Voices from DARPA

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.

In this episode, we speak with Christopher Kent, a program manager in DARPA’s Tactical Technology Office. With a background in naval architecture and as the former Deputy Chief Engineer for the Department of the Navy, Kent came to DARPA to solve real-world problems. He shares his work on developing innovative technologies that provide a new layer of security for vessels at sea as well as other parts of the battlefield, including:

Pulling Guard: A semi-autonomous, unmanned system towed behind a ship that acts as a dedicated mobile sentry. It can detect and neutralize threats, providing military-grade protection to commercial vessels without the insurance and regulatory burdens of arming the host ship itself.

Heimdall: Advanced tracking software, inspired by human vision, that can lock onto and follow potential threats in cluttered and chaotic environments. Originally designed for maritime use, this technology has proven so effective that the U.S. Army is also adopting it for ground-based defense systems.

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.

In this episode, we sit down with Keith Whitener, Ph.D., a program manager in DARPA’s Defense Sciences Office (DSO), who discusses the inner workings of reaction mechanisms and how atoms and molecules behave at the smallest possible levels.

In this episode we discuss how key mentors influenced Keith’s career as a physical chemist, how his stent as a Jeopardy champion connects to his DARPA work, and how his DARPA program portfolio tackles some of the military’s largest operational and logistics problems:

SeREne: Aims to make explosives safer to handle and tunable on the fly
HNO3: Aims to eliminate a supply chain risk by enabling high-efficiency production of nitric acid directly from air and water
ExCURSion: Aims to bypass fuel supply line challenges by generating energy at point of need
ExPEDitions: Aims to create a new chemistry for electrically rechargeable batteries to have both the power and energy density of carbon-based fuel

As promised, you can match wits against Keith by reading through a fan-created archive of Jeopardy appearances, including all the questions and answers for the episodes in which he competed.

Music in this podcast episode includes an excerpt of “Tuesday (Groove)” composed by Keith Whitener, available on his legacy personal website.

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. 

Dewhurst shares his unconventional path to the agency and takes us through two of his programs: 

Anticipatory and Adaptive Anti-Money Laundering, A3ML: An innovative program that aims to eliminate global money laundering by treating it as an economic supply-and-demand problem, while preserving privacy through a decentralized approach. 

National Security Economic Theory, NASCENT: A program focused on establishing a principled theoretical foundation for geoeconomics and building generic playbooks for economic statecraft. 

Tune in to discover how Dewhurst is redefining the tools of economic statecraft to prevent pan-domain strategic surprise.

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. 

We unpack the "why" behind the new names on the doors of two tech offices: 

The Multi X Office (MXO): Formerly the Microsystems Technology Office (MTO), MXO is breaking down the walls between physics, chemistry, biology, and materials science. Learn how this integrated approach aims to secure critical supply chains and build resilient physical capabilities. 

The Information Processing Techniques Office (IPTO): Reaching back to a legendary name from DARPA’s history, the former Information Innovation Office (I2O) is focusing on the first principles of computational power and resiliency that will be required to invent the next forward-looking breakthrough technologies for national security. 

Listen in to hear how DARPA is retooling its strategy, embracing massive scale, and transforming its structure to secure America's future. 

MXO
IPTO
Smash
Promethean Clay
Crystal Palace
IPTO history

BTO Program Manager Lt. Col. Adam Willis, M.D., U.S. Air Force, joins Voices from DARPA to share his remarkable journey from a ROTC physics major to a leading innovator in military medicine.

Dr. Willis discusses how a desire to apply science to help people led him down the dual paths of a Ph.D. in theoretical and appliled mechanics and a medical degree with a focus on neurology. He recounts the moment a demonstration of the DARPA-funded Revolutionizing Prosthetics program sparked his interest, leading him to cold-email a military doctor and future mentor, Col. Geoffrey Ling, who gave him a simple, life-changing piece of advice.

In this episode, Dr. Willis explains his work on groundbreaking programs like Golden Hour Evacuation (GOLDEVAC) and Making Anatomical Sense of Hemorrhage (MASH), which aim to revolutionize battlefield medicine by bringing critical care capabilities directly to the point of injury. He details his vision for an "ICU in a box" and autonomous surgical tools that could save countless lives when evacuation to a surgeon isn't possible. He also shares his unique perspective as a "Rosetta Stone," translating complex medical challenges into the language of physics and engineering to find novel solutions.