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FROM THE PROGRAM MANAGER I recently had the opportunity to attend the 2006 Naval Science and Technology Partnership Conference hosted by the National Defense Industrial Association (NDIA). This is the fifth conference of this type that I have attended and I must say that I think that this conference was the most informative and interactive of those that I have attended. There were many representatives from the Navy and Marines, many more representatives from industry and a few representatives from academia. This was the 60th anniversary of the inception of the Office of Naval Research, which took place in 1946 at the very hotel that hosted this event, the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel in Washington DC. There were presentations by the senior leadership of the Navy and the USMC, including the Secretary of the Navy, Donald C. Winter; the Chief of Naval Research, Admiral Bill Landay, stressing the need for innovation today and tomorrow to supply the technology needs of the services. There were industry representatives speaking on their roles and vision for the energy industry and what we might expect. And, of course, with the recent coverage of energy supply and consumption in the news, you know that this is a hot topic. Topic areas for the presentations and breakout sessions included improved personal protection, improved methods for identifying/locating IED, improved technology for intelligence gathering and processing, and energy supply and management. You can find out more about the conference here. An overarching concept that emerged from this conference is the concept of enterprise. The Navy is in the process of moving all of its organizations, both internal and support, to a structure of enterprise whereby all of the elements work as an integrated unit to supply the technology needs of the service. The objective is to move technology to the fleet as soon as possible. The Naval Research Enterprise will consist of all Navy labs, USMC labs, universities, industry and small business, and international activities. Together, their focus is on Discovery and Innovation, Innovative Naval Prototypes, and Future Naval Capabilities. As a university activity, we are in the business of research generally focused on discovery. We don’t build prototypes to be tested in the field. The process requires that we hand off the technology we develop to the sponsor--in this case, the Navy--and they work with industry to develop the technology into an end-item application. There is one exception: if the inventor of the technology decides to commercialize the technology and start a business.  TRECC Program Manager E. J. Grabert and TRECC-supported researcher Peter Bacjsy talk with a visitor to the TRECC Booth at the 2006 Naval Science and Technology Partnership Conference in Arlington, VA in July. view larger TRECC was invited to set up a booth at the conference. To my surprise and delight, we had a lot of visitors with genuine interest in the projects on which we are working. You can find links to the projects at the end of this note. If you are interested in attending next year, you should periodically check the NDIA website. If you’re in business and want to supply innovative technology to the government this is one conference you should attend. However, between now and then, check out the Funding Opportunities Database on this website.
You may reach us at . E. J. Grabert Return to August 2006 Newslink Table of Contents
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