F26 GIRS Seminars: Bridging the RAMS Influence Gap: Enhance Your Strategies with Aerospace Digital Engineering Lessons Learned

📅 When: Wednesday, October 21, 2026
🕐 Time: 1:00–2:00 PM PT
📍 Where: (In-Person) Engineering 6 Building, Room 580B and 💻 ZOOM

Nancy J. Lindsey, RCKTMOM, LLC

headshot of Nancy j. lindsey

Short Bio: Nancy Lindsey has spent over 40 years in aviation and aerospace performing a variety of hardware/software engineering tasks across the entire gamut of air, ground, and space system life cycles and program types including Defense Communications Satellites, Commercial Communications and Television Missions, Space-based Astronomical Observatories, On-Orbit Servicing, and Earth Science Monitoring Systems;  and US Navy out-of-controlled flight training and research. Her roles and responsibilities have varied (vendor, support contractor, systems engineer, SMA engineer, branch head, team lead, review board member, sustainment/ disposal Subject Matter Expert, Trilateral Task Torce lead, deputy R&M Technical Fellow, etc.) over the years of supporting missions —from architecture development and risk assessment through launch, operations, and sustainment. This has led her to be a published specialist in Space-Sustainment, Reliability and Safety, Model-Based, and Systems Engineering, an author of the multiple RAMS standards/guidelines, and now the Proprietor and Chief Engineer of RCKTMOM, LLC.

Mrs. Lindsey has a Bachelor of Science undergraduate degree in Computer Science & Aeronautical Engineering from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, Florida, was trained in Flight Medicine and Out-of-Controlled Flight by the US Navy, and has a Master’s of Science degree in Space Studies, from the University of North Dakota.

Abstract: Modern engineering programs increasingly depend on Reliability, Availability, Maintainability, and Safety (RAMS) analyses to guide technical and operational decisions. Yet even well-supported RAMS findings are often introduced too late, communicated ineffectively, or insufficiently integrated into program decision-making processes to meaningfully influence outcomes. This disconnect— often referred to as the “RAMS Influence Gap”—can allow known risks, latent failure modes, and avoidable operational vulnerabilities to persist. To bridge this gap and secure meaningful influence, RAMS must consistently deliver efficient, accurate, relevant, and timely inputs to stakeholders across a system’s lifecycle.

Digital engineering (DE) methodologies offer powerful avenues to potentially assist in achieving these input metrics. However, if these methods—and their associated liens and benefits—are not well understood, their implementation can inadvertently hinder RAMS influence by delaying or producing misleading outputs. Drawing on my NASA experience and research into infusing digital practices into RAMS, this seminar will share the practical realities for RAMS of several DE methods. Highlighted methods include digitizing expert knowledge to enable consistent and expedient failure mode discovery and characterization, modeling to optimize analytical throughput and consistency, and digital twin simulations to enhance interdisciplinary collaboration so that RAMS insights actively shape lifecycle decisions.

Attendees will gain practical insight into how these emerging digital engineering approaches may or may not truly improve the efficiency and relevance of RAMS practices, and whether they could genuinely help close the influence gap.