01.05.2024 –
Engineers from the Naval Surface Warfare Center, Philadelphia Division (NSWCPD) gathered with university partners at the Philadelphia Navy Yard Marriott on Nov. 2, 2023 for the second part of the University Day Series, hosted by the Liberty Tech Bridge, powered by NavalX.
During this second offering of the series, university partners and government employees learned more about methods to enable collaboration between Naval Warfare Centers and Academia by utilizing National Security Innovation Network (NSIN) programming.
“The Tech Bridge mission is to facilitate strategic partnerships and foster activities between the U.S. Navy and industry, academia, as well as state and local governments in the region that accelerates the creativity and innovation that improve the capability, capacity, and readiness of the Navy,” NSWCPD Engineer and Liberty Tech Bridge Director Mike Lavery said to kick off the event.
The University Day Series program is designed to pursue active engagements with existing Educational Partnership Agreements (EPA) and create new relationships with local universities through new collaboration agreements. This initiative also aims to increase awareness of current technologies and research ongoing at universities that would be applicable for Navy capabilities, as well as create active networks for future initiatives and facilitate opportunities for engagement between NSWCPD and universities.
In addition to NSWCPD, attendees included Rowan University, Drexel University, Villanova University, Temple University, University of Pennsylvania, Princeton University, Army Armament Center, NSIN, Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division (NAWCAD) Lakehurst, and Naval Information Warfare Center (NIWC) Pacific.
NSIN is a government program office within the Office of the Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering (OSD(R&E)) that collaborates with major universities and the venture community to develop solutions that drive national security innovation. They operate two portfolios of programs and services: Talent and Venture. Together, these portfolios form a pipeline of activities and solutions that accelerate the pace of defense innovation.
The Northeast Regional Director of NSIN David Skinner gave an overview and emphasized how important relevant innovation is to the Secretary of Defense when it comes to providing for National Security.
“The Department as a whole has realized in order for the Nation to stay competitive, it is imperative that we maintain an edge over adversaries and competitors. We need to start working at the pace of business and take advantage in leveraging our non-traditional partners,” Skinner said. “NSIN’s mission is to build networks of innovators, venture capital, and academia to provide emerging tech solutions to the DoD.”
According to the NSIN website, “Over the last two decades, we’ve seen a shift in the nature of security threats, from the emergence of networked insurgency to the growth of cyber threats, the conditions of warfare are as unpredictable as ever. In these times of growing uncertainty, the strategies that have served us for nearly 100 years have become insufficient and unsustainable. We need to build a more agile and adaptive resource to meet the unpredictable threats of the future.”
Skinner pointed out that the startup venture represents the most agile mechanism for innovation. By focusing on developing a minimum viable product and the conservation of capital, startups have emerged as engines of innovation that create better, cheaper, and faster solutions. NSIN is a network that brings together the values of service, discovery, and speed.
“Together, these forces will drive the innovations that help us realize the better, safer world we want to share,” Skinner said.
NSIN’s New Jersey Regional Engagement Principal Spencer Reynolds connects DoD mission partners with universities, early-stage companies, and ecosystem enablers to solve DoD challenges and to enable opportunities.
“The key takeaway is all about collaboration opportunities. Our mission is to create networks to innovate new solutions to national security problems, and realize opportunities - not everything is a problem. Some are new opportunities that are foreseeable based on trends in science and technology,” Reynolds said.
Reynolds also provided a program deep dive context including expounding on how the Defense innovation challenge is getting new technology from concept to product and then to the warfighter. He explained the challenges of how Defense appropriations are allocated and funded, as well as how science and technology programs can be funded. In addition, he gave a detailed synopsis of NSIN’s talent and venture programs.
“We create the networks. That’s what we are funded to do. We bring people together and have resources and funding for that,” he said.
NSIN, NavalX and the Liberty Tech Bridge’s efforts will help create future engagements, according to Lavery. The University Day series event has led to multiple engineers submitting problem statements and a collaboration between NSWCPD and U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command (DEVCOM) Armaments Center.
“The momentum is heading in the right direction for this ecosystem,” Lavery said.
The next University Day Series event on Feb. 6, 2024 will encompass how the government and academia can collaborate using the Office of Naval Research Naval Enterprise Partnership Teaming With Universities For National Excellence (NEPTUNE) and Navy Undersea Research Program (NURP), Department of Navy’s Historically Black Colleges And Universities/Minority Institutions Programs, and the Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) and Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR).
For event registration and additional information visit: https://buytickets.at/libertytechbridge/1100855
NSWCPD employs approximately 2,800 civilian engineers, scientists, technicians, and support personnel. The NSWCPD team does the research and development, test and evaluation, acquisition support, and in-service and logistics engineering for the non-nuclear machinery, ship machinery systems, and related equipment and material for Navy surface ships and submarines. NSWCPD is also the lead organization providing cybersecurity for all ship systems.