University Center
2nd Floor - Rangos III, Pittsburgh, PA
The Honorable Zachary Lemnios is the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering (ASD(R&E)) and the Chief Technology Officer for the U.S. Department of Defense. On March 1, 2012, Mr. Lemnios will address members of Pittsburgh's innovation community to outline the core imperatives of the DOD's research and engineering initiatives.
Mr. Lemnios is responsible for coordinating research efforts across the DOD's research and engineering enterprise, which includes, among others, the efforts of the following agencies: DARPA, the Office of Naval Research, the Army Research Laboratory, the Air Force Research Laboratory, Force Health Protection and Readiness and the Defense Threat Reduction Agency.
During the event, sponsored by Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney, Mr. Lemnios will outline the core research thrusts of the Department’s Research and Engineering Enterprise, including the following initiatives:
- Autonomy: Autonomous systems to augment military operations
- Counter Weapons of Mass Destruction: Counter known, unknown and emerging threats
- Cyber: Improve the DoD performance for all operations in cyber space
- Data-to-Decisions: Shorten the cycle time from data gathering to decisions
- Electronic Warfare & Protection: Enhance the electromagnetic spectrum as a military domain
- Human Systems: Improve the fusion of humans and systems
- Engineering Resilient Systems: Expedite design and delivery of trustworthy, adaptable and affordable defense systems
He will also discuss the department’s new Rapid Innovation Fund , which Congress designed to allow the DoD to rapidly develop and deploy new and evolving technologies that address key national security issues and war fighters’ urgent needs. This process enables the DoD to communicate those challenges to the nation’s innovation community, solicit whitepapers from small businesses and provide up to $3 million (on a case-by-case basis) to develop and deploy a new solution or technology (must be deployable within 2 years).
For all of these reasons, this session is appropriate for existing DoD contractors, but new-to-DoD participants are strongly encouraged to attend and learn more about the critical innovation challenges and initiatives that are underway in the Department of Defense.