WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Ohio (AFRL) — AFWERX Integration Prime facilitated collaboration and spurred innovation at the U.S. European Command BRAVO 101 Hackathon in Stuttgart, Germany, June 3–10, 2024.
BRAVO Hackathons, sponsored by senior Department of Defense leaders, foster innovative environments where government and industry collaborate to test bold ideas using real DOD data. More than 250 data scientists, coders and developers, referred to as “hackers,” gathered to develop prototypes within set timeframes to initiate and validate innovative concepts.
"We cannot understate the power of networking and bringing all these people together under one roof for a week,” said Maj. Victor Lopez, AFWERX Integration Prime deputy branch chief. “Hackathons are supercharging their capacity and their network to both learn and to put things into production.”
The hackathons are funded via the Office of the Secretary of Defense Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office (OSD/CDAO). Integration Prime supplies and co-funds with OSD/CDAO the critical capability to execute the hackathon including a novel secure System-of-Systems Technology Integration Tool Chain for Heterogeneous Electronic Systems (STITCHES) platform and necessary equipment upgrades.
Integration Prime is the newest technology program in Prime, a division within AFWERX, and is designed to integrate advanced technologies and innovative solutions into the U.S. Air Force and other branches of the military. They achieve this by leveraging partnerships with industry leaders, academic institutions and other government agencies with the goal to enhance military capabilities and ensure the U.S. remains at the forefront of technological advancements.
Integration Prime's involvement in the BRAVO 101 Hackathon was to provide mentorship, resources and a framework for collaboration that enabled participants to tackle the challenges effectively.
"If you provide people basic coding education, it fuels their curiosity and drives innovation,” Lopez added. “Bringing together infrastructure, graphics processing units, servers, central processing units, real-time data and use case owners in one room accelerates the development of diverse solutions. This collaborative approach is incredibly exciting and enhances the realization of impactful use cases.”
At the heart of the hackathons is the STITCHES platform, which is deployed at multiple versions designed to cater to different needs and use cases within the DOD. The primary version accessible to users is hosted on www.stitches.mil. The platform, developed by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and now partially funded by Integration Prime, is specifically designed to provide a software as a service that can store and prototype code with the authority to operate sensitive data.
"STITCHES is the backbone of these BRAVO Hackathons," said Lt. Col. Josh Fehd, AFWERX Integration Prime branch chief. "It integrates capacities for various coding languages and provides the necessary infrastructure to support both unclassified and classified work. This allows hackers to prototype and develop solutions securely and efficiently then extract capability tested at the event into further development or production environments."
The hackathon wasn’t just about theoretical problem-solving; it resulted in practical outcomes that can be directly applied to military operations. One key technology developed and tested within Integration Prime is an advanced method of zero-trust, known as "scoff trust," which allows for the deployment of untrusted software or AI algorithms without the need to scan the code. This method extends work developed at MIT and Syracuse University called System-Theoretic Process Analysis for Security (STPA-SEC).
"This method of secure software deployment includes quantitatively defining unacceptable losses to the mission and performing secure systems engineering to allow leaders to have grown-up conversations about how secure a system needs to be to use,” Fehd said. “STPA-SEC combined with secure STITCHES integration allows and has allowed capabilities created at the hackathons to transfer to secure production systems after each of the last three events in addition to being compliant with Risk Management Framework.”
Another success story focused on improving the "golden hour" for medical evacuations.
"The golden hour is the limited time you have after an injury to get the care required to save your life,” Fehd said. “One of the use cases that was explored was utilizing large language models to gather and understand all the disparate data sources out there; not just about the disposition of forces, but about where operating rooms are located in the theater, where the medical supplies are, who has available space and who has room on the ramp."
Fehd adds that hackathons have not only facilitated immediate problem-solving but also led to the establishment of long-term infrastructure. Servers and other necessary equipment are left behind at various locations, creating data labs that enable ongoing innovation and development.
To learn more about AFWERX Integration Prime, click here.
About AFRL
The Air Force Research Laboratory is the primary scientific research and development center for the Department of the Air Force. AFRL plays an integral role in leading the discovery, development, and integration of affordable warfighting technologies for our air, space and cyberspace force. With a workforce of more than 12,500 across nine technology areas and 40 other operations across the globe, AFRL provides a diverse portfolio of science and technology ranging from fundamental to advanced research and technology development. For more information, visit www.afresearchlab.com.
About AFWERX
As the innovation arm of the DAF and a directorate within the Air Force Research Laboratory, AFWERX brings cutting-edge American ingenuity from small businesses and start-ups to address the most pressing challenges of the DAF. AFWERX employs approximately 370 military, civilian and contractor personnel at five hubs and sites executing an annual $1.4 billion budget. Since 2019, AFWERX has executed over 6,100 new contracts worth more than $4 billion to strengthen the U.S. defense industrial base and drive faster technology transition to operational capability. For more information, visit: www.afwerx.com.