Sarkis Barkhoudarian
West Hills, CA ***** abmjm7@r.postjobfree.com 818-***-****
Game-Changing INSTRUMENTATION, CONTROL, Inspection, Condition-BASED
MAINTENANCE and Remedial System Specialist
OVERVIEW
As a NASA- and DOD-recognized expert in non-intrusive and remote
Instrumentation, smart Controls (I&C), advanced algorithms, in-situ
inspection, and Condition-Monitoring And Remedial Real-Time Systems
(CMARRTS); the Engineering VP's Innovation Lead; a Member of the Boeing and
Pratt & Whitney Technical Fellowships; and a 30-engineer Department Manager
(starting from zero); Mr. Barkhoudarian spearheaded the development of many
game-changing technologies, from concept to deployment, at Rocketdyne
(heritage: Pratt & Whitney, Boeing, Rockwell International and Atomics
International), Canoga Park, CA, during the last three decades.
He led the development of modern optical, laser, fiberoptic, spectrometry,
acousto-optic, interferometry, Lidar, infrared, ultraviolet, microwave,
electro-magnetic, magnetostrictive, electro-magneto-acoustic, ultrasonic,
radioisotope and electronic measurement technologies, as well as novel
algorithms and data processing and control systems to provide disruptive
high-granularity, comprehensive, non-intrusive and remote measurement,
inspection, data acquisition / storage and adaptive control systems for the
harsh environment of hypersonic, rocket, jet and helicopter engines.
KEY ACHIEVEMENTS
Sarkis' technologies were credited by Mr. Richard Schwartz, the President
of Rocketdyne, for one of the three capabilities which resulted in
Rocketdyne winning a $300M hypersonic-engine (NASP) contract.
These technologies significantly reduce engine operation uncertainty, risk,
downtime, and number of development tests. They are capable of detecting,
predicting and healing imminent faults, allowing completion of missions:
. They greatly increase engine robustness, safety, efficiency, output,
reliability, availability, life and inspection intervals
. They provide condition-based maintenance, rather than costly schedule-
based maintenance
. They reduce turn-around-time and number of costly hot-fired engine-
development tests, while increasing valuable information from each test,
lowering the number of aborted tests.
Some of these game-changing products are deployed for flight liquid-
propellant rocket engines:
Space Shuttle Main Engines (SSME)
. In-situ 600-injector inspection system: Eliminated multi-million dollar
disassembly-requiring inspection
. Advanced algorithms: Provided more reliable pre-launch 50-test valve-
health checkout system
Delta-IV RS68 Engines
. Non-Intrusive speed sensors: Eliminated two critical failure modes from
each flight engine
. Remote measurement of rocket engine external temperature during hot-fired
tests without skin TCs
. Customized industrial low-cost 240-channel automated acceptance testers
for rocket engine sensors and actuators: Saved the software development
delays and millions of dollars per each unit
. Custom-made low-cost industrial igniter testers for military on-board
explosives: Saved millions
. Remote inspection of all production turbine individual blade resonances,
blade-by-blade: Eliminated archaic, unreliable, costly and tedious strain-
gage attachment / detachment approach: Saved millions.
Sarkis also led the development of first-of-the-kind technologies for off-
nominal operation of liquid-propellant rocket engines, providing the
following safe measurements during hot-fired engine tests:
. Non-Intrusive Measurements of:
. Deflections, loads, life and resonances of individual turbine and pump
blades, blade-by-blade, from outside of the very violent RS-68 and
SSME turbopumps housings
. Discovered the origin of over 30-year-old "unidentified"
turbomachinery resonance frequencies!
. Remote Measurements of:
. SSME internal eroded materials, detected in the plume, as low as a few
parts per million.
He also demonstrated the feasibility of other non-intrusive and remote
measurement technologies in lab:
. Non-Intrusive Measurements of:
. Multi-dimensional flow and temperature inside over 1,000 F and -300 F
ducts
. Internal hazardous gas concentration down to 50 ppm and cryogenic
valve internal leaks
. Turbopump shaft torque, power, wobble, axial travel, radial run out
and precession
. Gearbox teeth deflection and vibration - tooth-by-tooth
. Remote Measurements of:
. External hydrogen leaks from dozens of yards.
Sarkis was in charge of innovation tasks for Rocketdyne's VP of Engineering
(1,000+ engineers)
. He organized a full-day workshop and invited close to 200 Government-
Industry leaders from NASA (ARC, GRC, LRC, SSC, MSFC and HQ), DOD (AFRL
and WP), Aerospace Corporation, Boeing, Pratt & Whitney and others, to
establish a roadmap for development of cutting-edge I&C systems and
MARRTS to address the challenging needs of future aerospace propulsion
systems
. He prepared marketing briefings on these innovative technologies and
presented them to the leaders of NASA, DOD and DOE, with the guidance of
business development team, obtaining $50+M funding
. He simultaneously directed several ground-breaking government and IR&D
multi-disciplinary projects
. He searched 20,000+ patents to identify potential product opportunities
. He developed a novel computer-based interactive tool for Technology
Innovation Process, capable of solving seemingly unsolvable problems,
e.g., RP-1 igniters firing with only a few hundred volts. This tool was
used for comprehensive design reviews, identifying outside-the-box
concepts and solutions.
PROFESSIONAL ACCOMPLISHMENTS and EDUCATION
. Published and presented over 20 papers
. Created a Boeing CMARRTS Specialty Manual and a NASA CMARRTS Architecture
Tech Report
. Received 22 national and international patents
. Received a DOD Top Secret Clearance
. Launched the SAE Condition Monitoring System (CMS) Technical Committee
. Chaired Control and CMS technical sessions at IEEE, AIAA, SAE, ISA and
JPC conferences
. Received a Boeing Citizen-of-the-Year and Rocketdyne Engineering
Achievement Awards
. Member of Technical Fellowship - Both at Boeing and Pratt & Whitney
companies
. Received commendation letters from AFRL Commander, NASA Managers and
Rocketdyne President
. Life Member of ISA and AIAA organizations
. Keynote Speaker at 2013 ISA Symposium, Carson, CA
. Invited Speaker at 2014 Measurement Science Conference, Long Beach, CA
. M.S. in Electrical Engineering (EE), Carnegie Melon University (CMU),
Pittsburgh, PA
. Performed research on solid-state electronic devices and completed PhD
coursework at CMU
. B.S. in EE, the University of Detroit. Completed a thesis on a 12-degree-
of-freedom automobile skid control system algorithm and simulation,
General Motors Research Laboratories, Warren, MI.