Photo By Ramon Go | 240625-N-GC965-1088 SAN DIEGO (June 24, 2024) Naval Information Warfare Systems...... read more read more
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Naval Information Warfare Systems Command (NAVWAR) hosted its second annual Buildathon June 24 to 27 to foster data-driven learning, collaboration and innovation among its workforce and beyond. A joint effort between NAVWAR Office of the Command Information Officer (OCIO), Fleet Readiness Directorate (FRD) and Program Executive Office (PEO) Digital alongside industry partners, the Buildathon 2.0 continued to build upon last year’s momentum to highlight contributions from citizen developers and encourage widespread educational opportunities across the Navy.
A hands-on event focusing on identifying, designing and prototyping solutions in a collaborative setting, the Buildathon’s primary goal was to get people comfortable with creating a usable piece of no-code/low-code software to solve mission challenges. The event aimed to show that anyone, even those with little coding experience, can become a citizen developer and create impactful applications by leveraging existing Flank Speed capabilities like Power Apps, Power Automate and Dataverse.
NAVWAR Executive Director John Pope welcomed the participants in his kickoff address, emphasizing the importance of collaboration. “Make sure you take advantage of this time to build better connections with each other through teamwork,” he said. “Let’s all learn together in this positive environment to innovate and create better solutions for everyone. The results from the Buildathon can unlock new technical solutions to allow us to move faster than ever before.”
Like last year, the Buildathon included two distinct tracks, one for people creating solutions for legacy workflows and another for people interested in learning how to harness the power of Power Apps, Power Automate and Dataverse to become citizen developers themselves. The educational track was more robust than before, with classes taught by industry partners Microsoft, Gartner and UiPath on topics like Power Platform tools, generative artificial intelligence, data science and process automation.
In the spirit of collaboration, Buildathon 2.0 increased its scope to include participants from beyond those at NAVWAR, like the U.S. Navy Reserve, Naval Sea Systems Command, PEO Integrated Warfare Systems and Fleet Cyber Command. Participants from last year came back again to serve as mentors and team members for new projects, with some even helping put the event together. This was a core objective of the Buildathon, to build upon previous momentum to create a cohesive culture of those eager to learn and share with each other beyond the four-day event.
“The Buildathon 2.0 is a prime example of how the Department of the Navy’s new ‘structured challenges’ approach is fostering innovation and optimization across our enterprise,” said Ryan Lasiter, director of digital data and innovation at NAVWAR. “By bringing together diverse teams to tackle specific problems, we are not only accelerating the adoption of new capabilities but also ensuring that our solutions are robust and effective. This event embodies our commitment to rapidly advancing our warfighting advantages and maintaining our competitive edge.”
There were eight teams participating in Buildathon 2.0, each comprised of people interested in improving their work processes through the power of automation. Their projects ranged from creating a cross-command video platform similar to YouTube to streamlining aspects of calculating civilian salary projection. They built the bulk of their solutions during the event, receiving advice and feedback from mentors to help facilitate their progress.
On the last day of the Buildathon, teams had the opportunity to present their projects to a panel of digital transformation subject matter experts from across NAVWAR. They explained what challenge they wanted to address, what they developed and the road it took to get there, from setbacks to workarounds. The teams were judged on the following criteria: innovation, functionality, user experience, scalability, presentation, impact, technical complexity and today’s usability. Teams were awarded first, second, and third place based on scores calculated on that rubric, with other teams recognized by popular vote and for their teamwork.
“The year’s Buildathon was a success! The NAVWAR workforce has had several years to leverage Flank Speed tools and deploy many licenses across the installation,” said Steve Martin, FRD Strategic Wartime Acquisition Response and Metrics deputy, previous Buildathon participant and current panel judge. “With these new tools and the creation of the OneNAVWAR Digital Innovation Nexus, we now have a clearer understanding of Flank Speed’s digital transformation capabilities and how that can support our mission.”
The NAVWAR OCIO is planning to host more Buildathons in the future, continuing to provide learning opportunities for citizen developers and foster a spirit of collaboration and innovation throughout the Navy.
About NAVWAR:
NAVWAR identifies, develops, delivers and sustains information warfighting capabilities and services that enable naval, joint, coalition and other national missions operating in warfighting domains from seabed to space and through cyberspace. NAVWAR consists of more than 11,000 civilian, active duty and reserve professionals located around the world.
| Date Taken: | 07.01.2024 |
| Date Posted: | 07.01.2024 13:21 |
| Story ID: | 475309 |
| Location: | SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA, US |
| Web Views: | 239 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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