Photo By Tech. Sgt. Daniel Farrell | INVENT X Cohort 1 instructors and participants pose for a group photo at ARCWERX,...... read more read more
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ARCWERX, Tucson, Ariz. – Cohort 1 of ARCWERX and MatrixOwl partnered program, INVENT X, came to a close after two teams pitched solutions relating to operational problems to commanders and Airmen at ARCWERX in Tucson, Ariz., Dec. 13, 2024.
“We are really excited about this opportunity,” said Capt. Daniel Smith, ARCWERX program director, prior to the team presentations. “We have educational programs already aligned, but we were still looking for new things to bring to the force, new ways of thinking.”
ARCWERX partnered with MatrixOwl after meeting with owner Dr. Sid Saleh, a retired professor from the engineering university, Colorado School of Mines.
“This is exactly what we are looking for,” said Smith. “Let’s figure out how we can integrate something like that into what we do here at ARCWERX, into innovation throughout the community.”
MatrixOwl provides a pipeline to accelerators, according to Dr. Saleh. The goal is to help start-ups that are too early for investors by allowing them to solidify their ideas and come to actionable solutions.
Ultimately, INVENT X, a 9-week program, was created where Airmen would workshop many different problems based on the seven Air Force Operational Imperatives and then converge on two specific problems, splitting the Airmen into two teams to solve them, according to Smith.
According to the U.S. Air Force website, the Operational Imperatives are the key capabilities and functions the Department of the Air Force must prioritize and invest in to ensure the United States can effectively deter conflict and project power against evolving challenges.
Dr. Saleh would then coach the groups through the problem-solving process.
“I need to have the ability to allow teams to try what they are thinking because that’s how you’ll learn, and as you learn, you’ll improve, and then eventually I’ll find out there is something there for the [Air National Guard] to look at,” said Dr. Saleh.
Although Invent X is open to all Air National Guard members, Cohort 1 was comprised of Airmen from Arizona Air National Guard’s 161st Air Refueling Wing and 162nd Wing, and Colorado Air National Guard’s 140th Wing.
Team one looked to modernize technical order distribution by moving away from a very lengthy and error prone process of receiving Enhanced Technical Information Management System updates and manually downloading and redownloading throughout the network and hard drives until they are loaded onto a MacBook, and then finally uploaded on to the maintainer iPads for aircraft maintenance instruction, according to Master Sgt. Emma Heymann, 162nd Wing quality assurance specialist.
“As a maintainer I’ve actually run into situations where I’ve had either obsolete or incomplete technical data,” said Tech. Sgt. James Dekoster, 162nd Wing maintainer. “I’ve had to step away from my airplane to go resolve that situation and as you can imagine that can lead to increased aircraft downtime and issues with fleet time management.”
The suggested solution for the 162nd Wing technical order distribution office was to increase Wi-Fi capabilities and use the Air Force ETIMS client application on maintainer iPads, which will allow for the updates to occur seamlessly overnight, according to Heymann.
“We can save one day a week in the [technical order distribution office] and if we pass this to other wings, it will translate to 52 days per wing, which in a year could be up to 4.7 million dollars returned to those wings that we can use for other resources,” said Chief Master Sgt. Raul Verdugo, 162nd Wing Force Support Squadron senior enlisted leader.
“But it also increases readiness… when you have to step away from your aircraft, that takes time away from the aircraft, delaying the availability of those planes to be ready for the next mission,” he continued.
Team two looked to solve a critical training gap problem within the intelligence community.
“Less than 56 days before the Great Power Competition conflict, we lack accessible and accelerated real world home station training,” said Airman 1st Class Maria Gutierrez, 162nd Wing all-source intelligence analyst. “In the Intel technical training school we are taught a fire hose of information based on red assets leaving a notable gap in blue capabilities,” she continued.
At intelligence technical school, analysts are taught foundational skillsets by intelligence analysts. Upon graduation, intel analysts arrive at their duty station and are trained by intelligence analysts. Then when they show up to a flag exercise, they are expected to know what’s important to aircrew, said Tech. Sgt. Kristie Cox, 162nd Wing all-source intelligence analyst noncommissioned officer in charge.
“What we are looking to do is provide that integrated joint mission planning cell experience, but at home station,” said Cox.
The solution pitched is a Virtual Reality Battlespace Tactics Management system, which will allow for intelligence analysts to plug and play different scenarios with different aircraft, terrain, area of responsibilities, in addition to the ability of watching the full execution of the mission and debrief after, according to Cox.
The estimated cost of creating the virtual reality battle space would be $775,000 verse the nearly 40 million dollars it would cost to send all drill status intelligence personnel to a Red Flag training event. A significant cost savings that would be scalable Air Force wide and can be useful for a variety of jobs, not just intelligence, according to the team’s presentation.
“You can’t just send somebody to a flag event one time now and expect that one repetition to be good enough for a deployment,” said Capt. Kyle Clark, 161st Air Refueling Wing KC-135 pilot.
The virtual battle space will give intelligence analysts the opportunity to gain valuable training repetitions at their base.
“It is life and death for me,” said Clark. “It starts with good intelligence when I step out the door and I go fly, because if not, if we don’t have this program… you’re going to start to lose assets and, more importantly, you’re going to lose manpower.”
Following the presentations the teams took questions from various Air Force leaders and Department of Defense representatives.
“It was really fascinating to see Airmen thinking critically about hard problems that we have in the Air Force and trying to solve them with creative solutions,” said Lt. Col. Sean McCarthy, 161st Air Refueling Wing maintenance officer and INVENT X presentation attendee. “How sometimes we can solve those hard problems with not terribly large amounts of money, but creative thinking.”
After her team’s presentation, Heymann reflected positively on her experience at ARCWERX.
“My experience with ARCWERX has been incredibly rewarding, from attending their workshop to completing an educational course,” Heymann said. “ARCWERX has truly empowered me to bring fresh ideas and solutions back to my team, enhancing both my personal growth and mission success.”
| Date Taken: | 12.13.2024 |
| Date Posted: | 12.23.2024 13:07 |
| Story ID: | 488209 |
| Location: | TUCSON, ARIZONA, US |
| Web Views: | 48 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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