DiPentima, Schambach win Eagles

Patrick Schambach, chief information officer at the Transportation Security Administration, and Renato DiPentima, president of consulting and systems integration at SRA International Inc., won Eagle awards March 25 at the 14th annual Federal 100 gala.

Federal Computer Week presents the awards to two individuals — one from government and one from industry — who made outstanding contributions to federal information technology the prior year.

Schambach led the effort after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks to tighten security at airports, instituting new passenger and luggage screening guidelines and building an operation from scratch.

"We still have employees using pay phones in the airport concourses to make business calls and their personal computers at home to access our Web site," he said. "But we do have a vision of the technology-enabled TSA."

DiPentima is well-known as a pillar of the IT community, someone who works to make government and industry operate effectively together.

"Government people know what their responsibilities are, and industry people know what their responsibilities are," he said. "But I have never seen them work together so well."

The CIO Council chose the government Eagle award winner, and the Information Technology Association of America selected the industry winner.