From left, Victory Solutions Vice President David Alan Smith, CEO Kris McGuire, and IDEA Executive Director Chris Crumbly worked to establish the Systems Engineering Technology Program utilizing an award from the U.S. Department of Defense.
Victory Solutions has partnered with Auburn University, Calhoun Community College, and the newly created Institute for Digital Engineering Advancement (IDEA) to utilize a $500,000 award from the Department of Defense to develop a digital engineering curriculum to educate the next generation of systems engineering technicians. The award represents year one of a five-year grant totaling $9.9 million.
Development and implementation of the Systems Engineering Technician Program, SET, has been in work for several years. In 2016 Victory Solutions Chief Executive Officer, Kristine McGuire, was appointed by Congressman Aderholt (AL 4th District) to the Board of the Tennessee Valley Corridor (TVC) with the mandate to identify educational opportunities in support of TVC regional goals. Through Victory’s Model Based System Engineering (MBSE) support to the Missile Defense Agency and NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, our team identified a critical US industrial base skill gap: a readily available workforce of digital modelers trained to support systems engineers. This led to the concept of a 2-year degree in Systems Engineering Technology (SET) which will appeal to graduating high school students and career transitioning professionals including returning veterans (McGuire is a disabled veteran herself).
The nonprofit IDEA will be the central hub for the SET initiative. Overall implementation will be led by Auburn Engineering associate professor Greg Harris and assistant professor Greg Purdy, both of the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering; James Payne, dean for Business and Computer Information Systems at Calhoun Community College; David Alan Smith, senior vice president of Victory Solutions; and Chris Crumbly, executive director of IDEA.
“Our SET curriculum will prepare a workforce of systems engineers equipped with the digital engineering skills necessary to enable future U.S. technology development,” Harris said. “Systems are much more complex today and there is a great demand for systems engineers from organizations such as the Department of Defense, NASA and the Department of Energy. The SET program will address this demand and establish a workforce pipeline to enable trained systems engineers to make an impact.”
The SET curriculum will feature a strong focus on exposure to various industries with a need for systems engineers and will emphasize internship opportunities for program participants to gain hands-on experience. “It’s imperative, on both economic and national security grounds, that we identify and achieve efficiency gains in our engineering and product development processes,” Payne said. “People looking to start a technical career in the Huntsville area will find this program to be a promising addition to the opportunities Calhoun already offers. We look forward to building this program from the ground up and establishing it as a nationwide standard.”
Students in the program will have direct access to prominent companies in the aerospace and manufacturing industry in the form of guest lecturers and other involvement coordinated by Victory Solutions. We are working to establish SET internships to provide students with real-world experience while offering our government and industry partners insight to SET capabilities as well as the opportunity to fine tune the SET curriculum over time”, Smith said.
Ultimately, the vision of the researchers and industry partners involved in bringing the SET program to fruition is to provide a national collaborative center in the form of the nonprofit IDEA, where best practices and solutions in digital engineering and manufacturing will be identified, shared and recommended. “IDEA will introduce the SET concept to community college systems across the nation and remain as a subject matter expert to support education and connect organizations with experts, graduates and interns,” Crumbly said.
Victory Solutions is excited to be on the Dynetics, a wholly owned subsidiary of Leidos, team in the development of the NASA Human Landing System (HLS). We are honored to be part of such an impressive team of experienced small and mid-sized companies with an exceptional range of experience in NASA, DoD and Commercial space programs. We look forward to participating in this team’s historic unique, technologically advanced, and robust HLS concept. Our team’s experience and knowledge of aerospace systems development allows this team to provide our nation with the next American landing on the surface of the Moon in 2024 and continue our legacy of Space Exploration leadership and discovery.
For additional resources such as an imagery, animation, the fact sheet and the infographic, please click the links below.
https://www.dynetics.com/newsroom/
https://www.dynetics.com/space-solutions/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFBeVQ3STZ0
On Friday, February 28, 2020, Ms. Kris McGuire, CEO of Victory Solutions was presented with the Veteran Entrepreneur of the Year award from The Catalyst Center for Business and Entrepreneurship. The Catalyst Center was founded in 2003 and serves entrepreneurs and small business owners in every stage of business to assist in successfully navigating their business journeys. The Annual Entrepreneur of the Year Awards recognizes the accomplishments of entrepreneurs throughout North Alabama and celebrates all areas of entrepreneurship - from services and technology to defense, retail, and everything in-between.
The Veteran Entrepreneur of the Year award acknowledges an outstanding military-veteran entrepreneur in the North Alabama Region and it is an honor for Kris McGuire to have been nominated and presented with the award in recognition of her vison, effort and leadership in building Victory Solutions into a small business with over 100 employees at 10 locations within the US and overseas. More information regarding the Catalyst Center and their mission is available at https://catalystcenter.org/
Victory Solutions, Inc.’s VP – Business Administration, Lee Ann Hunt was recently chosen for the National Outstanding Chapter Volunteer Award by the National Contract Management Association (NCMA). The award was made due to her exemplary performance and volunteerism as an NCMA member. Victory Solutions offers our sincere Congratulations to Ms. Lee Ann Hunt!
“Victory Solutions is a “Best Places to Work” awardee in 2018 as determined by the Huntsville Chamber of Commerce using a survey of our employees. This award honors the “best of the best” member businesses in the Tennessee Valley by celebrating businesses that create an excellent workplace culture through employee engagement, strong leadership and excellent communication. So thank you to our employees for honoring us in the most important way possible: by their willingness to tell the world that Victory Solutions is a company they want to work for!
Victory Solutions, Inc. is proud to announce our selection as the 2017 NASA Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) Small Business Prime Contractor of the Year for support provided under the Marshall Integrated Program Support Services (MIPSS) Configuration Management and Data Management task order. Victory Solutions is honored to receive this award, considering MSFC has so many outstanding small businesses providing a variety of critical services and products in support of MSFC’s mission. Our recognition would not be possible without the superb and diligent work by our MIPSS employees and subcontractors.
We are additionally excited about the opportunity to represent MSFC as a candidate for the NASA agency-level Small Business Industry Awards. The Center’s award recipients in the categories of Large and Small Business Prime Contractors of the Year and Small Business Subcontractor of the Year become candidates for agency-level Small Business Industry Awards. Victory Solutions looks forward to representing MSFC at the NASA Agency-level Small Business Industry Awards.
An article about the award can be found in the Marshall Star.
Victory Solutions, Inc.(VSI) is pleased that the U.S. Air Force is moving forward with the technology maturation and risk reduction phase of the Ground Based Strategic Deterrent (GBSD) program. With our Aerospace Systems Development and Engineering Analysis Capabilities, Victory Solutions, Inc. is ready to support the Boeing GBSD team.
Victory Solutions, Inc. has been recognized as Supplier of the Year in the Support & Services category by The Boeing Company. Victory Solutions, Inc. was one of 13 companies honored on April 12, 2017 for distinguished performance in working with Boeing.
In January, Victory Solutions, Inc. was notified that it was one of 480 companies to receive the Boeing Performance Excellence Award which rewards performance excellence. Achieving the Supplier of the Year designation further acknowledges superior performance and labels this class of winners as best of the best.
This year’s recipients represent an elite group among more than 13,000 active Boeing suppliers in nearly 48 countries around the world. This selection was based on stringent performance criteria for quality performance, delivery performance, cost, environmental initiatives, customer service and technical expertise.
Victory Solutions, Inc. provides asset management and scheduling across the day-to-day Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) operations, maintenance, upgrades, and test ensuring that these activities occur efficiently and effectively to best meet Missile Defense Agency requirements and ensure that defense of the homeland mission is provided 365 days per year.
“Boeing’s success is a testament to the partnerships we hold with the finest aerospace suppliers in the world such as Victory Solutions,” said Kent Fisher, Boeing’s leader for enterprise Supplier Management. “Together we will continue to deliver affordable, technologically advanced products and services that give our customers a competitive edge.”
“We are extremely grateful to our Boeing customer and our wonderful employees for making this award possible.” – Kris McGuire, CEO
Contact: Chris Simpson, 256-895-2867
Victory Solutions, Inc. (VSI) was recognized on 23 June 2016 for superior performance under the ESSSA contract supporting Jacobs at NASA Marshall Space Flight Center. This recognition by our customer is a direct result of VSI personnel and their stellar professional support to both NASA and Jacobs. This was the inaugural Jacobs Supplier Recognition Award ceremony and we are grateful to our Jacobs customer for this honor.
