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Company

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Phoenix Integration, Inc.

Address

1715 Pratt Dr Ste 2000
Blacksburg, VA, 24060-6472
USA

View website

UEI: NQY4DFK14JN1

Number of Employees: 40

HUBZone Owned: No

Woman Owned: No

Socially and Economically Disadvantaged: No

SBIR/STTR Involvement

Year of first award: 1996

Phase I Awards

Phase II Awards

60%

Conversion Rate

$1,645,660

Phase I Dollars

$7,201,191

Phase II Dollars

$8,846,851

Total Awarded

Awards

Up to 10 of the most recent awards are being displayed. To view all of this company's awards, visit the Award Data search page.

EngineeringHub: A Trusted Collaborative Framework for Model Based Engineering Sharing

Amount: $744,162 Topic: S5

In recent years, industry and government have begun adopting Model Based Engineering (MBE) practices in an unprecedented way. No longer exclusively the domain of isolated experts, MBE has been implemented across the full product lifecycle. This success is, however, giving rise to new challenges. The ability to share disparate models across teams, organizational boundaries, and among communities of practice is important for collaboration on complex projects. Model reuse is important because it minimizes the need to ldquo;re-invent the wheelrdquo; for each new project or initiative. Additionally, organizations face the challenge of model traceability and results repeatability. Both these qualities are critical in the lifecycle of an engineering product, and far too often is not attended to until a crisis occurs. Phoenix Integration proposes to address these challenges by developing an analysis model sharing platform, coupled with a reliable and repeatable way of deploying those analysis models. This platform will be easy-to-use, web-based, and built on the Git version control system. This model-sharing platform will have provision for documentation, tags and metadata. Software containerization is used to ensure a stable and repeatable analysis execution platform. This ensures that given a set of inputs, running the same analysis or workflow will always yield the same results. Shared analyses and workflows would be easily run in ModelCenterreg;, as well as on web-interfaces. It will rely on cloud computing resources with on-demand provisioning and execute the analyses and workflows on them when requested. Additionally, published analyses and workflows would be verified automatically whenever supporting software versions change.

SBIR

Phase II

2020

NASA

ModelCenter MBSE for OpenMBEE: MBSE Analysis integration for Distributed Development

Amount: $124,961 Topic: H6

MBSE has been increasingly embraced by both industry and government to keep track of system complexity. It allows the engineer to represent the system in a comprehensive computer model allowing for better traceability, tracking, and information consistency. The vision and promise of MBSE is one where systems models and analyses are tightly integrated in an automated, collaborative, easily accessible and secure framework. However, the current state-of-the-art falls short of this promise due to a significant gap between MBSE tools and its integration with analysis tools. Phoenix Integration proposes to develop and prototype a framework that would help realize the vision and promise of MBSE. This prototype framework will be web-based, utilizing existing tools and frameworks already deployed and being used at NASA. At the center of the framework is the connection between OpenMBEE and ModelCenterreg; MBSE. OpenMBEE is an open source collaboration environment for engineering models. It is driven by models and capabilities that support a model-based approach. ModelCenterreg; MBSE on the other hand, is a next generation MBSE analysis integration tool currently being commercially developed at Phoenix Integration. This framework will be connected to a continuous integration server for automated execution in response to a model change. In addition to being able to interact with the systems model through a web environment, the user would be able to execute the associated analyses and workflows using information from the systems model. Automatic requirements verification can be performed through automated analysis execution whenever a change in the systems model is detected. The analysis that is run can also be represented back in the systems model for full traceability.

SBIR

Phase I

2020

NASA

EngineeringHub: A Trusted Collaborative Framework for Model Based Engineering Sharing

Amount: $124,991 Topic: S5

In recent years, industry and government have begun adopting Model Based Engineering (MBE) practices in an unprecedented way. No longer exclusively the domain of isolated experts, MBE has been implemented across the full product lifecycle. This success is, however, giving rise to new challenges. The ability to share disparate models across teams, organizational boundaries, and among communities of practice is important for collaboration on complex projects. Model reuse is important because it minimizes the need to ldquo;re-invent the wheelrdquo; for each new project or initiative. Finally, the need to rapidly integrate disparate models together is critical for accurate evaluation of multidisciplinary systems and for evaluating different system/mission concepts and architectural variants. Phoenix Integration proposes to address these challenges by developing an analysis model sharing platform similar to GitHub, a successful software development collaboration system. This platform will be easy-to-use, web-based, and built on the Git version control system. Modifications will be made to tailor the Git repository system to version control analysis models and workflows. This model-sharing platform will have provision for documentation, tags and metadata, which includes a software dependencies list and supported OS. Shared analyses and workflows would be easily run in ModelCenterreg; and Jupyter notebooks. It will rely on cloud computing resources with on-demand provisioning and execute the analyses and workflows on them when requested. Additionally, published analyses and workflows would be verified automatically whenever supporting software versions change.

SBIR

Phase I

2019

NASA

Pushing the State of the Art: A Web-enabled MBSE Analysis Integration Framework

Amount: $118,525 Topic: S5

Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) has been increasingly embraced by both industry and government as a means to keep track of system complexity. It allows the engineer to represent the system in a comprehensive computer model allowing for better traceability, tracking, and information consistency. The vision and promise of MBSE is one where systems models and analyses are tightly integrated in an automated, collaborative, easily accessible and secure framework. However, the current state-of-the-art falls short of this promise due to a significant gap between MBSE tools and its integration with analysis tools. Phoenix Integration proposes to develop and prototype a framework that would help realize the vision and promise of MBSE. This prototype framework will be web-based, utilizing existing tools and frameworks already deployed and being used at NASA. This will be done by leveraging available existing technology as well as commercial products currently under development. At the center of the framework is the connection between No Magic Teamwork Server and ModelCenter® MBSE. Teamwork Server is a web-based MBSE collaboration platform, while ModelCenter® MBSE is a next generation MBSE analysis integration tool currently being commercially developed at Phoenix Integration. This framework will be connected to distributed or high performance computing resources for quick analysis execution, as well as a continuous integration server for automated execution in response to a model change. In addition to being able to interact with the systems model through a web environment, the user would be able to execute the associated analyses and workflows using information from the systems model. Automatic requirements verification can be performed through automated analysis execution whenever a change in the systems model is detected. Results can be displayed on a web-enabled dashboard, together with interactive charts and plots to help visualize results and data.

SBIR

Phase I

2018

NASA

Integrated Visualization Environment for Science Mission Modeling

Amount: $749,942 Topic: S5.04

NASA is emphasizing the use of larger, more integrated models in conjunction with systems engineering tools and decision support systems. These tools place a corresponding stress on legacy engineering visualization systems which now are required to handle larger data sets, provide more intuition to the user, integrate well with many other tools, and help the user with his/her ultimate goal: improving the design of complex systems. Phoenix Integration proposes to complete the prototype visualization environment created during Phase I to the point where it is a commercially viable product. New features, refinements, and integration with other tools will be accomplished in Phase II. In particular, the work will involve major improvements to whitespace exploration algorithms, techniques that enable users to unconstrain or modify the underlying engineering model in an effort to obtain results in previously unattainable areas. Work will also include more data mining algorithms (e.g. Principal Component Analysis), new graph types (e.g. spider plots), export formats to 3-D tools (e.g. Tecplot), integration with MBSE/SysML tools, integration with web-based decision support environments, and incorporation of probabilistic analysis. A rich integration with ModelCenter, the company's engineering integration and trade study environment, is planned, although a standalone capability will also be offered. The visualizer's architecture will be based on OpenGL and will use the GPU to parallelize rendering computations. Design will focus on usability and responsiveness, with the goal of providing quick insight into complex data. The tool will be user-tested through early adopters to ensure relevance and to guide development.

SBIR

Phase II

2014

NASA

Framework for Autonomous Optimization

Amount: $124,775 Topic: T11.02

Phoenix Integration and MIT propose to create a novel autonomous optimization tool and application programming interface (API). The API will demonstrate the ability to link to many optimization algorithms, both open source and proprietary, as well as to framework tools that carry optimization algorithms within them. It will also allow users to connect their engineering models to it conveniently. The API will be available both as a cross-platform standalone product and as part of ModelCenter, an engineering integration and trade study environment. In addition to and included within the API will be techniques to perform optimization autonomously by providing a management layer which globally adjusts the run in an intelligent fashion. Thus, it will categorize problems to understand effective solution techniques for them, try many algorithms during a run, change the settings on single algorithms so they run more productively, adaptively learn which techniques worked and which didn't, and inquire of the user insight that may help the optimizer reach its destination sooner. A database of prior runs will be built to help facilitate these features. The management layer will also help the user understand errors that take place, log appropriately, and prevent failures.

STTR

Phase I

2014

NASA

Integrated Modeling, Analysis, and Verification for Space Missions

Amount: $124,767 Topic: S5.04

This project will further MBSE technology in fundamental ways by strengthening the link between SysML tools and framework engineering execution environments. Phoenix Integration has produced a commercial tool (MBSE Pak) which allows engineers to link SysML diagrams (in MagicDraw and Rhapsody) to ModelCenter, a general-purpose engineering integration framework. As a result, from SysML parametric diagrams, engineers can execute actual engineering analysis tools for the purpose of systems architectural design, requirements compliance, trade studies, etc. This proposal would extend this MBSE product in several specific ways. First, it would develop a systems analysis capability for improved management decisions including the ability to perform what-if studies of technology options, simulation of schedule and cost, and probabilistic discrete event simulation for risk analysis. Second, it would improve verification and validation of models through improved requirements compliance analysis, handling of time series data, and traceability of data pedigree for modeling artifacts. Third, it would connect SysML models to executable model libraries in which components can be executed in an ad-hoc manner (on any capable computer) from the library itself and include rich support for multi-fidelity modeling tools on the backend. A representative system model would be developed as an example problem to illustrate the developed features and would be demonstrated to NASA throughout the course of the work.

SBIR

Phase I

2014

NASA

A Framework for Model Based Decision Making

Amount: $149,964 Topic: AF131-080

ABSTRACT: This proposal seeks to provide a software framework by which a decision maker can participate in complex systems design. It involves building on an already developed engineering integration and trade study tool (ModelCenter) paired with a SysML environment (e.g. MagicDraw or Rhapsody). The new features will include the auto-generation of user interfaces for decision support as well as the ability to compose new architectures automatically. In particular, easy to use"dashboard"visualization techniques will allow decision makers of various interests to better understand the significance of parameter changes within complex systems and thus aid in communication and design evaluation. The system capabilities will be based on a Core Architecture Model (CAM) for Air Force ISR satellite constellation systems. Tasks will include creating a representative satellite system model, formulating the infrastructure for decision support including auto-generator user interface tools, developing satellite architecture generation techniques, and applying the technology to representative Air Force and industry problems. Although the tool-suite will be tailored specifically to satellite systems in this work, it will be based on a generic infrastructure that can be applied to any complex system development program. BENEFIT: Benefits include improved communication between stakeholders, better decision making, and a more explicit understanding of the effects of engineering constraints on overall cost, schedule, and risk for new systems. These are based on a rigorous, model-based connection between system decisions and actual engineering computations, traceability and documentation of changes that are made, and communication of engineering results back up the chain of command to the decision maker. These capabilities couple decision makers with engineers, enabling more precise and informed architecture decisions within and between complex systems. Although the capability will be developed for Air Force satellite constellation systems, the advantages are readily applicable to any complex system design project, military or commercial. The same need to improve the link between engineers and various communities of decision makers exists whether the project involves military acquisition or commercial global competitiveness. This is a timely topic given the expansion of model based systems technology and the need to incorporate additional economic and life-cycle considerations into all design processes.

SBIR

Phase I

2013

DOD

USAF

Integrated Visualization Environment for Science Mission Modeling

Amount: $124,740 Topic: S5.04

The proposed work will provide NASA with an integrated visualization environment providing greater insight and a more intuitive representation of large technical data sets. Engineering framework tools now provide a new level of integration with systems engineering, high fidelity computation, mission modeling, and collaborative infrastructures. Innovative visualization technology is required to represent the larger and more complex outputs generated by these frameworks. Our proposed solution will address these issues by developing a visualization environment designed from the start to handle extremely large data sets and providing greater flexibility in terms of the graphical output types that can be produced. This work will involve the use of software technology to parallelize operations, use the GPU, improve memory allocation, and use modern libraries such as OpenGL for efficient rendering. Algorithms to study the "white space" in trade spaces and extend Pareto frontiers into these blank areas will be included. New data mining and clustering algorithms for obtaining insight into complex data sets, involving many parameters, will be built into the visualizer. Features to interact with the underlying computational model (in ModelCenter) and change it easily to observe its effect on the visualized output will be provided. A representative example will be created as a means of demonstrating the new features to NASA and industry. The example will incorporate several new framework technologies (MBSE, mixed fidelity modeling, etc.) and show how the new visualization environment complements these. The new visualizer will be incorporated and commercialized within ModelCenter as a plug-in alongside existing visualization environments.

SBIR

Phase I

2013

NASA

Analysis and Design Environment for Large Scale System Models and Collaborative Model Development

Amount: $749,943 Topic: A2.08

As NASA modeling efforts grow more complex and more distributed among many working groups, new tools and technologies are required to integrate their efforts effectively. This project will build on Phoenix Integration's current product suite (ModelCenter, Analysis Server, and AnalysisLibrary) to create a collaborative modeling and execution environment for large system models. The project will involve many interrelated elements: 1) The use of reference components, which are pointers to sub-models that reside elsewhere, are managed independently, and are updated automatically in a master model, 2) The use of a model library such that collaborators can share their efforts in a centralized network-based repository, 3) An execution manager that can distribute and parallelize runs efficiently among several available compute resources, 4) The separation of models, data, and links such that they can be managed independently and reused effectively, 5) The simplification of model building efforts by providing debugging and diff tools to developers much like those that exist in the software industry, 6) User interface features that make model building easier, such as quick validation of model correctness, the ability to create sub-models from assemblies, etc. These elements will be developed with and tested against real modeling efforts taking place at NASA Langley.

SBIR

Phase II

2012

NASA