Business as Usual: AFWERX

Transcription: 

So welcome everyone. This is business as usual, I have no idea what day to day is. But I think it's definitely not Saturday, it's definitely not Sunday. And it's another day of us some bringing you some amazing conversations and some people and today is another big opportunity for us to be shine the light on Pittsburgh and some really cool things. But before I introduce our guest, on a thank cunnington Bank for being our partner for so long, and believing in our work, and standing by the community in terms of the pandemic and making sure that people get the tools they need to survive the pandemic and thrive moving forward. So, I also wanted to extend appreciation for the nonprofit that's part of the Pittsburgh Technology Council called 40 by 80. That's the longitude and latitude of Pittsburgh. And it's the 501 c three affiliate of the Pittsburgh tech council that's leading many of our efforts to support entrepreneurship and workforce development, which is very timely, in terms of today's topics. We've muted your microphones, we don't want to hear anything in the background, we want to be considerate of our guests, and we do have a chat, Jonathan's gonna keep his eyes open on that this is not an opportunity for you to sell your wares. But this is an opportunity for you to engage with our guests who I will bring up in one moment, I believe that there is a QR code that's actually on the screen, that if you want to link, you can link to our speaker in LinkedIn using the QR code. And now I'm going to bring on Phil Han, he's the deputy director of AFWERX, which we're going to talk about in a minute, and you'll see the link, we'll put the link out to his website as we're talking. And he is Deputy Director of this organization. And we're very, which is really the forward looking forward thinking forward doing innovation within the Air Force. And hopefully I captured that correctly, Phil, but that's my extraction from looking around and noodling around your work. So I want to bring to the forefront and welcome Phil Hahn, thank you so much for being here today. And taking the time to join us and hope that you're safe and sound. And tell us a little bit about yourself. How are you doing? How are you? What's your role? How did you get to what you're doing and just sort of set the table so that we can have a conversation with you?

Sure, sure, Audrey. Thank you. Thank you for having me. Thanks for everyone. That's that's here. Hopefully, everyone is safe and sound out there given given the landscape that we're in. So a little bit about me. I'm originally from the Pittsburgh area. So grew up in Fort city, Pennsylvania, so just just north up in Armstrong County, went into the military. But first went to school did a degree in electrical engineering. first duty station was out in California, where I was doing testing development research and development. Started out with datalinks quickly moved to materials and stealth technology. From there transitioned out to the Las Vegas area where I was a Mission Director for a lot of the both stealth and advanced programs that that the Air Force and our do D partners had along the way got a master's in systems engineering, and was also a flight test engineer. So I spent some time backseat of sixteens hh 60 so the Blackhawks and then also some some funky test aircraft that have a bunch of widgets on them that that it was a lot of fun, they get out there and fly but again, my primary mission out there was to be kind of the Mission Director, the conductor per se, of developing a lot of the high risk test programs that we that we had and then do D and some of our partner and ally ally partners as well so worked with a little bit with the Brits and the Aussies and and the Canadians as well on a couple programs. So that was that was a lot of fun, amazing opportunities, a lot of breath if you've ever worked with like a red flag. I've done a lot of those as well. So from there transitioned out to Hanscom Air Force Base, which is in the Boston area, did it test and it program management for some of our classified systems for the for the Air Force. kind of wanted to do something a little bit more entrepreneurial. I tell a lot of the folks that I work with currently. If some of these opportunities would have been here when I was still active duty. I might not have got out of the military got out of active duty. But I did and and landed back here in Pittsburgh, Carnegie Mellon, the Tepper school. So I went to went and did my, my MBA, I had an amazing, amazing time there met a lot of very interesting people got my feet wet with, you know, both the entrepreneurship space, as well as had some time out in in China and Hong Kong, to understand that ecosystem and how that works. That was very, very interesting experience for me being being that a lot of the programs that I use that I that I developed, you know, China's being one of our adversaries from, from a tech technology standpoint, I can get into that a little bit later of how that affected the the current work, but then got into private equity a little bit, there was an entrepreneurship acquisition track at CMU that I did where we were, I took the next couple years working with generational transfer entrepreneurs, where we go through and purchase small businesses to to buy and to run. So COVID hit, then that was kind of a good time, where things are slowing down, there's a lot of uncertainty in the markets. And afwerki was was coming on board. So I, I quickly kind of stepped into my my other hat, which is in the military realm. So I'm currently the commander of the calm and cyber Squadron here at the nine 11th in Pittsburgh. And so there was a COVID effort that was going on, signed up and worked along with them with with the COVID efforts that we were doing. And then afterwards came along. It's It's a weird, it's a weird space that just was developed. It started in 2017. But a bunch of grassroots innovation efforts, all combined into one here in the last several months. And so I've been working with our our commander, Nate Diller, Colonel Nadler, and we've really been developing the developing the the the networks, both the network and the and the organization from the ground up.

Well, it's exciting. I mean, we put the site out there. So everyone could should be able to toggle and look at that site, if not now, while you're talking later, for sure. Thank you so much for your service to our country. And the work that you've done. This is pretty exciting where you are right now. And I believe you're a native Southwestern Pennsylvania. Guy, is that correct?

That's correct. Yep. One race. So it's a, it's definitely it's definitely great to be back back in the area. Africa as a whole has a lot of interesting technologies that we can bring. started off as a bat, I like I said back in 2017, as a grassroots innovation effort from the secretary, Secretary of the Air Force. So we're comprised of three divisions. And this is where I said the three individual efforts that have come together. So there's, you know, how are we going to address the industrial base with with different acquisition products that that we currently have?

So what does it mean? What does that mean? industrial base?

So. So I guess first off, let me break down the three areas, the three areas. So the first is, is called Spark. And this is our airman empowerment division. This is the innovation grassroots effort of the military that says, you know, where are the problems? The whole way down to the airman that's turning the wrenches, what are the problems that you have? And how, how can we bring the network together to solve some of those problems. So from that grassroots effort came after ventures, which has really grabbed grab ahold of the tech ecosystem in across the US, SPI, RS and STTR. So small business, innovative research and science technology transfer. It's about a billion dollar portfolio that it comes down from Congress in in in support of these efforts. And Adrienne, I know you have you had some prior experience with those with those. And so what this does is it provides the government a way to really, really help in the small business, in the small business arena with some of these technologies. And, and so in our event next week, there'll be a lot more information on it. But primarily right now, it's the management of that portfolio that we are that we're working on from the adventures division. And then finally, is the prime division and so this is the this is really the capability development arm of non traditional capability development arm. So normally when a program is made, there's, you know, there's there's the requirement generation and it takes years upon years upon years to get an actual capability developed, get the technology put through the process. And then, you know, through Congress with the funding and all that. So what this does is this really expedites that process. Dr. Will Roper he, he kind of was the visionary of this, he looked at the small UAS market, so the drone market and you can't buy anything without being from China. So how do we, how do we hedge hedge that? How do we how do we build the the US ecosystem, the US industrial base, to combat some of those some things that will just be sucked up by China in the future as far as technology because it's what we're all we're all fighting for the same? The same technologies, the same knowledge base across the board. So so how do we as an organization, how do we as the Air Force, and the EOD move at the speed of commercial when when we're still in a, you know, a democratic society, and we're not having you know, the government to say this is the technology that we're going to do and with the efforts behind it? So this is, this is a soft answer to what that is, and we're continuing to develop the organization as such,

if you back up you mentioned something about next week that I and I saw that on your website that you open up a virtual event next week. Tell us about that. Sure, sure.

And so everyone should attend it. Everyone should have everyone

in the whole world to the tender

everyone, except for probably people in China that we don't necessarily want them. Yeah, yeah. Anyway, so the the event next week. It's it's basically a summary of of efforts. 2.0 It's, it's, this is who we were, this is who we are now, and this is where we're going as an organization, these are some of the efforts that we're going to be going towards in in 2021. The the first the first one of the prime events, so So as I said, we have we have a division called prime agility prime is is our is Dr. ropers answer to, to the what is the next industrial base that we need to look at as far as a technology perspective. So this is if you go to agility prime.com. This is the the flying orbs, the flying cars. And it's really us partnering with the US industrial base, we have 17 companies we currently are working with and creating a fly off event. We're partnering with them from the you know, from the onset, and we're buying down risk and helping them establish themselves as a company while we're developing military utility and dual use technology for that. So it's it's really a partnership to help push the technology base forward. So we're helping all these companies in one way or another through through several contract vehicles. And everything from air worthiness to helping with certain labs and ranges. That is a that is a large effort that we're doing that. So next week, we're going to be announcing some topic areas of what some of the next primes could be. And, and then also some some interesting new financial products that our adventures team was was also also has been working on. We have a federal loan program that we're that we're looking to start up where we can start to start to use some of these debt and equity offerings instead of instead of just the ESP, IR and STTR aspects of the funding

there. They're very competitive. The SPI RS but there's some of the best tools that have been out and helped our ecosystem just even around the US. And I think I don't know how we're doing in southwestern Pennsylvania right now. But we usually track it in terms of our engagement SPI, RS and St. Trs. Let's talk about a little bit about so everyone has the information out there about the the conference next week. And it sounds like it'll be definitely very informative. And no one should underestimate their relevance in terms of the products or services that they're working on. Because it sounds like the world is your oyster in terms of what you're looking for, which is really cool. The you have but then you also have a challenge program. Yes,

yes. So there's there's there's challenge programs that go along the way so that the challenge programs you can think of them as almost like mini prime efforts. So and this really comes from that grassroots innovation effort that I spoke with with our storage division. So in the next generation helmet was one of our challenges. Basically, the future was one of our challenge events. And, and that is, you know, things that happen. And so Tyndall Air Force Base was was damaged by the hurricane, we lost a lot there. So it was, that was kind of a grassroots effort of what can the next base of the future look like? And how can we, how can we help in an innovative way to solve some of these problems? You look at things like the the pilot helmet, which hasn't changed in, I think, like, 6060 years or so where they're pulling all these G's. So how do we, how do we open open topic? How do we open source solutions that's to these problems, you look at the 80% of the technology and innovation in the in the country used to come from, you know, the areas were in DARPA, and the Air Force Research Lab and the government and it used to be, that's where all the innovation and technology was coming out of, you know, due to advancements in technology, you know, you can now get on your cell phone, the processing capability that used to be in a whole room back, you know, 60 years ago. So there's been a big change in that market. And this is how we're trying to address that big change is, is we're trying to partner with these, with these companies that can be faster and more agile than then then we can be as the as the government. And so part of the SPI process is, is involving that. And and the way that our adventures team has shifted the paradigm in, in how SPI RS are both looked at and sourced is really what the game changer was

for the product. So

for some reason you got there. But so it's, I think that the most important thing that I really want people to get out of this. I mean, there's a lot, obviously, the resources, your website is really robust. There's lots of interesting things going on. But the world is in terms of the problems and products that people are working on right now have huge applicability. And people have not attended not to see that, you know, they just don't realize that, that those opportunities are there for them. So they're going down a track in terms of equity, venture, equity, etc, and then missing a tremendous amount of assets that are really available. And that's what I'm getting excited about in terms of what you're doing. Because I can just see, the the resources, the access, you started talking about, you know, a loan program, you know, things like that, that people are not having at their fingertips, I think is really critical. And it just opens up a lot of doors. No one should be intimidated by this. I think that's the other point that I hope that we get out of this. So don't be intimidated. This is important. There's lots of opportunities. And you may think your idea doesn't have applicability in the military, but it really does it, you know, might and more often than not, it really does. So I think that's what I get really excited about. I really appreciate having the time to talk about this now. But there's also some fun things going on. So you know, they talk about some of the fun things that people should talk about you should we talk about flying cars. Am I going to finally get like the flying car. Yeah, so

I so part of part of really the push that when I started coming back to Pittsburgh was when I went out to Austin, Texas, which is one of our one of our hubs is in Austin, Texas. And one of our flying car companies that is down in Austin, Texas had a flight demonstration for the Secretary of the Air Force, the new the new Chief of Staff of the Air Force, so the new head enlisted, or I'm sorry, the new officer. And then and also the Chief Master Sergeant, the head enlisted. And it was a really exciting time. And I met a lot of folks down there and was really able to see what the AFWERX ecosystem and the capabilities that they were able to come by just having a physical presence there. Were you were you you had a lot of the tech startups and the technology small businesses that were in the that were in the area that that really could come and have someone to talk to and really make that front door to what we're what we're doing at AFWERX. And with the SPR program a little bit easier to get to and I can I can go in really quickly to kind of add a glance how we've changed that paradigm. So it used to be we would have certain releases, like hey, we need something we need a widget that is going to solve the base security problem, you know, and so that could be anything from a flying drone. That could be something else. So we've made it even easier than that. We've developed a thing called the open topic. And that is, if you if you have something out there, that is a technology that you think is relevant for the Air Force, or you think that is relevant for the military, you can apply for a sipper phase one. And so this is kind of our small bets. So it's up to a $50,000 Award, we give out about 1000 to 1500 of these per year. And we have a try annual solicitation base for that. So these are I, you know, hey, I have this technology, I'm not sure if it's applicable, but it could be. And that's a, I think it's a five, page five, either five or 15, page paper and a small PowerPoint. And you submit that and, and we'll give you $50,000, and three months to find an actual partner in the military, that will take that and work with you to develop that, that military utility piece of your technology. From there, it goes up to about a little bit larger bets, about 1.5 million per award. And this is our phase two, we give about 300 to 500 of those per year. And then we've also developed what's called a strategic financial stratify. And that that goes up to about 15 million. And when you look at some of the other things that we can do with the strat fi, we're looking for investors, we're looking for the private, the private entities as well, to help partner with us.

So, so how do you work with the army AI task force to work with them? Their partnerships? Are there examples of any of that? That you know? Yeah, so

so the army AI Task Force, I'm familiar with them here in the Pittsburgh area, we're in talks to possibly establish a hub here in Pittsburgh, which again, would would help me that Ford face to help, you know, again, it's COVID. But, you know, to sit down and talk through some things we're army futures command is down in Austin, Texas. So again, it's really working with the ecosystem in Pittsburgh is really working with the ecosystem, you know, across the board, in the in the US. And so with some of the advancements, and some of our primes that could be coming out in the autonomy in the AI space, you know, we plan to work closely with folks across the board. Because again, it goes back to that we're pushing the industrial base forward, we want all players on board to push the technology base forward.

So there's a couple of things that I sort of want to just pound through real quickly, because there's lots of questions. And I know that they can follow up with you. But for next week, some solicitation they're asking about, you know, the best way to connect with the appropriate Program Executive Officer. And I also want to give a shout out and if anyone wants to reach out, we do have Kelly wylam here who can help as well, she's actually listening on the call. So you're seeing some people fill that are reacting to everything that you're talking about. So you have one person here talking about, you know, the slide deck Affleck's being fun to work, like, fun and supportive, how do we get access to a pH one application? And you know, what about the applications? You know, the technology that's been developed with the Navy, that would have applicability, you know, across all the defense services? So you're hearing a ration? Oh, yeah. Yeah.

Yeah, it is, it is really exciting. And that's a reason you know, why I'm coming back from kind of from the private sector back into the public sector to help really launch this because I do see the power in, in really, that, that improving the industrial base I, I mean, without, without going into, you know, a lot of detail with the time that we have left, I would say sit through a lot of so ventures day, I believe is Tuesday of next week. So that'll be very applicable to everyone on this call. And again, it is there's a lot so the of the matching financing are, however, 400 million or so that we've put out thus far this year with SPR we've had 1.9 billion in private funding that is that is matched this so it's really that it's really that investment multiplier as well because I mean, anytime you say non dilutive capital, I mean, that's gonna get that's going to get everyone in the state and we're helping the buy down risk for some of these technologies. And even some of the stuff that's on this shelf, to help to help continue to move from a cash flow basis to keep these companies alive. If you look at the technologies in China, the the the initial period cameras that are all over the place in China was a small business that was on par with with with DARPA. So that they, they kind of it sat on the shelf because no one had anything to do with it. And then China came and bought the company. So, you know, we're looking at, you know, we're starting to look at scenarios like that as well of how can we keep that technology base inside the US. That's

so just so that everyone pay attention to the chat, because Kelly Weiland, as I mentioned a moment ago, is here, and she is actually putting a link for assistance for SBIR STTR. She put the link out there. So thank you, Kelly, thanks for listening in. And you know, being a resource, so and then Brian is put back again, the link about next week, because we keep coming back to that it just seems like there's just so much information that'll be available. And then can Philip talk to when afrik sub 2.0. Phase two will be awarded?

phase two awards, I'll check with my ventures with the with the ventures team.

Yeah, 20.1 sorry, 20. Mm,

yeah, I'll check with the ventures team. I know we've we've had talks with the with the super center of excellence of how we can do this stuff quicker. And a word or two everything faster. And I was on calls earlier of how we are going to develop a you know, a set schedule of, of getting stuff done, because that is a big part of you know, the open topic was one part. But the other part is moving at the speed of commercial and moving at getting getting the funding and getting the stuff awarded to where it is relevant to a small business. Again, with this partnership, instead of you're just working for the military, which is kind of where we're looking at open that up. And you can go to Africa, calm as well. So Africa, calm, agility, prime, calm, and africa.af.mil all should have some relevant information. Africa calm should right now have a lot of information about our accelerate event, some of the speakers. I'm not sure if the schedule has been published or not yet, but again, Tuesday is adventures. Thursday is prime, where we're going to launch where we're going to talk through what some of those big initiatives are. And then you know, anyone that can attend the event on Friday, we're going to have a design workshop to help develop, you know, possible prime topics as well. So diving into some of that and being part of that here. And if we can get something, something as a hub or something here in the Pittsburgh area, you know, I'm pushing that personally, just because I have a soft spot for Pittsburgh. So

we if there's anything that we can do to be helpful, I think the exciting thing is I'm looking at the chat, Jonathan, I'm looking at the chat and people are helping one another. Yeah, man is fantastically Awesome. Thank you. Great. Thank you, Ellie, Ellie wants the link about the CSOs as well. So I think there's just a lot of information to share. And I think people really need to understand that this is, you know, a process that is non dilutive and hugely additive at the onset of the creation of so many companies. And it is, it is a pathway that here in southwestern Pennsylvania, we should have, you know, we should be taking advantage of the most, I would say the most because of the research and the amount of innovation. That's here as well. So do you think, Phil that I've that we've captured most of what you think is important to convey? And are you recording next week, some will be archived? We recorded or is it only live? And you have to attend it?

No, no, we'll have, we'll have most of the recordings. Um, I think we should have everything recorded. So that'll be good. And I yeah, I mean, it's a lot to get to with kind of where we've been as an organization in half an hour. So I hopefully I've done my best with with trying to hit hit the high notes. I'm more than happy to dive in with some other stuff with with some of these folks and answer these questions on the line. But really, a lot will a lot will be answered next week, given given probably most of these questions.

Right, because I think we've just seen another one, Jonathan, right, from a toss. Alavi. You know, they're wanting to know about, you know, is it a vertical lift application or any tack, etc. And I think those questions will be answered next week. Right.

Yeah, I mean, so you have the open top piece, where you can apply for for different phases. And then the other. The other really good part about it is, you know, once you're in the SPR pipeline, I didn't even talk about this at the very end of that, you know, there's the, you can have a direct, direct contract with the government and don't have to compete it. So because you've, you've been through the development process. So there's also that that goes into it as well.

So Phil, we're gonna stay connected. It has been a treat to have you join us today. Thank you for your service to our country. And thank you for your passion in doing this work. Now it is critical, it is important. And it is an option that isn't that is just so terrific for for startups. And for companies who have products and services, it's just you know, it's just a path that we need to make stronger. So if there's any way that we can help all of us that are on this call, and our team at the tech council to help as the US in the search for a hub that would be just incredible for us here to some being selfish on behalf of Pittsburgh. And if there's any other ways that you want us to tell stories and talk about this, people are saying how do we contact filler Kelly, we put all that information in the chat. If you didn't see it, just reach out to one of us at the tech Council. And we'll be able to give you information as well. So, Phil, as you can see a bunch of questions, a lot of interest. And people want to stay connected to you and the work that you're doing it at work. So really appreciate it. I know we packed a lot in a short period of time. But hopefully this gives you a sense of how excited we awesome. Yeah, thanks. Thanks

again for having me. It's great to be here. And it's great to connect with the the technology ecosystem here in the in the southwest Pittsburgh area. So

thank you. All right, well stay safe. Jonathan, what's up for tomorrow? Well, Tomorrow is Friday, our favorite day of the week. And we have Jeremy Waltrip from the Pittsburgh downtown partnership joining us to talk all about the state of downtown. Now we can support it and keep it thriving. And then you have the QR code Taylor put the QR code. If you just snap that you can go right to Phil on LinkedIn. And you'll find him there. So hopefully we've given you lots of pathways. Thanks again, for joining us today and for the resources that you've shared with the chat. Thank you, Jonathan. And most of all, thank you, Phil, Han. And, you know, let's let's get a big shingle here in Pittsburgh for this.

Thank you for all right.

So see everyone tomorrow. Thank you so much. Take care. See you tomorrow.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai