stolen artificial intelligence . She's
been a lecturer and a professor in the
United Kingdom where she also created a
master of science program in computer
systems and supervised the doctoral
program . She was a founding director
of the system design laboratory at S .
R . I . International , she's
participated in the development of
technology that led to the creation of
your iphones Siri . Just to name a few .
It is evident that Dr Coleman is an
expert in her field . X slide please .
Some would categorize her as a
professional as I thought about
professionals I imagine whom else has
exhibited discipline , dedication and
excellent in this profession and I
settled on build coach prime time .
I know that Jackson State University
Tigers will appreciate the analogy to
the uninformed . Dion Sanders is the
head football coach for the Jackson
State University Tigers and is really
turning the program around as well as
highlighting some of the challenges
with sports at historically black
colleges and universities . Some of you
may wonder what does coach prime time
have to do with Dr Coleman's
introduction about a month ago , I saw
a short clip of an interview with coach
Sanders regarding increasing the
capacity of HBCU football programs . I
won't play the clip but if you replace
his references to football training
table's facilities and weight rooms
with references to research and
development equipment facilities and
classrooms . His interview would share
remarkable resemblance to any interview
with Dr Coleman with Dr Trent . Mr
Holiday . Miss Malaysia or Dr riddick ,
whom you'll hear from today . Coach
Sanders discussed the inequities of
studies or in studies , academics
resources and with tutors he said if we
want to level the playing field then
level the playing field , quit talking
about it and be about it . He went on
to say it's easy to know what it is ,
we know what it is . You just have to
do it . The interviewer asked , Well
coach , what do you have to do ?
And coach Sanders responded with , it
starts with a plan . He then paused for
a second . He started smiling . He
scratched his face and then he went on
to say influenced by a man . You have
to have a plan and you have to have a
man to get it done . I took a little
bit of umbrage to that but I understood
his point well I'd like you to know we
have a plan with a litany of support
within the federal government and
better than a man . We have a proven
leader build and dr victoria Coleman
who doesn't take no and will ensure we
have the appropriate resourcing support
and commitment within the government to
ensure success and tactical autonomy
within the Department of the Air Force
and more broadly within the Defense
Department . Without any further ado
and I hope I still have a job I'd like
to introduce you to the Chief scientist
of the Air Force , Leader of the First
You are started by the Air Force leader
of the first you are to be awarded to a
historically black college or
university . And my boss dr victoria ,
Coleman
tim I'll kill you
alright . Um I can't tell you
how Well I can't tell you what this day
means to me and our team uh that has
worked together for the best part of
the last 17 months to bring us to this
place in this time in this community .
Um I have to say that
um knowing what to do was easy
uh doing doing it with this team uh
was even easier . Um I have
never , you know , you heard from tim
he embellish the truth
somewhat . I mean what he really said
is this woman is very old and done lots
of things . Uh So I've worked in lots
of teams . I have never work in a team
as diverse in points of view in
backgrounds and you know in science in
positions than this one and still it
pulled completely in the same direction ,
you know , we were all of us very clear
about what we wanted to do and the fact
that we worked in very different parts
of the department , the fact that we
had very different backgrounds , very
different , you know , day jobs and so
on . We all knew very clearly in our
hearts and our minds what we wanted to
achieve and that made it I'm gonna say
easy but it was kind of easy .
Um So um we we have some of the
key folks uh the key team members that
brought us to this place here with us .
You can have the opportunity to hear
from them later today . Uh you know ,
uh tim I uh I can't say enough about
the work that you have done to bring us
to this day today . You know , team
joined us virtually , I think about a
week after the Secretary of the Air
Force approved our plan , uh and this
was back in March , so uh april
so , you know , in the last few months ,
you know , he has built a team he's
taken , you know , what was an
aspiration in the plan and , you know ,
slowly has started building it out . So ,
thank you so much . But I see so many
other colleagues in the room and I want
to recognize Jared , you know , Maynard .
Uh we just have an exceptional team
that brought us here together . So
our our goal and you will hear a lot
more about this as we go through the
day today uh is to um well , it's it's
kind of many fold at the end of the day .
What we're going to do is to create
more um transition Herbal R and
D in the area of autonomy , because we
know that this is an area that we will
need to get much better at if we are to
succeed in our national security
objectives . Um It's an area that we've
been working on for a long time . We
have many results . We have hardly
anything that is um transitional . So
we're looking at the york as an
opportunity to take a step back and
start building transitional tactical
autonomy solutions that the department
can use so that the war fighter can use
on on a day to day basis , that's our
eventual outcome . But to get there ,
lots of other things have to happen .
Um we recognized very early
on that in order for us to succeed , we
needed to have the right people inside
of the department to succeed . Uh and
that means folks that have the right
educational background , but it also
means that folks that have a a
plurality of points of view that they
bring to the table , and we lack both
in the Department of the Air Force ,
both expertise and uh and and diversity
in our in our technical community .
So the york , you know , while we
expected fully expected to produce
research results that we will use , we
also wanted to produce people . Um we
want we want the the institutions to
produce a color of uh well
educated uh specialists in the area of
autonomy , that then we can turn around
frankly and higher and bring them onto
the department to help us with our own
work internally , um to get there , we
know that if we know that it's
not accidental that today there is no r
one hbcu institution , we know how we
go to this place , and we also know
that we may wish for certain things to
happen , but uh wishful thinking only
takes you so far . So we are fully
aware that as well as you know setting
setting goals and um challenging
ourselves to deliver this , this these
capabilities that are critical for our
success in the department . We also
need to invest in the institutions to
get us there . So this york unlike any
other , has a mission to build
competency and capacity as well as have
expectations about uh creating a
cohort of graduates that we can hire as
well as results that we can pull into
the department . Um so it's a little
different um and this is why we went
out of our way to make sure that we
communicated very clearly what our
expectations are . We know that you
know , this is this is the first of its
kind . It's it's an institution that we
are crafting uh to uh to to be
responsive both to our needs in the
Department of the Air Force but also
recognizing the realities of the hbcu
institutions that we want to work with .
So for those of you that are here today ,
for those of you that participated in
our sessions in our virtual sessions
prior to today . A deep thank you ,
thank you for engaging with us . Uh we
can do lots of things you know in our
team in the government , but you all
come to nothing unless you engage your
work with us to build this , this
vision out . So you know , spend the
rest of the day asking questions ,
getting answers , be um , be very clear
about what it is that we're expecting
expecting from you and please continue
to engage with us so that , you know ,
come december , Secretary Austin can
announce the selection of uh , of the
institution and the consortium that we
will deliver this vision for us . Um so
I didn't use any of the slides and I
knew I couldn't , that's why I didn't
argue with you . So , so they made the
slides for me and said , mom , are they
okay ? I said sure they're fine because
I knew I wasn't gonna stick to them ,
so I didn't so do a back to you .
Many people like if you'd like to come
in and taking a fun , it's not , I
think you should do that . I think you
will do it much better than me . Thank
you .
And , and honestly , and thank you so
much Dr Coleman , um , some of the
things to with these outreach events ,
um really at the Action officer level ,
that's the terminology that we use ,
but really for your offices of sponsor
research , your scientists , uh , and
engineers and uh you're contracting and
grants individuals , we wanted to do it
because of the timeline . What dr
Coleman didn't tell me when I came into
this job . She said , hey , we're gonna
get this done in 23 okay man , we can
make that happen . That's a little bit
of expedited timeline , but we can do
it . And she said , no tim I'm talking
about fiscal year 23 which was still in
the calendar year 2022 . So that
definitely expedited the things that we
had to get done . And one of the
reasons why we wanted to have the
outreach events and talk to the people
or individuals at the universities to
say , hey , are we asking you to do
something that's going to be very
difficult to do , and if so , let's
have that conversation . Well , today
is the third event is the official ,
you know , industry day , um that
culminated with the origen to outreach
events that we had previously . And I
can tell you beyond a shadow of a doubt ,
there were changes that have been made
and may still be made uh to the broad
agency announcement that goes out . So
the criticality of having this
conversation is important . If you hear
something today and you're like ,
that's gonna be tough for us to do ,
we've got serious concerns about it .
Please bring that up because we do have
our contracting staff , they're here ,
that they're not actually , they're
virtually , but we want to ensure that
we are setting ourselves the government
as well as the institutions that will
be taking its own up for success and
that we owe that to you . Uh so the
vision and mission , so that you are is
a network , national resource um for
those of you who never or have limited
experience um working either directly
with the you are . Um It took a little
bit of education to include for me ,
I'm used to writing contracts and
having a delivery at the end of those
contracts . This B . A . Is about a
national security problem that may not
be well defined . And you are coming in
to help us define what those things are .
Um you'll hear from dr joan Fuller
who's coming up next . She is the uh
the uh exemplar when it comes to you
are remember she was one of the first
people that I called on the telephone
and said , hey I need some help . Uh
and she laid it out but she's been
doing this for a very long time and
she's going to talk to you specifically
about the planning and then the thought
processes that go behind this . But at
the end of the day , the anticipation
is that this um you are will be the
lead in terms of subject matter
expertise as it relates specifically to
tactical autonomy . And so we were
given that mission by the Secretary of
the Air Force . You said , go do what
took you so long . We should have done
this a long time ago . And that's what
brought us here today and that's what
we owe to you uh and then we're going
to continue to receive your input
continue driving on with that being
said Dr Fuller . Uh she's gonna talk to
us for the next couple of minutes about
you arcs writ large and dr jones . Uh I
will definitely be introducing you as
soon as she finishes . I know that you
have worked together for years . Uh and
this is another resource . I want to
make sure that you understand that you
have dr fuller .
Thank you tim uh Good afternoon
everyone . I hope you can hear me and I
hope the folks online uh are also
engaged and will put comments in the uh
make sure you send me your comments
either in the text box or just email me
directly . Uh So first of all I wanted
to say it's uh this is a unique
opportunity for me , this is the first
in person meeting I've been to in three
years . So uh needless to say my pants
just barely fit , but I was willing to
endure humiliation to come because I
think this is such an important
opportunity um for me to have this
chance to talk to all of you and to
hear your questions in real time . Um
and also just to give a little bit of
overview about policy in general ,
which is near and dear to my heart . Um
So are you gonna flip the sides ? Okay ,
great . So first off I was asked to
speak about you work policy and so the
interesting thing about you are
policies that starts with a history
lesson . Uh so the reason we have you
arcs , university affiliated research
centers is because in 1994 congress
told the department to uh put together
a plan , a management plan to control
the overuse of you arcs . Um And so
they basically told us what to put in
the plan . Um And so we did , so that
resulted in 1996 the first D . O . D .
U . Arc Management plan , which
addressed these three bullet points
that congress had asked us to do . So
fast forward . We had a couple of new
iterations of the plan going over the
last 25 years . The most current D . O .
D . Policy is the 2010 york management
plan , the implementation of the
statute . If you have not read it ,
it's uh it's a short read , it's uh
really hasn't changed much in the many ,
many years that we've been managing the
D . O . D . U . Arcs but uh I welcome
your input . We are in the process of
uh getting stakeholders , comments and
inputs as we think about issuing a new
um or revised policy because 2010 is
a lot of things have happened since
2010 , so feel free to after you take a
look at it , send me your comments
directly . Uh This is very much an open
and transparent process as we craft the
official D . O . D . Policy for D . O .
D . York's . So next slide , so the
authority to establish and maintain a
you arc is a little bit different from
the management plan , uh So we use uh
us 10 U . S . Code 32 04 . And this ,
this is a kind of a well known clause
in the contracts world . There is a ,
there is a exclusion to competition
closets the C three B , which basically
says the department can establish or
maintain an essential engineering
research or development capability at
an educational nonprofit uh center .
So this encompasses both you arcs and
FFR DCs , the federally funded research
centers . And that's why sometimes you
see people sort of refer to them as two
sides of the same coin . Um They are
very similar if you were to look at the
original uh F . F . R . D . C .
Management plan and overlay it with the
york management plan , there's almost a
1 to 1 match in some areas . And so
there's a lot of best practices to
learn from the F . F . R . D . C . S
and for the FFR DCs to learn from the U .
Arcs . So I sit in a unique position
within the department , I'm in . Usd
are any and as part of that , I get to
sort of oversee these two very large
portfolios . My office does not execute ,
we are not a program manager , I think
that's I have no money , um all about
policy and putting together good policy .
Um And I should say right up front , my
definition of good policy is the
lightest touch possible to allow the
department to do what it needs to do to
accomplish its mission . And so if
there's burden some things I want to
hear about those because you know ,
part of my job is to make sure that we
get what we need and that you are not
overly burdened by our policies . Uh
the next slide , so there are
14 approved D . O D . U .
Arcs Um and this is an eye chart that's
available on our website , if anyone is
interested in reading it . And I think
I wanted to point this out because I
think it's it's a nuance that sometimes
lost part of that 94 language that
required us to put together a 2010
manage the management plan , which is
in the 2010 New York Management Plan
was that we had to constrain our use of
you arcs because again , these are non
competitively Uh awarded and renewed
entities . Um and so the way we do that
is through the establishment of
technical competencies and these
technical competencies are defined by
the primary sponsor in this case for
the 15th York , it will be the air
force whose defining those technical
requirements and they're defined in
such a way that they are long lasting ,
sustainable strategic , so think
visionary technical requirements of the
department . And um part of the
job of the primary sponsor is to work
with the U arc to ensure that those
technical competencies are sustainable ,
that they are enduring . These should
not be quick and one off needs . Um and
I think the Air Force has really spent
a lot of time thinking about this and
and reaching out to the rest of the
department to put in place a good set
of um requirements that the U . R .
Could then fulfill over its lifetime
mission . So next slide .
So this is I cannot stress and I was
telling my boss this back in March when
I first talked to Dr Coleman , this is
an extraordinary opportunity for the
department um for the academic
community uh for our researchers and
our D . O . D . Labs and the rest of
the ecosystem . There have been I've
been in this job for three years but
I've been part of the Air Force's
research community for almost 25 years .
There have been so many requests to
establish a new york , some of them
incredibly well written request , some
from D . O . C . Sponsors , some
directly from academia , the D . O . D .
Has only designated three new york
since 2004 . So this the fact that Dr
Coleman had the vision to start this is
huge . The fact that she got approval
from the Secretary of the Air Force and
from the Under Secretary for Arnie .
Again , huge . Um the fact that tim and
his team is trying to do this in nine
months , unprecedented . Uh So I'm in
awe as a bureaucrat of how fast the
bureaucracy is moving . Um so , you
know , this approval to establish the
15th york is , again , like I said ,
unprecedented , um it's , you know ,
just from all of the bureaucracy and
policy that's being shifted to make
this happen , I think this will
formalize the first long term strategic
relationship between the D . O . D .
And the hbcu community , and just as
it's equally hard to start a new york ,
we've never terminated a york ,
so it is truly groundbreaking
that we're doing this and I'm just
thrilled to be part of it . Uh It's
kind of the culmination of my career .
Um So this again is the first Air Force
managed D . O . D . York . The uh Air
Force has a significant amount
experience working with york's . Um
they're one of our largest supporters
of the research that's going on in the
14 new york . So the fact that they're
new to being the primary sponsor
doesn't mean they're new . Um they know
what they're getting into this outreach
effort that they've been part of um
really a remarkable opportunity to help
um you help us help them to find the
direction that this you will go , but
also I think really important , you
know , I spent a lot of time harping
about the technical competencies and
why they need to be unique and make
sure the requirements justify the
bureaucracy that we're putting in place ,
but just as important as all that
technical stuff , it's the management
and the governance . Um and I'm gonna
spend the rest of my uh few minutes
talking about that because I don't want
to give short shift to the need for
this management structure to be thought
through . If you're if you're thinking
about proposing for this uh new york ,
next slide . So , first of all , some
little known facts about york , this is
kind of my favorite thing to do is
think about what people don't know
about you orcs . So , so D . R . D . Is
the only federal agency that has yorks
And there's a lot of history behind
that . But um needless to say , a lot
of the other federal agencies want
these and ask us how to create them .
Um but we're the only ones that happen
uh focuses not on basic research . This
is I think one of the most common
questions I get is , well , why is that ?
It's a university ? Well , it's because
of that statute that 3204 that I
mentioned , that gets us out of the
competition world . Uh It's supposed to
be essential research Engineering and
development . Basic research can be
part of a york , but it is not the sole
purpose of a york . Um that also from a
flip side is it also makes it possible
for the you are now to have access to
information , proprietary , classified
control , but unclassified information
that isn't necessarily available to the
61 or the basic research community , it
makes it possible for you to transition
your research because you're not only
in that basic research world . And it
makes it frankly makes it much easier
for us to justify having the sustained
long term relationship with an academic
institution . Um So I know the Air
Force is committed to the workforce
development component and I think
that's the strength of the HBc us . Um
but ironically , the focus of Newark's
isn't the workforce development , it's
the research , but the research needs a
workforce . So it is again , two sides
of the same coin . So um that is why
the technical requirements define the
agenda for the um york and then the
students and the faculty and the
researchers are what makes that
possible . I will say that all of our
york's , all 14 have a strong workforce
component . It's just not how we
justify their sole source contract . So
again , you know , policy nerd here ,
it's in the weeds . But it's an
important distinction um that I think
we have to make is that you Orcs are
about the research , the research is
about the people . Um and and it's all
about the relationship between the D .
O . D . And the U . Arc . So again ,
new york's um a lot of people assume
that the , you know , the university is
the york . No um university affiliated
research center . So the the york is
not the university of the college .
Each york is an independent nonprofit
organization affiliated with the
university , each of our 14 Newark's
interprets that language a little bit
different are uniquely , it's up to you ,
how you set up your research center .
Uh and the Air Force is , you know ,
part of that discussion of what should
the research center look like if it's a
consortium , How is the consortium
managed and that sort of thing ? Our
policy again is very open and very
agile to allow the primary sponsor to
do what is in the best interest of the
partnership . And then finally , the
worst possible bullet on the slide is
there's no set aside funding for york's .
Um So I think that's the after
basic research and and where's the
money ? You know , it's uh these two
are interchangeable most of the time ,
but uh , there is no set aside funding
for york's and all funding um for york
is provided through some type of
separate appropriations process that is
within the primary sponsors jobs are .
Um and that's why as part of
establishing a new york , my office
really sort of drills down and where's
the money gonna come from ? How ,
what's the lines of funding ? How
secure is the funding because there's a
lot of effort to set up and maintain a
new york and we want to make sure that
the money is there for the duration .
Uh like I said , we never terminated
york once you , once you become a new
york , I will be like the mama bear , I
will never allow anyone to hurt you and
people who worked with me know that
that is indeed where I see my job as uh
to make it hard to become one but also
to protect you with my last breath .
Once you do become a new york uh next
slide . So the
attributes that make a good you arc and
like I said all 14 of Ru arcs are
amazing and unique and they all have
sort of unique nuances of how they're
structured , governance and management .
Just like their technical confidences
are unique but they all have kind of
similar attributes and then these
attributes are what makes them the U .
Arc . And I'm fond of saying that you
work is just a designation , just a
designation . Um But it's actually it
york is a relationship . It's like
saying two people are married . I mean
you can have two people that aren't
married just like you can have a
research contract . That's not a york .
Somebody that's a stupid analogy , but
I think of york's as this forever
relationship . And this relationship
requires some very important attributes
that are different from a traditional
contractor to government relationship .
And that is that you build the
strategic relationship and that
direction with your sponsors . Um
You're there isn't this closed door
between what their needs are and what
your capabilities are . It's an open
door . So you're you're constantly
talking to each other . Um they're
sharing with you , what they're seeing
as problems you're sharing with them .
What you see is emerging opportunities .
Um And you know this broad access to
technical information including past
data sets , access to test ranges ,
anything you can possibly think of that
goes with tactical autonomy . Um The
Air Force and the department is here to
help the york have access to that . Uh
As part of that , you promised to be
independent and objective . Um You
build your systems within the york to
provide a quick response capability .
And mainly that means do you have a
contract in place ? Do you have
staffing in place to quickly get
something going ? Um Because most of
the sponsors who come to you for help
will want it yesterday because once
they realize they have a problem , you
know , literally the sky is falling
within the department and so they're
coming to you because you have this
depth of knowledge that they want to
buy now and so the contracts will be
set up , you will have facilities and
infrastructure set up to make that
possible . Um current operational
experience , not just from the research
standpoint but also from the
bureaucracy standpoint . You want to
have financial and contracting and
legal and security . You want to have
not necessarily on your staff but you
want to have them on speed dial people
who can help you because it's it is not
always the government , especially
within D . O . D . That has the
expertise to know our own policies . Uh
So um just be aware that
some of your biggest challenges will be
from the management of the york , not
on the research side of the york , this
freedom from real or perceived conflict
of interest , it , the C . O . I .
Policies that you put in place for new
york , I cannot foot stomp that enough ,
it is your brand , it is your
reputation . Um You want to make sure
that um the york is set up in such a
way that there it is very transparent
about what you can do and what you
can't do . And that line is is clearly
marked . And then finally , we put
together you arc , so we partner with
um you know , we put together these
relationships because this body of
knowledge that a university has through
its faculty staff , alumni . Um it's
just critical to the long term health
of the department . So we want you to
contribute to the body of knowledge .
We want you to be experts in your
domain , we want you to go get funding
from NSF or D . O . E . Or any of the
federal agencies . We want you to build
and grow because our relationship with
you benefits from that , it's still
serving um to help you become
successful . So finally , all about the
relationship . So next slide , so this
is my final get off the stage line , so
this establishing you're in a great
position because you're all building um
you're all , you know , you're
establishing and building this
relationship , you get to decide what
the terms are , it's it's kinda like a
prenup . Um you get to decide what you
expect the department and the Air Force
to provide to you to be successful ,
and the Air Force will ask of you what
they need you to do to be successful .
Um and that's all codified in the
contract , um Jones one piece of advice
is get it in writing because we will
all be gone in 20 years and this you
are will still be here , so we want to
make sure that whatever we build today
stands the test of time . Um So the
relationship between this university
government sponsors the research center ,
it's all gonna require you to think
differently about governance and , you
know , how you manage this contract ,
because you're you're gonna have one
primary contract with the Air Force ,
but as soon as the york is established
and announced , the rest of the
department will come to you and they
will want except their own contracts uh
because it's build it , the world will
come and that's why everyone wants to
be au arc . You are , because you now
are a D . O . D . You work , you're a
trusted asset and people will want to
come to you , so you want to make sure
you get your management ducks in a row
and don't grow too fast and the rest of
the U . Arcs , we have someone in the
audience here today , they're gonna
talk to you about being mentors to you
um again , you know , I've said it ,
I'll keep harping on it , but these
management topics are gonna drive you
nuts if you don't have a team of folks
thinking about them , um it's 99% of my
job is helping people find the right
person to help them solve their problem .
Um You're gonna want access to data
sets , you're gonna want technical
resources , technical libraries ,
you're gonna want to know what the Air
Force has done in the past and how to
get access to that information . Um You
know , you're gonna want security
clearances , you're gonna want to get
uh infrastructure to handle classified
information , you're gonna go to a test
range , all of these things you're
gonna want , and you're not gonna know
you're gonna want them , but you're
gonna need them and you're gonna need
someone to help you manage all of that
knowledge that you're gonna require .
So I have a personal friend here in the
audience dr walter jones , uh he's the
Chancellor for the Air Force Institute
of Technology walter , spent a bit of
in my past and this has been something
that we have been working on for many ,
many , many years . Uh So it's a great
opportunity , kind of at the end of our
careers , I'd like to say um that we
now get to help build this new you arc ,
so if it is an Air Force organization ,
they're not a university in the sense
of going out , you know , being a real
regular university , but they have a
network of alumni that you cannot
buy and you're willing to basically
offer to help any of the members of the ,
you are sort of get an inside look into
sort of acquisition 101 , the finance ,
the contracting sort of navigating
things as they come up anyway , walter
will be here for the duration of the
day . He's got business cards . Um like
I said , the rest of the U . Arcs have
also offered the sort of mentor network .
We are all here to see this , you are
be successful . Um my job is to make
sure that it's set up in a way that um ,
it will be the most successful because
this is the first few work that's being
born on my watch . Um so I have a
personal interest and seeing it um um
you know , get announced and start with
a big bang and continue being
successful . So I'm here for the rest
of the day if you have questions . Um
I'm very much an open door type person
from the south originally . So I , you
know , come on , have a glass of iced
tea , sit on my porch and we'll talk
endlessly , but feel free , no kidding ,
reach out to me , uh email linkedin ,
whatever you need . Uh pick up the
phone , call me , I'm here to answer
your questions . Things that are , once
the contract gets set , I will always
go through the Air Force to answer
those questions because you have a
contractual relationship at that point .
But until that contract is in place ,
I'm a resource that's available to all
of you equally . Thank you for this
opportunity . Awesome . Dr Fuller .
Thank you so much . Um if you wouldn't
mind uh hand your microphone to Dr
jones , I didn't want him to have a few
minutes based on his relationship or
based on what he does with the Air
Force Institute of Technology , but I
couldn't agree more . I guess the best
piece of advice my mother ever gave me
prior to getting married was when your
date and keep both eyes open , which is
what DR Fuller is talking about . Make
sure the stuff is in the contract .
When you get married , you may want to
close one eye , but it's about risk
because we're going to be assuming some
risk . The university is going to be
assuming some risk . I say that in jest ,
but that is truly the way that we've
got to approach this and just be
understanding of it as we move forward .
So doctor jones , please thank you very
much . I'm still sorting out the
marriage and dating thing here , but
we'll figure that out . I'm not sure
what we're doing , but I'm glad to be
here with you again . As DR Fuller said
uh the Air Force Institute of
Technology is the Air Force and now
Space Force uh Graduate education
institution were wright patterson Air
Force Base . We do masters and phds and
certificates and credentials and micro
credentials and our faculty , much like
your faculty to teaching and research .
They chase money to support that
research , they do consulting etcetera .
But they do in an environment that's
much more like the one you're entering
into with the shoe arc . That may be
the one you change from . We do lots we
do very very little what many would
call basic research but lots and lots
of applied research . Lots of
classified research we do . Our
students can do classified feces and
such . They're published in a little
bit different way . But again , we live
in the world that you're about to enter .
Also point out , we are wright
patterson Air Force Base . I am
literally surrounded on three sides by
Air Force Research lab directorates ,
1/4 1 in headquarters just down the
hill . But again , your relationship as
you go forward , this york is not going
to be just with A F . O . S . Are not
even just with a F . R . L . You can be
engaging with the Life cycle Management
Center and Air Force Material Command
and the National Air and Space
Intelligence Center . Your world is
about to expand dramatically beyond
just the fundamental research world at
many universities are most comfortable
in . And that's a great thing , I will
say two and a bit foot stomping . What
dr Fuller said um again , I came from
the Navy for the last 12 years . Dr
smart and I worked closely together .
The Navy has five you arcs uh johns
Hopkins , a little bit different
because they're in a different city
than the main university . But the
typical you arc , the york is right
next door to the main university . Penn
state's a better example for me again ,
as dr Fuller said , it's kind of a
separate thing with separate staff .
But the reality is many , many penn
State students undergrad and graduates
do some of their work at the U . Arc .
They do work this very Navy relevant .
They get their clearance at some point
in there and believe me when they
graduate , they're the hottest ticket
in town and everyone falls all over
themselves to go and hire those
students . We desperately need your
graduates . So it's kind of a selfish
thing for us in the Department of
Defense . But again , I haven't seen
too many efforts that have this many
people wanting it to succeed in a big
way . So that's kind of why I'm here
and I'm headed back to Dayton tonight ,
but happy to talk to you and uh , I'm
easy to find if you need to talk
further and thanks very much appreciate
it . Uh uh Miss McNeil , can you
forward this slide ? Thank you sir .
We're gonna have um , Miss Evelyn Kent .
Um she's the director of the Department
of Defense . Historically black College
University minority institution program .
Another person that I lean on extremely
heavily when we first started this . Uh
So without any further ado Miss Kent
thank you tim thank you Dr Coleman
uh for the opportunity to come and
present the historically black colleges
and minority serving institutions
program here in the Department of
Defense . I've had the privilege of
being the director of this program for
many years now . So it has become
it is no longer a job for me . It's
what I call myself a public servant .
So I'm here to serve and to to do
whatever I can uh to make sure that uh
these institutions and the talents of
these institutions are well known as of
today . You can see that we're moving
into an area that I've known for years
that we can do in terms of university
affiliated research center . Dr Fuller
is over there shaking her head because
we've been talking about this for some
time now . So thank you Dr Coleman in
the Air Force for your leadership in
making this happen for an hbcu some of
you think there are no minority serving
institutions in terms of a you are but
actually there are two out of the 14
university of California santa Barbara
sponsored by the army is hispanic
serving institution . Also the
University of Hawaii at Manoa Noah is
an asian american native Alaskan
pacific islander , minority serving
institutions . There are six categories
of minority serving institutions in
which H . B . C . U . S . Are one of
them to establish a york that will be
an hbcu now fulfills this commitment
where we actually do have hbcu slash M
eyes in terms of a york . So we're
looking forward to having that happen
next slide please
as the director of the H . B . C . M .
I . Program . This program was
established in fiscal year 2010
under statutory authority 10 U . S . C .
23 62 . As of this april
2022 congress enacted a new
statutory authority that combines 23
62 and now it is 10 U . S .
C . 41 44 . And when you read
10 U . S . C . 41 44 you will see F . F .
R . D . C . S . You will see you arcs
and you will see many other
responsibility is a direction that
Congress has said to the Department of
Defense that they want to make sure H .
B . C . U . S . And M . I . S . Are a
part of . So what I'm saying is that
this is a congressional directed
program under 41 44 . And if any
of you are familiar with the statutory
authority that started back in 2010 ,
it continues to enhance the
capabilities and research and education ,
not only for our institution but for
the students and the faculty that
attends those universities . So I'm
gonna go through the slides pretty
quickly . I just want to give you a
quick overview of what the program is
and how it was established and the
mission of the program . I think many
of you are familiar with making sure we
we develop enhance the research
capabilities and educational capacities
at these institutions . Next slide
please ,
In our program we have research grants ,
we have equipment grants . The
equipment grants , focuses on building
the infrastructures of these
institutions . Over the years since
2015 , we have established centers of
excellence in 2015 . The first centers
of excellence that we established were
an autonomy in north Carolina A and T
State University aside with security
center at Norfolk State University and
a research data analytics . Big data
center of Excellence at Prairie View
University . So today we have other
institutions where we have established
since other political appointees ,
other congressional directions in our
National Defense Authorization Act and
the appropriated funding for us to
establish these centers of excellence .
So today I'm here to share with you
that we have new centers of excellence
since 2015 . We have Harlan Howard
University . It is our artificial
intelligence machine learning . Why am
I calling out these schools ? Because
they are the H . B . C . U . S . They
were established many , many , many
years ago and we can see from that time
until now they're finally coming into
the Department of Defense mission and
helping us do the one thing that's most
important to this mission as our
Secretary of defense says it's all
about our war fighter Delaware State
University . There are quantum sensing
tuskegee University is our Aerospace
Education and Research Center of
Excellence . The University of
California Riverside is a fully
networked command control in a center
of excellence , morgan State University
is our material science and north
Carolina A and T also is our
biotechnology Center of Excellence . So
the fact that we're moving into a
tactical autonomy , you arc is nothing
new to me or dr fuller . We've been
working to you who are sitting here
knowing that HBCU is have the
capabilities of achieving this task .
As I said earlier , the hBc on my
program is implemented under
congressional directions . We get
authorization acts and laws to say what
we will do in the Department of Defense .
And not only are there um the
laws congress gives us congressional
adds the appropriate funding for us to
accomplish the things that they are
requiring the department to do . And
this is one of so they have
already appropriated the funding in
which we are honored to share with the
Air Force and the undersecretary of
Defense for acquisition and sustainment
the funding that is needed to make sure
that you are a successful Also we work
closely with the White House
initiatives under the presidential
executive
orders and one of our White House
negative . Director . Dr deidre Trent
is here with us today . Next slide .
These are just some of the priorities
within the program . We have a smart
pilot that we started a smart
scholarship pilot that we started with
the smart program . It is aimed at
increasing the application and the
scholars from H . B C , U . S . And M .
Eyes . In terms of the smart program .
We have the educational stem scholars
program with the Navy . We also have a
faculty fellows program with the Navy .
We are now working with the Air Force
Minority Leaders program . We have a
Carnegie classification elevation
program which I will speak about
briefly . And also this friday fiscal
year 2023 hbCU research and
education . Uh solicitation closes on
friday august 12th . It is will be
funding research grants 800 K . Up to
four year period of performance . Next
slide .
I just wanted to share with you some of
our accomplishments . Um for fiscal
year 2022 we have awarded 60 equipment
grants And you can see the breakdown of
those grants . We also have uh
conducted and R two R 1 competition .
It closed already we're in the process
of selecting three . Award these three
institutions at $9 million each in
terms of positioning those institutions
to to move from an R . To to an R . One
uh institutions . So that's the other
thing that we're working on and were
able to accomplish all of these again
because of the congressional , add many
of you probably heard about the section
2 62 . This year 2020 National
Academies for Sciences , Engineering
and Medicine , they conducted a study
to study was completed and final report
was released april 2022 . So if you
like a copy of that report , you can
reach out to me and I can send you the
link so you can see all the challenges
and whatnot . They have laid out eight
recommendations for the Department of
Defense to look at in terms of
strengthening H . B . C . U . S . And M .
Eyes Also . We submitted our Department
of Defense Agency agency plans to
Congress uh through our White House
initiative one on H . B . C . U . S .
And the other one on asian american
native Hawaiians and pacific Islanders .
Next slide
and the last thing I would like to
share is that our Prairie View Research
Data analytics Center of Excellence
took first place in artificial
intelligence , naval competitions . Our
students did very well . So we're very ,
very proud of them . So I'll be around
all day today uh to answer any
questions that you may have in regards
to our hbcu and in my program here in
the Department of Defense . Thank you .
Hey , thank you so much Miss Kent . Um
I'll take that for you . So you've
heard from our Department of Defense ,
Undersecretary of Defense Research and
Engineering . A counterparts with Dr
joan Fuller and of course Miss Evelyn
can't dr Joan Fuller , she told you
that she establishes the policy and the
processes and you see where the money
is and uh I noticed that this kid did
not say that , but you know , as we
have the conversations especially
during the outreach events , we know
that there are gonna be things that uh
we can't fund with the Souare funding
um and then having these resources
available are gonna be critical . Um
Miss kenton and the things that she's
doing are just one of others that are
out there and it's our responsibility .
Again , if we're ensuring success to
ensure to bring that information to
your at your disposal , at your
disposal , uh I think we are at the
actual discussion about the york slight .
All right , and I think we've got
everybody online . Uh So what we're
gonna do now , we definitely won't go
into the level of detail that we
discuss um during the previous two
events . Our anticipation is uh that
some of this information has been
brought to your attention , that being
said . Um nothing is is perfect . Uh So
if there are pieces of information that
we discuss about the york specifically
uh that you like additional information ,
please don't hesitate . Um let us know
ask the question . Ask the questions
here uh for those of you who are on in
the virtual world , don't hesitate to
come off your mic and ask the question
because this is truly an opportunity
for you to hear it uh from the folks
who are producing next slide , please .
Uh So this is just a quick one more .
This is just a quick overview of the
things that we'll discuss , we will get
this done . I promise you in 20 minutes
or less . I'm moving towards the less
unless we have specific questions .
Next slide we did introduce this to the
uh to the plethora of folks from your
schools who came and and and and sat
with us for for a couple of days . Uh
but biggest thing for me was I just
couldn't , and I probably can't equate
the excitement that I have about this
program and really having the
opportunity to work directly with
historically black colleges and
universities that truly mean a lot to
me uh dr Coleman and Secretary Kendall
uh stated is long overdue as I talked
about during the intro . We did have
the two previous engagements uh with
the individuals that we discussed . Uh
again , we're hoping that they shared
some of the information that will be
presented today , but in the event that
you have questions , don't hesitate to
ask them . Uh this industry day will be
the final opportunity for us to discuss
openly in public once we conclude today
and that broad agency announcement is
released , it's an official process uh
that has to occur , are contracting and
our lawyers get involved and it has to
be in writing so that we are not
creating an unfair advantage for any
particular school university . So
please ask away um if you have
questions in the room again , just wait
for a microphone to come to you just so
that we can ensure that our virtual
participants are virtual participants
have an opportunity to hear slide
please .
So this is some of the background on
how we arrived . Um we've known that
the federal government requires a
diverse national stem workforce . It's
not a surprise . Uh there have been
some opportunities for underrepresented
stem populations and they are
increasing . However we can do better
to further increase representation
within the Department of Defense . The
program is not a panacea . We'll never
uh think that it is , but it is , it is
absolutely one of the efforts we can
impact directly uh and need to pursue
the areas in gray towards the bottom
represent the Department of Defense
Department wide stem strategic plan to
diversify the stem workforce . These
areas are influenced these areas
influenced our broad agency
announcement . Uh some of the key
particulars of this of the gray area
are to inspire community engagement in
the Department of Defense stem programs ,
attract the current and future stem
workforce , increased participation
and of underserved and underrepresented
stem groups and advance the efficiency
and the effectiveness of stem education
of the stem education , workforce
development and evaluate our
effectiveness slightly .
I know some of the questions and and
and Miss Kent thank you so much . He
talked about autonomy and some of the
things that have been done historically .
Uh but I needed to answer this for
myself as I came onto the team is why
tactical autonomy and why now ? Um we
settled here because we've made process
progress in autonomy writ large , but
we do have a ways to go . Um , the
trust in mission autonomy space will
require a degree of predictability for
comprehensive acceptance . We must
achieve predictable behavior and strong
assurance as well as ethical operations
And I'll stop there 4.2 . Really good
question that I know MS McNeil will
talk about uh , at a later portion here
with the next 30 or 40 minutes , but a
question came up about , hey , this
isn't necessarily all technical , there
may be some industrial opportunities .
There may be legal opportunities and
they're absolutely right from the
question that came to us , not all of
the things that we're trying to
accomplish with this . You are
university affiliated Research Center ,
our technical oriented , when we
specifically talk about ethics and then
when my technical lead gets up here ,
he'll explain it a little more detail .
Um , but we are looking at ethical
operations , that's not a technical
solution . Who's gonna do those things
or who will be the ones that are
providing that that that type of
research force on our behalf . And so
those are things that we have to think
about as we get into these requirements .
The second piece that we had here was
collaboration between platforms . Uh it
will require increased capacity and
data driven machine learning to achieve
acceptable levels of interoperability .
And then lastly , the human machine
teaming will be required in the
foreseeable future to mitigate the
absence of of reliability , whether
real or perceived . Uh I think the
example that I use is 100 years ago ,
elevator operators were required every
big city that you went into . Um they
were there and it was it was because of
the perception of unreliability and
it's gonna be the same thing with
driverless cars . You'll see that these
things continue to evolve into our
society and evolve over time . Slide ,
please . The program description . Uh
This program will establish a
historically black college and
University led university affiliated
research center uh specifically as a
consortium to conduct research focused
on tactical autonomy . Most important
to this effort is the transition of the
technical research into practical
application . And that's exactly what
dr Coleman was mentioning uh during her
introduction . Uh and I think that the
term you've used , ma'am is opened the
door from the laboratory to the
warfighter and she's exactly right .
You know , if we're not doing this with
the war fighter in mind , then why are
we doing this ? Um and this won't be
easy and we do not take the challenges
lightly slide , please .
MS Kent also discussed the National
Academies of Sciences , Engineering and
Medicine uh that report , I think it
was divine intervention and
intervention , Miss Kent , I saw that I
think I came on board somewhere around
the first of april . This report was
released the 28th of april uh and it
was getting after a lot of the things
that dr Coleman had discussed with the
Secretary of the Air Force as it
related to some of the metrics . Um if
anybody has read or is interested in
the physical year uh National Defense
Authorization Act all the way back to
fiscal Year 20 there's information in
there about historically black colleges
and universities . This study was in
support of that some of these metrics
that came out of the things that are
influencing the direction that we're
traveling . The report that Miss Kent
reference was um is titled
transitioning or historically black
colleges and universities , minority
serving institutions transitioning from
good intentions to measurable outcomes .
That's where we're at today . Uh and
ensuring that we have the ability to do
that . Uh The report did provide a
framework for metric development to
evaluate to track and improve
institutional growth and and
competitiveness . Most importantly , it
did align with the section to 20 of the
fiscal year 22 National Defense
Authorization Act , directing the
Department of Defense to develop a plan
to assess the capacity at historically
black colleges and universities and
minority serving institutions and
established programs to award contracts ,
grants or other agreements in order to
develop the capability of these
institutions to more effectively
compete for federal research and
development funding . This you are as
with the focus on tactical autonomy
with an HBCU consortium supporting stem
education needs neatly aligns under
these requirements . Excellent .
The program objectives is to create
approaches to a timely research to
enable our mission sets , minimize
human supervision for operations and
complex and unpredictable environments
in multiple operating areas . We must
enable earlier access to future stem
professionals , increase opportunities
for historically black colleges and
universities today and other minority
serving institutions , the minority
institutions in the future . Anyone
that has ever heard me speak after
being selected for this position and no
offense to the current you arcs that
are in here . But they know that my
goal is this is the best university
affiliate research center within the
Department of Defense . And it starts
here next slide
by teammates . Gonna come up to give
you a break from my voice uh talk the
technical and specifically the stem
education requirements . But what I'll
talk to you about uh from this
particular slide is a consortium and
what we're looking at for the
consortium . Um the
technical is gonna be the basic and
applied research and trust
collaboration and human machine teaming
as we mentioned before . But again ,
you'll get greater detail here shortly
uh within the education is going to be
to support the K through 12 and the
post secondary education programs and
activities and the consortium . My
specific piece , We are absolutely
looking for it in our two . Um Hi
research classified universities to
lead the consortium of historically
black colleges and universities with at
least one on the path to achieving our
one classification . Looking to
establish a state of the art research
facility , assemble talented
researchers , increase the pool of
available talent and establish an
ecosystem of business government and
academia to transition the technology .
Uh What are the things that don't get
into ? We didn't get into specifically
here and dr Coleman , I don't know if
you mentioned the mentor Protege
program . Uh So that is an effort
within the Department of Defense ,
specifically with the under Secretary
of Defense for acquisition and
sustainment up to $200 million . It is
intended to as academia works within
the community both locally and
regionally um and and working with
small businesses locally and regionally .
It allows um those small businesses in
that university to align with greater
opportunities within the defense
industrial base . For instance , if tim
Williams had a company that was working
in north Carolina um he had never done
deal d contracting before the program
creates the funding so the larger
business and the smaller business don't
lose money but they come together and
then all those certifications and
requirements , anything that I need to
do in terms of . Now this small company
can compete for D . O . D . Business .
Um It brings these two organizations
and entities together um is not
directly tied to this historically
black college university but the
undersecretary of defense for
acquisition and sustainment is trying
to align its arrival at about the time
that we're achieving IOC the lead
university will create an open and
collaborative team of experts focused
on planning and executing the tactical
autonomy program requirements . Your
consortium becomes the D . O . D .
Subject matter expert for long term
expertise and tactical autonomy . The
plan should identify the development of
a consortium coordination plan ,
agreement between the universities
outlining the responsibilities of the
lead and historic and supporting
historically black colleges and
universities and the staff and faculty
required to support and manage the
effort . The league will have
overarching responsibility for meetings ,
deliverables , annual production
planning , program evaluation and
outreach and distribution of funding
for structure and operation and
operation planning . You should
summarize the organization , the
governance structure and management ,
the allocation and the distribution of
funding , the performance evaluation
and improvement plans as required in
education training for the next
generation . The consortium plan should
identify how the tacular autonomy stem
objectives will be coordinated ,
distributed and achieved . And unless
you have specific questions of me , I'm
here to answer the ball . I'll be
followed by our technical lead doctor
juan Vasquez who is virtual
dR basket Thanks to him .
So I'll give a condensed version of
what I gave him the prior to meetings .
Keep us moving along lines here but um
you know briefly ,
oh ,
I can hear you loud and clear Dr
Vasquez . Okay , one more comps check
Does everything sound good ? You sound
good ?
Thank you . Alright , thank you . So
I'll keep it brief as tim mentioned .
Uh you know I talked about an example
at length but I think I'll give you a
condensed version here today . Um So
you know , here's the basic definition
in a sentence of what we're talking
about in in tactical autonomy . Um And
it is a lot about you know how we build
a system that that has autonomous
aspects to it but is interacting with
with humans in the loop as well . And
that's where we get into this bounded
authority concept . So next slide and
broadly speaking , you know , we have
three main thrust areas . They're
they're laid out for you here . There's
a short description , I won't read them
to you and then there's more fidelity
that will show up in the B . A . That
has you know , additional bullets that
that talk about the trust the
collaboration the human machine teaming .
But I would say that in a in an
overarching context , just imagine that
you have systems that uh do have human
interaction . Um There there is the
obviously there's there's missions that
at some point become fully autonomous
but but I think you need to really
focus in on on aspects that have a
teaming relationship with humans .
There will always be that level in
tactical autonomy or at least . Well I
should say always but for the near term
for sure . Um And how do you build the
trust between the human machine , How
do you collaborate between those two ?
But also how do you collaborate between
the the autonomous vehicles themselves
and then on the teaming side , how do
you provide the right information of
the human so as not to overload them ?
And and so cognitive loading is a very
important piece so that you actually do
uh affect a positive change . So I'll
leave I'll leave that as a short
version of the original description
then go to the next slide and just talk
briefly about uh from from the
standpoint of how we're gonna knock
this down and some of the details that
we will build with the consortium is
internal to our own process . We are
you know gonna be refining building
much more refined topics that fit in
the broad construct of what's in that
first description . You know , as you
heard earlier today there's
opportunities to bring new work or new
money into this environment . So we
want a broad uh scope that still has
some level of focus but initially we
will be putting together a set of very
detailed topics that have you know
titles and descriptions deliverables ,
a transition path and maybe most
importantly a technical point of
contact on our side to work hand in
hand with the arc folks . And it was
mentioned in the earlier presentation
about exploiting you know the
capabilities that we have inside the D .
O . D . And the Air Force uh to to uh
to bring the bear into this into this
entire effort . And for you not to feel
like you have to build an entire entire
autonomous capability up at the U . R .
Level we want to share those resources .
And so as we refine the topics , I'm
kind of in the bottom right hand corner
now we've selected a series of what we
want to be to your efforts and the 1 to
$2 million range per topic with a very
very tight partnership . Um and and
maybe annual , we'll probably have
annual reviews at a minimum to make
sure that that the efforts going in the
right direction for the funding of the
second year . But then also , you know ,
tim and Shauna will be working on a
maybe a higher frequency level to have
quarterly reviews with not just at the
uh at the programmatic level but even
at the technical level to make sure the
efforts are going in the right
direction . So the whole point is as
many open communication lines as we can
have . But I think I want you to to get
this sense that our goal is to provide
you with our experts in house um to to
work , I mean our tech experts in house
to work hand in hand with you to make
sure that what you're doing is
extremely relevant and and that it'll
it'll give you the right guidance and
it will give the you are the ability to
to show what it can do , right ? And we
know it can do it . We just we just
need to build the right processes to
make that happen . So that's my that's
my condensed version tim . Hopefully ,
that's okay . I'll hand it back over to
you . Hey , thank you .
Dr Vasquez . Just make sure that there
were no questions uh specifically about
the technical requirements from in the
audience . Yes , sir . So I
see a comment with the new autonomy
test range at Rome new york . So
there's there's no reason why it
couldn't be right , um , any any a fro
asset . That makes sense to bring the
bear . We we will try to make that
happen . Um , so , anyone who wants to
propose that that type of , you know ,
relationship would be very interested
uh , to to try and help facilitate that .
Hey , thank you . Dr Vasquez . We did
have one question in the room , so , as
mentioned that we'll be able to
leverage Air Force resources on the
technical responses . So , I'm curious
about the B A . In itself in terms of
how well defined all the questions that
we have to respond to . Are we simply
saying that there's a specific type of
capacity or we have a plan to actually
address that type of capacity as it
relates to what we said earlier about
building competency and capacity with
as you are A and dr Vasquez , did you
understand that question ? I will hear
the question , you're talking about the
capacity of the researchers themselves ,
Is that what you mean ? It was about
the requirements really . Similarly , I
think . So , if I've got this correct
as we lay out and and and have our
our call for topics , do you
have the required resources to
accomplish those things that we're
identifying ? Am I capturing the
question correctly ? And how do you
respond into the broad agency
announcement either having that delta
of what you think is going to be
required in order to accomplish that
mission . Okay .
More So , are we actually providing a
strategy for further review Committee
suggests this is how we will address
any type of capacities or lack of
capacity exists today , leveraging some
of the resource that was mentioned ,
things like that . I think I got a
little bit wetter doctor , better dr
Vasquez . I'll let you chime in . Uh ,
no . So one of the things or some of
the things that we're asking for in the
broad agency announcement are getting
after just that . Uh , so as you're
proposing and you're writing , hey ,
these are the things we think we need
to do in order to accomplish the
technical requirements , the education
requirements uh , and building the
consortium coordination plan , um , we
are identifying there may be some
Deltas or some deficiencies . It could
be the lack of capacity to uh , to do
classified or applied research as a
result of not having facilities . Um ,
so you may identify that as a
deficiency within your proposal . It's
okay . It's absolutely acceptable .
Were understand and anticipating this
because what's gonna happen is it's
gonna allow us to review your proposals
and determine the alignment of
requirements as we strike the iron and
say , this is the universities
consortium that we're going to select .
And these are the things that we've got
to be prepared for as we continue to
move forward . And dr Vasquez if I've
spoken incorrectly , please , uh ,
please . Uh , I think that's great .
Great tim And I guess the only thing I
would add is , you know , after award .
Right ? So , so tim headed , I think
really well , you know , before award ,
in other words , during the proposal
phase , after award , we very much
it'll be a conversation . If we throw a
topic out there , that just doesn't
make sense . You know , we'll we'll
want to hear that . And , and and if
you identify that there's too many
holes in in terms of capacity has to be
filled . We'll move on onto the next
topic because we're gonna have , I
trust you , we're gonna have more
topics than we have money to fund . And ,
and , and so , so we'll be able to move
on and , and manage . I'll call it that
cost schedule , risk whatever you ,
whatever you want to cast that . So ,
so it's very much a conversation and
that's important over now . Thanks
to Vasquez and , you know , it really
truly goes back to a little bit of the
conversation we were having before . I
was dead serious when I talked about
one eye closed as you identify what
university you plan to , to work with .
We don't going into this , they're
gonna be risks , risks associated with
it . We know that there's gonna be some
capacity building that has to occur .
Uh , so we have to take in appetite
suppressant as we're moving in . If we
worked with the university affiliated
research centers before , uh , you may
not be able to get X , Y and Z . I'm
not saying it can't happen , but just
be , don't be risk avoidance , don't
utilize risk avoidance as you're going
into the conversation is the things
that we're trying to say . That's all
any additional questions . It was a
really good question sir . Awesome .
Okay , uh , Doctor Cindy a chat Mendez .
Um , I think you're up next regarding
the stem education requirements . Give
me a mic check please . Hi , good
afternoon . Can you hear me loud and
clear . Thank you . Go right ahead . DR
Mendez . Thank you Mr Williams . So
good afternoon everyone . Um , I'm
Cindy a chat Mandisa Tripoli as science
and technology policy fellow in the
office of Undersecretary of Defense for
our any and um , I work with Dr Fuller
and the F . F . R . D . C . You are
team as well as the D . O . D . Stem
team . So I'm representing both
portfolios here today and like others
have mentioned , it's been a genuine
privilege to be part of the
establishment of this historic you arc .
Um So I'm gonna talk to you a little
today on the Air Force's education and
workforce development goals for the U .
Arc and to be clear the technical
competency in autonomy is going to be
the defining criteria for selection .
But as many of you know , and as dr
Fuller described , you can play an
important role in creating and
reinforcing that stem pipeline . And so
it's common among all of the you are to
have some kind of educational and
workforce line of effort . So this you
are will be no different . And H . B .
C . U . S since inception have been
involved in stem programming and
particularly in integrating stem
education into society's needs . So
because of this , uh some consideration
will be placed on proposed strategies
that the U . R . Could use to harness
the education and workforce development
outcomes and these outcomes will
inevitably emerge from the robust R .
And D . And autonomy generated by the U .
Arc . So the intent of the stem section
is to encourage the applicants to
propose creative and very strategic
plans that can capitalize on the
existing autonomy R . And D . That will
be automatically generated within this
consortium . And this is also in the
best interests of the D . O . D . As we
are the largest federal employer of
stem professionals . So we recognize
the need for excellence and stem a stem
educated US workforce is critical to
the mission of the department and to
our nation's security . The department
also understands that a readily
available , diverse and prepared pool
of stem professionals can engender
innovation and help evolve our
competitive edge . So the stem
education and workforce component is
really an opportunity for us to
leverage the autonomy work that the
department is investing in and while
establishing this essential competency ,
some education and workforce goals that
could be achieved are one to build the
autonomy pipeline with training
programs such as fellowships ,
scholarships for undergraduate graduate
and postdoc opportunities to , to
create curriculum for teaching autonomy
related topics to new and skilled
students , which might include new labs
courses , new managers of study , new
degrees offered for example ,
and I think uh these are not my slides .
Okay , uh let me flip that around then
because autonomy is an emerging
field , There's been a preponderance of
benefits in the use and application of
autonomy and so increasing the
awareness um of the ethics , the
social and the security
implications of autonomy is also a
major goal . And so
we discussed teaching as an important
um stem education outcome .
Next one
supporting equitable access . We know
that strategic execution of stem
programs can improve access and equity
and generate a diverse workforce . So
some natural activities can include uh
site visits to D . O . D . Labs
participation on Korea training
days and lastly ,
what do you have for me , Tiana
autonomy principles and applications .
So um I wanna , I wanna focus here on
something that both MS Kent and Mr
Williams mentioned earlier and that is
a reminder to conduct robust data
collection and build common metrics
across the consortium . Um The
HPC research capacity studies strongly
recommends data collection in all areas
so there's quite a few metrics that can
be tracked in this stem education
portfolio . And we encourage you to
propose a strong program evaluation
plan to monitor . For example uh new
curriculum new labs , new courses
designed the numbers and demographics
of students enrolled , new workforce
development programs , new outreach
initiatives , increased awareness of
the applications and implications of
autonomy and stem careers related to
autonomy and of course increased
student pursuit and achievement in stem
degrees and careers . So we encourage
you to propose an evaluation plan to
study how the U . R . Has impacted your
institution and affected your stem
education and overall research proposal .
The portfolio is that the hope is
that the U . R . Will build the
institutions research capacity and
potentially make H . B . C . U . S more
competitive overall . And a good data
collection effort will be essential in
showing institutional growth . Thanks .
Hey thank you dr and this um she's
gonna be followed by Mr Justin
Woodworth . Um And Justin if you don't
mind we're about to get a little bit
behind . Can you just hit the
highlights here in the next five
minutes or so ? Thank you . Yeah no
that's fine , appreciate it . I'm
Justin Woodworth I mean in contracting .
So we're using a broad agency
announcement for this , it's
anticipated that will release it . Uh
this august with proposals due in
october Um with the hope to award my
December with starting the work on one
February next slide .
And so you know , anticipating one
contract award to one university um to
manage a consortium for uh five years
um and then we'll do it again um with
$12 million a year . Um The starting
point is you know 60 million with the
ceiling of 90 million so that we could
maybe uh you know accept other people's
funds if if they want to fund stuff in
uh this range and it's going to be an I .
D . I . Q . Style contract mostly um
you know cost plus six ft elements to
it . So um next line
and then its ability um I think that's
the main thing that we've talked about
here today um and funding types
predominantly applied research and
basic research but like I was saying on
the ceiling thing where you know ,
expecting that other people will want
to fund things and so it may be other
areas but that's the main focus . Um
And then selection process um you know
we said proposal merit . Just not to
confuse the issue of uh technical merit
because there are so many other like uh
technical aspects to this . So we just
called it all proposal merit . Um And
then you know costs are really going to
be evaluated more from the cost realism
and uh reasonableness standpoint , so
it's more of a pass fail , we'll have
conversations if there's something um
that you know doesn't make sense and
and sort those things out so I don't
think it should be any big concern but
that's the the main selection process
things , so next slide
and that's it . You're good , we will
work . Thank you so much for getting us
back on time . Historically , we've had
a few questions that came out when we
brought our contracting piece in , so
if you have them , please don't
hesitate to ask them now . If not uh
you wanted to talk to one of us during
the break to include the folks that are
virtual , they're available and you can
do that but we are at break time . Uh
we've got about 10 minutes uh so we'll
get back in here at 15 . 14 32 30 .
I'm sorry 2 30 . 2 35 . Okay . 2
35 . So we're back here to 35 . There
are break rooms . If you need to know
where the restrooms are , we can direct
you in the right direction but to 35
will be back in here . Thank you .
Yeah .
Where are you , wow .
Oh everybody's going in ?
Alright . Yeah .
God
no card
sure . Uh
huh
and location
so no
just kidding
because of
it's because that doesn't mean
really well
what's the
that's what we're doing . And so we've
got general Adams before he departs . I
want to give him some minutes to talk
sir . Thanks there tim . How're you all
doing today ? I am Terrence Adams . I'm
originally from tuskegee Alabama , born
and raised in the pride of the swift
growing south . That's what johnny for
each day all the time there . When I
was growing up I had an opportunity to
go to tuskegee before I entered into
the army , I enlisted in the army . So
during that summer I took some course
through the upward brown program . If
you are familiar with that as well too .
Uh and then I went out to this army
thing , transferred into the Air Force
eventually while I was in the army with
the Federal State , you know as well
and then went to University of
Montgomery and got my ROTC commission
from Alabama state . So I had a couple
of touchpoints with hBC us throughout
my educational journey in my military
career , I think this is phenomenal
that you are all in this room and
thanks to the leadership of the Air
Force , I've been praising MS Coleman ,
you know , since I had an opportunity
to meet her recently and also with our
secretary , you all on the ground floor .
Something amazing . Right ? And while I
was in the room listening to everything ,
I was texting all of my friends ,
sending them information as I was
Googling because this is a tremendous
opportunity , you know , we need you
all as I go around and talk about
people we need people in the Air Force ,
I have been partnering with the
academic industry everywhere I go
because I'm a cyber officer . So um the
landscape of what we need for our
future right now , you see that may I
think it may be out of balance to what
we're gonna need moving forward in the
future , right ? Um we as airmen ,
right ? We see the uh air breathing
platforms , but as we look at what our
adversaries are doing and what they're
growing , we're gonna need to have some
better and new technology that's going
to be more flexible and agile than it
is today . And what that means is this
partnership with the academic community
is going to be key to the success of
that , not just from autonomy that
we're gonna need as we try to get
trusted , you know , partners in air
and also in space , but also we're
gonna need a robust relationship with ,
I say the people who end up serving and
call these americans right ? We have
lost in some ways and in our recruit ,
the numbers are showing this so beyond
all of the academic things you're gonna
do in the research thing you're gonna
do as well . There's just another
criterion opportunity we have is a
touch point with americans wherever you
are in your universities are . We're
gonna need to make sure that more
americans are understanding what we
need for D . O . D . Uh the
opportunities that we have , there's so
many places I go and I when I go in my
uniform they think all the jobs and
opportunities are in this uniform and
as you all know in the room , there's
so many other opportunities to serve in
a civilian capacity that people don't
know about . So these will also
increase the opportunities and whatever ,
you know university that's gonna be the
lead for that and all those sort of
partner schools that are going to be a
part of that . A lot of small towns
where some of the H . B . C . U . S . R .
And large town . But this presents an
opportunity for those americans who are
in that town to have a deeper
understanding about what we need in our
military force . That's going to be
research and scientists being involved
in that . So I am not officially part
of the program at all . But after I
heard what was going on , I felt it was
compelled for me to shift my schedule a
little , come down and listen so I can
learn because I don't have a lot of
background and standing up to you , our
core um in the research and development
arm . But what I do have is passion to
make sure that we get this right for
America . My my goal is just to make
sure I'm in liaison with whomever to
make sure that we have success . I'm
not involved in the selection process .
But what I am can do is make sure that
I can be a translator . Um , I speak
hbcu let's put it that way , right ?
And so whatever I need to do to to be
an advocate for you all and I speak Air
force and I speak military and I can do
that . We have a unique opportunity to
be successful . And I know everybody
involved in this program , which I'm
just here now . People like myself are
volunteering people to come and help
out this project to make it happen . I
mean , I have never heard of , you know ,
people seeing what the goodness of this
program and going through their bosses
and saying , hey , can I work a year or
two to help out this organization to
make it successful . That's unheard of .
So I'm telling you inside the military ,
we are excited about this opportunity .
I hope you all are excited about this
opportunity and there's so much that we
need from you all in the industry . Uh
this is an opportunity I think for the
America to get it right . And I know
you all hear this inside this room to
try to get it right and we want to make
sure that whoever wins is going to put
their best foot forward the success of
whoever has the lead . And also the
folks who are going to be following is
the success of the whole program . So I
know that this team has been committed
to make that happen . So , you know ,
there's a commitment , there's gonna be
some contractual stuff that we're gonna
get through at some point in time and
then the lawyers will be in the room
and the money people be in the room ,
but there's also some heart that's
going to be in that room too . And the
heart side , I just want to get it
right and that's gonna be relationship .
So every day and I know there's
football rivalries , right ? Three days
BCU as well , when we get down to
business , we'll put that game day
aside and whatever we need to do to get
down to the business , finding the
right partners where that leaves gonna
be , find that right partner , right ?
There may be some wrong partners out
there , right ? Find the right partner
is gonna make you successful because
this is gonna have a lot of visibility
and everybody is gonna be interested in
the success of this , so choose wisely
and this team will be able to help and
I'm committed to help as well in my
personal capacity and in my
professional capacity as well , anybody
have any questions for me operationally
or anything that I can , I can answer .
I know nothing about the program , but
I can answer some questions if you have
for me . Alright , thank you for your
time and good luck and let's say
partnered up , thanks .
Uh General
Adams is leaving , We're gonna again
switch gears a little bit and get the
uh the universities who currently have
university affiliated research center
up centers up here , we'll bring all
three up at once . Um so that you can
sit at the table and then we'll ensure
that we've already got your slides
pulled up and ready to rock and roll .
So Georgia . Yes sir , your ROTC
programs can be very valuable in this
process . Some of you all have
resources right there on your home
grounds that can be a part to make , to
connect the dots . That is a humongous
opportunity . My personal capacity , I
stood up ROTC alumni Association
Alabama State and those alumni's that
you have who served in this uniform
would be another valuable asset in this
process to kind of bonus points right
there . Thanks . I was gonna bring you
back into sir , but we're gonna start
with Georgia tech Research Institute .
It will be followed by penn state and
then we'll be have University of
Maryland , Excuse me , erin Fitzgerald ,
We'll we'll close it out . Uh Please
come on up , come on up , we turn it
right over to you . You have a
preference to sit at the table or
you're gonna have a microphone ,
whatever you like . Mr Mcbride . Uh one
of the things that general Adams didn't
say so he walked into here , he wasn't
part of the program but as he's walking
out . I already saw the twinkle and dr
Coleman's eye so he will be an official
member of the program . But without any
further ado I'll turn it over to mr
Mcbride . You wanna sit here sir ? Yeah
go right ahead . You sit right there is .
Perfect . Now enjoy relax
camera .
Okay great .
Oh yeah I could do that .
Okay thank you .
Thank you tim thank you tim thank you
Dr Coleman for inviting us to this . Uh
we had an opportunity to visit a couple
of weeks ago and and talk about some of
the efforts that um Georgia tech
research institute we've been at for a
few years trying to partner with H . B .
C . U . S . And M . S . I . S . Um for
increased capacity building , more
workforce development for all of us and
it's it's it's absolutely a win win win
for for us so we can increase the
diversity of our workforce , we can
build relationships with other
universities and uh and also if those
folks commit to national security for a
lifetime , they become sponsors and
they have a good experience with us .
So it's all win win win win . So uh
we're real excited about uh the Air
Force taking on this endeavor to create
an hbcu I'm sorry hbcu york and we want
to help any way we can . So today what
we were asked to do is talk about a
minimum viable infrastructure . This is
a conversation that we've been having
with the universities and colleges that
we're partnering with on a lot of our D .
O . D . Projects and trying to discuss
some of the infrastructure that they'll
need to put in place to be able to work
D . O . D . Contracting whether they're
you know , and there's several ways we
can work this , whether they're a
partner or sub for us or they're the
prime and we're a sub but all of these
uh relationships do require some
minimum viable infrastructure and so
it's a little bit of a dry topic but uh
I'll address that and I have three
colleagues online that help prepare
these slides to be succinct and they
have tons of experience with this and
can can fill it . Alright , waste too
much time . So I'm keith Mcbride , I'm
the chief of staff at Georgia Tech
Research Institute and uh move to next
slide I guess next slide .
Thank you . Okay , I'll only spend uh
30 seconds 20 seconds on this . So
Georgia Tech Research Institute started
out as the Georgia engineering
experiment station in 1934 to inject
technology into the local economy of
Georgia which was agriculture . We
still do that to some extent . It's
written in state code that we have to
as G . T . R . I . We have to help uh
inject help with the economic
development of the state . So when um
Joan was talking about each you arc has
unique kind of governance models , we
have a commitment to the state that we
have to do and we're a state school and
we're a state entity . We're all state
employees which is different than johns
Hopkins a pl and and others . So there
is a lot of uniqueness there . Um We've
we've grown a lot over the last 15
years and a lot of that was because we
started to understand how did I . D . I .
Q . S . Work and uh and because of that
our sponsor base now we are we are
managed by the army um uh
combat capabilities , Development
command short dot com . But our sponsor
base that we uh serve across the D . O .
D . Is pretty well split between the
Army , Navy Air Force and we have
another one . We call D . O . D . Other
which is the intelligence community and
other entities um D . O . D . And in
national security . Okay so we were
asked to talk about minimum
infrastructure . I will address I . T .
Security and a little bit about
contracting and finance . Next slide
please . Okay this is a dry slide and I
specifically um put a bunch of
references in there so that you can
look at them later . But the defense
federal acquisition regulations
supplements um talk about how to work
with controlled unclassified data . So
when you get a lot of the H . B . C . U .
S . Are already working on government
contracts . And so I don't mean sound
pedantic but some are not when you
start to work on government projects
you get government data and you have to
protect that . And so these next three
slides are a little bit about What's
required infrastructure wise to uh to
be able to protect that data . So that
first dfars um reference there ends in
7012 talks about
about um how you safeguard covered uh
defense information and cyber incident
reports . And the next bullet
there the nist
800-171 talks about 100 and
10 different controls on how you
control this information . I don't mean
for that to sound overwhelming . Um So
what you do is you put together what's
called an SPS ? It's a security um
Sorry with my note A .
S . S . P . Sorry uh system security
plan and the system security plan
addresses how you will meet all those
controls . Um So I think before we go
any further just throwing this in the
lap of an hbcu that hasn't been working
with this before is just that's
overwhelming . So Air Force you know uh
you're you're going to have to help a
lot through this and the other york's
were willing to help as well but
there's gonna need to be some , you
know , a lot of mentoring and helping
with uh the system security plans and
some of these other things . Okay . Um
so the last thing is cloud computing on
this slide , so the Fed ramp , moderate
or high are the versions of zoom
webex Microsoft teams they come in
different versions , you'll want to use
the Fed ramp versions of those . And I
left uh , an internet
site in the notes there to go to the
fed ramp site and explains how that
works in your I . T . Folks at the
university will probably already
understand this . Um , but but that's
okay . Let's go to the next slide and
I'll talk about the enclave a little
bit . Okay . So the hardest part of
this I . T . Part of this I . T .
Subject is figuring out the validated
encryption and the multi factor
authentication part of your systems .
So for instance I am at Georgia tech I
have a Georgia tech email address . I
also have a GTR I email address
information that comes into my Georgia
tech email address comes over to my GTR
I server and it's looked at their ,
through our uh through whatever kind of
scanning malware and all that sort of
stuff that we have to meet the federal
requirements . Um , if I'm doing
my my timecard for the day or if I'm
looking at our databases , we have
multi factor authentication . So in my
particular case we have a cellphone duo .
So as soon as I log in , it pings my
cell phone , I got put in a code and it
goes back and they're different for
each , we have them set up for each of
these applications . It's not just one
thing overall . So um , I'll stop with
that . Uh , the second two bullets .
Really kind of talk about the enclave
or this . How big does this system need
to be this I . T . System that is kind
of fenced off from the rest of the
university and can handle this
controlled unclassified information .
You can set that doesn't have to be the
whole university . It can be for just
where your researchers are working . Um
And again I'll say work with the Air
Force . They'll figure out they need to
come to your place this for the hbc .
Us , come to your place , look at your
setup and figure out what are the
unique or the applicable applications
to make that work in your environment .
And I think that's it for that slide .
Let's go into the next one . Okay
last one C . M . M . C . So
cybersecurity maturity model
certification . This is a new D . O . D .
Um um measure for how are you
protecting federal federal contract
information and controlled unclassified
information . What the previous
references that I gave you talk about
self inspections and doing self
inspections every year and turning
those results in and those things get
audited . What the D . O . D . Is
moving towards now is a third party
doing those inspections . So third
party assessment of your system and uh
and they they've got new standards in
there and unfortunately it's coming out
in fy 23 so the timing is not not great
I'm sure . So there's three levels and
uh I would say um you know kind of work
towards level two is probably uh best
target there and again work with the
Air Force to figure out how best in
your particular environment , what kind
of different encryption is gonna be
required , uh etcetera etcetera . It's
gonna it's gonna be different per
university and how you set up your
enclave and then um and depending on
what the how much risk the Air Force
wants to take on initially etcetera .
Okay . I'm gonna stop for a second and
ask scott Harlan if there's anything
else he feels is important to add
scott . No , I think you you pretty
much covered unless anyone has any
questions . Okay let's stop
and see if there's any questions or any
of the other york's want to add
something about I . T . Security . Yes
sir . Oh yeah . So
you're , since we're looking at HPC
consortium , I'm curious about the
other members that you have um that are
not Georgia tech partners ? Uh do they
have the same email address or you how
do you actually support them in this
space when they're working with you
with classified information ? Yeah . So
it is important to note that all of
this is on the unclassified side . Um
but in general , each organization sets
up their own I . T . Security . Uh now
there are , you know , uh the Defar
70-12 clause that keeps talking about
that is a flow down . So uh if you are
working as a crime and and you know
another university is a sub to you . Uh
it flows down to them and you do have
some responsibility in that regard to
ensure that the subcontractors are
doing the things that they should be
doing . But in general each
organization is responsible for their
own I . T . Security
And specifically uh to add uh
specifically . So the 1719 clause that
was two slides ago when you go into the
spurs system to enter in your self
assessment story , you tie that to your
cage code .
That was a lot of jargon scott .
Yeah so the spurs I wrote it on the
other slide . I can't remember what it
stands for . Yeah spurs is a system
that the D . O . D . Set up to
basically receive and manage everyone's
self assessment . So if the fars 70
12 you know you have a minimum set of
cyber security . And then the idea is
that you do a self assessment and 70 19
requires that you go into this specific
D . O . D . System and upload your SSP
your system security plan . Uh And also
any plan of actions that you may have
for any deficiencies you have uh and
you upload a self assessment score . Uh
And then that score is visible by the D .
O . D . And by contracting officers .
So if they are looking to award you
know you a program they can go and look
up what your previous score was and
what the date of that is etcetera . Uh
There's also on this slide it's not
just self assessment . So uh defense
contract management agency DCM A .
Comes around uh and does assessments on
uh individual organizations . We
actually had one of those about a year
and a half ago . Uh And DCM a uploads
that score to the same spurs system .
Um So that you know anyone in the D . O .
D . Can see it and reference it cover .
Okay thank you scott . Okay let's move
on to security and I'm just gonna
quickly summarize that and leave the
slides and you can ask uh more
questions later . Happy to answer
questions at any point . Um You know
tomorrow next week whenever . Okay so
so for research security we call it the
Nice palm . But the National Security
presidential memorandum talks about how
outlines how research security and
research outlines research security and
researchers responsibilities on how to
safeguard um research data when you're
working on national security issues .
Uh We'll talk about the next bullet for
just a second . The clear defense
contractor . You will be a clear
defense contractor . You need a sponsor
and a contract with a DD form 2 54 .
That's the best way to get started and
you're gonna have that . So you will
actually be categorized as a clear
defense contractor . Um And then
there's uh for personal security
clearances and facility uh
facility clearances . There's um go to
the next slide . I'm trying to get
really quick here tim next slide please .
Okay so you'll have three required
positions um to help take care of all
that . So you have a you have a
facility security officer , you'll have
an insider threat programs officer and
Information Systems Security Manager I .
S . S . M . And those are the things
that are gonna be required during your
classified systems to keep your um
insider threat program which is
required by D . O . N . E . Contractors
working on D . O . D . Contracts and
also um get your facilities accredited
and to maintain and manage those things .
That's a lot . And uh the Air Force
needs to help you will help you with
this and we're happy to help as well .
I'm sure the other sharks are as well .
So I'm gonna try and get off stage next
slide please . Okay . Uh This last one
talks about some of the things that
we've um we've experienced and um
working federal contracts with people
who are new to federal contracts and
some of the mitigation measures uh that
you might explore . So I think you need
me to move on . So I will I'll leave
those with you and please give us a
call um If we can help anymore . Thank
you .
Thank you so much . And the team from
Georgia Tech uh we're gonna go to penn
State now Mr Drummond's owes . Um
The bottom line is Mr Jameson just
coming up that I'll tell you there's a
lot of stuff that's got to happen .
Alright , we don't expect you to have
it figured out overnight . Um The plan
is identifying that these things have
to be worked on . One of the things
coming up . Mr Jameson . Um one of the
things that dr Coleman has me
specifically working on the positions
from the Department of Defense side of
the House , specifically the day that
we're gonna have your eye to security
experts on staff . We're gonna have I .
T . Experts on staff . You've got
myself the program manager , deputy
Program Manager . They're gonna help
walk and shepherd whatever universities
selected through this process . Because
it's hard , it's very hard stuff . Mr
Thank you so much . Glad to have you
appreciate that . Thank you again , tim
and thank you very much uh dr Coleman
for the opportunity to be here today
and discuss these things , a couple of
things . First of all , from Penn State
University , Penn State as as we heard
about earlier , is actually quite part
of the university . We are a university
affiliated research system center with
with a lot of independence . However ,
we are integrated into the university .
It's kind of unique in that sense with
the second largest navy . You are
sponsored by the Navy . We're about
1400 employees . We have roughly about
$300 million
so these
employees are doing been around since
about since 191945 is when we got
started . So and what I would like to
do today is I do I'd like to give you a
little overview , a little bit of a
deeper look at some of the really
important points that Dr Fuller
mentioned earlier today . She did a
really nice job with that overview .
That was a great summary of what the U .
R . Does wanted . What would it , some
of the aspects of it . What I'd like to
do today is talk about two particular
aspects . First is the contracting
process , how do you create that
contract ? What are some of the key
elements of creating a UR contract ?
And then second , Doctor four mentioned
organizational conflict of interest and
that's a really important aspect . And
what I'd like to do is show you a
visual . I'm not expecting that you're
going to read it because it's actually
a very small print , but it's a visual
which will be available to you to
understand our perspective on O . C . I .
And what that looks like . So we'll
talk about that in just a moment . Uh
next chart please . Okay , Dr . Fuller
mentioned this , this is a picture of
the management plan . So this is what
the front page of that 2010 management
plan looks like much of what we do . I
tell you read this document seriously ,
study it , understand what's embedded
in here . It's a really important
document if you go to the next chart .
Okay , so what are the key aspects of
what are the defining characteristics
of a . U . Arc ? Well as we heard
earlier this issue of core competencies
is very critical . What are the core
competencies ? There are 14 navy .
There are 14 new york's , five navy .
You arcs of those . You are each one of
them have their own set of core
competencies . Those core competencies
essentially provide the swim lanes for
that . You work to operate under . One
of the things that makes this a
community that we're willing to all
share and participate in is every one
of the yorks has their own set of core
competencies . Those swim lanes are
really critical so that we support each
other and we should we operate as a as
a community um with that uh dr
york dr Fuller talked about the seek
exemption uh competition and
contracting that . And she mentioned
that a nice overview that this morning
and then we actually had exactly the
same bullets on the maintaining long
term strategic relationship with of a .
You are with the D . O . D . So you can
see those aspects . There's one bullet
at the very bottom . I do want to
mention this contract is a I . D . I .
Q . Contract that he has a ceiling .
The ceiling is in the case of Penn
state's for example is 2.1 billion uh
was put in place about four or five
years ago . Now that 2.12 point $1
billion came with . No check right ?
It's a very very small one to start it .
Other than that , it's all about
getting sponsors to put money on the
contract and consuming that ceiling .
One of the things that this UR contract
does is it provides you the structure
by which to accomplish the point that
DR Fuller mentioned this morning about
the quickness of getting the
contracting the work on contract to the
researchers so the research researchers
can perform . That's done through
standard task descriptions and standard
contract modification provisions and
those formats . All of that has been
put in place and structured based upon
the U . Arc contract . And it's a
really really important point . It's
what enables what we heard about this
morning to achieve to be achieved . Uh
next chart please . Alright , so this
is just the uh the uh U . S . Standard
code 32 of four , same one that we
heard from DR ford this morning . Next
chart please . Okay , so I wanted to
take a moment and just this is unique
to the Navy , right ? Which they are uh
penn state a RLS navy york unique to
the Navy . But I wanted you to get an
idea of some of the aspects what goes
into creating a contract and the first
thing that's underway right now for the
HBCU you arc is a justification and
approval process . That process is well
underway And and that includes a
estimate of what the ceiling will be in
case we heard as we heard this
afternoon rather as we heard this
afternoon about $60 million 12 years
annually for for five years and then
uh the approval process . And what that
JNA . Does is it enables the
contracting officer to put the contract
in place and that's really what that's
the whole purpose of that is . Now . We
went through this back in 2017 putting
a new contract in place and we were
able to get that contract in place in
about 11 months which is a really
really short period of time because we
had to go through the whole aspects of
it , some of which have already been
started in this case . The important
points about this and especially later
on when you go for a renewal . The
important points about this is you want
to run as many of these things
concurrently as possible and that's
what takes time out of the system . So
you can essentially have the terms and
conditions of the contract all pre
negotiated , all determined , working
with your contracting officer while
you're doing the pricing right while
they're going through and doing any
final reviews that are necessary , for
example with the J . And A . And so the
more and more of this , it's done
concurrently . This is what we learned
when we went through this in 2017 that
more and more of this that's done
concurrently , the quicker we can get
it under contract , that's the big idea
I . Q . Contract um Okay next year
please . Okay so the steps I
think a lot of these are ones that you
all know this is really the J . And a
and a unique to the Ap what's whether
the components of this , like I
mentioned a minute ago I found out I
was talking to tim it was yesterday or
day before tim Williams uh that the J .
And is well underway . So that's a good
thing that takes some time out of the
system . So that's a great thing . Uh
next church . Okay so now I want to
switch gears just a moment in my last
few minutes with you and I want to talk
about um I want to talk about the the
uh contract organizational conflict of
interest clause and this contract is a
contract cause essentially does
the main objective of it is it's it's
the university's obligation back to the
government in exchange for a sole
source contract . And what it does is
it codifies the responsibility to
perform as the government's trusted
agent and that's what we really want to
be able to do . Now what does that
exactly mean ? Right . What that means
is that we as dr Fuller talked about
this morning . Some of them there's a
lot of rules in the government ,
there's a lot of those rules and they
don't always necessarily play well with
each other but there are a lot of them
and we need to understand in depth what
those rules mean . Such that we can
achieve the objectives here , which is
if we find either perceived or a real
conflict of interest that we disclose
that immediately to the to the
contracting officer . And this happens ,
I mean , just happens , right , Things
things occur . And so what we , what we
have done a penn state as we put
together and organs and you'll have to
do this as well . A comprehensive
organizational conflict of interest
policy and that policy has to have
process embedded in it enables you to
assure that you're not creating a
conflict of interest . So as we talked
about and heard this this afternoon ,
mother , there was a there are a series
of rules , they're embedded in the
management plan in the case of the navy .
They have their own sponsor guidance
and business rules document . And we
went through that document , studied it
in depth to understand exactly what
those rules were . And then we went out
and talked to a lot of people , right ?
Both in the navy and other you arcs to
make sure that we understood what those
rules meant . And this next visual is
the is the is the document that
resulted from that analysis . So we can
go to the next chart please . I'm not
gonna be able to read this . I know
that , right . But but this does , you
can notice there's different colors on
this chart . The colors that are yellow
are the colors that the government has
been very clear what those rules are .
And we we walk through , we kind of put
them in this section so that we could
understand what those rules meant . The
ones in green are where we could not
find anything that gave us specific
guidance . We knew there were
situations that could occur , but we
wanted to be sure we knew what the
result , what we how do we behave to
ensure that we don't violate the
conflict of interest . And so we had to
talk to people and came up with what we
thought those rules should be . And we
put that in here and then went around
to talk to the Nazi lawyers and many ,
many people . So what this does this
document has been in place since 2017
and what it does is every single
literally every day . And dr Porsche
Isaac Porsche is sitting in front of me
from Penn State's one of our research
office heads . He and I will go through
every opportunity right along with
other folks on the executive team to
understand what are the particulars of
of a situation , a particular piece of
of proposed work . And we want to make
sure that we're not violating one of
the paths on here . So , we'll take
that that that scope of work
essentially meander through this path
to see where do we land and that tells
us how to behave . And then every
monday , our sponsor , a primary
sponsor is Nazi . I have a standing
meeting with them at one o'clock every
monday where we will go through any
unique situations that we think are a
little on the edge to be sure that
we're not violating that O . C . I .
It's a very , very important thing as
my bullet at the bottom that will leave
you with this really important point
avoiding the O . C . I . Is essential
to maintaining the A . R . L . Or the
you are the HbCU you work as a trusted
agent . And so this is a core business
aspect of of what you'll put in place .
And I strongly recommend you give that
a lot of thought and we'll be happy to
support that . I'll be happy to share
this flow chart if it works for you and
you can you can study it . We'll have a
good conversation about it as well . So
with that said , are there any
questions ? Yes please .
Yeah . Basement
excuses . What is the question
right from ?
So that's a really great question . So ,
so . Oh yes , absolutely . So the
question is , I mentioned that Penn
State is Penn State , A . R . L . Is
1400 employees . And if I understood
the question correctly , how many of
those are university faculty supporting
the U . Arc versus dedicated folks
inside the york . Okay , virtually
every one of them are dedicated within
the U . Arc . Some of those are also
university and many of those are
university faculty as well . But they
are they are hired and and essentially
full time employees of the U . Arc .
And it's a very important point you're
bringing up because I think it's a key
to success of any U . Arc is to have
the dedicated folks that are going to
perform that research so vast , vast
majority dr Porsche . Do you want to
comment any further on that ? Uh So
good , great question . Hopefully
answered your question adequately .
Anything else ? Alright , well thank
you very much for the opportunity to
talk to you today but to appreciate
and then lastly for the york panel ,
excuse me , we have uh erin Fitzgerald .
Hi thanks for time . You can go ahead
and forward . Um and I'm thinking we're
probably short on time , but I will try
to go quickly , luckily I have a very
easy topic of what makes you are
successful um which can go all kinds of
directions and common challenges . A
lot of what I have here has been hit in
different ways in the discussion so far ,
where I think that he doesn't see
doesn't add value . I will pass over it ,
but there's some points I think uh
deserves some attention next please .
So I'm here representing the University
of Maryland . Uh you Arc which is the
research laboratory for intelligence
and security um which you saw um
displayed before focuses on human
social systems , uh ai autonomy ,
augmentation , human system integration
and a number of other topics . But
university of Maryland actually uh we
first became first uh were
granted were uh honored to have
been selected to have in york in 2003 .
And that york had a different name
which was the Center for Advanced Study
of Language or Castle and Castle
had a lot of the same strength , but it
was kind of composed in a different way
and there are some real differences
also . So 2003 , Castle um was funded
by N . S . A . Uh the National Security
Agency . And was the model was very
much closed um essentially functioned
as the N . S . A . Lab . There were
restrictions against uh working for
other sponsors . But really importantly
every researcher had to have highest
level clearances . And um and that kind
of by definition meant that uh there
was there were a few good ways to
incorporate others into the work . Uh
So the our list model changed a lot .
Not only did we change our sponsors and
so now we're supporting the Office of
the Secretary of Defense specifically
Intelligence and Security , but our
model became much more both open and
hybrid . And I'll talk about how that
um stood up . So so even though we've
been in york since 2003 , the are
listed substantiation really it's been
since 2018 , I think we have a lot of
valuable lessons learned uh that um
that hopefully will will benefit you as
you're putting together proposals for
for what's ahead . So you can see a
little bit of what our list focuses on
as a york . I think , you know , we
have sort of the how and the why are on
the top and bottom , but the what and
how we go about doing this , there's a
lot of in the middle that I think is
relevant um as we push forward . So I
wanted to give that um that initial
framework of what our list is and some
of the perspectives we bring next slide ,
please . So looking
at uh that looks different than I
thought our list by the numbers . Um so
we have something in the order of , you
know , 70 active projects . It varies
um um back and forth . Since the
beginning of covid , we have tripled in
size . Uh we've grown very , very
quickly . There's been a lot of
interest in the work that we're doing .
There's a lot in the kind of human
security space that um that the
government's interest in pursuing and
the work that we have really is cross
cutting across a lot of fields from ,
you know , anthropologists to
manufacturing engineers covers a wide
range most of our researchers , as has
been said , our our full time
researchers within our list . Uh We do
have a number of our list affiliates
and associates . Uh so that includes uh
campus affiliates . Um and it also
includes some who are from other
universities . They tend to be involved
at differing levels and we can talk a
little bit about that . But part of our
model has been trying to leverage the
strength of the University of Maryland
in the areas that we care about and
that the government cares about uh to
bring uh this other talent into the
fold . Um We have a uh increasingly
very successful internship program .
Risk stands for research for
Intelligence and security challenges .
Uh We just wrapped up this past summer ,
last week over 100 students , the
hybrid model that they're all working
on real our list projects . Um And then
the other thing that's very relevant to
what is being proposed here is um my
main role at our list is as the
director for a consortium which is the
Intelligence and Security University
Research Enterprise and this consortium .
Um You know , you aren't able to hear
today from stevens Institute , which I
know they wanted to be here , but at
conflict and their their model for the
york is a consortium . Uh We have a
consortium is kind of part of our model ,
it's part of our strategic staffing
approach . Um and I'll talk a little
bit more about that . So the the
talent contributing to our list
projects really kind of runs the gamut
across fields across , you know , where
they're located and uh and how we get
them involved next slide .
So this is the current membership of
the insured consortium , Intelligence
and Security , University Research
Enterprise and I really kind of like
research enterprise over consortium ,
consortium has a lot of uh wait on it ,
that can be problematic , but so you
see that you know what we're really
working to be uh to be a national
resource . Um and the membership here
includes a number of institutions that
are no stranger to the pentagon . Um
you know , the texas A and M . Um
University of southern California
Arizona state Illinois George mason .
So a number of large research
institutions that have a lot of
relationships with the pentagon already ,
but we also from the , you know , in
the last several years since we stood
up uh considered this to be an
important opportunity to bring in other
institutions with strength and areas
that we care about but that are often
under leveraged in the pipeline of the
type of work that a york does . So um
so morgen States Howard and University
of District of Columbia are three of
the 15 members of our consortium um and
are are all contributors and critical
so we have we have this national , the
body of this network that we're
building to help um further supplements
and staff the projects that come our
way . So our goal is whatever the
project is that comes to us , if it's
in the scope of what our list does that
we're going to put together the right
team , not just the team that is
available and has cycle that at our
list , but by building both this
network understanding where the
strength of these institutions are and
and this is key having these
institutions kind of understand
culturally what au arc is really
looking to do . That's different than
what typical university researches and
some of the other um you know ,
constraints challenges advantages . Um
we're working to be kind of a
translator to connect the intelligence
and security enterprise to more of the
academic enterprise and um and
also in the meantime , just doing
quality work , which in the end of what
matters and is what keeps sponsors
wanting to um to work with you a number
of our members . Uh you have , you can
see here have uh secure facilities ,
the ability to um issue clearances
internally . A number of other members .
We've had conversations about ways that
we can sponsor to start to builds
um start to bootstrap um
because there's a lot of chicken and
egg with having a security clearance .
Um you have to do a lot of work before
you can even start to build a building
where you might use that security
clearance , but there's a lot of value
in it anyway . So most of the work that
we do has at least some large portion
that can be scoped out and is
unclassified , but a lot of the work
there's some context in terms of trying
to understand what the government needs
that um that you can only really
get if you can have a frank
conversation with the government um for
them to share their , you know , their
interest in what they see as
vulnerabilities because fundamentally ,
you know , this is what we're trying to
demonstrate to shore up and make the
enterprise stronger next slide . Hey ,
dr Fitzgerald , if you don't mind ,
we've got we're starting to impact the
the senior leader panel . Uh if you can
finish out like the next 90 seconds to
two minutes or so , we can get the
Senior leader panel . Thank you . Sure ,
thanks . Um so go ahead and flip
forward . There's gonna be a lot of
just clicking ahead . So what makes a
successful you are um these are kind of
three top line items that I wanted to
dive into next slide . The ability to
tackle applied research , this means
more than I think uh someone coming in
might might realize that it does . Um
So especially applied research in
62 research might be sort of on the
cusp but if you're doing anything that
really does have control information ,
um or where there's some context that
allows you to go to the work , then um
you need to have ways to encourage
university researchers to tackle the
work , you need to uh be able to have a
staffing model to pull together
researchers um who are willing to do
work that , you know , might have a
prepublication review that might have
uh limitations um in foreign nationals .
Um you need to do work that is uh
operationalization versus novelty is
not necessarily always the coolest most
interesting new algorithms , but you're
trying to take technology and make it
work for the problems that the
government has next slide , responding
quickly to sponsor needs . And this is
one of the hugest issues , but there's
a lot of weirdness in the translation .
Uh so a way of side work is
different . Um you can look at it , but
there's , you know , there's advantages
and disadvantages . The fact that most
projects are 10 to 12 to 18 months is a
limitation also that I didn't mention .
Um that makes it challenging to to
bring on students often , but scales
bigger you have a closer relationship
etcetera . Next slide please .
So responding quickly . Uh the academic
calendar is a killer . Um so having
internal incentives that allow for
a cadre of researchers to be able to
respond even if it's mid semester ,
even if it's , you know , if there's
something happening . Um , so that
might be course buyouts to free up time .
Um You need to be able to respond
quickly and you need to have the
contract and support to help support
also . And then the funding quickly
means having knowledge of the sponsors
needs access to their information ,
which leads to I know classified work
is is not seen as an important part of
this , but I think that context is
important next slide and you can
probably click through twice
and another time . So if you
don't have a facility clearance ,
having someone in your consortium or in
your circles , you can help translate
that will make sure that the work you
propose is directly valuable for , for
what needs to happen . And then
research administration . I think this
has been pretty well uh covered , but
um , but worth emphasizing further next
side .
Okay , so happy to follow up in any way
the uh , resource for the process that
you're going through and um , thank you .
Hey Dr Fitzgerald , thank you so much
for being accommodating uh , to try to
get us back on track . We did want to
have the university affiliated research
centers that are currently operating
and give you have an opportunity to
speak with you number one to introduce
you to who those individuals are there
additional 11 that are out there as
well as some of the things that they
were concerned about entering into this
process , Ma'am . We are down to the
government panel . So if you wouldn't
mind , we'll take the next uh 45
seconds or so . We'll get our senior
government personnel up here and uh ,
go ahead to the next slide . Uh , MS
McBEal . And then , and then to avoid
me bungling everything up , gave you a
little uh , a little uh , ability to
start the discussion Dr
Reddick . That's that's that's you as
well . Come on up and enlighten us
now . You get to meet the real
conspirators , I mean these are the
folks that brought us to this uh to
this day today . Unfortunately um my
colleague Marian militia who was also
instrumental in getting this off the
ground had to had to get to another
meeting . She was here earlier today I
see is the head of our diversity
inclusion team inside of the apartment
Air Force . She was one of the partners
in getting us . Uh uh Maybe the best
thing we can do is just introduce
ourselves briefly so that the other is
not who we are . Certainly I'm a
Maynard Holliday the deputy Chief
technology Officer for Critical
Technologies in research and
engineering . So that's the C . T . O .
Organization of the D . O . D . Um
Those critical technologies span
autonomy uh trusted
ai machine learning , directed energy ,
hypersonic microelectronic space
um energy resilience .
Um And I could go on big portfolio .
Um So good to be here .
My name is Jared Ridic . I am the
principal Director for autonomy in the
office of the Chief of the Deputy Chief
technology Officer for Critical
technology also right now serving as
the acting principal Director for
trusted ai and autonomy . And um so
mr holiday is my boss and he has a very
exciting job so while he is busy
modernizing the entire D . O . D . I
pay attention to the autonomy piece .
And so all of the research and
engineering coordination for autonomy
in robotics is my responsibility within
the office of the under Secretary of
Defense for Research and Engineering
and and in that role . Um I've had the
pleasure of supporting my boss and his
engagement um in helping to stand up
the hbcu arc . And um you know when I
first started attending these meetings
on his behalf with the airport's chief
scientist , Dr Coleman , um I didn't
know exactly where we were going
because I knew I knew going into these
meetings that there's been a decades
long conversation and what I
experienced was a leadership team that
was absolutely disruptive in their
thinking about how to do this . Um
absolutely disruptive in the mode in
which they went about doing it . And um
so we are at this exciting and historic
place um because of a senior leadership
team um that took this on at the very
very highest levels of the D . O . D .
And what it will mean for the historic
mission of the institutions that we are
talking about is probably a measurable .
Um but I'm happy to be here today and
happy to participate in the panel
you and dr Coleman . So so my boss
always reminds me to tell you where I
came from . So I am an hbcu product .
Um So I grew up in Greensboro north
Carolina where north Carolina A and T .
Is my mom was a staff member there . Um
I went on to howard university to get
my undergraduate degree in mechanical
engineering , went back to Greensboro
to get my masters degree from north
Carolina A and T . In mechanical
engineering and then on to get my PhD
from Virginia Tech . So I'm I uh I
always say I have an A and T degree but
I bleed blue because I'm a howard bison
through and through . I know we have
some some h you in the audience out
here so that you right . So
I wanted to uh to introduce dr Trent .
So you know , you know , one of the
things that you will find with this
effort is that there is such amazing
alignment and that transcends the D . O .
D . Dr Trent works in in the White
House . I think her presence here today
represents um it is incredible
alignment between what we're trying to
do , what we're striving to do in the D .
O . D . With with new york and how
overall um the White House is looking
at the opportunity to engage hBc us
further dr Trent . So thank you
Dr Coleman . Um I'd like to say that my
greatest accomplishment in life is that
I graduated from the other H you , we
won't get into the , but I am a Hampton
graduate . Um it is an honor for me to
be here today . Um I'm I
am , I've always , I just met dr
Coleman probably about a month ago when
they first announced this and um I was
there at the announcement and I I saw
and I felt her passion and from that
day forward , I said I want to be a
part of this , my job as executive
director of the White House initiative
on H . B C U S is to make sure that we
are creating opportunity within our
federal government agencies and also
moving removing barriers . Um
and so it's just it's it's a real honor
for me to be here to support this . I
am one of those people that I think tim
talked about earlier , a lot of people
are coming out and saying that they
want to be a part of it and they want
to volunteer . I I was immediate , I
was like I said , whatever I can do ,
this is exactly what the White House is
looking for in terms of our
partnerships and so I am so honored to
be here and to be a part of this and
whatever I can do . I am , I am your
girl . So thank you
team . Did you have a game plan for the
panel ? Did you want people to make
statements or would you rather we take
questions . No man , we definitely
would like that . If there are any
questions specifically from the
audience , either in virtual land or
here in the room , we have folks with
microphones to walk around . But as
we're doing that man , one of the
things that I wanted to really make
sure that was emphasized and understood .
So mr holiday , you don't work for dr
Coleman , right ? Uh No , but you know
when uh you know , I've known her over
the years from my service on the
defense science board and when I got
back to the building um you know , over
a year ago , um you know , we ? Re
engaged and uh and I wanted , you know ,
quite friendly to understand , you know ,
where she was coming from with respect
to this um this effort and you know ,
where you know the the passion
and and you know , the interest came
from and and she and I had a very frank
conversation about that and I'll let
her , you know talk about , you know
those those details , but you know , I
recognized she was sincere and serious
about this . And so I wanted to help
her in in any way that I could and
uh just for the record , you know , I
have literally hbcu DNA , both my
parents are hbcu grads north Carolina
central and and shaw in north Carolina .
So I had lived it uh and
um you know growing up and and I'm here
because of the opportunities that those
H . B C . U . S . Gave my parents . So
um and as I said , you know at the uh
the announcement , you know , I want to
see uh the next major holiday , you
know , come from an Hbcu background .
Um and so uh yeah ,
so that's uh you know , just a little
uh you know statement and uh
you know , stop there , I have to say
that the road together
here has been fairly long and I think ,
you know , not not not without you know ,
opportunities to to trip ourselves up .
You know when dr Fuller was describing
the difficulty and the reluctance to
establish a another new york , she was
really , you know , talking , talking
the truth . Um so there were multiple
times where it looked like , you know ,
something was going to fall out of
place , something wasn't come together ,
somebody who's gonna , you know , try
and sabotage at the last minute . And I
gotta tell you um the number of times
uh may not said to me , I've got your
back and it felt good , you know , this
is this is why this team I think is so
special because even though we come
from different parts of the government
with different backgrounds , many of us
have known each other for years , we've
never had the opportunity to work
together on something that is so
meaningful to all of us and you know
that partnership when you know , like
two days before we brief the secretary ,
you know , the world looked like it was
gonna come apart , you know , Maynard
and colleagues and Jared late at night
um the support um and I want to thank
you publicly both of you because
um this for many of us , of course ,
you know , we want all the benefits of
the Department of Defense , but I gotta
tell you it was a work of love , we
really wanted this and I wanted this
for the hbcu community , I wanted it
for our team . Um I have to say , you
know the day that Well the secretary
was remembered , well it was March 22
um I had gone in there you know already
like after was right , I was so tense ,
the first thing that he said to me was
what took you so long , okay . Um then
I thought jesus should have asked twice
for twice as much money that I asked
for , so next time I'll know to ask for
twice as much money . Um but at the end
of it I was in tears . I don't know
those of you that were there if you
remember but um because it just felt
like this incredible effort but by
this really strong team
actually delivered what we are all
hoping and aspiring to despite all the
ways in which we might have might have
failed and it just felt like a an
incredible kind of achievement on
behalf of the team and it is , you know
it's the the the the Air Force Chief
scientist has a reason to work with the
CTO of the Department of Defense . We
we do but you know we had personnel and
readiness Mr Sara Salazar be part of
our team . We virtually never worked
with . In fact , you know when we work
with manage to fight and argue because
you know they have all these
regulations that we have to deal with
and we don't like them . Mr Salazar was
an incredible partner as we as we did
this . Uh So it truly is unique . I I
have to say that you know , my my worry ,
my my my concern now is to make sure
that you all have the information that
you need to have the resources that you
need in order to bring this over the
finish line . Because you know , I
think we we kind of brought it as
almost as far as we can get it , we're
gonna be there for for you for the for
the duration and and then some but now ,
you know , we're kind of passing the
baton to you want your brilliance and
your engagement , we want your passion
to build this this out for our for our
country . It make sure , hey man ,
thanks so much . Um I would say sharing
the baton . So if you ever run track ,
you got the stick man and somebody's
both holding onto because we are moving
out , we have to be cognizant as we
move out in that direction and directly
what we were talking about earlier
about ensuring that we provide the
resources are gonna be necessary to
ensure that the universities have what
they need . Uh So I just got one last
question man and I'll turn it back over
to you for comments because we're
almost there . Uh so dr riddick , we
know that you work for Mr Holiday at a
U . S . Undersecretary of defense for
research and engineering . And Mr
Holiday has made it clear that he
doesn't work for dr Coleman . And so
you have a an interest in intrinsic
interest really . And what's happening
within the Air Force is uh university
affiliated research center as it
relates to tactical autonomy . Uh So
what is that interest from
undersecretary defense perspective ?
And what are your expectations for the
program ? Yeah . So great questions .
So as I said the the autonomy and and
robotics and now ai research objectives
for the entire department um are my
responsibility as a principal director
and acting principal director . Um So
this goes goes across all services um
all domains . Um and what we know you
read any strategic document from D . O .
D . We know that it is an accepted
conclusion that autonomy will be
ubiquitous on the battlefield in the
future . In fact um adversaries say
that the nations that master autonomy
that master ai um will be the masters
of the world . And so this is critical
um strategically um we are in a
competitive stage right now . And so
the contribution from academia from
industry across the across the nation
is my responsibility to coordinate . Um
it is my responsibility not to just
coordinate and have conversation but to
deliver . Um as someone said earlier ,
the Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin
has said this is about the war fighter
and we are in many cases talking about
a war fighter , a man or woman who has
not been born yet , who will depend on
the technology that we're developing
now to have technological overmatch in
a very lethal multi domain battle field
in the future . And so for me it is
about that war fighter , but it's also
about this community . Um I was at
Tuskegee University about a week or two
ago and you know , tuskegee is not in
our two , but there Dean said to me ,
well we're not in R two because we
don't have phds and all these other
areas , but in engineering and I know
well that in engineering they have
produced great products for many , many
years and underpinning that is the
legacy of that university which ties to
the Tuskegee airmen . And when you
think about what the tuskegee airmen
went through to serve the nation um to
to protect democracy and they had
literally had barriers put in front of
them , it wasn't because they weren't
qualified , but because these legal
illegal barriers were placed there . I
think about people like I have a great
mentor Wesley Harris who was the
National Academy of Engineering when he
went to college in 1960 it was illegal
for an african american man to major in
engineering in the United States . And
so he majored in physics and think
about all the job opportunity that was
denied because of a legal barrier that
was there . And so H B C U . S .
Created pathways for folks to navigate
around those legal barriers for years
and years and years . Howard University
started awarding degrees in engineering
in 1907 and where there was a state law
in place in 1960 in Virginia . So there
was a route because HbCU has existed
and over time we've seen the benefit of
that . So this is an opportunity to
really double down in an area where
institutions have overproduced and to
do that in the name of a national
security objective . That will be an
imperative for us going forward in near
peer adversaries and great power
competition . That's how I see it ,
Doctor , thank you so much and just a
foot stop that is making a way out of ,
no way could have been said even better .
And , and I just wanted to just say
that I wanna ditto everything that
he has said . I mean , it is incredible .
I I I generally say that anyone who has
graduated from an HbCU can do my job
because there's so much pride and , and
what H B C U . S have been able to
accomplish over the last 150 years . Um ,
I just want to again , just , just um ,
mention that this is something that I
think that I know the White House and I
know Secretary Cardona is fully in
support of um um Evelyn mentioned
a little earlier about some of the
challenges and the hardships of getting
here . Everyone has talked about that ,
but I use this now as a model for every
for every other agency , if the
Department of Defense can do this and
every other agency can do this . And so
we're gonna be holding this up and into
the H . B . C . U . S . I I know you
all understand the historic nature of
this , but I also want you to know how
much support you have . I mean I was
just in awe today of just all the
people who are here to say we got your
back and we're gonna make sure you are
successful . And so that to me is just
incredible . I've never seen this kind
of support behind um anything like this
and so I'm just honored to be a part of
this . Hey , thank you so much . Dr
king man , we're gonna go to um mr
ripple just to make sure we haven't
missed any questions virtually . And
then we're gonna turn it over to you
for final comments . Mr ripple , are
there any questions that we missed this
time ? Uh I have a question uh Mr
Williams . Um This is
funny from tuskegee University ,
probably it's for dr Coleman of from
the presentations of the members of
the three affiliated centers , I
understand that the amount of money the
alliance the selected alliance receives
depends on how successful the members
of the alliance are in responding
responding to those task gardeners . So
on one extreme end it's quite possible
that even though you have 60 million
uh awarded to us , we may not get
anything on the other hand , who may
win everything but what I also
understand that you also need to have a
robust staff already in place
to handle all the I . T . Requirements ,
security requirements so on and so
forth . Will there be a position
provisions in your budget , in your
solicitation to hire permanent
staff in the alliance institutions ?
So um you're absolutely right and I as
as our colleagues from the existing
york's were outlining some of the kind
of the heaviness that comes with
working with us . I was thinking if if
I'm an hbcu now and I'm hearing all
this , I'm petrified and if you're
petrified , you know , I I completely
understand it um but you know this is
like building muscle and we will help
you do it . I mean there is no other
york that will have a PMO , so tim will
be leaving our program management
office uh he will have people inside
there that can help with all of these
aspects , they will help you build this
this capacity , we know that without
this capacity he can't compete and what
we're gonna do is we're gonna give you
finally the opportunity to compete on
an equal basis with other institutions
that historically have been over
provisioned while HPcs have been way
under provisions . So we understand
that um so the answer to your question
is yes , I mean the the infrastructure
that we expect to build this capacity
building that we speak about will
support uh the skill sets that that you
need to be successful . We will help
from from the DVD from our from our PMO
and then you will need to pull together
um the appropriate um skill set
yourselves and absolutely the funding
of new york will be there to to to to
support that . Um I will say so you
know , this wasn't said earlier but
just to uh to underline um you heard
the word , the words I . D . I . Q . Uh
these contracts , they're ceilings so
they so you know , you may get a
contract that has a ceiling of $70
billion . What we are talking about
putting out here is a guaranteed
funding of $60 million dollars over the
five years and then with an option to
renew . So it's not like your idea I .
Q . Is is just a hunting license , it
is not uh it's there to build both
capacity uh and give you the
opportunity to do research um as well
as you know , give you frankly enough
confidence that you as as institutions
can invest yourselves because I know
that this is something that many
institutions have been going to do for
a long time , but I know also how hard
it is for Dean to go and hire new
faculty line if they don't know that
down the road , they will have the
money To pay for that person in the lab
and so on . So we're gonna give you
confidence that Google be there for the
long haul . So you can make those
investments in the areas where it it
will help you also progress from our
2211 and that as we all know requires
more faculty members that requires less
teaching load . It requires labs . We
know that's why we're here . We're here
the can to help you build that base and
invest with you as I know many of you
want want to do so uh $60 million .
We will negotiate a ceiling that is
much higher than that . Uh that will
give you the opportunity to go and
bring other funding in . Um And I will
tell you this . You know , we're not
gonna walk away at this point . Uh dr
Trent . It's already helping us get the
words on the hill about what we're
doing and we're not doing this just to
tell them that we're doing it . We're
doing it because if they're so inclined
they will also be able to plus up the
funding that you know , we're making
available from from the D . O . D .
We're taking special care to make this
uh so called program element in our
budget which means it's visible . You
can't hide hide it under other things
so that you know , if Congress feels so
inclined they have a really easy way of
helping our institutions advanced even
further . Um , so I hope that answered
your question . I want you to
know , we tried
to be as thoughtful as we could and
understanding the reality of , you know ,
the day to day of HPC use and how , you
know , this kind of massive task that
we're throwing our way will challenge
you . But were there again to support
you to help you build it out together ?
Thank you . Can't agree more , ma'am .
Mr Ribble any other questions out there ?
This is Charles weather , this is
Charles weather for florida . And um ,
I just have a follow up question to uh ,
dr Gilani's question just to be clear ,
are we talking about a hybrid between a
grant and I D I Q . Is a 60 million
going to come via a grant or they're
gonna be task orders to get to 60
million dr
weather for a great question . No , sir ,
it is not a hybrid . Excuse me , there
is a definite delivery indefinite
quantity uh , funded at 60 million . Um ,
the ceiling was shooting forwards
between 90 and 100 million . So you
automatically have room for growth ,
You have additional requirements that
may come through , But no , sir , I D I
Q is a zero based , so we have to do
task orders to get the the
infrastructure in place to actually do
the administration .
Absolutely , sir , you're you're you're
right . I mean , uh , you know , that
was part of the discussion that we had
over the last several outreach events
were the different types of task orders
that were anticipating coming off the I .
V . I . Q . And really really good
input . I mean some of the thought
process was uh workforce task orders
and just getting the organization ready
in order to to prepare to do the things
that we're talking about doing , all of
those things are still open for
discussion over . Thank you . Yes sir .
Got one here . Yes sir .
Hello . Uh there are many very
important goals and objectives . One of
them being a transition from R . Two to
R one because no hbcu has such a
ranking . My question is how
important is that objective in your
choosing the finalist the winner .
So in my book , sir , it's it's a it's
a key consideration because again , you
know , we are where we are , because of
historical inequities , we're not going
to solve all of them with this one
program , but hell they're gonna solve
at least one . So I would I would just
love it if one of the consequences of
this work is to get at least one arrow ,
one institution , you know , you got to
get started somewhere . Uh and this is
this is where they're collectively
we're making the first step . Um so
yeah , at least one
and I apologize for cussing , I do that
a little too much , ma'am , ma'am .
That that's nothing . Trust me , that's
nothing . um looking around in the room ,
anybody virtually have any final
questions for the federal government
panel . Yes . Good morning . Good
afternoon . My name is Ty smith and I
spent 15 years supporting one of the D .
O . D . Agencies , N . G . A . And I'm
now moving to support this university
effort . I am a graduate of H . You and
I have a kid that goes right now to A .
And T . So I'm down here in Greensboro
right now . I have a question and this
is goes to uh dr Trent . Um I know
that you were at Nga the other day and
I appreciate you going over there . Um
you spoke both you and dr Riddick spoke
about the historic nature , this is
about culture , this is not about the
technical pieces , this is about
culture . How do you or do you have any
recommendations to help these
institutions that have as dr Coleman
you pointed out have been historically
underfunded and under resourced to make
sure that they don't get caught in the
sclerotic nature of the D . O . D . So
we try to catch up , try to catch up
with organizations that have already
been used to running the system and now
you introduce this system and say now
go inside the system and we want you to
innovate but you could get caught in a
system that that has historically
historically uh kept you out . Thank
you so much . So
thank you for that question . Um I
guess the best thing I can best way I
can respond to that is um someone
mentioned earlier that they speak
Department of Defense and hbcu so my
job would be to stand with in between
and make sure I am interpreting what
the D . O . D . Needs from these um
universities as well as helping D . O .
D . Understand what H . B . C . U . S .
Needs . So I think there's there's a
role to make sure that
um that that we are
communicating in a way that each other
understands right ? And so that's the
one way . And then the other thing I do
just want to mention is that um the
reason I like this program so much not
just because of the historic nature of
it and and this is a game changer for
hbcu let me just say this is a game
changer . But the other thing is we
have a law now it's called the partners
act where every um federal
agency have to have a plan each year
outlining how they will um provide
greater opportunities for H . B . C . U .
S . And so a part of what I'm doing now
is working also with each of the each
of the agencies to ensure that their
plans are robust and ensure that we're
holding our agencies in our
administration accountable to to make
sure that we are doing exactly what
that law says which is um provide
greater opportunity and remove barriers .
And so that's a big part of what I do
every day . So I hope that answers your
question and I certainly concur
with the answer . I just want to jump
in since I was named check . They're a
bit as well only to say , um ,
absolutely historic , but I don't want
to lose the fact that this is about the
national security challenge . In fact a
crisis because we are in a competition
phase against near peer adversaries ,
one of which so dramatically outnumbers
us that we have to have all hands on
deck approach . And when we think about
these institutions , clearly cultural
capital is a big part of the
conversation . Um , but um , you know ,
there's something beyond the dollar
that's occurring here , right that we
can label as cultural capital ,
whatever . But you know , we all can
conclude that Under resourced , under
funded these institutions have
outperformed , um , you know , where
they should be 30% annually of stem
graduates coming from HBCU . S that
have uh , less percentage of the
students and clearly less less of the
dollar when you look at it . So really
beyond the dollar , there is something
going on in these institutions that
needs to be captured in the special
nature of the , you are . Um , and you
know , we , we know this to have been
the case historically , but I don't
want to get lost in the history part ,
but I do want to encourage uh , you
know , hbc leadership as they're
looking at this , not to just see this
as grant money arriving on the campus ,
But this is about building research
business across the enterprise that can
take the mission of these universities
into the 21st century . The mission of
these universities into fourth
industrial revolution , uh technology
engagement in a way that would not be
possible without it . So this is not
just about grant dollars arriving on
the campus , but about this this vision
around the strategy to take the mission
forward into the research business
entities in a way that we wouldn't be
able to do without it . Hey , dr red ,
I can't thank you enough for your
response . You know , you're getting
into the return on investment quote
about how they're able to do this in
the value of what they're providing uh
a really good point . And then uh dr
Trent , you're talking about general
adam . So he'll be on my speed dial ,
he's the translator . So I'll make sure
that that we uh put him in contact . Uh
were there any final questions ,
Dr Coleman ? Your final comments ? Well ,
so I hope that you're all gonna live
here , you know with your hearts full
as as full as our our hearts and seeing
you all here , you know engaged . I
hope your hearts are full , I hope that
your hair is on fire . Let's go and do
this . We're counting on you , right ,
so we we're gonna be with you , this
is now over to you for the most part
I know that you know the schools
historically have done more with less
now that actually there is there is a
little bit of help . I know that you
will make miracles happen and I , you
know , I can't wait I can't wait for
the B A to B out . I can't wait for the
selection to be made . I can't wait for
Secretary Austin to snip the red ribbon .
I can't wait for the
brilliant work that you're going to do
for the brilliant people that you will
build and you will hopefully loan us in
the department the Air Force to help us
with our mission . Um I I just look
forward to um to take in this vision
that all of us built over the last few
months and with your help making it
real . Um Just before finishing I just
want to thank Tim and the team inside
um there are many unspoken heroes today
in particular . You've not met my
colleagues , Towanda Rooney who is
believed tim's boss . Um You know , I I
don't I'm an S T I'm a senior
technologist . I don't have anybody
working for me . I can't do appraisals .
I don't need to have anybody working
for me . Tim works for Towanda . So
Towanda Rooney who is the deputy um
a director of South C . D . M . R .
Organization within the Air Force .
That those concepts development and
management has been a key
partner for me as his Mr Bishop
Garrison , who until recently worked in
the office of the Secretary of Defense ,
uh the three of us , you know this plan
and this plan was hatched on my sofa in
uh in the earring in the pentagon and
the three of us um you know I started
working on on on the idea and they have
been absolutely integral uh to our
success and not here today to see you
all and you know celebrate . But um I'm
just gonna recognize everybody that has
come together to to make this happen .
I am just like I said , my heart is
full , thank you all for being part of
this uh of this journey . I mean
goodness and what a destination . Thank
you . Hey thanks so much man . And um I
guess the last piece that I'll say is
thanks to the bricks to have two ,
they've been behind the scenes making
this stuff moving and passing mix and
and doing all the things that I
couldn't do , but we're if you're so
inclined we're we're going to close
this uh this event out and right
downstairs on the 4th 1st floor is the
Bronson Beer hall . So it's a no host
social . Um please come and join us if
you're so inclined and we'll see you
there and otherwise we'll post
everything to include the video of this
event on the website as well as any
additional questions that came out . So
thank you again .