Thiago T. Pires

Thiago T. Pires Mobile (443) 756 2387 E-mail address: [email protected]

EDUCATION

MS, Reliability Engineering, December 2004, University of Maryland, College Park, MD GPA: 3.8 (out of 4) MS, Production Engineering, July 2001, Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, Recife, Brazil GPA: 3.8 (out of 4) BS, Mechanical Engineering, July 1999, Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, Recife, Brazil GPA: 7.4 (out of 10)

EMPLOYMENT

ManTech SRS (July 2008 to Present) Title: Principal Reliability Engineer Activities: 1) Lead the reliability assessments and Probabilistic Risk Analysis (PRA) efforts for unmanned space mission designed at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC). 2) Developed Probabilistic Risk Assessment models, failure mode and effect analysis (FMEA), fault trees and event trees analysis, reliability block diagrams, parts count analysis, parts derating and stress analysis, sensitivity analysis, human reliability analysis and software reliability analysis for space systems (e.g., power systems electronics, solar power generation, spacecraft guidance and navigation systems, digital sun sensors, command and data handling systems, propulsion systems, telecommunication systems, deployment systems, mechanical systems, flight software, etc.). 3) Established and maintained collaborative interface with civil servants in order to collect reliability and design data. 4) Presented reliability related deliverables informally and formally to civil servants (i.e. at mission Preliminary Design Review and Critical Design Review) 5) Supported various GDFC mission in analyzing and approving various reliability related reports (e.g., parts stress analysis and worst case analysis) developed by 3rd party organizations and submitted to GSFC. 6) Analyzed test data of spacecraft components test units. 7) Developed algorithm in C++ in order to evaluate the impact of different spacecraft maneuver frequency on accomplishing full mission success, given fuel constraints. 8) Provided tutoring support to civil servant to familiarize with reliability tools and methodologies 9) Performed spacecraft reliability assessment at GSFC’s Mission Design Lab (MDL). (Supervisor: Aron Bral, Phone: (301) 286-3281)

Volvo Powertrains North America (January 2008 to July 2008) Title: Staff Engineer Activities: 1) Lead the reliability growth program for diesel engine project, 2) Analyzed reliability test data to estimate reliability growth of diesel engines 3) Analyzed accelerated life testing of diesel engines and proposed changes in test configuration 4) Managed various root cause analysis activities for various engine components (e.g., turbo charger, urea dosage system, etc.). For example, developed root cause failure analysis on diesel engine diagnosis system as a response to increasing warranty claims. The analysis resulted in software design changes to improve its reliability and reduce warranty costs. 5) Developed fault tree models and failure mode and effect analysis (FMEA) for engine subsystems. 6) Performed various training sessions in order to educate design engineers and managers about reliability engineering science 7) Developed algorithm in C++ that builds various reliability growth plans for diesel engines. The algorithm was built in order to replace the time consuming excel spreadsheet originally used. The algorithm had the capability to provide the optimum reliability growth plan through computer interaction, which replaced the company’s necessity to hire contractors to perform this task. (Supervisor: John Bartel, Phone: (301) 573-2219)

Science Application International Corporation (SAIC) (January 2005 to January 2008) Title: Risk Engineer Activities: 1) Worked on a PRA project for a Westinghouse 4-loop nuclear power plant. The main tasks were to modify an existing SGTR PRA model (Fault Tree and Event Tree using CAFTA and PRAQuant). 2) Performed fire PRA on commercial nuclear power plants (e.g., VC summers, Farley and Diablo Canyon), in compliance with appendix R. 3) Developed Fault trees/event tree analysis, FMEA, root cause failure analysis, human reliability analysis, etc. for chemical weapons disposal facilities, 4) Performed design review for chemical weapons disposal facilities. Proposed various design changes to improve system's reliability and operability for the ACWA (Assembled Chemical Weapons Alternatives) program, 5) Developed algorithm in C++ that formats large output files. The output files are created by atmospheric dispersion software (i.e., CHEMACCS) used to estimate the risks of chemical weapons spills and evaporation in the atmosphere. Before the algorithm was developed, the task of introducing the results from CHEMMACCS output files on an excel spreadsheet took in average 5 minutes per simulation. Since, for each analysis, hundreds of CHEMACCS simulations were necessary, the task was very time consuming and human error prone. After the formatting algorithm was developed, the task took seconds, which reduced a lot of the time used on this task and reduced largely the probability of human error. Since the organization charges the client by man/hour, the organization profited from the development of this algorithm. (Supervisor: Bijan Najafi, Phone: (408) 207-2003)

X-Ware Systems Reliability Laboratory (July 2002 to December 2004) Title: Research Assistant Activities: 1) Conducted research in the area of human reliability for nuclear power generation domain, 2) Performed literature research to collect evidences in the areas of artificial intelligence, cognitive psychology, human reliability, human factors, ergonomics, etc., 3) Designed and built algorithm to simulate human cognitive behavior in nuclear power plant emergency situations, 4) Participated on software development team in charge of building a PRA simulation tool for the space shuttle. The contract was awarded by NASA and the team interacted for various months in order to put the various parts of the software together. Developed the human reliability portion of the tool in C++. The tool included human, hardware and software reliability modules, coupled with a scheduler and dynamic event tree creator modules. (Supervisor: Dr. Ali Mosleh, Phone: (301) 405-5215)

Prediction Technologies (April 2004 to June 2004) Title: Consultant Activities: 1) Performed human reliability assessment for the space shuttle wire risk assessment technology (WRAT) project sponsored by NASA, 2) Performed root cause analysis to identify causes of space shuttle wire damage during wire maintenance procedures, 3) Analyzed and reclassified human failures in the SMART database, 4) Identified performance shaping factors that influence wire related maintenance procedures, 5) Applied human reliability techniques (e.g., THERP, SLIM) on space shuttle wire maintenance activities, 6) Proposed procedure changes for space shuttle wire maintenance in order to improve human reliability (Supervisor: Dr. Frank Groen, Phone: 240-988-2203)

RISCTEC (January 1999 to July 2002) Title: Reliability Program Manager Activities: Project 1: 230Kva Substation 1. Primary responsibility was to support the fire risk management project for a 230Kva substation. 2. Negotiated project steps and deliverables with client 3. Coordinated activities for a team of 5 engineers 4. Performed root cause analysis to identify causes of transformer explosion 5. Applied FMEA to identify failure modes on transformers 6. Applied fault tree analysis to estimated probability of transformer explosion 7. Carried out various walk through inspections to detect hazardous situations 8. Gathered data for mathematical modeling to estimate transformer explosion blast waves 9. Edited project report Project 2: Natural Gas Supply System 1) Primary responsibility was to manage the reliability centered maintenance project. 2) Negotiated project steps and deliverables with client 3) Coordinated activities of a team of 8 engineers 4) Planned, organized and executed various walk through inspections to detect hazardous situations 5) Applied failure mode and effect analysis techniques on systems components 6) Performed root cause analysis to detect failure modes and mechanisms on pressure control valves 7) Developed reliability centered maintenance plan for pressure control valves including condition monitoring using vibration analysis, failure data collection, MTBF estimation, predictive and preventive maintenance scheduling. 8) Assisted on the development of reliability data bank software 9) Coordinated staff 10) Accomplished various staff training 11) Edited project reports (Supervisor: Dr. Dayse Duarte, Phone: 1 55 81 2126-8728 x-32)

Padron Ar Condicionado LTDA (January 1998 to December 1998) Title: HVAC System Project Manager Activities: 1) Designed HVAC systems of different capacities for industrial clients 2) Managed manufacturing and installation of HVAC systems 3) Inspected manufacturing process of HVAC ducts for quality 4) Controlled logistics (e.g., material purchase, supply; storage, transportation, etc.) 5) Defined project scheduling (using Microsoft project) 6) Coordinated technicians and support personnel (Supervisor: Antonio Vicente, Phone: 1 55 81 2125-2380)

PUBLICATIONS

1) Pires, T. T. A knowledge representation model for nuclear power generation domain. Data and Knowledge Engineering, Volume 63, Issue 2, , November 2007, Pages 270-292. 2) Pires, T. T. An approach for modeling human cognition on evacuation models. Fire Safety Journal, 40, pp.177-189, 2005. 3) Pires, T. T, Almeida, A. T. and Duarte, D. C. L. An ELECTRE I aided fire risk analysis method for poor fire safety culture countries. Fire Technology Journal, 43, pp. 25-35, 2005. 4) Pires, T. T. and Duarte, D. C. L. Use logic diagrams to identify failure mechanisms. Chemical Engineering Progress, June 2005. 5) Duarte, D. & Pires, T. T. Hazard Identification using new logic diagrams and descriptors. Process Safety Progress, 2001. 6) Araujo, A. M and Pires, T. T. Simulation of tidal effects on hydrodynamic transport and circulation of Pina’s basin. Brazilian Magazine of Water Sources, 1996. (Original in Portuguese).

TECHNICAL SKILLS

1) Experience with computer algorithm development in C++ and Java languages 2) Familiar with statistical analysis software including MiniTab, SPSS and Statistica 3) Experience with reliability analysis software including CAFTA, SAPHIRE, Crystal Ball, Weibull++ and Relex 4) Experience with Windows 98/NT/2000/XP Platforms 5) Experience with Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Access 6) Portuguese proficiency 7) Security clearance: Gidep background investigation