Join Kaitlyn and guest co-host Rose Butchart for the final episode of Season 1! This engaging conversation focused on the Navy’s approach to developing and acquiring emerging technologies. Kaitlyn and Rose are joined by Ms. Joan Johnson, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Navy RDT&E and CAPT Ben Van Buskirk, Director at NavalX. This conversation was a culmination and deep dive into acquisition, autonomy, engaging with small businesses, and the future of warfare. References CSIS...

Join Kaitlyn and guest co-host Army Colonel Danielle Ngo for this critical conversation of how the U.S. Army is approaching emerging technologies. Kaitlyn and Danielle are joined by Major General Richard Coffman, Brigadier General Glenn Dean, and Dr. Kimberly Sablon, all of Army Futures Command. The conversation focuses on the Army’s people-first approach, and how emerging technologies will enable our soldiers on and off the battlefield. Experts Major General Richard Coffman, Director, Next...

A special episode release from Tech Unmanned! As part of the 2021 #NSGSCon (with NatSecGirlSquad) in December, Kaitlyn recorded a live-podcast with guest expert Dr. Regan Campbell, the General Manager of Autonomous and Advanced Naval Platforms at L3 Harris. Picking up where we left off with the previous autonomy episode, this conversation dives deep into the challenges and opportunities of naval autonomous platforms including onboard data processing and threat detection, maneuverability, and...

Join Kaitlyn and guest co-host Becca Wasser (fellow in the Defense Program at the Center for a New American Security) as they discuss the emerging technology priorities of the Department of the Air Force. They are joined by Major General Heather Pringle, Commander at the Air Force Research Laboratory and Colonel Nathan Diller, Director of AFWERX.  References Battle Networks and the Future Force: Part 1 by Todd Harrison Battle Networks and the Future Force: Part 2 by Todd Harrison The...

Join Kaitlyn and Lindsey as they talk about the future of the workplace and the STEM workforce. Expert guests, Dr. Vint Cerf, Vice President and Chief Internet Evangelist for Google, and Jennifer Anastasoff, Executive Director and Co-founder at Tech Talent Project, talk with the Tech Unmanned hosts about the nuances about the critical nature of the STEM workforce. Does DoD and the national security community have the authority, motivation, and development pipeline to sustain and engage a...

Guests Amelie Koran, formerly the Senior Technology Advisor at Splunk and now Director of External Technology Relations at Electronic Arts (EA), and Lauren Bedula, Managing Director at Beacon Global Strategies and an Executive Board Member with the Silicon Valley Defense Group, debunk myths, highlight areas of tension, and offer insights into how to improve the relationship between two cultures that are often framed as worlds apart. References Executive Order (EO) on Improving the Nation’s...

Episode ten of Tech Unmanned dives deep into software acquisition and the challenges of iteration, adaptability, and implementation. Lindsey and Kaitlyn talk with two incredible experts, Courtney Barno and Enrique Oti, about the challenges of software acquisition for the Department of Defense. If you’re asking yourself why this is so hard or if you work in or with DoD and still have to use Windows 5 or something from a decade ago, this episode is for you. References Defense Innovation...

The ninth episode of Tech Unmanned explores the national security and foreign policy implications of 5G. Our two experts, Milo Medin and Jaisha Wray cut through the hype and advertising to talk with Kaitlyn and Zhanna about what 5G really is, the revolution it might inspire, and how the United States is working with its allies and partners to bring this capability into your hands. References Beyond 5G, a CSIS event:...

The eighth episode of Tech Unmanned explores electronic warfare and the electromagnetic spectrum. Lindsey and Kaitlyn interview Whitney McNamara, a technical advisor in the Department of Defense, and Todd Harrison from CSIS. As Whitney says, “Every modern weapons system from radios to satellites, to ships to aircraft, all depend on the spectrum to function.” This discussion on the electromagnetic spectrum and the ways to counter or interfere with access to communications is critical and...

The seventh episode of Tech Unmanned explores the world of hypersonic technology and weapons. Kaitlyn and Lindsey are joined by Dr. Gillian Bussey from the Department of Defense and Kelley Sayler from the Congressional Research Service. An information-packed episode on the state of hypersonic technology and how the United States and its competitors are looking to leverage hypersonic weapons and defenses in the battlefield. Hypersonic Weapons: Background & Issues for Congress by Kelley...

The sixth episode of Tech Unmanned explores autonomous air vehicles and autonomous systems broadly. Kaitlyn and Lindsey are joined by Jamie Walters from General Atomics and Dr. Jackie Schneider from Stanford University. This discussion dives into the different missions of autonomous systems, building trust in human-machine teaming, ethics, and much more. Reference: - U.S. Public Opinion for Drone Strikes by Jacquelyn Schneider and Julia Macdonald:...

The fifth episode of Tech Unmanned explores On Orbit Servicing and Manufacturing (OSAM). Kaitlyn and Lindsey are joined by Dr. Bhavya Lal, Senior Advisor to the NASA Administrator for Budget and Finance, and Joe Anderson, Vice President of operations and business development at Space Logistics LLC. This episode covers it all––from understanding the taxonomy of on-orbit servicing, to current commercial and governmental projects, to its national security and policy implications. Lal and...

The fourth episode of Tech Unmanned delves into the world of biotechnology. Lindsey and Kaitlyn are joined by Dr. Diane DiEuliis, Senior Fellow at the National Defense University, and Austin Walne, Partner at ARTIS Ventures, to share their expertise on emerging biotechnologies. While framing a timeline of biotechnology and exploring the bioeconomy, they discuss the field especially with the context of the COVID pandemic. As we enter what Walne calls “the third era of biotech”, it is pertinent...

This episode of Tech Unmanned is all about quantum sensors. Lindsey and Kaitlyn are joined by Dr. Robert (Bob) Wyllie, a Senior Research Scientist and the Chief of the Quantum Systems Division at the Georgia Tech Research Institute, and Sarah Jacobs Gamberini, a Policy Fellow at the National Defense University (NDU) Center for the Study of Weapons of Mass Destruction (CSWMD). Bob and Sarah steer us through the tangled web of technical and policy challenges and opportunities of developing...

This episode of Tech Unmanned focuses on a new commercial space revolution in remote sensing and earth observation satellites. Previously solely the domain of the intelligence community and military, remote sensing has exploded in the private sector through different types of sensors and data, as well as the applications of the data collected. Kaitlyn and Lindsey talk with Kari Bingen, Chief Strategy Officer at Hawkeye360, and Dr. Mariel Borowitz, Associate Professor in the Sam Nunn School of...

Welcome to the inaugural episode of Tech Unmanned! Lindsey and Kaitlyn are joined by Devaki Raj, CEO and Co-founder of CrowdAI, and Kristen Sproat, Principal at BCG and Marine Corps Reservist, for a discussion on artificial intelligence and machine learning in the Department of Defense. Both Kristen and Devaki were involved in the strategic and technical beginnings of the Joint Artificial Intelligence Center. They cover a range of topics including the current capability of machine learning,...

Welcome to Tech Unmanned, a new podcast hosted by Lindsey Sheppard and Kaitlyn Johnson at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Technology is at the heart of just about every defense issue and modernization priority for the United States defense enterprise. Tech Unmanned features guests with both policy expertise and technical expertise in order to break through the national security jargon and technology hand-waving to get to the core of the technical realities of these...