UNCLASSIFIED Information approved for public release: Distribution Unlimited UNCLASSIFIED
1. The DARPA Wait What? Website is http://darpawaitwhat.com/#about and provides details on downloading the App to a mobile device.
2. Keynote speaker Secretary of Defense Ash Carter addressed DARPA role in technology innovation and fully endorsed DARPA Wait What? Conference. Secretary Carter:
a. Underscored the importance of identifying technology of consequence, from outside of USA/DOD. b. Articulated importance of reaching out, tapping into all streams of science and technology. c. Stressed the importance of addressing technology overmatch, the increasing erosion of our technological advantage and the need for innovative uses of new technology. d. Promoted the New Flexible Hybrid Electronics Manufacturing Innovation Hub in Silicon Valley DoD Press Release: http://www.defense.gov/News/News-Releases/News-Release-View/Article/615132/dod-announces-award-of-new-flexible-hybrid-electronics-manufacturing-innovation
i. This is a recent DoD effort to partner with the private sector and academia to lead in the new frontiers of manufacturing
ii. The Hub exists as a consortium of 162 companies, universities, and non-profits led by the FlexTech Alliance.
e. Department of Defense role in cyber: protecting the internet so that it remains open, secure and prosperous.f. Department of Defense Under Secretary for Acquisition, Logistics and Technology Frank Kendall ensured conference attendees that ideas are being translated into action. Intent is to expand reach to people who have not worked with DARPA before.
3. Main Ideas unleashed during presentations Wait What?
a. Big Data
i. Professor Emeritus Gunnar Carlsson posited that Big Data is not about the “BIG”; it is about complexity and format. His research focus is upon how we model all shapes of data. Professor Carlsson recently co-founded Ayasdi, a company that is commercializing topological methods for data analysis.
ii. John Launchbury, DARPA Information Integration Office Deputy Director discussed his research to enable society to continuously reap the benefits of big data while protecting individual privacy (Brandeis program).
b. Emerging spectroscopy tools
i. Professor Ramesh Raskar (MIT): using femtosecond spectroscopy to see around corners and read pages through books. Potential applications toward collision avoidance, robot navigation, brain imaging and communications.
c. Networks
i. DARPA Defense Sciences Office PM Vincent Tang discussed his efforts (SIGMA Program) for early detection of radiological and nuclear materials through low cost-networked sensors.
ii. Alberto Sangiovanni-Vincentelli (Chair of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences at the University of California at Berkeley) highlighted his research inventing design tools for the trillion-device future. His research covers design methodologies, and tools for wireless sensor networks, embedded systems, hybrid systems, cyber physical systems (CPS), systems of systems (SoS) and electronic design automation. He designs swarms of systems that gather, synthesize and apply information in “smart” ways.
d. Medical devices
i. Col. Daniel J. Wattendorf, (USAF) and Program Manager in the Defense Sciences Office spoke on his research effort to develop new classes of nanoparticles for early disease detection and mitigation and also his efforts to help medical professionals contain outbreaks of infectious disease.
ii. Anupama Lakshmanan (CalTech): Genetically engineered platforms to diagnose brain disorders.
iii. Professor Karl Deisseroth (Professor of Bioengineering and of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Stanford) researching light as a tool to create the “Google Earth of the intact and functioning Brain”.
e. Novel (impossible) materials
i. Zach Serber: entrepreneur and co-founder of Zymergen, developing alternatives to petroleum via industrial microbial fermentation. Research applies new methods to design and improve microbes by rewriting their DNA, resulting in the generation of novel materials at greater rates and lower costs than traditional methods.
ii. Professor Alex Bataller (UCLA): Dense plasma condensates as a new state of matter. Exploring their use for optical switches, optical protective coatings, next generation light sources.
iii. Max Schulaker (Stanford University): new computer architectures based upon three dimensional nanosystems.
f. Legal and ethical implications of emerging technologies. R. Alta Charo, Professor of Law and Bioethics at the law and medical schools of the University of Wisconsin discussed biotechnology regulation, bioethics, public health law, food and drug law, stem cell policy, torts and legislative drafting for emerging technologies.