military
It’s no accident that mergers are increasing as our economy continues to transform through technology, which itself is driven by corporate investment. Tech has been a key driver of current economic growth -- likely even greater than we’ve been able to measure -- but the spending on research and development needed to bring new innovations to market is frequently risky, costly and complex.
Veterans already benefit from GI Bill funds to help them earn college degrees. But limitations in the program can make it difficult to complete degrees in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) fields while retaining those benefits.
Venture capitalist and Facebook board member Peter Thiel has reiterated his stance on Google’s presence in China, saying that it is “unprecedented” for a company to refuse contracts with the US military while seeking greater interaction with China.
Earlier this month, the Pentagon announced that Secretary of Defense Mark Esper would review the JEDI deal after President Donald Trump said that he had received complaints from companies about the process. Trump said in July that companies conveyed that the specifications of the contract favored Amazon, according to Bloomberg.
The U.S. Army Futures Command may be in Texas to take advantage of Austin’s tech-startup scene, but the Lone Star State has at least one other feature that meshes well with research into hypersonic missiles, lasers, and autonomous weapons: lots of room.
Dr. Brandon Cochenour, an electrical engineer, and Dr. James Hing, a robotics engineer, will receive the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE), the U.S. government’s highest honor for outstanding scientists and engineers beginning their independent careers, during a ceremony at the Daughters of the American Revolution Constitution Hall in Washington D.C. The White House confers on PECASE awards annually to name the nation’s most outstanding STEM professionals who show exceptional promise to advance science and technology.
Science, technology, engineering and mathematics, or STEM, skills are vital to maintaining a skilled and ready force. The Defense Department has demonstrated its commitment to STEM through a number of learning opportunities for students from elementary school through graduate school to help inspire the next generation of service members.
If a nuclear-armed enemy Intercontinental Ballistic Missile were speeding its way through space towards a heavily populated U.S. target, commanders in charge of defending the homeland would at most have a mere 20-to-30 minutes to destroy the incoming weapon. With lives dangling upon a precipice of total devastation, and the earth’s future potentially in jeopardy, U.S. defenders would be tasked with finding, tracking and destroying the attacking nuclear missile.
Military research has long focused on ticks. Sites around Long Island Sound, near the military’s Plum Island research lab, were some of the first places where the American Lyme disease epidemic was identified. But there was no release of the Lyme disease agent or any other onto American soil, accidental or otherwise, by the military.
In the 1960s, on an 840-acre island at the entrance to Long Island Sound, scientists at the highly guarded Plum Island Animal Disease Center were at the forefront of U.S. biological-weapons research. Specifically, they sought to create pathogens that could be deployed stealthily, via insects.