On March 11, Randy Emert, Marne Innovation Center Manager (a Civil-Military Innovation Institute (CMI2) DIRT lab), co-presented the paper “Accelerating Army Tactical Innovation: A Five-way University-Military-Government-Nonprofit Collaboration to Speed Soldier-Ideated Technology Development” at the 2024 American Society for Engineering Education Southeastern Section Conference at Kennesaw State University. Randy presented with one of his co-authors, Dr. Matthew Traum, from the University of Florida.
The presentation focused on findings from an engineering capstone collaboration between CMI2, Dr. Traum, and the Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at the University of Florida, Amit Jariwala, Georgia Tech College of Engineering, CPT Chris Aliperti from the 3rd Infantry DIV’s Marne Innovation Center, Dr. Arwen DeCostanza from the U.S. Army DEVCOM Army Research Laboratory.
The paper described the collaboration that engaged Soldiers as customers to increase the Army’s innovation process, including a project that transitioned from concept to working field prototype in a year.
The collaboration effectively leverages the innovation acceleration process, which sources problems from Soldiers and bridges opportunities to engage engineering students to collaborate on solutions. The paper identified components of successful partnerships that inform and facilitate successful future collaboration across organizations.
📸: Matthew Traum LinkedIn
