This year’s recipients are Ms. Donna Bridges, Penn State University; Dr. Dennis J. Bellafiore, Senior Lecturer, Department of Geography, John A. Dutton e-Education Institute, Penn State University; The Department of Homeland Security’s U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Enterprise GIS team (eGIS); U.S. Central Command’s (CENTCOM) Human Terrain Analysis Branch; and Mr. Steve Panzer and Mr. David Hemphill of ObjectFx.

 The USGIF Awards Program annually recognizes the exceptional work of the geospatial intelligence tradecraft’s brightest minds. Three award categories are open for all community members to apply. The Intelligence Achievement Awards recognize outstanding accomplishments in the tradecraft by an individual or team from the military, government and industry. The Academic Achievement Award commends the achievements of a top graduate of a nationally recognized geospatial intelligence academic program. The Academic Research Award commends an organization that demonstrates the top geospatial intelligence program or project. Recipients were acknowledged on stage during the general session of the annual GEOINT Symposium.

“Each year our awards program continues to increase awareness by appropriately acknowledging those doing innovative things to improve the GEOINT Community,” said USGIF President Keith J. Masback. “This year’s group of award winners was no different and I continue to be in awe of what these people and organizations are doing for the GEOINT tradecraft, as well as for our national security as a whole. On behalf of USGIF and our members, I would like to congratulate the 2010 USGIF Award Program winners on their phenomenal accomplishments.”

Academic Achievement Award – Ms. Donna Bridges earned a graduate certificate in geospatial intelligence from Penn State University and holds a bachelor’s degree in psychobiology as well as a master of healthcare administration from The George Washington University. Bridges is a student in Penn State’s professional studies in homeland security graduate program. Bridges has assisted Penn State’s geospatial intelligence program as a course assistant for the “Advanced Analytic Methods in Geospatial Intelligence” and “Culture and Civil Security” courses. Additionally, she has served as a research assistant where her focus has been on modifying and applying existing intelligence analytic techniques to geospatial intelligence analysis. She has a particular interest in the cognitive aspects of spatiotemporal reasoning.

Academic Research Award – Dr. Dennis J. Bellafiore is the co-author of Penn State’s GEOG 885 World Campus course, “Advanced Analytic Methods for the Geospatial Intelligence Professional,” contributor to “The Learner’s Guide to Geospatial Analysis,” and co-developer of a new business location intelligence course. Bellafiore serves as a consultant and coach to decision-makers in large and small organizations that need to make intelligence-based decisions in an increasingly complex world. Over the past 20 years, he has served as a team, leadership and organizational development advisor to many GIS and IT projects at state, regional, county and local government levels in Pennsylvania. Bellafiore has been involved in geospatial requirements analysis, strategic planning, management, operations, sales and marketing involving all aspects of geospatial application development and implementation.

Geospatial Intelligence Achievement Award (Government Division) – The Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Enterprise GIS team (eGIS) has broken new ground with CBP’s first enterprise-wide GIS application. Assistant Chief Patrick Stewart, Office of Border Patrol; Ms. Maryann Duffy, Office of Information Technology; and Assistant Chief Brandon Steele, Office of Border Patrol, who recently accepted a new assignment, are the principals of a team composed of elements from CBP’s Office of Border Patrol and Office of Information and Technology. Initially designed to support Office of Border Patrol requirements, eGIS provides services to well over 20,000 agents, analysts and staff members and can support all CBP components. Increasingly seen as a key mission-critical application, eGIS facilitates the integration of multiple CBP enforcement systems to expose previously-unrecognized patterns and trends. eGIS provides numerous mission-critical role-based features including real-time intrusion sensor alerts; arrest and interdiction locations; assault and significant incident tracking; facility and infrastructure data; field intelligence reports and recidivist arrest analysis.

Geospatial Intelligence Achievement Award (Military Division) – The U.S. CENTCOM’s Human Terrain Analysis Branch provides sociocultural contextual understanding to the Department of Defense and the intelligence community through analytical products, engagements and deployments. They support policy makers and operational planning at every echelon by providing subject matter expertise on geospatially integrating social science analysis, theory and perspective with all-source intelligence in a geographic information systems framework. The team developed and implemented a sociocultural segmentation method to geospatially depict ethnic and tribal areas at the village-level using empirical, objective and quantitative methods. Over the past 18 months their outreach efforts led to a 500 percent increase in human terrain and sociocultural data availability in Afghanistan and Pakistan. The team has promoted geospatial tradecraft while supporting national security objectives by developing the sociocultural segmentation method to map social groups, fostering bi-lateral relationships with allied partners, and ensuring that critical data and analysis reaches those in need by sharing data across every domain.

Geospatial Intelligence Achievement Award (Industry Division) – Mr. Steve Panzer and Mr. David Hemphill of ObjectFX are recognized for developing and deploying SpatialRULES, a Complex Event Processing engine for geospatial data. Originally created as part of an NGA Cooperative Research and Development Agreement, ObjectFX has successfully fielded SpatialRULES as a commercial off-the-shelf product into both government and commercial markets. The unique capabilities of SpatialRULES have enabled inter-agency collaboration by monitoring, filtering and fusing Multi-INT data, including GEOINT, SIGINT and HUMINT sources, to form a more complete situational awareness and decision-making picture.

USGIF is a 501(c)(3) non-profit educational foundation dedicated to promoting the geospatial intelligence tradecraft and developing a stronger GEOINT Community with government, industry, academia, professional organizations and individuals whose mission is the development and application of geospatial intelligence to address national security challenges. For more information, please visit www.USGIF.org.