Travis innovation network showcases partners in new lab – The Reporter

Travis Air Force Base is well-known for its defense capabilities and coordinated responses to global crises. What is probably not as well known is that Travis is a hub of technological innovation.

Travis AFB’s Phoenix Spark cell got to showcase some of the novel opportunities available to airmen through an open house Friday at the base’s new Gonge Innovation Center.

“This is the first time we’ve done this event,” Capt. Zach McColgan, deputy chief of Phoenix Spark, said. “They just renovated this building very recently.”

Previously, McColgan said Phoenix Spark was located in a small office of the 9th Air Refueling Squadron, which did not allow for much room.

“We have a lot more space, a lot more stuff,” he said. “That’s really great for us because our goal is to have airmen come and work and collaborate with us, and the more space we have, the more stuff we have, the easier it is for us to do that.”

The new innovation lab is located further down the road in a building that previously served as the 22nd Air Force Staff and Travis Operations Center, where the lab’s namesake — retired Lt. Gen. William Gonge — previously served.

Gonge was present at the ceremony dedicating the center in April, McColgan said. Gonge had served in the U.S. Army Air Corps during World War II and served as the commander of the 22nd Air Force at Travis from 1972 to 1975.

“He was a big, important person to Travis,” McColgan said.

The Gonge Innovation Center is equipped with several technologies and services to empower airmen in the 21st century. Among the innovations present in the lab include virtual reality medical or Security Forces training, Puckboard digital scheduling, robotic arms that change tires on fleet vehicles, unmanned aerial systems and more.

“Phoenix Spark, as an entity here on base, we exist to try to wrap an entity to give solutions to the warfighter, give time back, save money,” Maj. Eric Robinson, Phoenix Spark director, said. “Just because there’s been (COVID) restrictions, we haven’t really stopped doing that. There’s still a lot of partners in the community, vendors that we work with but maybe the base doesn’t know about.”

Several of those partners had booths set up at the open house, where airmen could interact with each partner’s top officials, learn about the services they provide and maybe walk away with some free pens, hand sanitizer and other goodies.

One of the agencies present was Long Capture, a government contract consulting firm that aims to help small businesses engage with the U.S. Department of Defense for a sole-source contract.

“We also hold an SBIR (Small Business Innovation Research), and through that, we work with several different government agencies,” Marketing Director Taylor McCaig said.

McCaig said she hoped to be able to educate airmen on how to use SBIR, which is necessary for sole-source contracts.

Also present was Easy Aerial, a Brooklyn-based company which creates unmanned drones used for perimeter security at military installations. The co-founder, Ido Gur, previously served as a commander for the Israeli Air Force, where he said he always felt “bothered” by base security.

“My team was all engineers,” he said. “They were high-paid engineers, and that would probably not be the most efficient way (to secure the base). I always envisioned, after I go to civilian life, to work in a company that…makes perimeter security.”

The drones are triggered by things like alarms and propel themselves to patrol the perimeters of military bases for any threats. Gur compares them to Roomba vacuum cleaners.

“It leaves the nest, does the work and comes back to recharge itself,” he said.

The drones are also weather resistant, operate at day and night, and have automatic target acquisition and tracking capabilities.

Mattias Ljung, director of engineering enablement at Galvanize, said his company began as a consumer boot camp, then partnered with the Department of Defense to train military members to solve problems using code.

“Both across data science and software engineering, we are trying to make it so the DoD spends less money on contractors who ultimately deliver them the wrong thing, and the people who are on the ground closest to the problem and care about it the most can have the skills to build software solutions to the issues that they’re facing,” he said.

Another company represented was CareStarter, which provides care to all Exceptional Family Member Program (EFMP) beneficiaries. A pilot program is being utilized at Travis, and Travis has become the first military installation to become fully compliant with EFMP.

“If you’re in any branch of the military, and you have a kid with special needs or a spouse with special health care needs, you’re automatically enrolled in the Exceptional Family Member Program,” Founder and CEO Lamarque Polvado said.

The company has a team of Travis airmen to help out. Maj. Tonya Destinhill works as the medical management director, said the base previously had a resource list of about 140 network care providers, but CareStarter has expanded the network to 2,500 providers. Additionally, she said the base was responsible for updating the list of providers that provided TRICARE. Now, CareStarter has streamlined that.

“A lot of times, we were able to get this information over to the families and they weren’t able to get an appointment,” she said. “For us, (CareStarter) is a time-saver on us as workers because we can be reassured that patients can actually access this care in real time.”

Polvado hopes to expand the program throughout the Air Force and is also planning to testify to Congress and other stakeholders on CareStarter’s effectiveness.

Kaitie Penry represented the National Security Innovation Network, a Department of Defense program that aims to create a new group of innovators to solve national security problems.

“We have our customer base, which is any military/DoD units,” she said. “We work with them to see what their problem sets are (and) what kind of solutions they need, and then we fit it into one of our programs.”

Penry said she liked being able to connect with airmen face to face and see what kinds of problems they are facing.

“We’re really just here to help solve problems,” she said.

McColgan said he hopes Phoenix Spark can continue to do what it has been doing, bringing innovative technology to Travis, only in a larger space.

“We hope to have more education events for airmen, teaching them how to 3D print, teaching them how to code and also have them work directly with us,” he said.