Army Uses Mad Scientist Gathering to Explore Emerging Technologies by Connie Lee – National Defense Magazine
AUSTIN, Texas — To better understand new technologies and scientific efforts that could aid warfighters, the Army is connecting with industry and academia through its “Mad Scientist” initiative.
The service is asking itself where the military challenges and opportunities are moving forward, Lee Grubbs, Mad Scientist director, said in an interview with National Defense on the sidelines of the program’s annual conference. “We translate that into real-person speak — civilian speak. We look at where analogies of that exist in the commercial world.”
As the service has shifted focus from counterinsurgency to large-scale operations, the Army decided the time was right to bring back the Mad Scientist program a few years ago, Grubbs said. The 2018 national defense strategy puts a renewed focus on countering great power adversaries such as Russia and China.
The conference was held in April at the University of Texas-Austin, because its Cockrell School of Engineering is one of the top engineering schools in the country, he said. This year’s themes were robotic technologies and the future of space and ethics…
