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How new ideas solve future challenges

Central to the success of any organization is a culture of innovation—not only can new ideas solve complex challenges, they can lead to bigger opportunities. Our employees are using research to develop new ideas and approaches to address future challenges, presenting them at our annual Tools, Techniques, and Technology (T3) conference.

The event highlights how employees use creative thinking, visionary ideas, and disruptive technology to find new solutions. In addition, there were exhibits on new advancements in virtual reality, augmented reality, user experience, machine learning, blockchain, and more.

Some examples of these innovations include:

• Application-centric infrastructure deployment at U.S. Central Command headquarters - Overall power consumption reduced by 50 percent and physical fiber optics in the data center reduced by 60 percent
• New open source intelligence (OSINT) tipper generator for U.S. Army - The time needed to format intelligence community reports decreased from 15-20 minutes to 2-3 minutes.
• Virtual machines at Space-Track.org – Ability to redeploy virtual machines instead of patching them and strengthened security against attackers
• Investigations into 3D printing for electronics – Developing the basics for the next generations of integrated circuits
• Photogrammetry at Big Timber Games® - Time for the creation of 3D models dropped from roughly one week to two days
• Commercial-off-the-shelf gaming technologies for Pilot Training Next – Students complete their first successful solo flight on the  virtual flight simulators around their seventh ride compared to traditional training where students solo around their 13th ride.

How we connect people and ideas

The SAIC Fellows program provides a way to connect visionary thinkers from various backgrounds and locations together to improve existing capabilities and create new offerings. SAIC Fellows work together to explore technologies and to help deliver the best solutions possible.

Employees that have a proven ability to take exploratory ideas and create solutions for the company have the opportunity to work on year-long projects funded by SAIC.

“The point of the Fellows program is to develop our technical folks and provide our best and brightest employees with the ability to work on something they are passionate about,” said Matt Peterson, head of the SAIC Fellows program. “They are able to take their exploratory idea and we give them the freedom to work on it for a year and see where they end up.”

Faced with an increasing pace of technological change in today’s world, companies must embrace a culture of innovation or become irrelevant. It is central to the success of an organization.

How we foster innovation

• Tools, Techniques, and Technology (T3) Conference – Our annual conference where employees can present new ideas and how they solve issues.
• Research Fellows Technical Exhibit (TReX) – Part of T3, this exhibit hall is where employees give demonstrations on emerging technology.
• Innovation Factory – Our new virtual lab environment is set up to quickly deliver software services and solutions to the U.S. government.