Raj Shah, managing director of the Defense Department‘s Defense Innovation Unit-Experimental organization, said that DIUx will expand its presence nationwide through the help of technology experts from the U.S. military’s National Guard and Reserve components, DoD News reported Thursday.
“We have reservists working in technology companies of all sizes [and] maturities across the nation and they have a deep desire to continue to serve,” Shah told the CyberCon 2016 forum.
“We’re setting up a new reserve unit across the services, including the National Guard, where we will be able to help build the team that gives us access to new technology.”
Cheryl Pellerin reports that DIUx has inked 12 contracts valued at $36 million with multiple technology companies to date and looks to finalize 15 more contracts worth $60 million for innovation projects in the robotics, machine learning, biotechnology, networking and cyber defense areas.
Shah also discussed the lessons learned and progress made by the organization’s second outpost during the CyberCon event.
He said that lessons DIUx 2.0 learned from predecessors include relationships with team members that understand challenges of working with the government as well as resources to keep businesses operational and a focus on problem sets that need to be addressed.
