Dr. Charles Johnson-Bey

Las week I was invited (again) by the DoD to attend the AFSOR 2024 Trust and Influence Program Review on August 12-16, 2024. to be held in Dayton, OH. Department of the Air Force Chief Data and AI Office has been creating a healthy environment where academia and industry jointly with goverment share experiences and insights. Its time to keep moving towards the future of the idea of #workingforhumans #thinkingfromscience and the power of #humath. We should definitively continue creating #aipoweredsolutions with our idea. Universidad EAFIT Innovación EAFIT and #PinkTechnologies powered by #Humath

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Eric & team do another great job with our podcast - listen in if you want to learn how GTRI invests in our independent R&D for national security and improving the human condition.

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Connecting #Guardians to their leaders. Senior-level leaders from across Space Systems Command came together recently to discuss building better connections, Guardian culture, and the future of the hybrid workforce. Read more about the conference: 👇 https://lnkd.in/ehhHqkYQ

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As promised, I can now share the interview with SAIC 's Jay Meil and Joshua Conine . Thanks to Air & Space Forces Association for the great interview. Listen in if you are curious about data, ai and ml for national defense. https://lnkd.in/eeQ28sJd

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Great article coming out of coverage at Space Symposium last week discussing the recently released DoD Commercial Space Integration Strategy and the benefits and challenges of government and commercial space industry working together. #CyberSatSummit dives into this critical discussion in November and tackles the all important information sharing topic as well. Interested in learning more about CyberSat, find out here: https://lnkd.in/emfraRRn DM me if interested in speaking/sponsoring or if you'd like to learn more. #spaceindustry #cybersecurity #informationsharing https://lnkd.in/eNNvAbiP

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The Department of Defense (DoD) Manufacturing Technology (ManTech) program has an open call for white papers with ideas "to identify novel manufacturing process and emerging technologies from industry, already at mid or high readiness levels, to innovate manufacturing for both commercial solutions and DoD-developed technologies within the Department's industrial base." Launched last month, the announcement will be open until 2027 and will accept submittals for all defense-relevant prototype manufacturing projects. #defensetech #defenseinnovation https://lnkd.in/ev8RHFFE 

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In a move to streamline technology transitions, Heidi Shyu, Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering, has inaugurated the Transition Tracking Action Group (TTAG). This advisory body, established March 13, is set to harness advanced data analytics to track how the Department of Defense (DoD) delivers capabilities to the field. Chaired by the R&E's chief data officer, Cyrus Jabbari, and comprising senior representatives from the military services and offices under the Secretary of Defense, TTAG aims to improve the visibility and management of the DoD's technology transition processes. The goal of this initiative seeks to ensure the timely and cost-effective delivery of state-of-the-art systems and equipment to military personnel. To do this, the department will seek understand what the primary obstacles to transition are and if the measures it undertakes to improve outcomes are yielding desired effects. The TTAG will create a department-wide method to track technology transition and determine the reasons capability-enhancing technologies do or do not transition, to enable the Joint Force to deter and, if necessary, prevail in contested environments.

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NASA is soliciting industry proposals to carry out rapid studies of mission designs and mission elements capable of delivering samples collected by the Mars Perseverance rover from the surface of Mars to Earth. NASA recognizes that U.S. industry has innovative ideas and substantial capabilities that may be relevant to a Mars Sample Return campaign. This Rapid Mission Design Studies for Mars Sample Return program element (henceforth “program element”) seeks to establish whether there are viable mission designs or mission element options, such as a smaller Mars Ascent Vehicle, to return samples from Mars that offer benefits (e.g., less complexity, lower overall cost, lower annual cost, earlier sample return, and/or lower risk; see Section 3.4) compared to NASA’s reference mission design. Studies may be for complete mission designs, for mission designs that include elements of NASA’s Mars Sample Return Program or NASA’s Artemis Program as Government Furnished Equipment (GFE), or for individual mission elements; see Section 3.2. The results of these studies may inform revisions to NASA’s Mars Sample Return Program and may result in future procurements. go.nasa.gov/rasmsr24

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USAF reexamining #NGAD procurement effort to include underlying operational concept (crewed, uncrewed, optionally crewed, etc.).

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👀 Have you seen the new episode of The Merge? Cool tech and business models for Defense 💪🏻🇺🇸 #Defense #Tech #News

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Complexity is going up, and the bureaucracy of compliance is going up with it. Coupling this with once-a-generation programs is a recipe for losing. Here's a new interview from Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) with Gregory C. Allen and Will Roper. 2 key points worth the listen: 🔹 Certifying aircraft software for the goverment still relies on signing documents time. 31:32 🔹 Product wins the race—but process wins the race season. 46:40 https://lnkd.in/gnXWPxxA

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Favorite quote in this piece, "Companies like Apex Space and DataPath are at the forefront, introducing innovative solutions to meet the increasing demands of both military and commercial space operations." Great shout-outs to innovations by Apex - Spacecraft Manufacturing, Rivada Space Networks, DataPath, Inc. (Gilat Satellite Networks), Peraton and Momentus.

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There is no doubt that promoting IT modernization, comprehensive and continuous process improvement, and competition for products and services across the entire life cycle inc government purpose data rights would yield enormous savings. New business models like “Government as the Lead Systems Integrator,” and engagement in military and commercial specs and STDs can promote and accelerate innovation and help ensure quality improvement for contracted services. Building leadership skills and capabilities at all levels to accelerate learning, change and transformation can embed new cultural norms which would help institutionalize these new paradigms. Lastly, given exponentially accelerating technologies and the need to sense, be agile and adaptive as well as anticipatory we can create a culture of learning (vs just doing).. "Defense contractors routinely overcharge the Pentagon by 40%—and sometimes more than 4,000%," Sanders continued. "In October, RTX (formerly Raytheon) was fined $950 million for inflating bills to the DoD, lying about labor and material costs, and paying bribes to secure foreign business. In June, Lockheed Martin was fined $70 million for overcharging the navy for aircraft parts, the latest in a long line of similar abuses.."

The materials for the IEEE-USA President-Elect process are live. You can find out more at https://lnkd.in/eD4cs8fj. My personal election website (see this for my take on the issues...) is at https://lnkd.in/ex-vdRRj P.S. the link works fine- just ignore the “Request Rejected”. It is an artifact.

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TIIB Director and DoD Biotechnology Principal Director on “Building the Base” Building a resilient infrastructure, growing the needed workforce, and scaling up manufacturing capabilities – these are both the goals and tools for accelerating innovative technologies that support the defense industrial base, according to Tracy Frost and Dr. Kate Sixt, speaking on the Building the Base podcast about the future of biotechnology for defense, and the important enablers for success. As part of a special series focused within the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering, Frost, Director of the Technology Industrial Innovation Base office and Sixt, Principal Director for Biotechnology, talked about how focused investments in domestic supply chains, public-private collaboration and workforce engagement are helping build a robust bioeconomy and secure our nation. “We see the value in leveraging our partnerships with industry, from small business all the way through the large primes,” said Frost, as well as connecting with non-traditional companies. She noted there is a large space of commonality between commercial sector needs and defense needs, saying, “We're recognizing the value and efficiency of working together,” by overlaying road maps of commercial priorities and relevant defense priorities. Sixt highlighted current innovations, including the ways that we use feed stocks to produce a material at the end, which could be sugar rich feed stocks like corn and beets, but also different types of grasses – starting materials that grow in abundance across the country. As well, “we can actually use things that that aren't grown in the ground, but that we're producing as waste. And that sort of waste reclamation and seeing the ability to do carbon capture off waste from steel mills, that's a really important source of carbon that the organisms can use,” she said. Learn more by listening to the conversation! https://lnkd.in/eWPuj4D9 #biotechnology #biomanufacturing #supplychains #advancedmanufacturing

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Advanced Power for Extreme Space Exploration! Consider submitting an abstract to this special session we are putting together at the AIAA SciTech 2025 Conference. Go to aiaa.org/SciTech to submit your abstract, and select “Other Topics in Aerospace Power Systems."

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Comprised of former DoD and A&D startup operators, Approach's mission is to enable founding teams building the future of frontier technology to achieve their full potential. Next week's Field of View newsletter will publish on January 2. Several topics within our venture section are included below - subscribe to receive to your inbox each month: - Clean Capital Certification (Future Union) - New American Industrial Alliance - National Security / Defense-Focused Venture Fund Announcements by America’s Frontier Fund ($175mm) and Humba Ventures ($40mm) 𝘈𝘥𝘥𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘭 𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴: Attio, AFWERX, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), Susa Ventures, The Wall Street Journal, United States Space Force, United States Air Force, US Army, US Navy, Palantir Technologies, Narya, 8VC, Hadrian, General Catalyst, Eclipse, Oklo Inc, Impulse Space, Tamarack Global, Y Combinator, Atomic Industries, JLL, Joby Aviation 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘦. #aerospaceanddefense #approachventure #earlystage #venturecapital #startups https://lnkd.in/eudgSUtm

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✦ The U.S. SPACE FORCE, created in 2019, may EVOLVE into a separate DEPARTMENT to establish a unique IDENTITY and CULTURE. ✦ PROPOSALS for a "DEPARTMENT of GOVERNMENT EFFICIENCY" aim to OFFSET potential COSTS of a separate Space Force. ✦ Subordination to the AIR FORCE could LIMIT the SPACE FORCE's POTENTIAL as SPACE OPERATIONS grow in importance. #SpaceForce #DefenseInnovation #GovernmentReform

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