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NEWS | Oct. 29, 2019

NSWC Crane featured Navy researchers in an innovation showcase

By NSWC Crane Corporate Communications

CRANE, Ind. – Naval Surface Warfare Center, Crane Division (NSWC Crane) featured Navy researchers in the annual Naval Innovative Science & Engineering (NISE) End of Year Showcase on October 2-3 at NSWC Crane. More than two hundred people participated, including attendees from academic and industry partners.

“The NISE End of Year Showcase gives researchers, who are working in critical navy technology areas, visibility from coworkers, academia, and industry,” says Brant Ackerman, the Director of NISE Program at NSWC Crane. “In some cases, the researchers have been working on their projects for years within their own teams or departments.  The showcase provides researchers, especially those working in similar or overlapping technology areas, an avenue to come together, learn from each other, and build on their research.”

The NISE program provides funding for Basic & Applied Research, Technology Transition, Workforce Development, and Laboratory Revitalization within the Department of Defense (DoD) laboratories to grow internal technical capabilities of the workforce and build critical infrastructure. Ackerman says that at NSWC Crane, the NISE program provides funding for warfighter challenges within Crane’s mission areas and thrust technology areas.

“We’ve seen good things come from successful NISE research projects,” says Ackerman. “There are opportunities to patent something new and novel and get a new capability fielded. It’s exciting to see all of these projects together in one place.”

Dr. Jonathan Dilger, the Director of Research at NSWC Crane, says a portion of NISE provides learning opportunities for the workforce.

“Along with the research projects themselves, a portion of NISE also funds the workforce to pursue advanced degrees while working on novel technology,” says Dr. Dilger. “NISE funded research also allows new Crane employees the opportunity to be mentored as they work alongside national technical experts. They are able to work in state-of-the-art technology in thrust areas such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, and advanced microelectronics.”

NISE research funds more than seventy projects per year and involves more than 400 employees at NSWC Crane. More than twelve percent of the NSWC Crane workforce was involved in NISE research for FY19. 124 employees that worked on NISE projects have been with Crane for less than three years. NISE guiding policy tells the engineering laboratories to get new employees involved in cutting edge work utilizing NISE funds. 

Dr. Dilger says NISE funding gives NSWC Crane the ability to innovate.

“NISE allows us to develop research with uninhibited innovation,” says Dr. Dilger. “The output of research is knowledge, which gives the workforce the capacity to create new capabilities for the warfighter. Through events like the Innovation Showcase, we are creating a way to share this knowledge, further collaboration, and better support the warfighter.”

About NSWC Crane

NSWC Crane is a naval laboratory and a field activity of Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) with mission areas in Expeditionary Warfare, Strategic Missions and Electronic Warfare. The warfare center is responsible for multi-domain, multi- spectral, full life cycle support of technologies and systems enhancing capability to today's Warfighter.