The Astronaut Scholarship Foundation this week announced that Patrick T. Biltgen, Ph.D. AE ‘07 has been selected to receive the inaugural Neil Armstrong Award of Excellence. The former Tech student and researcher will formally receive the award at ASF’s Innovators Gala, to be held Sept. 16, at the JW Marriott in Washington, D.C.
Named for the first astronaut to set foot on the moon, the award recognizes an individual who best exemplifies the personal character and professional achievement of Armstrong and his astronaut colleagues. It will be annually bestowed upon a former ASF scholar whose research and work have had a positive impact on the aerospace industry and who embodies a passion to expand the boundaries of exploration through science and technology. Biltgen, now the director of analytics at the Virginia-based Vencore, Inc., was an ASF scholar while attending the Daniel Guggenheim School of Aerospace Engineering.
“Dr. Biltgen represents the best qualities of our Astronaut Scholars - not only achieving professional excellence but for his commitment to mentor students and young engineers,” said Curt Brown, ASF Chairman of the Board.
“He was selected from an impressive pool of candidates and we are gratified to see Patrick, and so many of our former scholars, continuing the passion for exploration and scientific excellence.”
In his current position at Vencore, Biltgen has developed innovative data integration methods that have established activity-based intelligence (ABI) for the military and intelligence communities. That work has helped to locate and identify explosive caches used to manufacture improvised explosive devices (IEDs). ABI has been credited with saving the lives of dozens of soldiers.
"I am grateful to the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation for providing life-long opportunities and experiences to advance my engineering education,” Biltgen said.
"My experiences at the Georgia Tech Aerospace Systems Design Lab were instrumental in preparing me for my career in systems engineering. Professor Mavris taught me how to look at problems differently and boldly pursue innovative solutions. I adapted his methods for aircraft design to data analysis in the intelligence community, cross-fertilizing his techniques like visual analytics and inverse design. I am proud to represent Georgia Tech and the ASDL. "
While the primary beneficiaries of Biltgen’s work have included the military and intelligence communities, it has also been used to document treaty violations and to monitor relief efforts in the Middle East In 2016, Biltgen and his colleague Stephen Ryan co-authored a book on the subject, Activity-Based Intelligence: Principles and Applications.
While at Vencore, Biltgen has served as the senior systems engineer and subject matter expert supporting Activity-Based Intelligence (ABI) for multiple intelligence customers. He also developed the initial concepts for automated “pipeline” processing for GEOINT data, multi-INT data discovery and correlation, and object-relationship linking with graph theory. Biltgen also led a forecasting study that examined implications for the Intelligence Community in 2050.
Prior to his tenure at Vencore, Biltgen worked as a research engineer and graduate researcher at Tech. His research work integrated machine learning with aircraft design capabilities to simultaneously optimize tactics and technologies for a long-range bomber. He is an expert in highly-dimensional multidisciplinary design optimization, statistical visual analytic methods, and capability-based trade studies.
While earning his B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. in aerospace engineering at the Daniel Guggenheim School, Biltgen was also recognized with the National Defense Science and Engineering and Graduate Fellowship (NDSEG), the Astronaut Scholarship, a Georgia Tech Presidential Fellowship, and the 2006 American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) Orville and Wilbur Wright award. Biltgen was also a fellow in the Sam Nunn Security Program.
The Neil Armstrong Award of Excellence was established in 2016 through a partnership with the Purdue Research Foundation, the Armstrong Family and Neil Armstrong’s friend, Jim Hays. The award pays tribute to the legacy of Armstrong and his fellow space explorers in the Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, Skylab, Space Shuttle and International Space Station programs. Managed by the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation, the award honors that legacy while inspiring future generations to embrace science and technology. The Astronaut Scholarship Foundation was created by the surviving Mercury astronauts and their families, a mission that has been embraced by today’s astronauts, to reward the best and brightest university students in science and technology.
The ASF is a nonprofit organization established by the Mercury Astronauts in 1984. The Foundation's mission is to aid the U.S. in retaining its world leadership in science and technology by providing scholarships to extraordinary college students who exhibit motivation, imagination and exceptional performance in these fields, and facilitate programs to educate the public about the impact and importance of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education in the United States. ASF funds forty-five $10,000 scholarships to outstanding Astronaut Scholars nationwide with support from astronauts from the Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, Skylab, Space Shuttle and Space Station programs