Steve A. Chien
Technical Fellow, Senior Research Scientist, Principal Technologist
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Awards & Recognitions
- Professional Society and External Organization Awards | United States Department of Defense | Army Science Board (2023)
- JPL Fellowship | For a distinguished record of contributions to the JPL/NASA system-level spacecraft autonomy program, focusing on planning and scheduling systems, resulting in planning and scheduling autonomy (onboard and ground-based) evolving from a high-risk technology to an established capability. (2020)
- Professional Society and External Organization Awards | United States Government | National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence (2018)
- NASA Award | NASA Exceptional Achievement Medal | For exceptional achievement in developing science-scheduling automation enabling Rosetta science operations to adapt quickly to changing comet and mission. (2015)
- JPL Award | Magellan Award - for effective partnership and outstanding leadership in the application of automated science planning technologies in partnership with ESA for the Rosetta Mission. (2015)
- NASA Award | Team Co-lead, Sensorweb, Honorable Mention, NASA Software of the Year (2011)
- Professional Society and External Organization Awards | AIAA | Intelligent Systems Award, To recognize important fundamental contributions to intelligent systems technologies and applications that advance the capabilities of aerospace systems. Presented to Steve Chien for pioneering achievement in deploying AI-based planners on spacecraft to enable event detection and response and sensorweb capabilities for earth-observing and planetary missions.American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (2011)
- Professional Society and External Organization Awards | Team member, Sensorweb 2.0, R&D 100 Award (2008)
- Senior Research Scientist | Artificial Intelligence, Autonomous Systems (2007)
- JPL Award | Level A Bonus Award, In recognition of outstanding leadership of the Autonomous Sciencecraft Experiment, enabling flight validation of autonomy software to enable increased science return and reduced operations costs. (2006)
- NASA Award | NASA Exceptional Achievement Medal | in recognition of outstanding leadership of the Autonomous Sciencecraft and Sensorweb efforts on Earth Observing One (2006)
- NASA Award | Team Lead, Autonomous Sciencecraft, Co-winner, NASA Software of the Year | ASE enables science-driven autonomous spacecraft to increase its science return by two orders of magnitude. It accomplishes this efficiency by autonomously detecting and tracking dynamic scientific processes. The value added to NASA has already reached millions of dollars and will undoubtedly increase as ASE is integrated into future missions. (2005)
- NASA Award | NASA Exceptional Service Medal | in recognition of outstanding service and leadership in the development of automated planning and scheduling systems for space, and in the establishment of a world-class planning and scheduling lab at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (2000)
- NASA Award | Team Lead, Automated Scheduling and Planning Environment, Honorable Mention, NASA Software of the Year (1999)
- NASA Award | Team Member, Remote Agent Experiment, Co-winner, NASA Software of the Year (1999)
- NASA Award | NASA Exceptional Achievement Medal | in recognition of outstanding research and engineering achievement in the development and deployment of automated planning and scheduling systems to reduce mission operations costs (1997)
- JPL Principal Designation | 3970 - Planning & Execution Systems (1997)
- The Lew Allen Award for Excellence | Autonomous Systems (1995)