Photo By Staff Sgt. Madeline Herzog | Fifty Airmen and civilians from across the Air Combat Command intelligence, targeting...... read more read more
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MCCONNELL AIR FORCE BASE, KANSAS – Fifty Airmen and civilians from across the Air Combat Command intelligence, targeting and communications enterprises gathered August 19-23 in Wichita, Kansas, for the Nexus Hackathon, deemed “J-Hack 24-1.”
“It is critical that Airmen have the primary voice in resolving the issues we confront because they are the experts tasked to work those problems every day,” said Shane Hamilton, ACC Associate Director of Intelligence. “This hackathon is undertaking some of Nexus’ most vexing automation challenges by bringing operational and technical subject matter experts together to explore the art of possibility.”
In 2023, the commander of ACC signed the “Nexus” operation order, which was initiated to increase readiness by replacing manual processes with automation. Additionally, Nexus aims to ensure a seamless flow of data between the Air Force’s intelligence, targeting and command and control communities on a global scale to enable core airpower missions.
Airmen from these career fields work toward a common goal every day but have historically faced challenges in communications and information sharing.
“These Airmen have first-hand knowledge of the pain points we are trying to resolve, and we are counting on them to help identify the solution pathways for these issues for the Enterprise at large,” said Hamilton.
To produce prototype solutions for the “fight tonight” challenges, J-Hack 24-1 brought mostly junior enlisted Airmen together with different skill levels and experiences to tackle and break down the walls from the technological barriers they face.
“I think it’s great to experience a really diverse set of perspectives and every one of us has our own areas of expertise,” said A1C Dominick Johnston a data operator assigned to the 20th Intelligence Squadron at Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska. “When you assemble a team and have experts in 10 different specialties, you produce something that is far beyond what you could produce by yourself.”
Col. Thomas Place, ACC Data and Artificial Intelligence Office, Chief AI Officer, kicked off the hackathon, speaking directly to the participants.
“Our Airmen are the greatest weapons system that the U.S. Air Force has, and you guys are here to prove that this week,” he said.
Staff Sgt. Matthew Boone, another hackathon participant, believes the newer generation of Airmen bring fresh perspectives, and events like J-Hack create unique development opportunities for them and the Air Force.
“We are giving Airmen the power to be self-starters,” said Boone. “This generation of Airmen are learning computer code and data in high school. We can harness their knowledge and the fact that they have no preconceived notion of what it’s ‘supposed to be,’ and then they can apply those skills to fill the gaps in our systems.”
Each team was successful in their week-long mission to provide a prototype solution for their team’s problem.
Team 1’s solution involved building a system that automated the process of elevating and identifying targets. Using the system, targets can be adjusted to match the needs and guidance of different areas of responsibility to effectively speed up decision-making processes.
Team 2 delivered two pathways for government-off-the-shelf and commercial-off-the-shelf capabilities that automate imagery chipping for mission quality assurance as well as future computer vision model training which has a high pay off when the task is performed automatically and at scale.
Team 3 created a prototype that significantly reduces network traffic and allows access to intelligence reporting and production through a webpage where the user interface is a simple website using HTML and JavaScript.
Finally, team 4 created a baseball card prototype that integrates multiple data sources into a dashboard to save manpower and time when developing decision briefs for each target.
“A hackathon brings advanced digital Airmen together who are knowledgeable about their job and apply it to a data and automation problem,” said Place. “We have digitally smart Airmen who can bridge these gaps, solve problems at their level and help develop a culture of innovation and readiness.”
“This is a great step toward normalizing rapid innovation by empowering our highly motivated and technically astute Airmen at the lowest level,” said Col. Jeffrey Phillips, ACC Director of Cyberspace Operations and Warfighting Communications. “I am really proud of the team and the results from this Hackathon, I look forward to future iterations.”
| Date Taken: | 09.17.2024 |
| Date Posted: | 09.17.2024 08:55 |
| Story ID: | 481058 |
| Location: | KANSAS, US |
| Web Views: | 53 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, ACC Hackathon: Airmen are the solution, by SSgt Madeline Herzog, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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