Cubic president and chief executive officer Brad Feldmann, members of senior staff and the Cubic Technology Council recently recognized individuals and teams for their innovative efforts and products at the inaugural Walter J. Zable Innovation Awards. In honor of continuing a tradition of innovation, the award is named after 
Cubic’s founder, Walter J. Zable. The Zable Innovation Awards celebrates the contributions of employees who emulates Zable’s passion for innovation and recognizes them for their dedication and hard work towards keeping Cubic at the forefront of innovation.
As Cubic’s motto “Global. Innovative. Trusted.” suggests, Cubic was founded on the core principle of excellence in innovation. Today, it remains an essential element for Cubic and we are proud to deliver cutting-edge technologies and solutions for customers worldwide.
As a special awards celebration, 35 Zable Innovation Award nominees were flown in from across the globe, representing business units that span Cubic’s global operations. The four Innovation categories include:
- Innovator of the Year.
- Innovation Leader of the Year.
- Innovative Team of the Year.
- Innovation Most Valuable Players (MVP).
Those who were selected as nominees frequently contributed to Cubic Innovation, an internal platform designed to manage the company-wide innovation process and allows employees to submit innovative ideas via IdeaSpark. IdeaSpark is an online hub where innovators and collaborators from across Cubic can instantly
find each other and work together to create leading-edge products and processes to better serve our customers.
Below is a brief Q&A with four of the Innovator of the Year award winners, who were acknowledged for their contribution to Innovation:
Cubic Corporate Innovator: Angel Diaz, Senior Recruiter
Tell us briefly about the idea(s) you submitted on IdeaSpark that led to your nomination and receiving of the award?
When speaking with one of the Human Resources Managers, I found issues with hourly employees getting paid on time and getting paid the full amount (i.e. 40 hours); also, those employees were not submitting their time card entries on schedule either. So I submitted an idea of a web-based system that would prompt employees with a pop-up window to enter and submit time before they were allowed to access any other applications. Thus, forcing them to submit their time cards.
How important is it to come up with innovative processes to streamline company efforts?
I think it is very important. As busy as Cubic’s employees are, we cannot afford to slow the day down with something like tracking down time cards. If there is a system that makes our procedures seamless and painless, why not try to enhance our current process.
Cubic Global Defense Innovator: Bobby Kassab, Senior Principal Electrical Engineer
Tell us briefly about the idea(s) you submitted on IdeaSpark that led to your nomination and receiving of the award?
Like many of the other nominees, I’ve been an active member on IdeaSpark and have submitted various ideas across all business units: Cubic Global Defense (CGD), Cubic Mission Solutions (CMS) and Cubic Transportation Systems (CTS) over the course of the last year. I’ve submitted novel ideas from virtual reality on public transport to decision-based training videos.
Why is it essential for a company like Cubic, a global corporation that is based on the foundation of innovation, to have an internal resource for employees where submissions of innovative ideas are encouraged? How does the Cubic Innovation platform continue to foster an innovative workplace environment where creative ideas are welcomed amongst employees?
One of the best ways for a company to grow “organically” is through innovation. Cubic has always had pockets of innovation, but since the addition of IdeaSpark, the innovation process has become more formalized and accessible to every employee. The IdeaSpark innovation portal makes it super easy to participate and I’m encouraged that we’re seeing a lot of employees (not just engineers!) submitting ideas. Once the idea is up on IdeaSpark, others innovators can comment on it and add to the idea or provide links for related info. Not all ideas need to be completely innovative and brand new. Some ideas are incremental product or process improvements, both of which can still significantly affect Cubic’s ability to grow and compete by connecting the idea to the appropriate person or team to consider/implement.
Cubic Mission Solutions Innovator: John Burger, Software Engineer 2
Tell us briefly about the GATR Flex Project, the project you worked on that led to the receiving of this award?
GATR-FLEX® is a micro-VSAT (Very Small Aperture Terminal) satellite antenna terminal based on a reflector that is stowed by collapsing, folding and rolling. When deployed, it snaps back into the precision parabolic shape. Whereas industry solutions must rely on a rigid reflector, the GATR-FLEX takes advantage of GATR Technologies’ unique, patented, lightweight flexible reflector technology and applied it to the sub-meter VSAT market. This compact packaging of the flexible reflector and novel nesting of the components allows for the industry’s first 75-centimeter class satellite communications terminal that is transportable in a single overhead airline carry-on case.
What does winning the Innovator of the Year award mean to you and what did you enjoy most about the Zable Innovation Awards ceremony?
Aside from the honor of just being nominated, winning this award for the GATR-FLEX is especially meaningful to me and my colleagues since GATR Technologies has been a subsidiary of Cubic for less than a year. In that short time, Cubic has eagerly welcomed us to the Cubic team and this award helps demonstrate Cubic’s commitment and dedication to the continued development for not only of GATR’s innovative products but also of innovation throughout the entire company. I thoroughly enjoyed learning about Walter J. Zable’s journey in creating Cubic and growing the company over the years. There were a lot of projects and technologies I had no idea Cubic was responsible for. I was especially surprised to learn that Cubic started out in the satellite antenna business, and it is as if Cubic has come full circle with GATR joining the team.
The awards ceremony helped me appreciate Cubic’s beginnings even more, making me proud as ever to be a part of Cubic. It truly is a company founded on innovation, similar to how GATR began. I look forward to continuing Walter’s legacy of innovation with Cubic|GATR.
Cubic Transportation Systems Innovator: Gavin R. Smith, Systems Engineer
Tell us briefly about the idea(s) you submitted on IdeaSpark that led to your nomination and receiving of the award?
My initial nomination for the Innovator of the Year award was driven by my consistent use of IdeaSpark. I believe I have submitted over 20 ideas and at the time of the nominations, four of them had been funded for research. Currently, I hold 13 U.S. Patents for Cubic as well as six design patents and have another nine pending. Over the past six years, I have been pushing innovation at CTS with the support of its executives.I designed the first two NextAgent prototypes and defined its capabilities; project managed the development of our K2 Kiosk, which is now being productionized for Singapore; and developed the concept of a gateless gateline with Warwick Mullen, which we are busy prototyping.
As a prolific contributor to IdeaSpark and an instrumental player in the development of CTS’ original NextAgent prototype, a new concept in transport ticketing that enables customers to interact with ticketing staff, your ideas have had a profound impact on CTS UK’s business. Why do you feel it is important to share ideas?
Ideas are fragile, delicate things. They are easily brushed away and trodden down by others who aren’t interested in them for whatever reason. One of the best reasons to share them far and wide is to give them a better chance of survival. Even if someone in my local office doesn’t like an idea, someone elsewhere around the globe in the Cubic family might. The other great reason to share them across the organization is that they will stimulate other people’s thought processes. We have lots of fantastic engineers who might not be comfortable having that initial creative spark, but are fantastic when it comes to working out how to make something reality, or seeing how it might fit in their local region with a few tweaks. Sharing ideas gives them life.
What did you enjoy most about the Zable Innovation Awards?
The best thing about the awards dinner was being surrounded by like-minded people. A room full of free thinking people who are quite comfortable with the idea of changing the world is quite a charged environment. The atmosphere sparkles. It was a wonderful event. I think everyone felt honored to be there.