Lumenogic Mines Workers’ Opinions for Air Force, Multinationals

To improve its aircraft, the U.S. Air Force typically relies on teams of seasoned engineers and bureaucratic procedures. But in December 2009, the Air Force’s Rapid Reaction Innovation Team at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio, tried an unconventional approach: It asked workers at the Air Force Research Laboratory with less than five years on the job to develop their own proposals. Then some 2,000 personnel voted on the best ideas; ultimately the Air Force awarded $75,000 for prototyping each of the two winners.

David Shahady, the deputy director of the Rapid Reaction Innovation Team responsible for the experiment, says the ideas resulted in better cameras in drones and a radar system that remotely detects human vital signs from 10 times the distance of previous systems. With demonstrations completed this summer, he expects to evaluate them outside the lab over the next year. “We have been trying to find different ways to inspire [our young scientists and engineers] to come up with new ideas ... within our own walls,” says Shahady. “[This project] allowed us to energize this workforce.”