Sherry Dibari著
杰里·克罗宁, executive director of TempO and the Open Seas 技术 创新 Hub, and Girish Nandakumar, Ph值.D. candidate at Old Dominion University and former employee at the Institute for 创新 and 创业, represented ODU at 北约's Chiefs of Transformation Conference in Norfolk last week.
The duo was instrumental in helping the North Atlantic Treaty 组织 (北约) 创新 Hub launch the 北约 创新 Challenge, which solicits ideas from across the world to solve the alliance's problems. 在会议上, they were part of a panel on open innovation, led by Lt. 创. Thomas Sharpy from the U.S. Air Force, and helped identify success strategies.
The 创新 Hub, located on ODU's campus, has a close partnership with the University. The 创新 Challenge is hosted twice a year by different 北约 nations in partnership with ODU. The most recent challenge was in Budapest, Hungary, where Cronin served as a judge. Nandakumar is advising the 创新 Hub on a new program he created titled "I4D," short for 创新 for Defense. I4D brings 北约's problems to a classroom setting, where students offer solutions as a part of a course.
The Chiefs of Transformation Conference is hosted annually by 北约's Allied Command Transformation (ACT), the 北约 strategic command in charge of preparing the 70-year-old alliance for future challenges. The objective of this year's conference was to "interconnect national transformation initiatives with those of ACT, particularly in the areas of innovation, longer-term capability development and training." Conference topics included innovation, interoperability, resilience and human capital.
在会议上, the national Chiefs of Transformation, who are responsible for preparing their respective nations for future challenges, along with other senior leaders from across 北约, the Partner Interoperability Advocacy Group, 行业, 和学术界, were invited to discuss and exchange ideas and best practices. Participants also explored the potential of current and emerging technologies.
