BETR to BEST - Episode 86

logistics challenge sparked a movement to break a nearly century-old barrier holding back heavy vertical-lift aircraft.

As the landscape of naval warfare changes, traditional defense methods like large convoys and standard object recognition are becoming impractical. New, scalable solutions are needed to help U.S. Navy Sailors identify maritime threats, track potential targets, and safeguard the massive commercial and military logistics vessels that form the backbone of global trade and defense.

What new capabilities can we unlock by understanding how to rearrange the building blocks of matter? At some time in our lives, most of us have learned that matter is made of molecules, molecules are made of atoms, and atoms are made of protons, electrons, and neutrons. But what’s less commonly learned is what’s going on inside those atoms and molecules, such as when a bond breaks or internal components are rearranged through a chemical reaction.

What if we could turn economic complexity into strategic understanding? In this episode, we sit down with David Rushing Dewhurst, Ph.D., a program manager in DARPA\'s Information Processing Techniques Office, IPTO. Dewhurst works at the complex intersection of economics, data science, and national security to develop tools that help America navigate a world where economic competition has become a primary battlefield.

What does it take to solve the world's most urgent national security and economic challenges? At DARPA, it starts with questioning past assumptions. In this episode, we go behind the scenes of a major organizational pivot to hear directly from the office leaders driving the change.