The Department of Defense’s innovation partnership unit, MD5, is building on its successful disaster relief capabilities event with two more events scheduled for early 2018 designed to bring together field experts and budding entrepreneurs to work on emergency solutions needed in complex environments.
The DoD’s MD5 National Security Technology Accelerator wrapped up its emergency response prototyping event billed as a “hackathon” in Boston on July 28, where it partnered with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Innovation Initiative and the Advanced Functional Fabrics of America to bring together teams of students and local innovators to focus on wearable technology solutions.
MD5 now plans to hold two more such events by early 2018: in Los Angeles on computer vision and object recognition; and in Colorado on critical infrastructure.
“We like to connect with innovators who would not normally be working with DoD on these kinds of problems,” Dr. Bill Kernick, a principal with MD5, told Defense Daily. “This event was about utilizing civilian and military applications. That diversity allows the teams to come up with experimental solutions.”
The three-day Boston event included 180 participants and 23 teams made up of students, local engineers and designers working to test functional fabric prototypes for possible future use by defense units in emergency response situations. Teams then present their capabilities to a panel of DoD science and technology leaders with the chance to win concept development awards worth up to $15,000.
The event’s winning teams included a automated remote triage solution consisting of sensor-laden clothing for field medics, and a “smart” security blanket to be used distributed for people displaced from their homes during disaster situations. Both teams will now develop three-month working plans with set deliverables to MD5.
“The remote triage team impressed us with their ability to solve the need for greater biometric data responses in challenging environments. The smart blanket was inspired by a Ohio National Guard member’s experience in Hurricane Katrina.The traditional blue tarp hadn’t evolved in 30 years, and now this multi-purpose fabric can be used for both clothing and shelter,” said Kernick.
The MD5 hackathon was originally conceived by the Joint Reserve Directorate in the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering as a means of strengthening public-private partnerships for building innovative prototypes needed to address emergency response challenges. MD5 held previous events in Austin and New York City.