Pivoting DoD innovation programs to defeat COVID-19 with technology
Mellie Price hosts a panel of Army, Air Force, and TMDx representatives on the process of pivoting DoD innovations to help find COVID-19 solutions.
What you’ll find out:
- How has COVID-19 impacted the Army’s Rapid Equipment Force? (10:48)
- What is the largest market research ever done in the history of the federal government? (23:00)
- What Texas has learned from the COVID-19 response. (26:52)
Key quotes:
- “[REF] partnered with industry and other Army organizations to quickly provide a thermal screening system across 15 Army installations under a little less than five weeks.” — COL Joe Bookard, Rapid Equipment Force (02:41)
- “We’re placing a deliberate emphasis on ensuring that the virtual operator training is just as important as a face-to-face training.” — COL Joe Bookard, Rapid Equipment Force (13:30)
- “When we released an open call for ideas related specifically to COVID-19, we received 3700 responses from industry within two months. No one has been able to dispute this claim yet, but it’s the largest market research done in the history of the federal government.” — Jason Rathje, AFVentures (23:02)
- “[When COVID-19 hit] I saw a fantastic response from the bureaucratic machine that everybody thinks can’t move very quickly” — Mellie Price, Dell Medical School (25:34)
- “This is unlike any disaster we’ve seen almost since World War I and World War II, where logistical chains were absolutely crumbling and many of the challenges we faced…overextended what the state was intended to.” — Alex Goldberg, Texas Military Department (27:55)
- “General Hayden, who is now the Deputy Joint Chief of Staff, the number two in the entire military — gave a speech a couple years ago and said the thing that keeps him up at night….is that as a nation, we’ve lost the ability to go fast; and that’s where Army Futures Command, AFWERX, and DIU and the rest of the DoD Innovation Ecosystem comes in.” — Alex Goldberg, Texas Military Department (28:19)
Who you’ll hear from:
About Fed Supernova
Fed Supernova, presented by Deloitte, is a virtual conference highlighting defense innovation in Texas. This first-of-its-kind interactive experience will draw national attention and connect leading entrepreneurs, investors, thought leaders, corporations, and decision makers from around the world.
About Capital Factory
Capital Factory is the center of gravity for entrepreneurs in Texas, the number one startup state in the U.S. Hundreds of thousands of entrepreneurs, programmers and designers gather day and night, in-person and online for meetups, classes and coworking. With boots on the ground in Austin, Dallas and Houston, we meet the best entrepreneurs in Texas and introduce them to their first investors, employees, mentors and customers. According to Pitchbook, Capital Factory has been the most active investor in Texas since 2013.
