Gen. McDew presents first Commander’s Innovation Challenge Award

SCOTT AIR FORCE BASE, Ill. – Gen. Darren W. McDew, commander, U.S. Transportation Command, recently presented the Commander’s Innovation Challenge Awards. The first Innovation Challenge focused on how the command can respond to rising cyber challenges over the next five years. Submissions addressed skills needed to minimize threats, actions to mitigate risks, and steps to improve operational resiliency. Awards were broken into two categories: Practical Ideas and Big Ideas. Honorable mentions were also awarded.

McDew opened the ceremony by congratulating and thanking everyone for their winning ideas and thanking the supervisors for enabling their people. He noted there were 42 Challenge submissions and he was pleased to have such strong engagement.

There were seven honorable mentions:
•    Stephen Stovey from Operations and Planning directorate received an honorable mention for his idea to create a Joint Cyber Strategy, Joint Cyber Requirements and Cyber way ahead plan for USTRANSCOM for the next one to five years.
•    Master Sgt. Jason Baedke from Air Mobility Command was awarded an honorable mention for his idea to create a Role-Based Permissions mapping tool with the goal of reducing the delay experienced for new squadron members to gain network access.
•    Kevin Reska from Program Analysis and Financial Management directorate earned an honorable mention for his idea to create directorate innovation budgets and reconfigure virtual governance.
•    Rolando Baez from Military Surface Deployment & Distribution Command received an honorable mention for his idea to create a proper Records Management Program, disposing of outdated information.
•    Maj. Steven Foster from Operations and Planning directorate received an honorable mention for his idea to facilitate a hack-a-thon with partners and develop partnerships with local universities with cyber curriculums to identify vulnerabilities in the DoD system.
•    Jillian Watson from Directorate of Acquisition earned an honorable mention for her ideas to reduce systems, creative incentives to retain experts, and recruit to maintain a cyber workforce.
•    John Haley from AMC was awarded an honorable mention for his idea to use virtual reality for cyber applications, such as utilizing technology to hold conferences or virtual trainings.

The top three Practical Ideas were awarded to the following recipients:
•    Capt. Steven Chandler from the Commander’s Action Group was recognized for his idea to leverage personal communications capabilities. Chandler recommended allowing personal communications devices into USTRANSCOM workspaces to bolster cyber resilience and security, increase the workforce’s productivity, and help attract the next generation of talent.
•    Lt. Lorenzo Garner from SDDC was recognized for his idea to develop a partnership with top local universities in USTRANSCOM’s core competencies and/or aspirations. Garner recommended SDDC work with university experts to discuss case studies SDDC has experienced and potential future scenarios.
•    Bruce Busler from Joint Distribution Process Analysis Center was recognized for his idea to develop a Cyber Tiger Team. Busler recommended embracing a structure to ensure the best and brightest ideas of the workforce were implemented to address the most daunting operational and mission challenges.

The top three Big Ideas were awarded to the following recipients:
•    Col. Wade Johnston from Joint Enabling Capabilities Command was recognized for his idea to create a Global Gray Network. The Gray Network would contain classified encrypted data that is controlled by the solution owner or a trusted third party.
•    Alan Lee from Directorate of Acquisition was recognized for his idea to leverage web services. Lee recommended exploring the replacement of the infrastructure expenditure at USTRANSCOM with a MIL cloud.
•    Joseph DiGiovanni from Command, Control, Communications, & Cyber Systems directorate was recognized for his idea to create self-protecting data objects. DiGiovanni recommended using a data concept that involves adding protection to specific data objections, making them self-protecting.

After awarding the winners, McDew closed the ceremony, “Some of these ideas won’t happen tomorrow, but we need big ideas to get us started.”

The second Innovation Challenge focuses on Emerging Technologies. The submission window is now open and closes on Thursday, Nov. 10, 2016.

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