Our Instructors
Ann P. Over
Ann’s NASA career spanned 36 years after graduating from The Ohio State University with a B.S. in Aeronautical & Astronautical Engineering. She started at the NASA Glenn Research Center (GRC), Launch Vehicle Division, where she designed interplanetary and earth orbit trajectories for NASA and Department of Defense missions launching on the Shuttle/Centaur, Atlas/Centaur, and Titan/Centaur vehicles. Ann’s national and international training was expanded via working at NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C. when she led the Space Shuttle manifest for domestic and international science payloads and worked her first Shuttle/Spacelab mission.
In her mid-career, Ann became a project manager of teams from 5-200 people and helped enable the success of several fast-paced and technically difficult NASA science and technology flight projects. Her team designed and manufactured at GRC the largest Spacelab payload flown (>1 ton) on the Shuttle (twice in 1997), managing high pressures and materials to safely study combustion. In 2003, this large combustion payload was refurbished and expanded to gather more science, unfortunately on the last flight of the Shuttle Columbia. Ann also managed a communication technology flight project, launched by Japan to the International Space Station in 2012, successfully completing its mission in 2019; overcoming tight timelines to integrate & fly new software defined radios and over a million lines of software code, also manufactured at GRC. Ann’s last effort was in the Artemis/Orion Program, European Service Module (ESM), where she was the Deputy Program Manager working with teams of engineers to refurbish & re-fly propulsion systems, create a full-scale ESM propulsion testbed, and led two “tiger teams” to resolve development issues with engines and valves. The Artemis 1 mission launched and operated late 2022 with an uncrewed mission to the moon and back, and the propulsion system performance exceeded expectations.
Ann’s career led to upper management positions at NASA including Space Flight Combustion Projects, Exploration Technology (Moon/Mars), Space Science (Planetary/ Earth), and the Orion European Service Module Integration Office. She mentored project managers and provided leadership to advance multiple technologies and mission efforts.
She is married to Randy Over, has three children and three grandchildren.
Honors and Awards
2024 AIAA Associate Fellow
2022 Artemis I Orion Individual Award
2018 American Astronautical Society Space Flight Award (for extraordinary achievements and contributions to the advancement of space flight and space exploration)
2012 Senior/Expert Level Project Manager for Federal Acquisitions. Certification
1990-2019 23 NASA Honor Awards including the Outstanding Leadership Medal (2012) and Exceptional Service Medal (2006)
1997 Silver Snoopy Award
In 1991 Randy accepted the position of Safety-Service Director at a Cleveland, Ohio suburb, moving from private consulting into a politically appointed position and becoming the first engineer in the City’s history to hold that position. It’s been said (by engineers) that life is really an engineering effort, Randy applied engineering principles to City operations and learned to communicate the value of engineering to non-engineers. It was also a time to learn how to navigate a political world.
In 1994, Randy accepted the position of District Construction Engineer (DCE) for the Ohio DOT, District 12 (Cleveland Metro) responsible for all Federal Highway (FHWA) and State funded highway and bridge construction projects. With the Ohio DOT reorganizing and significantly downsizing, he led his engineering team to achieve a clearer focus on the importance of engineering, the contract, specifications, and standards.
With the Ohio DOT reorganization in motion, Randy was appointed and served from 1994 to 2009 on the statewide committee that sets construction engineering standards, specifications, and materials acceptance requirements. He engaged with staff, industry, and university researchers and created better specifications and standards for longer-lasting and more cost-effective constructed projects for the Ohio DOT and local public agencies statewide.
While construction claims and disputes are often part of the contracting environment, Randy has a unique ability to have disagreeing parties reach an agreement on the engineering first, often leading to settlement and a path forward. Over his career at the Ohio DOT, this ability led to the resolution of dozens of claims and disputes, limiting financial and project delay impacts.
In 2009, due to the I-35 bridge collapse in Minneapolis, the Ohio DOT moved forward with its first Design-Build contract to replace the I-90 Innerbelt Bridge in downtown Cleveland, a structure similar to the I-35 structure. The “Magnificent Seven” as we called ourselves created the first ever Design-Build contract documents for the Ohio DOT. At the time of contract execution in 2010, it was the largest single construction contract in Ohio DOT’s history.
Randy was responsible for more than US $2.4B in completed construction projects upon retirement in 2017. He is currently an engineering education and construction claims consultant.
He is married to Ann and has three grown children and three grandchildren. He lives in Middleburg Heights, Ohio, a suburb of Cleveland.
Honors & Awards
2024 President, Engineers Without Borders
2015 The Ohio State University – Outstanding Civil Engineering Alumni Award
2014 President, ASCE, the Nation’s oldest engineering society, with 150,000 members in 177 countries
2011 American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) William H. Wisely Award
Randall (Randy) S. Over
Likely destined to be a Civil Engineer as the son and grandson of civil engineers, Randy graduated with a B.S. in Civil Engineering from the Ohio State University in 1983 and is a licensed Professional Engineer in Ohio. Between 1983 and 1991, he worked for civil engineering consulting firms designing and managing the construction of infrastructure projects for multiple state Department of Transportations (DOTs), agencies, and local governments.
Larry Ross
Visiting instructor/consultant: Mr. Ross has been a technical and management contributor in the aerospace industry for over fifty years after having received a BS in electrical engineering from Manhattan College, Riverdale, New York City. His thirty-two year career at the NASA Lewis Research Center, now NASA Glenn, culminated in his assignment as Center Director from 1990-1994. Prior to that assignment he held the positions of Deputy Center Director, Director of Space, and Director of Launch Vehicles. Earlier in his career, he held various positions associated with engineering and program management of the Atlas/Centaur and Titan/Centaur Programs. He was chairman of the Delta 178 Failure Review Board in 1986. Mr. Ross retired from NASA in 1995, and since that time has served as a senior consultant to NASA and other Government agencies, as well as to the commercial aerospace Industry. Mr. Ross is co-founder and CEO of Aerospace Engineering Associates. He is the father of four children The father of four and grandfather of eight, he was a husband of fifty-six years before the death of his wife Carol in 2021.
Joe Nieberding (in memory, April 2023)
Prior visiting instructor/consultant: After earning a B.S in physics in 1966 and an M.S. in Engineering Science in 1972, Mr. Nieberding acquired over fifty years of management and technical experience in the aerospace industry. In his early career, he was a launch team member on over sixty-five NASA Atlas/Centaur and Titan/Centaur launches at Kennedy Space Center. He was a widely recognized expert in launch vehicles and advanced transportation architecture planning for space missions. Later, he led and participated in many independent program review teams for NASA Headquarters. Before retiring from NASA Glenn Research Center in 2000, under his direction the Advanced Space Analysis Office led all exploration advanced concept studies for Glenn, including transportation, propulsion, power, and communications systems for many advanced NASA mission applications. Since retirement, he held numerous consulting positions for NASA and other government agencies. In addition, Mr. Nieberding was co-founder and President of Aerospace Engineering Associates, and co-author and presenter of a highly acclaimed class titled “Mission Success First: Lessons Learned”. He was the father of four children and husband of fifty years, the father of four and grandfather of three. Tragically, Joe died of cancer in March of 2023.
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AR NexGen translates lessons into concrete strategies that will minimize or eliminate root causes of engineering system mishaps and near misses.