ATTENDANCE

Introduction and Announcements

Dr. April Schweighart, VCAT Chair, called to order the open session of the meeting at 9:30 a.m. and welcomed the new members.

NIST Update and VCAT Agenda Review
Dr. Hratch Semerjian, NIST Acting Director

Dr. Semerjian reviewed the agenda for the day and pointed out the emergency exits from the meeting room. He then welcomed and introduced the three new VCAT members: Dr. John Cassidy, Jr, Senior Vice President, Science and Technology, United Technologies Corporation (UTC); Dr. E. David Spong, Chairman of ChangeAgent, Inc. and retired President of Boeing Aerospace Support; and Mr. W. Wyatt Starnes, Chairman and CEO of SignaCert, Inc. and Co-founder and Director of RAINS (Regional Alliances for Infrastructure and Network Security).

The NIST Update also covered the recent leadership and management changes at the Department of Commerce and NIST; external recognition of the NIST staff and the Advanced Measurement Laboratory; examples of technical and program accomplishments in such areas as the Help America Vote Act (HAVA), the Rhode Island Nightclub Fire Investigation, and homeland security standards; the President's FY 2006 budget request for NIST; the U.S. Measurement System (USMS) vision and action plan; outreach activities and strategic partnerships; changes to congressional committees with NIST jurisdiction; the FY 2005 Balanced Scorecard; and safety.

The information below supplements Dr. Semerjian's presentation.

o New VCAT Members - All three new VCAT members have been involved with NIST and are knowledgeable about the organization.
- Dr. Cassidy served on NRC's Board on Assessment Panel for the Manufacturing Engineering Laboratory. He also hosted a visit to UTC by Dr. Semerjian and other senior managers last June.
- Dr. Spong is the immediate past chair and member of the Board of Overseers of the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Program. He is the only executive to have led two different Boeing organizations that received the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award.
- Mr. Starnes also is familiar with NIST. With expertise in information technology and computer security, he brings "sweet music to our ears" as he fills the information technology gap on the VCAT.
- Dr. Semerjian is not yet ready to fill the one remaining VCAT vacancy, but hopes that a new member will soon join the Committee.
- He thanked the new members from the bottom of his heart for taking time out of their busy schedules to help make NIST a better place.
o Secretary Gutierrez - The Secretary visited NIST for two hours in which he met with the NIST Senior Management Board, toured a laboratory in the Advanced Measurements Laboratory, discussed quantum computing with Bill Philips, visited the Advanced Chemical and Sciences Laboratory for an overview of NIST work in clinical diagnostics and biomarkers, and discussed trade issues. The Secretary asked questions about standards issues related to food and nutrition, including genetically modified organisms. He was very aware of the role of measurements and standards in international trade and how NIST's programs impact trade issues in China. Dr. Semerjian has been educating the Secretary on measurements and standards issues in preparation for other meetings, including the March 14th discussion on the FY 2007 budget. The Secretary was very grateful for NIST's help and asked lots of questions. At the recent Medal of Technology ceremony, Dr. Semerjian again thanked the Secretary for visiting NIST and Secretary Gutierrez indicated that he was pleased with the visit.
o NIST Management Changes - Paul Dormeus, Chief of the NIST Program Office, will be leaving NIST for a new position at NOAA in the area of strategic planning. Paul has worked very closely with the VCAT and has been a tremendous asset to NIST's strategic planning efforts. Dr. Semerjian thanked Paul for his outstanding contributions to NIST, noted that he will be missed, and wished him well in his new assignment.
o Examples of Technical Accomplishments:
- Integrated Sphere for Service Life Determination - This unique facility is a huge improvement for studying the ultraviolet degradation of materials that use to be performed by placing samples on rooftops for extended periods of time. The sphere greatly accelerates the testing time by providing individual environmental chambers where samples can be subjected to more intense radiation under controlled conditions. Fourteen member companies of the Coatings Service Life Prediction Consortium and the Sealants Service Life Prediction Consortium utilize this facility.
- New SRM Troponin I - Diagnosing heart attacks will become a more accurate science thanks to the first of a new series of NIST SRMs for larger protein markers, a huge growth area for NIST.
- Carbon Nanotubes for Improved Optical Power Detection - NIST is collaborating with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory to more accurately measure radiant energy. This is a new development and other applications are expected.
- New Patent on Molecular Electronics Process - NIST has designed a new efficient and non-damaging way to make electrical contacts molecular circuits.
- Building for Environmental and Economic Sustainability (BEES) Tool - New legislation requires federal agencies that purchase biobased products containing renewable domestic agricultural materials to use BEES to evaluate life-cycle performance.
- Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) - Although there is a large movement to switch telephone systems to VOIP, lots of technical issues need to be addressed. The NIST Special Publication on VOIP security provides guidance on this technology.
- Library of Peptide Reference Spectra - NIST researchers have developed and improved a mass spectral standard reference database over the years and have initiated a new system for protein detection and identification. Sequence-based spectrum searches are now being used. NIST has collected lots of complex mass spectral data and utilizes the full spectrum of fragmented molecules to identify the proteins.
o HAVA - The Technical Guidelines Development Committee, chaired by the NIST Director, is under a tight schedule to develop recommendations to the Election Assistance Commission on voluntary standards and guidelines related to voting machines. Resources were finally provided to NIST for this unfunded mandate. The staff from the Information Technology Laboratory has been working very hard to meet the needs and expectations of a very diverse community. The first set of recommendations will be issued by the end of April. Dr. Semerjian recognized the staff's hard work and productivity in this challenging area.
o World Trade Center Collapse Investigation - Dr. Shyam Sunder discussed this investigation in detail during a separate presentation.
o Rhode Island Station Fire Investigation - The report was released at a press conference in Rhode Island near the February 20, 2003, two-year anniversary date of the fire. This comprehensive report, which attracted lots of press coverage, calls for 12 specific recommendations and was well received.
o Homeland Security Standards - NIST plays a role in three Homeland Security Presidential Directives (HSPD). HSPD-12 has been the most demanding of these directives. Signed on August 27, 2004, this directive required that a mandatory, government-wide personal identification standard be issued within six months. The Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) 201, Personal Identity Verification (PIV) of Federal Employees and Contractors, was published on February 25, 2005. This was a challenging task since most federal agencies had personal identification systems that would require changes and each had different views about the standard. One government and three public workshops were held to discuss the draft standard. In addition, about 1,900 comments on the draft standard from more than 80 organizations were received and considered. Compliance to the first part of the standard is required by October 2005.
o FY 2006 Budget Request - The STRS budget request is a 12.5 percent increase over the FY 2005 level. The Advanced Technology Program is proposed to terminate in FY 2006 and the Hollings Manufacturing Extension Partnership is to be reduced by more than 50 percent. Funding for the Construction of Research Facilities in FY 2006 represents a significant increase when adjusted for the FY 2005 Congressional directed grants.
o FY 2006 Initiatives - An initiative in manufacturing is important considering the President's priorities in manufacturing and job creating. Adjustments to base are not shown on this chart but are included in the FY 2006 STRS subtotal on the previous table.
o USMS - The USMS vision and plan have been rolled out to the NIST staff and are being integrated into the Institute's overall strategic planning and outreach efforts. An initial set of outreach materials have been developed. The next major milestone is January 2006 when the USMS summit will be held.

USMS Discussion: The VCAT members encouraged NIST to make the USMS vision statement much bolder by using such terminology as "sustaining U.S. commerce as world class or best in the world." NIST responded that the first task is to educate the community about the importance of measurements and standards for global trade and then it will logically follow that major changes will have to occur for the U.S. to continue to be a world leader. The USMS is a huge challenge and the current vision statement is a conservative way of stating that the U.S. must have world-class tools. Dr. Semerjian noted that Secretary Guitierrez already appreciates the impact of measurements and standards on trade issues. He will ask Dr. Kayser to revise the vision statement with bolder language in response to the VCAT's comments.

o Outreach Activities - Many people have been visting NIST to learn about its programs. Representative Manzullo (R-IL) toured the Advanced Measurement Laboratory and was very excited about NIST's capabilities. He spoke about the need for more research in manufacturing and the impact of manufacturing on jobs. The House Appropriations staff visit was the first such visit in a long time and involved new people. Representative Patrick Kennedy's (D-RI) office called unexpectedly to request a visit by the Congressman to NIST. As a member of the House Committee on Appropriations, Representative Kennedy is very interested in homeland security, health care costs, and information technology issues associated with health care.
o Congressional Committee Changes - The Senate subcommittee structure with jurisdiction over the NIST authorization has changed and NIST will now be reporting to three new subcommittees instead of one. There also have been lots of changes to the organization and leadership of the Appropriations Committee and subcommittees. The House Committee on Appropriations has been reorganized from 13 to 10 subcommittees while the Senate Committee on Appropriations has been reorganized from 13 to 12 subcommittees. The former House Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, and State has changed significantly. With the addition of NASA and NSF, this subcommittee will now have jurisdiction over all of the science agencies and has been renamed "Subcommittee on Science, State, Justice, and Commerce." Barbara Mikulski, a great supporter of NIST, is the ranking minority member of the new Senate appropriations subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, and Science. Compromises will be challenging under these new subcommittee structures.
o Extended Outreach Efforts - In an effort to reorganize its outreach efforts with industry and to make these efforts more systematic, NIST has targeted companies in 14 industry segments that have a great deal of connection to NIST now and in the future. NIST managers will visit these companies to understand their current and future needs and to educate them about NIST. The charter for the Information Knowledge Management Strategic Working Group has just been developed and more details may be forthcoming at the next meeting.
o Strategic Partnerships:
- NIST recently signed a very important Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Health and Human Services (HHS). This MOU, signed by Secretary Thompson before his departure, delineates HHS' lead role in medical science and NIST's lead role in measurements and standards and describes the complementary functions of these agencies.
- Representatives from Agilent Technologies recently visited NIST and Dr. Semerjian plans a reciprocal visit in April or early May.
- The Biosystems and Health SWG recently visited Pfizer and NIST expects a return visit from the company. Several areas of common interest to Pfizer and NIST have been identified already.
- Last December, Under Secretary of Commerce for Technology Phil Bond, Dr. Semerjian, and six vice presidents of manufacturing and R&D from the U.S. automotive industry signed an MOU at the United States Council for Automotive Research (USCAR). Carol Handwerker from MSEL and John Slotwinski from MEL serve as the liaisons to the USCAR team. They have been participating in planning activities. The team has identified three specific project areas for collaboration. One way to measure success in NIST's outreach efforts is to recognize other U.S. manufacturing companies that have inquired about working with the Institute. NIST welcomes these opportunities.
- NIST hopes to soon visit RPI to explore possibilities for collaborative work on hydrogen systems and fuel cells.
- On March 14, 2005, NIST and Utah State University signed an MOU. The NIST Physics Laboratory has been working with Utah State for a long time in aerospace satellite monitoring activities. This MOU will solidify and intensify these interactions as well as catalyze a closer relationship with Utah State. Senator Bennett, Senator Hatch, Hratch Semerjian, Katharine Gebbie, and Bill Ott were among the attendees at the signing ceremony.
o Balanced Scorecard - In response to the VCAT's recommendation, NIST added a new category for programs. NIST developed the FY 2005 Scorecard to serve as a framework for a self-evaluation process. All elements of the Balanced Scorecard have been incorporated in the senior management performance plans.
o Safety - Dr. Semerjian was gratified to see that the Employee Survey results indicated that the staff considers safety an important issue and that NIST is a safe place to work. The Safety Council is continuing to make recommendations and provide guidelines to improve safety at NIST. On the NIST Safety Day in June, the staff can focus their attention on improving and maintaining a safe work place by reevaluating their work processes, removing clutter and excess chemicals, and attending safety awareness lectures. These activities were done successfully in some of the OUs and will now be extended throughout NIST.
o Recordable Incidents - Although the 2005 safety data is incomplete, the trend looks good for the year. There has been more attention to reporting safety incidences and the quality of the data is improving.

Safety Discussion:

- The schedule for implementing the Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) policy was discussed. NIST expects to implement the PPE policy by the middle or third quarter of 2006.
- Safety slides should be moved to the beginning of the talk to help reinforce that safety is priority one at NIST.
- NIST is encouraged to move to the next level of recording safety data. For example, NIST should track first aid cases not on the OSHA log to help identify other areas requiring management attention. The advantages of building a safety pyramid and examining incidents with unusual occurrences where there were no injuries were also discussed.
- The members also inquired about any particular patterns associated with injuries, such as carpal tunnel syndrome. Dr. Semerjian noted that most of the incidents were related to slips, trips, falls, and some exertion cases due to lifting. Although NIST provides ergonomic keyboards and training to the staff, there have been some ergonomic-related incidents. No incidents related to a loss of hearing have been reported.

o In closing, Dr. Semerjian thanked the VCAT for sharing their thoughts and suggestions that are seriously considered by NIST.

NIST Response to the World Trade Center (WTC) Disaster
Dr. S. Shyam Sunder, Acting Deputy Director and Lead Investigator, Building and Fire Research Laboratory, NIST

Dr. Sunder reviewed the findings from the 24-month building and fire safety investigation of the WTC Disaster. His presentation began with brief overviews on the national context for this investigation; the three elements of the WTC response plan; the public and private stakeholders and partners involved in the response plan; the enabling actions by NIST, the Administration, and Congress; the role of the National Construction Safety Team (NCST) Advisory Committee, and the objectives of the NIST WTC investigation. All of the stakeholders and partners follow NIST's work carefully and have been briefed on the progress of the investigation. Additional resources are still needed in FY 2006 to address the R&D and dissemination issues that arose as a result of the investigation.

He then presented an analysis of how the WTC towers collapsed following the initial impact of the two aircraft. The collapse sequences were a refinement of the leading hypotheses released by NIST last October. Dr. Sunder emphasized that the subsequent fires ignited by the jet fuel played a major role in further reducing the structural capacity of the buildings. The sequences are supported by extensive computer modeling, photographs and videos, recovered steel, eyewitness accounts, and emergency communication records. Evacuation rates, the condition of the stairwells, occupant preparedness, and emergency responder operations also were described based on 1,034 interviews with WTC surviving occupants and 116 interviews with first responders. An unprecedented amount of data collection was required for reconstructing the exact sequence of events beginning with the impact of the aircraft, to the fire dynamics, to progression of local failures that initiated building collapse.

In addition, Dr. Sunder briefly described the process for developing building and fire codes in the United States and the NIST role in providing technical support. He then discussed the approach for releasing the recommendations that will identify specific improvements in the way people design, construct, maintain, and use buildings. NIST intends to continue to work closely with the building and fire safety communities to ensure that the recommendations are given proper consideration. The WTC Towers Investigation Reports will total more than 10,000 pages in 43 reports written by NIST researchers and contractors mostly from the private sector. The draft of the final investigation report will be released for public comment in June. The draft investigation report for WTC 7 is expected to be released this fall.

Dr. Sunder also summarized seven challenges that NIST successfully addressed, including coordinating with the 9/11 Commission and local authorities as well as leading and managing an extended investigation team of 236 people comprised of NIST staff, contractors, and other technical experts. Lastly, examples of the investigation's extensive media coverage, which has been mostly positive, were provided.

Discussion: A VCAT member inquired about any limitations associated with 2.3 million grid points calculated in the WTC 1 Tower Model for Aircraft Impact Analysis. Dr. Sunder replied that multiple computers were used for this analysis as NIST tested the limits of most commercially available software.

More details about the WTC investigation are provided in Dr. Sunder's presentation.

Facilities Update
Mr. Robert Moore, PE, Chief Facilities Management Officer

As background information, Mr. Moore noted that several external studies validated the inadequacy of NIST's aging facilities and that the most recent 2004 NIST Facilities Improvement Plan and the February 2005 Addendum addresses three equally important priorities: new construction; building renovations, and facility maintenance. A status report on these efforts in both Gaithersburg and Boulder was provided with an emphasis on the areas still in need of building renovations. Mr. Moore also compared the President's budget request levels in support of construction and major renovations for FY 2003-FY 2006 to the appropriation and indicated where resources are still required. The 2004 NIST Facility Condition Assessment of the NIST Gaithersburg campus performed by Hanscomb, Faithful & Gould was reviewed. According to this study, the Gaithersburg facilities are in poor condition. Mr. Moore also reported the appropriation levels for Safety, Capacity, Maintenance and Major Repairs (SCMMR) since 1998 and identified major funding gaps. The last topic covered the increased annual utility and operation and maintenance costs associated with the Advancement Measurement Laboratory (AML).

The information below supplements Mr. Moore's presentation.

o Status -NIST recently completed the fit up of the nanotechnology facility in the AML. Building 222 (Chemistry) is now empty and a contract has been awarded to begin asbestos removal in this building in a few weeks. The occupants from NIST North are expected to move into Building 222 by December 2006.
o Building Renovations - The Boulder renovations are also a large undertaking. Building 1 (Radio) is the main building in Boulder with six wings and a spine. Building 220 (Metrology) and Building 221 (Physics) in Gaithersburg will be gutted.

VCAT Comment: NIST laboratory space that fails to meet program needs may actually be less than 67 percent since this number was calculated prior to the completion of the ACSL and the AML. Now that there are more facilities on the NIST campus, NIST should recalculate this shortfall and find another measure to communicate the problem.

o Budget - As a result of the actual appropriations being less than the President's budget request, NIST phased in the majority of the construction and major renovation projects that have now become more expensive and difficult to manage.
o NIST Facility Condition Assessment - NIST has tried several ways to demonstrate the problems with NIST's aging facilities. Since facility condition assessments are very expensive, the information from Gaithersburg was extrapolated to the Boulder site. As Building 222 is undergoing major repairs, NIST is learning a lot about other building failures.

Discussion: The group discussed the feasibility of feeding the data collected from the older buildings back into building and construction codes for the future. NIST will primarily focus on extrapolating the conditions of the older buildings at NIST to other buildings on the campus. Life safety codes will be addressed as the buildings are renovated.

o SCMMR - The VCAT members received a handout of the major facilities projects that have been completed or are in-progress between FY2000-FY2005. Most of these are supported by SCMMR funding. NIST began requesting SCMMR funding as a separate line item in 1995 and there have always been major gaps between the recommended levels and the appropriations.
o AML - Due to the sophistication of the AML, an increase of $3.4 million is requested in FY06 to cover the higher operation and maintenance costs associated with this Laboratory.

Discussion: The group discussed NIST's strategy for addressing the funding gap associated with the facilities. Dr. Semerjian noted that until 1995, NIST had no special funds to maintain buildings and that these costs had to be covered from operations. The maintenance needs are still so large partially due to playing catch up. Within a tight budget environment, NIST is addressing the most important shortcomings first. The newer buildings are high performance and also have higher costs. NIST has had to deviate from past practices and has had to move from a good preventive maintenance program to a "breakdown" maintenance program. The breakdowns are becoming more extensive now that major equipment is over 40 years old and requires special and expensive replacement parts. For example, Building 222's air handling system will require special maintenance within the next five years due to rust. NIST was reminded that the retirement or tearing down of facilities is a normal part of any facility plan. Mr. Moore agreed that option should be examined but funding would be required.

Laboratory Tours

Cryptographic Algorithm Validation Program (CAVP) - Mr. Edward Roback, Chief of the Computer Security Division, Information Technology Laboratory (ITL), provided a brief overview of NIST's cybersecurity activities and the related legislation, including the Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA) of 2002, the Help America Vote Act (HAVA), and the Homeland Security Presidential Directive-12 regarding personal identification of federal employees and contractors. He noted that the NIST Computer Security Resource Center web site is the third most visited site at NIST.

Ms. Sharon Keller of ITL then provided an overview of the Cryptographic Algorithm Validation Program and live testing of cryptographic algorithm implementations through the Cryptographic Algorithm Validation System (CAVS) designed and developed by NIST. The validation test tools exercise an algorithm implementation to provide assurance that the algorithm has been used correctly based on the specifications given in the associated cryptographic standard. Statistics show that 25 percent of the algorithm implementations submitted for testing and perceived to be ready to go to market were found to be incorrect. The CAVS allows these errors to be quickly isolated and corrected before the products are used by industry and Federal agencies. Algorithm testing is a prerequisite to validation of a cryptographic based product by NIST's Cryptographic Module Validation Program (CMVP) against NIST's Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) 140-2: Security Requirements for Cryptographic Modules, a mandatory requirement for Federal organizations. Validation through the CMVP also is recognized worldwide by ISO standardization and international industry acceptance. NIST validated algorithms and modules can be found in use on every continent to help protect information, secure electronic transactions and even protect communications with the International Space Station.

NIST Combinatorial Methods Center (NCMC) - Dr. Michael Fasolka, Dr. Christopher
Stafford, and Dr. Steven Hudson of the Polymers Division, Materials Science and Engineering Laboratory, led a tour of NCMC facilities. Established in 2001 with competence funding, the NCMC specializes in developing combinatorial and high-throughput metrologies for polymer materials research. As an open source, non-proprietary consortium, the NCMC now includes 21 industrial, academic, and government member partners. Members pay a fee to cover the costs of semi-annual workshops and outreach activities such as a dedicated website where they can download instrument specifications, software and publications. Additional research funds are provided by "Focus Projects"; a new model for industry interaction in which members co-fund research that addresses a specific measurement challenge. The laboratory tour included an overview of the NCMC's outreach activities and current research including microfluidic technologies for the analysis of complex multiphase formulations, gradient library methods for nanomaterials and nanometrology development, and rapid quantitative analysis of adhesion and mechanical properties of coatings and films. The VCAT members encouraged NIST to explore opportunities for increased revenues from this successful and productive research effort.

The open session of the meeting was adjourned at 2:30 p.m. on Tuesday, March 15, 2005.

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