Page 1 - Desert Lightning News, Nellis-Creech AFB Edition, May 4 2018
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vol. 2, no. 9 Serving Southern Nevada’s military community, including Nellis, Creech and NTTR may 4, 2018
An Aerotech news And review publicAtion • www.Aerotechnews.com
Artificial intelligence proves
beneficial for ISR data interpretation
by Master Sgt. Heidi West Air Force photograph by Senior Airman Kevin Tanenbaum data in comprehensible chunks of in-
formation.
Nellis AFB, Nev. An Airman attends a design thinking class during the Artificial Intelligence and Design
Thinking Seminar at AFWERX Vegas, Las Vegas, Nev., April 9, 2018. Design Thinking is “Think of everything you do as a mini
The 526th Intelligence Squadron at a human-centered approach to innovation that draws from the designer’s toolkit to startup,†Ian told the students. “But, in-
Nellis Air Force Base, Nev., recently host- integrate the needs of people, the possibilities of technology, and the requirements for stead of thinking about revenue, think
ed an Artificial Intelligence and Design business success. about mission completion.â€
Thinking seminar at AFWERX Vegas.
provided by the Institute of Design at “By the end of the exercise, I had al- Several ways in which students can
Event Guest Speaker Chief Master Stanford University. First, each student most completely scrapped my original transform data is using artificial intel-
Sgt. Ian, superintendent of the 9th Intel- sketched his or her idea of the perfect idea because of my partner’s feedback,†ligence, which extracts high-dimensional
ligence Squadron at Beale AFB, Calif., wallet. Next, they interviewed the stu- Raymond chuckled. “He came up with data from the real world in order to produce
introduced more than 100 Airmen, dent beside them to understand their stuff I had never even thought about.†numerical and symbolic information. For
contractors and Department of Defense wallet desires and needs (empathize). example, with the right tools, a dull spread-
employees to the fundamentals of de- The students then reflected on the in- Just as entrepreneurs design, scrap sheet of numbers can be transformed into a
sign thinking, artificial intelligence and terview and what they learned (define) and redesign based on the needs of the moving masterpiece of emotion.
cutting-edge computer technology. before brainstorming and sketching customer, the Air Force aims to build a
ideas to meet their “customer’s†needs culture where leaders identify the needs “You have to make sense out of a ton
“I want to expose you to the way we (ideate). After presenting the sketch to of Airmen, champion their solutions, of data so the warfighter can make a
do business in ISR and empower you to the customer, each student used provided eliminate roadblocks, push back detrac- decision,†Ian explained. “Design is not
be part of the conversation,†said Event materials to build a model of their wallet tors, and celebrate innovative failures just for artsy people. Designing experi-
Coordinator Senior Master Sgt. Amy, (prototype). The final step was testing and successes. ence is all around you.â€
superintendent of the 526th IS, to the the design to see if it met the customer’s
group of attendees. “Hopefully, as the expectations. “You have to ask yourself three ques- Designing ideas and executing ideas
concepts becomes less intimidating, tions before implementing an idea: ‘Can require an abundance of resources.
they will stimulate a culture of curiosity “The idea is to move from personal I build it?’ ‘Will anyone use it?’ and ‘Is One resource available to all Airmen
within you that makes you want to learn bias as a designer to meeting customer there anything better already out there?’†and DOD employees is the AFWERX
more and dig deeper.†needs,†Ian explained. Ian explained. “The real heart is going facility. Amy invited Mark Rowland,
through the process — do we have a AFWERX Vegas director, to explain the
Throughout the seminar, students Senior Airman Raymond, who trav- problem worth solving or a process that unique structure and neutrality of his
were taught how to take data from all eled from the 20th IS at Offutt AFB, Neb., needs improving?†networking hub.
the domains, analyze it, and turn it into watched his design evolve with each cus-
decision quality information. tomer interview. In the end, he designed To further explain the aforementioned “The hub is like Switzerland,†Row-
a wallet with the comfort of a standard questions of feasibility, desirability, and land began. “It’s a safe place. We work
“We need to drive change,†said Chief billfold as well as the convenience of viability, Ian talked with students about with startups, and we work with the Air
Master Sgt. Stefan Blazier, command modern banking. how to identify stakeholders, develop a Force. We speak different languages, but
chief of the 363rd ISR Wing at Joint Base value proposition canvas and transform we both want the same things. You want
Langley-Eustis, Va., in a video message to solutions to your Air Force problems,
the students. “Our adversaries are con- and we want to build solutions to your
stantly developing technology to catch problems. There are one million new
up. We need to adapt and weaponize data visitors to Las Vegas a week. Imagine
to wield answers.†how many new people and new tech-
nologies are here.â€
One way in which Ian taught the stu-
dents to strategically evaluate this data Wrapping up, Rowland left the stu-
was through design thinking, which is a dents with food for thought.
human-centered approach to innovation
that draws from the designer’s toolkit to “Spend 95 percent of your time think-
integrate the needs of people, the pos- ing about the problem and only 5 percent
sibilities of technology, and the require- on the solution,†Rowland continued.
ments for business success. “After all, it’s not about finding a solu-
tion, but about finding the best solution.â€
To illustrate the five steps of design
thinking — empathize, define, ideate, For more information about AFW-
prototype and test — Ian used an exercise ERX Vegas, call 702-790-2330 or visit
http://afwerxdc.org/afwerx-vegas/.
INSIDE: Commentary — 2; News — 3-6; Veterans’ News — 8; Sports - 12; Nellis Living — 13-16
