Upcoming Innovation Exchange opportunity for collaboration

  • Published
  • By Patty Welsh
  • 66th Air Base Group Public Affairs
HANSCOM AIR FORCE BASE, Mass. --  Hanscom's Engineering and Technical Management Directorate, in conjunction with The MITRE Corp., will host an "Innovation Exchange" April 26 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. in Building 1612.

The event will offer an opportunity for program office personnel to see the independent research and development work ongoing at MITRE and being drawn from the broader innovation community in the areas of cybersecurity, communications and networking, and the future of command and control. The Innovation Exchange is open to military, government civilians and direct support contractors.

"We are excited to bring this opportunity to share some of MITRE's innovative internal research," said Dennis Miller, Engineering director. "This puts an abundance of additional information in the hands of Hanscom acquisition personnel."

MITRE has hosted similar events in the past on its Bedford, Massachusetts, campus and its personnel are excited about this upcoming engagement at Hanscom AFB.

"We want to re-spark the spirit of innovation," said Steve Vinica, MITRE Engineering and Analysis associate department head and event coordinator. "The Exchange will connect government personnel to our principal investigators who are working through a particular problem or research topic, and hopefully spark a discussion, potentially leading to a collaboration."

Offerings include three courses being presented in the O'Neill Auditorium as part of the upcoming Air Force Life Cycle Management Center Focus Week:

- 10 a.m.: Cyber Threats Learning Class

-11:30 a.m.: Innovation Talk. During this event, Miller will provide a kickoff, while Dr. Mark Maybury, MITRE vice president, chief security officer and director of the National Institute of Standards and Technology National Cybersecurity FFRDC, will speak on cybersecurity challenges.

-1 p.m.: Cyber Risk Assessment Tool Demo Learning Class

Attendees of any course should register through Acquisition Now as part of Focus Week at http://www.atrrs.army.mil/channels/acqnowcl/ to earn continuous learning points. Additional information about each course, including any requirements, is also available on the AcqNow site.

Throughout the exchange, 16 principal investigators will be on hand in the atrium to provide information about their current research. Topics range from Automagical Cyber Dependency Mapping and Cyber Risk Informed Engineering, to Future SATCOM Capabilities, a High Data Rate Reliable HF Communications Demonstration, and a Mission-level C2 Experimentation Tool.

"Personnel in a program office may be planning a tech strategy, an industry day or putting out a request for proposal and not even be aware that MITRE may already be working on, or aware of, something in that area," said Col. Edward Masterson, Engineering and Technical Management deputy. "We want to be able to share that knowledge in order to better serve the needs of the Air Force and our warfighters."

For more information about the event, contact Vinica at 781-271-2676 or svinica@mitre.org or Lt. Dan Van Maastricht, Engineering and Technical Management Directorate executive officer, at 781-225-1728 or daniel.vanmaastricht.1@us.af.mil.