BOSTON – The East Coast hub of Defense Secretary Ash Carter’s tech outreach effort will focus on creating bridges between the military and innovators in biotechnology and biosciences.
Carter on Tuesday formally opened the East Coast headquarters of his technology innovation initiative, the Defense Innovation Unit Experimental (DIUx). Where the original DIUx – based in Silicon Valley Calif. – has focused on outreach to companies like Google [GOOGL] and Apple [AAPL] – the Boston headquarters will have access to the city’s academic institutions
“Boston is a beehive of activity for biotechnology and the biosciences,” Carter said during an opening ceremony for the DIUx office, locate next door to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
“I think in decades to come, we’ll look back and view the IT revolution as having been the recent past, with the present and future being a revolution in biosciences. We in DoD want to be part of that as well, because even though we don’t have quite as much of a legacy there as we do in IT or aerospace, we know it can have a tremendous impact on the health and welfare of our troops.”
Boston’s DIUx iteration will work to bring military and DoD biodefense and biological technology specialists together with academic researchers, biotech companies, and entrepreneurs. Carter specifically mentioned the Broad Institute as a Boston institution with which the office likely will work.
Carter launched the first DIUx about a year ago in Silicon Valley to establish a permanent Defense Department presence within an easy commute of the epicenter of digital innovation. He announced in May that an East Coast corollary to the Silicon Valley branch of DIUx would be established in Boston.
“Over the last 11 months – since we first opened the doors of the West Coast office in Silicon Valley – DIUx has become a signature part of our outreach to the tech community. It’s helped us connect with hundreds of entrepreneurs and firms – making great progress in putting commercially-based innovation into the hands of America’s soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines,” Carter said.
When the Boston office was announced, the entire endeavor was placed under central leadership of Managing Director Raj Shah. He has reorganized the initiative into three teams: engagement, foundry and venture.
The engagement team introduces military personnel to relevant entrepreneurs and companies and in turn schools the private sector on military problems.
“We have some of the most exciting and consequential problems you can have in technology,” Carter said. “Combined with our mission of defending this country, that’s one of the strongest attractors for innovators and technologists who want to make a difference in the world.”
The foundry team works with emerging technologies that are either in their infancy or will need significant modification for military use. DIUx has established a residence program for uniformed personnel to work with private tech companies and vice versa. The team is currently exploring military applications for virtual and augmented reality technologies, Carter said. Other focus areas for the team are commercial space technologies, advanced aerial robotics and autonomous vehicles.
The third and largest team is the venture team, which is tasked with identifying emerging commercial technologies and exploring their applicability to military requirements. That team is basically a Pentagon-backed venture capitalist cell with the authority to identify and invest in promising technologies.
“Because of its tech scouting prowess and deep network with the technology and venture capital community, DIUx has a unique ability to identify and do business with companies outside our traditional defense orbit, including many so-called “stealth startups” that aren’t even officially open for business yet,” Carter said.
Carter hopes the Pentagon can harness the speed at which the private sector innovates to boost the rate at which it fields new military technologies. To do that, DIUx first posts a problem or requirement that potentially has a commercial solution on its website. Any interested company is then invited to pitch solutions to the unit just as they would to a commercial venture capital investor.
“From there, things can move very, very quickly,” Carter said. “Once the most promising solution is identified, DIUx can then negotiate and execute fast, flexible, and collaborative awards, with the goal to issue funding within 60 days of first meeting a company. And later, if the military customer is satisfied and wants to move to follow-on production, they can do so much more swiftly as well.”
In his first 11 months as director, Shah and DIUx have launched 15 separate projects with the first contract awarded in 31 days. That contract was signed with Halo Neuroscience, which invented a wearable headphone-like device that can improve training using non-invasive brain stimulation.
“These headsets will be used by teams from our special operations forces, who will work with Halo to gauge how effective their device might be at improving marksmanship, close-quarters-combat skills, and overall strength training,” Carter said.
Other projects range from secure network mapping to autonomous unmanned maritime drones. Seven new projects were announced in the last two weeks for prototype projects on endpoint inspection, high-speed drones, and multifactor authentication, among others.
“The DIUx pipeline is brimming with possibility, and I expect this portfolio will continue to grow – even more so because of our new presence here in Boston, and the new people we’ve recruited to lead it,” Carter said.
Bernadette Johnson, chief technology officer of MIT’s Lincoln Labs, will serve as chief science officer, while Air Force Reserve Col. Mike McGinley – a lawyer specializing in cybersecurity and lead of U.S. Cyber Command’s private-sector partnership team – will return to active duty and serve as military lead of the Boston DIUx office.