How did the Fiscal Year 2024 appropriations bill impact DoD's critical technology areas and technology transition efforts for emerging technologies? What changed in the Fiscal Year 2025 President's Budget Request? Join us for a conversation with Dr. Reed Skaggs, Lewis Burke's Chief Strategy and Business Operations Officer, and Jacob Winn, one of NDIA ETI's own Associate Research Fellows, to learn more.  Read the FY2024 Appropriations Act:...

In this episode, our guest Arun Gupta describes how strong collaboration between business, government, and society can lead to opportunities to impact social challenges, such as climate change, cybersecurity, disease outbreaks, food insecurity, and education. Arun is the co-author of the book, “Venture Meets Mission,” which explains what is required to join people, purpose, and profit together for world-changing impact, starting with rebuilding trust between business, government, and society....

DESCRIPTION: How is the science and technology relationship between the United States and India evolving? What can we do to increase U.S.-Indian defense industry cooperation? The India-U.S. Defense Acceleration Ecosystem, aka "INDUS-X", was established in June 2023 to deepen this national security collaboration and build a "defense innovation bridge" between the two countries. INDUS-X has led to a series of partnerships between U.S. and Indian government agencies, companies, and universities...

Tune in for Part 2 of our conversation with Lara Sayer, the PPBE Reform Commission's Executive Director, and Jennifer Santos, one of the study's Commissioners who served alongside ETI's own Arun Seraphin. We continue to discuss the PPBE Reform Report's findings. How do the Department's budget plans interact with Congressional appropriations? How can the Department design better budgets? Part 1 is available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a30WVxXtL88 Read the PPBE Reform Commission's...

What is DoD's Planning, Programming, Budgeting, and Execution (PPBE) system, and how does it succeed and fail to direct resources to the correct programs and projects to ensure that the best-performing capabilities are quickly and affordably delivered to the warfighter? The Legislative Commission on Planning, Programming, Budgeting, and Execution (PPBE) Reform recently published its final report on this topic, proposing sweeping reforms to the process. The Commission, created by the FY22...

Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for International and Industry Engagement Justin McFarlin joins the podcast to discuss the Department of Defense’s National Defense Industrial Strategy, and its implications for defense industry. The NDIS offers a strategic vision to build a modern defense industrial ecosystem, including deep cooperation between the U.S. government, private industry, and allies and partners on topics including resilient supply chains, workforce readiness, flexible...

Tune in for Part 2 of our conversation with Moshe Schwartz, President of Etherton and Associates, as we continue to discuss the FY2024 NDAA and what it will mean for national security and emerging technologies. We also touch on defense issues related to small businesses, regulation, and Congressional oversight. Part 1 is available here: https://youtu.be/72I2cAUQ5Po Read the FY2024 NDAA: https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/house-bill/2670 Etherton and Associates:...

What is the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA)? Who produces it, and what does it mean for national security? What did the recently-passed Fiscal Year 2024 NDAA mean for emerging technologies? Tune in for a conversation with Moshe Schwartz, President of Etherton and Associates, to discuss all of this and more in-depth information about this year’s NDAA. This episode discusses new provisions for developing a quantum science workforce, modernizing DoD's digital systems, and new...

In this Part 2 episode, guests Mark Neice and Rebecca Wostenberg continue their discussion of ETI’s recently released report, Directed Energy Weapon Supply Chains: Securing the Path to the Future. The report assesses the state of directed energy weapon supply chains while providing actionable recommendations for their development, health, and resilience. Part 1 is available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ToLPPEOzR8A&list=PL5oQnv75FK5aCB0IeYAWVPon0C7Xa75sr&index=1 Find...

In this episode, guests Rebecca Wostenberg and Mark Neice discuss key findings and recommendations from ETI’s recently released report, Directed Energy Weapon Supply Chains: Securing the Path to the Future. This report assesses the state of directed energy weapon supply chains while providing actionable recommendations for their development, health, and resilience. Find the report here: https://www.emergingtechnologiesinstitute.org/publications/research-papers/directed-energy-24 Report...

In this episode, our guest Karen Thornton introduces us to the recently launched Defense Civilian Training Corps (DCTC) and explains how the Acquisition Innovation Research Center (AIRC)  is partnering with four pilot universities and key DoD organizations to strategically develop talent who can immediately contribute to solve challenging national security problems in collaboration with industry and adapt to the future. The Defense Civilian Training Corps is a congressionally-mandated talent...

What are the biggest financial vulnerabilities in the defense supply chain? How are global market and economic conditions affecting supply chains? How can the Department of Defense use advanced financial data analytics to better understand their complex supply chains? Join James Gellert, the Executive Chair of RapidRatings International, as he discusses how DOD can assess financial and economic risks consistent with the ways that the commercial financial, aerospace, and pharmaceutical sector...

In today's episode, our guest Nick Sinai discusses strategies and best practices for navigating the bureaucratic complexities inherent in emerging technology adoption, as well as making an impact when working with or within large bureaucracies. Hack Your Bureaucracy by Marina Nitze and Nick Sinai https://www.hackyourbureaucracy.com/ __________________________________________________________ This episode is sponsored by Raytheon. https://www.rtx.com/raytheon...

Today's podcast guests are the Honorable Alan R. Shaffer, Director of Washington Operations at MIT Lincoln Laboratories, and ETI Associate Research Fellow, Wilson Miles, who will discuss their new paper, "Enabling the Joint Warfight: Challenges & Opportunities." The paper is based on a series of workshops organized by ETI on the Joint Warfighting Concept. In this episode, the Honorable Shaffer and Wilson outline the key findings and policy recommendations for enhancing the joint...

Join Jacob Winn, NDIA ETI Associate Research Fellow, and Dr. Michael Fritze, an independent consultant, to discuss their new paper, "Modernizing Defense Microelectronics: Challenges and Opportunities." The pair discuss the findings of their research and lay out recommendations on how DoD can integrate more advanced microelectronics into their systems. To read the report, click here:...

In May 2023, the National Defense Industrial Association (NDIA)’s Emerging Technologies Institute (ETI), the Office of the Chief Scientist of the Air Force, and NDIA’s Science and Engineering Technology (S&ET) Division co-hosted a workshop on “Strengthening DoD-Industry-Academia Collaboration to Increase STEM Engagement with MSIS." Join Wilson Miles, NDIA ETI Associate Research Fellow, to discuss ETI's new report on that workshop. Wilson discusses the workshop's goals, findings, and...

NDIA’s Emerging Technologies Institute visited the Letterkenny Army Depot in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. ETI's Executive Director, Dr. Arun Seraphin, is joined by Letterkenny Army Depot's director of strategic management, Kate Williams, and Chris Ghigliotti, an electronics engineer. Kate spoke about the weapons maintenance, safety, and modernization process and the return of supplies to soldiers. Chris also spoke about the work that the depot does in collaboration with Penn State to test new...

Dr. Nick Maynard, CEO and Co-Founder of U.S. Ignite, speaks on the various uses of 5G technology, including the ability to connect 5G networks with smart city centers. Widely recognized as a critical emerging technology, 5G and Future G capabilities are to be leveraged across industries to support mission-critical tasks with optimal and efficient results. Dr. Maynard also discusses funding for 5G technologies and the advent of sensor data for real-time decision analysis tools.  For...

The Department of Defense is experiencing an explosive increase in its demand for software-implemented features in weapon systems. The combination of exponential increases in computing power and similar advances in memory density and speed has made software-mediated implementation of system features increasingly attractive. In the meantime, defense software productivity and industrial base capacity have not been growing as quickly. Do we have an impending bottleneck? If so, what are the...

Join us for a conversation with Dr. Reed Skaggs, Lewis Burke's Chief Strategy and Business Operations Officer. Listen as Dr. Skaggs explores the DoD S&T budget and priorities using the FY2024 President's Budget Request as a launch point. How do these priorities translate into success in the critical technology areas? What about addressing workforce challenges, or improving our ability to rapidly develop and deploy new capabilities? Listen in to today's podcast to find out.

In March 2023, the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation Institute released their "National Security Innovation Base" report card, which assesses the health of the U.S.' national security innovation ecosystem. This project is builds on the Ronald Reagan Institutes' 2019 Task Force on 21st century National Technology and Workforce. Rachel Hoff, Policy Director at the Ronald Reagan Institute, and Eric Snelgrove, CEO of Revere Federal Strategies join ETI Executive Director, Dr. Arun Seraphin,...

How does Texas innovation fit within larger, national defense missions? At the 23rd Annual Science & Engineering Technology Conference, Dr. Arun Seraphin is joined by Drew Scheberle (Executive Director of the National Security Innovation Council) and Jim Perschbach (President & CEO at Port San Antonio) to learn more about Texas' contribution to the defense industrial base.

The Honorable Heidi Shyu, Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering joins Dr. Arun Seraphin for a discussion on the upcoming Emerging Technologies for Defense Conference & Exhibition. The Conference will bring S&T leaders from government, industry, and academia to focus on three specific mission areas: Contested Logistics, Counter-UAS, and Operational Energy. During this episode, Ms. Shyu explains why each mission area is critical for DoD and what she hopes to see from...

How can DoD modernize software for defense missions? What came out of NDIA ETI and the Carnegie Mellon University Software Engineering Institute's workshop? Listen in as Dr. Arun Seraphin and Dr. Forrest Shull discusses software acquisitions and the role of software for DoD. Also, be sure to check out NDIA ETI and CMU SEI's report, "Coding the Future: Recommendations for Defense Software R&D".