebula Award in 2008, and a collection of his short stories, Space Magic from Wheatland Press, just won the 2009 Endeavour Award for best SF book from a Pacific Northwest writer. David lives in Portland, Oregon with his wife, Kate Yule, with whom he edits the fanzine Bento.

---

The Mars Society
info@marssociety.org - +1 (303) 984-9653
11111 W. 8th Ave Unit A, Lakewood, CO 80215, USA
Copyright © 2008 The Mars Society.
All rights reserved.