Voices from DARPA

The Nuclear Stargazer: Episode 99

What will it take to move beyond the nuclear equivalent of rubbing sticks together and harness nuclear energy wherever enduring power is needed?  For centuries, humanity

The Audacity Incubator: Episode 98

What happens when DARPA bets on early-career scientists with fresh ideas and gives them a chance to solve real world problems? For 20 years, DARPA’s Young Faculty Award

The Vertical Lift Challenger: Episode 97

logistics challenge sparked a movement to break a nearly century-old barrier holding back heavy vertical-lift aircraft. Phillip “Donna” Smith is a program manager in DAR

The Sea Changer: Episode 96

As the landscape of naval warfare changes, traditional defense methods like large convoys and standard object recognition are becoming impractical. New, scalable solution

The Accidental Chemist: Episode 95

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 ma

The Economics Aficionado: Episode 94

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 I

What's in a Name? Episode 93

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 g

From Cold Call to Critical Care: Episode 92

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 i

From Blockbuster to Biotech Breakthroughs - Episode 91

It started with a movie. It led to a mission. In this episode of "Voices from DARPA," we sit down with Michael Feasel, Ph.D., a program manager in the Biological Techno

A DARPA Debrief - Episode 90

What happens after you've worked on projects that could change the world? We go beyond the cutting-edge technology and "secret labs" to explore the most vital part of DA

AIxCC: AI Cyber Challenge - Episode 89

The AI Cyber Challenge, AIxCC, marks a pivotal inflection point for cyber defense. Numerous attacks in recent years have illuminated the ability for malicious cyber acto

The Idea Pollinators: DARPA Service Chiefs Fellows - Episode 88

The Service Chiefs Fellows connect their operational insights with potential DARPA breakthroughs. We explore DARPA’s Service Chiefs Fellowship Program (SCFP), a 12-week

Racing on the Edge - Episode 87

RACER enables off-road vehicles to travel autonomously and reliably at high speeds over cross-country terrain, enabling new capabilities for our warfighters.  Since the

BETR to BEST - Episode 86

What do smart bandages, ocean-powered sensors, and quantum biology have in common? They’re all part of Dr. Leonard Tender’s work at DARPA. On the latest episode of Voices

More than Microchips - Episode 85

Microelectronics are the foundation of technology today, but what about tomorrow? Ten years from now? Twenty? Real breakthroughs don’t come from simply refining what alr

Episode 84: Hackable Code & the Formal Fix

U.S. national security depends on an aging IT infrastructure that supports a vast network of systems spanning the globe. Over the past three decades, traditional security

Episode 83: When Should Machines Decide?

What characteristics make a person trustworthy? Under what circumstances would a person delegate life or death decisions to artificial intelligence (AI)? Does it matter t

Episode 82: Acquisition Awesomeness

Accomplishing DARPA’s mission of creating and preventing strategic surprise is as much a business challenge as it is a technology challenge. In this episode, team member

Episode 81: DTC - Revolutionizing Triage

In this episode, Dr. Jean-Paul Chretien and Elissa Rupley from our Biological Technologies Office provide an exciting update from the recent DARPA Triage Challenge (DTC)

Episode 80: Decentralizing Chemistry

In this episode, Dr. Vishnu Sundaresan from our Defense Sciences Office highlights several technology programs designed to precisely control chemical processes to enable