SPEC Innovations’ Innoslate Offers Six Tools in One

When Dr. Steven Dam founded SPEC Innovations (Booth 1427) in 1993, he originally envisioned a firm with employees to train systems engineers and consult on projects. 

He understood systems engineering had become “systems of systems,” partly because of growing complexity that arose during the Space Age, when rockets sent capsule systems aloft to report to communications and data systems.

SPEC learned the defense and commercial sectors had processes only slightly less complex than NASA, but existing tools couldn’t keep pace with the new paradigm.

“I figured I’d need six tools, and that wouldn’t be trivial, and that wouldn’t be cheap,” Dam said in a 2018 webinar.

As a result, the company developed Innoslate, one model-based tool to perform the work of six. 

Being demonstrated at GEOINT 2019, Innoslate implements lifecycle modeling language and has “requirements management, program management, testing management, and modeling and simulation capabilities designed to meet the needs of any system or process,” said Elizabeth Steiner, SPEC’s director of marketing and sales.

With Innoslate, the developer establishes a requirements level and builds from the design level up. Each level refers to its predecessor to keep the mission on target and costs down. The impact a change in one system will have on another is evident so negative impacts can be remedied immediately, rather than later at greater expense. Surprises at the end of the product lifecycle are lessened or eliminated, and forensic information offers lessons learned.

“A lot of people need a model-based engineering tool and don’t even know it,” Steiner said. “That’s really what we’d like to do at GEOINT—educate and develop brand recognition.”