Hi, this is Wayne again with a topic “National Maker Faire: Dale on the Steet with U.S. Army”.
Hi, I’m Dale Dougherty and we’re here at the National maker faire at UDC, and one of our attendees walking around is Brent Chapman, the next chance to talk to him earlier, and I want to share with everybody here: Brent you’re, a research scientist at United States, Military Academy at West Point is that right, that’s right. I teach in the Department of Electrical Engineering and computer science and I’m also researcher at the army cyber Institute. How did you get there? Well, let’s see what so it’s been a long path by making has always been a part of my life for the longest time. You know as a kid I take up all my brothers toys and they didn’t end up on the kitchen floor somewhere and but but you know, I saw some value in there and if you know it really got me to study technology when I got to college. Finally, I West Point so as a student was when I started technology got the firm academic background for it, but the entire time making wasilla hobby putting things together, things that seemed like I had no use trash to.
Some really was really interesting to me. Eventually, I deployed to Afghanistan and all that time I use making as a way to as an outlet. For me we know, whereas others might work out or read a lot I made so I find parts all around the base or order parts from places like Adafruit. I’M have my family or friends, send me old electronics and it just puts up together.
Eventually, I got asked to come to West Point as a faculty member, where I get to do it now as part of my jobs, it’s really exciting, but it’s more than just making. It really kind of you know spreading the idea of innovation, a you know, broadly throughout the military, isn’t it it really is, and it’s not you know it really: it’s not about the technology, it’s about getting everyone, whether their technology focus or not. To understand that all the benefits that can come from making, whether it’s getting people together, whether it’s solving a really difficult problem, it’s important to sort of get this out to the masses. If you will not have it sort of collected by with just one group in particular right and there’s just this idea of doing things with cheap components and doing them quickly that I think the maker movement brings, the southern military procurement processes are very slow and, and Can take months, if not years, to get something.
It is it’s certainly a challenge. You know where our enemies sort of have this really rapid cycle where they go through. Prototyping and development have a product we’re certainly behind in some ways, and we can use this maker mindset this wiring to say we need to innovate, maybe at the lowest level possible, maybe on the gray.
Instead of having things go back, you know to the mothership and doing it constantly right exactly right, because you know where the enemy isn’t going to stop doing it. You know, and we need to make sure that we’re we keep up with them and perhaps get ahead of it you’re, giving a talk here at one-thirty. What give us the highlight sure my talk is about making in the military and it’s it’s about highlights of my life, how it started for me as a hobby and all I get to do it full time at West Point.
What’S the reception uh among you know, others at you know some of the students at west point to this. You know that they think it’s a great thing. You know, even though students that don’t study engineering at all, they love to see that they can put things together, and so we love to have stem outreach events both for the the middle school high school students in the area and also for our cadets at West Point great, thank you for being here and good luck with your talk. Thank you very much, and I appreciate Brent Chapman takes some time to talk here at national Maker Faire. Thank you guys. .