MindSET

Bringing it all together: The Leidos ecosystem now and into the future Dec 06, 2022

On Today's Show:

In this finale, we look back on the conversations we've had throughout season three, with Robert Franceschini, Deputy Chief Technology Officer at Leidos. He'll walk us through the highlights from the season, how all of these separate mindsets work together to form an unstoppable ecosystem and gives us a look into Leidos' future.

Key Takeaways:

Highlighting the various mindsets and technologies discussed in season three
How these technologies come together in the ecosystem
Looking ahead at what's next for Leidos

Why diversity in health tech is so crucial Nov 22, 2022

On Today's Show:

"It will be a wonderful day when individuals come to work and can be their true whole selves and not worry about, “Do I fit in?” “Do I need to behave a certain way?” People that are worried about being themselves authentically are expending so much energy on something other than being at work and being present.” - Liz Porter

Diversity in health tech will inevitably save lives. Having representation at all levels of development and implementation will ultimately lead to better service and success for everyone. That's something Liz Porter, President of Leidos Health Group and Kristin Gowers, Chief of Staff for Leidos Health Group, recognize and work hard to achieve.

Key Takeaways:

Why diversity in tech is vital to success
Why diversity needs to be at all levels
The changing global workplace's impact on diversity

Links: https://leidos.com/diversity

Project Convergence – new takeaways from the Army’s campaign of learning in multi-domain operations Nov 08, 2022

On Today's Show:

"If you're a firing battery, you have to move quickly and constantly. You cannot stay in the same location, and you have to expect there's gonna be periods of disconnection (but) you have to be able to operate in that and still deliver fires, still know where you are, still have the right information at your fingertips." - John George

In defense operations, there is no room for error. Decisions need to be made fast, but they also need to be the right decisions. To make the right decisions, the speed of vital communication and information can be the difference between a successful mission and a failed one. That's where Leidos comes in.

Leidos is in partnership with the United States Department of Defense on JADC2, or Joint All-Domain Command Control and the Army’s version of JADC2 – Project Convergence – to ensure the most advanced tech and procedures are available. In this episode, John George, Vice President and Army Senior Account Executive and Dan McCormack, Program Manager of C4ISR Solutions, join to explain what JADC2 and Project Convergence are, how Leidos is involved, and why the initiatives are so vital to American defense.

Key Takeaways:

What Joint All-Domain Command Control (JADC2) and Project Convergence are
How the initiatives fit together and why they're so important
How Leidos is involved

Links:

https://leidos.com/defense

Where the tracks meet: Gabby Thomas's world of health studies and becoming a U.S. track star Oct 25, 2022

On Today's Show:

"I wanted to know how I could go into that space, how I could help, and I felt like my background being just a Black woman who is very interested in her own health, (meant) it would be a good area for me to go into and see how I can make a difference." - Gabby Thomas

Gabby Thomas is a two-time Olympic medalist, a Harvard graduate, and a former Leidos intern. She is now pursuing her master’s in public health at the University of Texas. While her life has taken her on multiple different paths, they all intersect with her love for health.

Along the way in her journey to reach her own peak health, she discovered a passion for healthcare equity. Today she joins to share how her experience on the track has impacted her healthcare career and interests and how she balances it all.

Key Takeaways:

Gabby's path to athletics and healthcare studies
Gabby's experience as a Healthcare Innovation Analyst at Leidos
How she manages her busy life and her advice to others

The benefits of focusing on the Digital User Experience Oct 11, 2022

On Today's Show:

"We tend to focus on technology, and so the soft touchy feely becomes secondary. We need to switch that around. We need to start thinking always about how the customers are going to use whatever we provide and then start designing to that." - Lakshmi Ashok

Far too often, organizations put tech first and user experience second. In doing so they build a digital foundation that will steer away users and inevitably lead to patchwork fixes down the line. Lakshmi Ashok is the Vice President of Enterprise Service Management at Leidos. She joins to tell us why focus on DUX is so crucial, where businesses are getting things wrong, and the approaches to take to get it right.

Key Takeaways:

What DUX is and why it matters
Why building out a good DUX early is cost effective
How Leidos is applying their own recommendations

Harnessing the power of Quantum Technology Sep 27, 2022

On Today's Show:

"I mean, we're basically looking at the transistor revolution (...) that took computers from the size of rooms to something you can put in your pocket. It's that kind of, you discover new technology, you apply it everywhere and see what you can do." - Elizabeth Iwasawa

A new frontier for technology is upon us. Quantum Technology is utilizing the fascinating world of quantum physics to revolutionize technology. The practical applications are abundant, and cybersecurity is one of the biggest sectors that stands to gain from this progression. The technology is already in use for quantum encryption, quantum computers, and more. Elizabeth Iwasawa is Leidos' Quantum Technology Lead and a Research Scientist. She joins to explain what Quantum Technology is, why it's revolutionary, and what it means for the future of cybersecurity.

Key Takeaways:

What Quantum Technology is and how it's different
How Cybersecurity will be revolutionized by Quantum Technology
How it will change the future of computing

The energy grid is in crisis, but we can fix it Sep 13, 2022

On Today's Show:

"It's not that we don't invest enough, it's that an awful lot of people would say we don't get enough value for the money we spend. That's where our team and our opportunity comes to do more, better, faster to drive better resiliency in the system and to ultimately keep costs low so everybody benefits from a more resilient, clean energy." - Josh Wepman

The world relies on energy. It's integral to our way of life, and that reliance is only growing. But while the technology we use has advanced at a rapid pace, throwing us into the future, our energy grid supplying that power hasn't. It's full of outdated infrastructure, in need of desperate repair, and there just simply isn't enough human power to get it done. That's why Josh Wepman is finding solutions elsewhere like in automation and modern technologies. Josh Wepman is the Technology Officer for Commercial Energy Solutions at Leidos. He joins the show to explain some of the major issues our energy grid faces, and the solutions he and his team are working on keep America running.

Key Takeaways:

What energy automation offers to our way of life
How climate change is increasing the need to an update to our energy grid
The strategies we're working on right now to fix our system

Links:

Leidos.com/energysolutions

Moving at speed with software advancements Aug 30, 2022

On Today's Show:

"The first step is realizing that the first decision you make won't be your last. There's not a perfect solution out there. There are a lot of variables to consider when we build a system or solution. We can't just pick the hot new thing because it might not be mature enough or it might not work in our customer space." - Paul Burnette.

There's a lot of care and big decisions that go into successful software planning for an organization. Changes in the software world happen at an astounding pace. It's not only important to pick the right solutions for today, but also to think about resiliency in the future. Not to mention finding the right solutions that fit in with the tech landscape already present in an organization without sacrificing practicality or efficiency. Today, Paul Burnette, Vice President of the Software Accelerator, and Drew Formica, Software Architect at Leidos join to share why it's so important for organizations to keep up with software tech and how they can do it in a way that keeps workflows fast and ready for the future.

Key Takeaways

What Mission Software is
The importance of keeping up to date with software
Why looking to the future is crucial when finding solutions.

Links

www.leidos.com/software

Why the Cloud is integral to a modern digital approach Aug 16, 2022

On Today's Show:

"The security is actually more stringent and more secure, even though from a practical sort of perception standpoint, it may not seem that way at, at first glance. But when you peel back the onion layers, you'll realize this way of operating, yeah, it's different, but it's actually much more secure and it gives the users a much better experience." - David Chou

The modern digital landscape requires a new way of thinking about both cybersecurity and user experience. Cloud technology offers the solution for both of those things while not sacrificing efficiency. David Chou is the Director of Cloud Capabilities at Leidos. He joins to tell us about how the cloud works, why it's the safest option, and why it's crucial when working with Zero Trust or Beyond Compliant strategies.

Key Takeaways

What Digital Modernization is and where the Cloud fits in
The differences between the Cloud and on-site servers
How the Cloud makes modern security approaches possible

Links

www.leidos.com/cloud

Getting in front of cyberattacks with Beyond Compliance Aug 02, 2022

On Today's Show:

"There will always be incidents to respond to though. And that's part of this mindset too, is that you're assuming breach much like in zero trust. You're awaiting it, but you already have mechanisms in place to help you in that situation" - Meghan Good

As cyber threats continue to evolve, security is more important than ever. It is no longer effective to just meet basic requirements. In today's world, security needs to be proactive. It needs to look ahead and predict the future threats it may need to fend off. That's exactly what the Beyond Compliance approach is, and why it's such a game changer. Meghan Good is VP and Director of the Cyber Accelerator at Leidos. Today, she joins to explain what Beyond Compliance means, how it works, and the best way for organizations to begin with this modern-day approach to cybersecurity.

Key Takeaways

How to think Beyond Compliance
Overcoming the challenges involved in always looking ahead
Why collective defence is the way forward

Links

www.leidos.com/cyber

Building trust in AI as technology rapidly advances Jul 19, 2022

On Today's Show:

"If you can get the trust relationship right, when humans and machines actually work together to solve problems you can really transform the way that business is done. If you build that relationship with intention based on trust, then humans actually really like working with AI-enabled capabilities traditionally." - Ron Keesing

Some of our best work in technology comes when humans and machines work together. That also applies to AI-enabled tech. But to see those rewards, like any relationship, trust needs to be present, and that means it needs to be built. Building that trust is a task the team at Leidos is heavily focused on. Today, Ron Keesing, Senior VP for technology integration at Leidos and Tifani O'Brien, Lead for the AI and Machine Learning Accelerator at Leidos join us to walk us through how they're doing that and the challenges they face.

Key Takeaways

How trust in AI impacts the application of the technology
Methods for evoking trust in AI
How AI can help humans unlearn biases

Links

www.leidos.com/ai

Zero Trust: The new way forward in cybersecurity Jul 05, 2022

On Today's Show

"This philosophy is very different from traditional thinking, which is if we build a wall big enough, we can keep all the bad guys out. Well, eventually the bad guys will master flight and make it over our walls. And then what? That's where Zero Trust philosophy says, protect the inside just like we do outside the walls." - Jeff Mims

Zero Trust is a cybersecurity approach that looks at security not just from the lens of keeping people out, but also at how we can protect all spaces when hackers do get in. It's not necessarily a new mindset, but it's been seeing a lot of traction since President Biden signed an executive order in 2021 making adoption mandatory for federal organizations. Jeff Mims is a Leidos Chief Technologist. He spends most of his time in the Zero Trust world and he joins the show to explain more about what it is, how it works and why it's so important.

Key Takeaways

How Zero Trust is different from a typical cybersecurity mindset
Recent events that have made adoption crucial
What it means for the future of cybersecurity

Links

www.leidos.com/zerotrust

IT Infrastructure in the new space age Jun 21, 2022

On Today's Show

"It's interesting thinking back to what sent a man to the moon the first time." ... "To see the sheer size and volume of those (computers) and to know now that we have that technology at our fingertips and the ability and the power that it can provide is really beyond imagination." - Nate Apodaca

In December 2022, it will officially be 50 years since humans set foot on the moon. In half a century, the world has changed drastically, and so has the technology that got us there. But as the world has turned more digital, the importance of secure and stable IT infrastructure has never been more important. That's why as NASA looks forward to the most ambitious era of space travel in history, they need a team that can be trusted to bring the best and most reliable systems possible.

Nate Apodaca is the Vice President and Division Manager of the NASA portfolio at Leidos. He joins host Shaunté Newby to share what IT infrastructure means in the context of space exploration, why it's more important than ever, and the new challenges that his team at Leidos are working to overcome.

Key Takeaways

What makes IT infrastructure for NASA unique
Why the technology is so much more sophisticated than in previous space ages
As NASA increases its velocity in its race to space, Leidos IT services will transform and transfigure the way that NASA consumes, accepts, and embraces information technology

Links

Season Three Is Coming Soon May 31, 2022

MindSET Season Three kicks off this June. New host Shaunté Newby brings us conversations about Trusted AI, IT infrastructure in space and a whole lot more. Get ready to get in the MindSET of some of the greatest thinkers at Leidos and across the country.

For more information, visit https://www.leidos.com/mindset

Crossing the Technological Valley of Death with Steve Cook Dec 09, 2021

The technological Valley of Death sounds dramatic because it is. In the life cycle of a program or product, it’s the difficult divide between concept and production.

“[The Valley of Death is] called that because many, many programs get to level three, level four, and they don't go any further, or they may make it to level five, but they don't go any further.”

Why is the technological Valley of Death such a hot topic? Because getting a product from one end of the valley to the other - from inception to operational - is how innovative ideas come to life. But things don’t make it across the valley often enough.

Innovation is the lifeblood of an organization - if new ideas don’t get to the operation stage, a company’s growth quickly stalls.

Stephen Cook, Deputy Group President at Dynetics, knows all about the technological Valley of Death. In today’s episode, he explains why it’s so hard to cross the valley successfully, and how Dynetics and Leidos successfully live in the valley.

“Don't fear it. Right. It's gotten this name for good reason. But there are reasons to change it and there are ways to deal with it.”

On today’s podcast:

What is the the technological Valley of Death
Why it has become so common
5 keys to success in crossing the Valley
Examples of innovations that made it through the Valley

Cyber Challenges from Attacks to Zero Trust with Meghan Good Nov 11, 2021

With the rising number of cyber attacks reported in the news, and the growing importance of complex cyber environments, there has never been a better time to talk about cyber awareness.

Given the increasingly more sophisticated threats including data breaches and ransomware attacks that are occurring all too frequently, how can organizations protect the data within their cyber environments? And what are the core cyber challenges our customers face?

Vice President and Director of the Cyber Accelerator Meghan Good shines a light on emerging cyber technologies, trends in cybersecurity, and the increasing adoption of the zero trust philosophy.

“There's a lot of promise about applying machine learning to cyber use cases. For us, we're looking at the detection challenge, and how we can use machine learning to enhance our detection capabilities, which really is very similar to how it would be used in zero trust cases.”

On today’s podcast:

The major challenges for cyber technology
President Biden's executive order
What zero trust means
Why create “weird” environments
The challenge facing cyber-physical systems

Demystifying COVID-19: Vaccines, variants, masks, and mandates with Dr. Don Kosiak Oct 14, 2021

Since we first spoke to Leidos Chief Medical Officer Dr. Donald Kosiak 18 months ago, the world has changed in a myriad of ways we could never have imagined.

In today’s episode, Dr. Kosiak discusses variants, vaccines, masks, what the strategy is for exiting the pandemic and what we might see in the future when we manage to move past it.

At the start of the pandemic, people were thinking we might be able to suppress the virus, meaning we would eradicate it, but that’s just not the case. Coronaviruses tend to need to become endemic, like the common cold. Meaning the only way out of the pandemic for all of us is through immunity.

And that immunity can come in several ways: from getting COVID in the past and recovering, from getting the vaccine and gathering immunity, or a hybrid of those, i.e. getting the vaccine and having COVID infection.

“Until a large percentage of the global population, not just that of the United States, has one of those three things happen, we'll be reading about COVID and dealing with COVID for the foreseeable future.”

On today’s podcast:

The strategy for exiting the pandemic
What we can learn from past pandemics
The vaccines and their effectiveness
The Delta variant and breakthrough cases
The debate on masks

Confronting AI’s Trust Issues with Ron Keesing Aug 04, 2021

When technology works, humans trust it very quickly. But you can’t go from zero to building a really trusted AI system overnight. It takes time for technology to get to the stage where people are ready to develop a trust relationship with it.

We’ve come so far in the last decade developing AI at Leidos, as a company we’re incredibly passionate about our trusted AI mission. While research has shown we trust self-driving cars within 10 minutes, there's still a tremendous need for trusted AI across the government, in combat and in matters of national security

In this episode of the Leidos MindSET podcast, we have Head of AI at Leidos, Ron Keesing, talking about confronting AI’s trust issues. He shares how the AI that we view today as an easily trusted system is in fact the result of extensive development, testing, expertise and interaction that’s occurred over a long period of time.

On today’s podcast:

The consequences if AI isn’t trusted
From self driving cars to the sea hunter platform
The 4AI methodology for developing trust in AI
Navigating the ethics of AI
What’s next for trusted AI?

New discoveries in military mental healthcare Jun 21, 2021

Mental health is a big story right now in the military community. Traumatic brain injury (TBI) and Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are often referred to as the “invisible wounds of war,” and military doctors consider concussions to be the signature wound of the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.

June is PTSD Awareness Month, and it comes at a time when the military science community is making huge advances in how it mitigates, diagnoses and treats these invisible wounds. This episode of the Leidos MindSET podcast explores topics of military mental healthcare and new discoveries in the field.

In this episode we’re joined by Dr. Jennifer Belding, Dr. Jessica Watrous and Robyn McRoy, San Diego-based Leidos scientists who are discovering new solutions to mental health challenges through research.

On today’s podcast:

Studying the “invisible wounds of war”
The intersection of physical and mental health
Confronting the stigma of seeking mental healthcare
Caring for the mental health of military families

Links:

A year of extreme weather and its warning to the power industry with Josh Wepman Apr 12, 2021

Welcome back to Season Two of the Leidos MindSET podcast.

The past year has been remarkable in terms of the climate. 2020 saw extraordinary wildfires, tropical storms and heat. As we saw more recently in Texas, extreme weather can have devastating effects on the power grid and put lives at risk.

What have we learned about the grid’s vulnerabilities? To learn more, we welcome Leidos energy expert Josh Wepman to discuss:

The effects of extreme weather on the power industry
Distributed energy
What are microgrids?
The impacts of climate change
Alternative energy sources

Links:

www.leidos.com/mindset

Delivering Innovation with Speed, Security, and Scale with Jim Carlini Oct 22, 2020

Who better to round out MindSET season one than the Chief Technology Officer at Leidos, Jim Carlini.

Jim first joined Leidos in the early 1990s, and in this episode he shares not only his career journey to date, but also what he’s seen over the last 30 years in terms of evolution of technology and innovation.

More specifically, Jim discusses overarching themes he sees on a daily basis from customer requirements and challenges and how Leidos is addressing these. He describes how Leidos is delivering innovation at speed, with security, and doing it at scale.

“Those problems really demand application of innovation at scale. And we need, all of our customers need, to do it very quickly and to do it with a high degree of security, because in our interconnected information fabric, everything is within reach and everything needs to be secured.”

On today’s podcast:

Enduring technology challenges
Technology requirements across markets
Delivering innovation with speed, security, and scale
Impact of COVID-19 from a technology perspective

Operations & Logistics from Glaciers To Galaxies with Lisa DeVine Oct 08, 2020

What does operations and logistics look like at the extremes? Lisa DeVine, portfolio manager at Leidos, joins MindSET today to discuss this very question.

She defines what operations and logistics means, and how those definitions differ based on customer set or industry. And she offers examples of how Leidos is delivering logistic solutions from glaciers to galaxies and everything in between.

“In a commercial environment, we often think of logistics as procurement, warehousing and distribution. But in a defense construct, operations and logistics often encompasses other activities such as maintenance operations and transportation.”

But what technology is enabling this? How does automation, robotic process automation, autonomy, 3D printing, telemaintenance and wearables fit into the mix?

The market is changing constantly, driven by the “Amazon effect” - where customers want and expect more speed and efficiency. Paired with the drive for the application of intelligent technologies and an interest in more resiliency, the role of a logistician is changing too - it’s not just someone working in a warehouse anymore.

“It's so expanded these days, with software developers and analytics folks and the people who really ask ‘what if’ to make the whole supply chain work more smoothly.”

On today’s podcast:

What are operations and logistics?
Why companies are investing in automation in their warehouses
Emerging technology in logistics
The Amazon effect
The impact of the pandemic on supply chains

On A Mission To Mars with Kim Doering Sep 24, 2020

NASA’s Artemis program is centered around space exploration and setting up an infrastructure and ultimately a lunar economy on Mars.

To talk us through human landing systems (HLS) and how the Leidos and Dynetics team is working with NASA to send the first woman and the next man to the lunar surface is 36-year space systems veteran Kim Doering.

Kim is Vice President of Space Systems at Dynetics, a Leidos company. Kim shares her career journey to Dynetics and how she’s excited to see the passion and enthusiasm in the next-generation team that’s coming aboard to work on this new mission in space.

She also talks about the evolution of Dynetics’ space exploration capabilities, from space centers to propulsion systems and satellites to working on NASA’s Artemis program.

She explains what differentiates the Leidos Dynetics human landing system to make it crew-centric, modular, and how they’ve pulled together a vast team of experts to collaborate for a really sustainable solution. And how this technology they’re developing can be applied more broadly to support missions on earth, develop new materials, new diagnostics and new research that all could have implications in the future.

On today’s podcast:

The evolution of Dynetics and their work with Leidos
The programs Dynetics is involved in with NASA
NASA’s Artemis program
Concept of the lunar economy
The collaborative approach to Dynetics’ HLS
Difference between the Apollo and Artemis missions

The Science of Health and Wellness with Kevin Kaiser Sep 10, 2020

Within the Leidos Health Group, a team of more than 300 scientists, researchers, and program managers are focused on how human performance and biobehavioral research can support warfighters serving on land and on and under the sea.

Today’s guest on MindSET, Kevin Kaiser, leads this team as Vice President and Division Manager of Biobehavioral Research. His team focuses on both human subject and database-driven research in the areas of combat trauma, casualty care, warfighter performance, psychological resilience, behavioral health, readiness, and clinical research.

“As part of the military and veterans’ health operation and the overall human performance and behavioral health account within Leidos, we are uniquely positioned to use our research abilities and analytical skills to take various types of data and turn it into actionable information for our customers.

Kevin has had an incredibly unique career combining his interest and background in human performance, research, data, and technology to prevent illness, injury, and to optimize human performance not just in the military world, but in the corporate one, too.

In this latest episode, Kevin shares his path to Leidos and how the military applies Leidos’ research to optimize the entire deployment cycle of a warfighter and drive decision making, to promote readiness and resilience in our nation’s military. He also discusses the implications COVID-19 has had on research for the military and more broadly in a corporate setting.

For anyone wanting to follow in Kevin’s footsteps or to find out more about biobehavioral research, this is an unmissable episode.

On today’s podcast:

What is biobehavioral research
Leidos’ capabilities in human performance across the deployment cycle
Examples of biobehavioral research, including human subject and database-driven studies
Impacts of COVID-19 on human performance research

Real-Time Decision Making with Edge To Cloud Aug 27, 2020

Analyzing data to make mission-critical decisions used to take days or weeks, but now edge to cloud operations have reduced this time to hours if not minutes. With edge to cloud, decision making is moved to the edge where data is collected and allows the data to rapidly transit to link the mission space to the cloud.

Derrick served in the U.S. Army in the intelligence domain and was deployed on several overseas missions, and he is now Director of Digital Modernization at Leidos.

“My focus has moved from working with customers, to facilitate intelligence collection and analysis, to building out mission systems that actually enable customers to exploit data and make sense of threat information.”

Derrick has come full circle bringing his career journey to a place where he can now offer capabilities to the modern warfighter. Working with Leidos for the last decade, Derrick is responsible for leading the corporation’s edge computing to cloud strategy and creating an edge to cloud ecosystem.

To find out how edge to cloud can be used across multiple verticals and use cases to collect, process and analyze data in near real time, don’t miss this episode.

“As our world becomes increasingly more connected, [edge to cloud] is forming that electric grid, if you will, of data as it's going from devices to the cloud, and back.”

On today’s podcast:

The definition of edge to cloud
How edge to cloud accelerates innovation and digital modernization
The capabilities included in the edge to cloud ecosystem at Leidos
The importance of edge to cloud operations across sectors

Links:

Leidos talent acquisition

Human Factors from Desktop to Deep Space Aug 13, 2020

Like lots of kids, Kritina Holden dreamed of working at NASA when she grew up. Not necessarily as an astronaut, just at NASA. However, unlike lots of kids, Tina’s dream actually came true.

Kritina Holden, Ph.D., Technical Fellow in Human Factors at Leidos, has spent most of her career at NASA's Johnson Space Center, focusing on how humans interact with technology.

“Unlike a technology focused role, a human factors practitioner's role is to focus on the human user. It's not about what cool technologies can be brought to bear on a problem, but really about fully understanding -- what are the needs of the user in performing their task? And then what cool technologies might meet those needs?”

In this episode, Tina discusses how she got into the field, what being a Technical Fellow in Human Factors actually means, and what human systems integration is. She also shares some examples of how NASA is using human systems integration (HSI) in their program today and into the future as they plan for missions to Mars.

“Focusing on the human means that you involve the user from the beginning. Try to understand their capabilities, the environment they work in, and the culture of the environment. We follow the well-known Human Factors maxim of know thy user - for they are not you.”

To learn more about how HSI applies to office applications as well as space travel, how movies often miss the mark when it comes to realistically usable technologies, and how someone aspiring to follow in Tina’s footsteps can achieve their NASA dream, don’t miss this enlightening episode.

On today’s podcast:

How human systems integration (HSI) differs from typical engineering approaches
The human-centered design (HCD) process
How NASA has used the HCD process
The benefits of HSI and HCD outside of NASA

Links:

NASA's podcast: Houston, we have a podcast.
www.usability.gov

Creating The Security Checkpoint of the Future with Bill McGann Jul 30, 2020

We are entering a new age of air travel, and the security checkpoint could look much different with new technology advances.

To talk about what technology is and has been implemented in airports to protect and support travelers is Bill McGann, Chief Technology Officer for Leidos’ Security Detection & Automation operation.

Leidos acquired L3Harris Technologies’ Security Detection and Automation businesses in May, and now offers a comprehensive suite of fully automated and integrated security technology solutions for aviation, ports and borders, and critical infrastructure customers around the world.

In today’s episode of MindSET, we focus on airports and how our portfolio will help facilitate safe, healthy, and efficient passenger movement and enhance the passenger travel experience.

Why is Bill the best person to talk about this? Having worked in the arena for over 30 years, you can hear his passion for the subject when he talks.

“You've always got to lean forward and look ahead and never let the current events in the world stop you. And that is the vision that I know the team I work with in Leidos has and we're generally really excited.”

This is an incredibly enlightening episode, not just because the subject is pertinent to all of us, but because the technologies that Bill discusses aren’t in the distant future, some of them exist in operation today at current checkpoints around the world.

On today’s podcast:

What the checkpoint of the future looks like
How passenger experiences in security checkpoints can be improved
The touchpoints that will enhance the passenger experience
Creating a frictionless travel experience

Sensors, Collections & Phenomenology Jul 16, 2020

Sensor technology is developing rapidly. New technologies and new applications are occurring frequently in the commercial sector and are being applied, matured or adapted for mission specific programs on the defense side too.

Talking us through how Leidos is involved in this arena is Cayley Rice, Enterprise Lead for Sensors, Collections & Phenomenology at Leidos.

With the influx of products and tools available commercially, and a growing trend of commercial sensors for common items like your doorbell, your smartphone or your thermostat, for example, how and where does Leidos fit into the picture?

What custom sensors isLeidos building and how are these being integrated into systems that can be rapidly deployed into some of the most demanding and mission critical kinds of environments?

Cayley provides a fascinating insight into the challenges and requirements that we have for this technology, as well as the need to speed up the timeframe for adapting sensor systems to commercial speed.

“We're basically adapting technology from the commercial world that got us smartphones, and using that same kind of process to advance micro-electronics for sensors and signal processing.”

On today’s podcast:

Sensors, Collections & Phenomenology
The capabilities Leidos has in this arena
The opportunities with sensors for government agencies today
What distinguishes Leidos from the commercial space
The challenge of cycle time to new innovations

How Data are Transforming Healthcare Jul 02, 2020

Dr. Julie Rosen is the Chief Scientist of the Leidos Health Group and Chair of the Leidos Technical Fellows, a program that celebrates technology, science and engineering across Leidos.

In this latest episode of MindSET, Julie shares her thoughts on how data are transforming healthcare, what AI and ML mean in the healthcare space, the challenges they’re up against, what is going well, as well as what the future looks like for the Health Group and how, as a mathematician, she’s become its Chief Scientist.

“Many people think data science is all about the mathematical algorithms used to crunch data. The true challenge lies in creating and applying the right model to the data available at a given time, and that data are relevant to investigate the mission need.”

So, if you're a future technologist or you’re just starting out in your career, Julie is someone you want to listen to.

“We want to make sure we cultivate the next generation of scientists and engineers at Leidos and in the larger technical community. On behalf of my fellow tech fellows, please reach out to any of us if you have questions about your technical career, or you want to talk about a particularly challenging technical problem.”

On today’s podcast:

How a mathematician gets into health
How data are transforming the healthcare space
Why big data isn’t at the heart of 21st century data science
How AI and ML are impacting data analysis
The data analytics challenges today and in the future

Solving the Cybersecurity Puzzle with Arlette Hart & Meghan Good Jun 18, 2020

Cybersecurity isn’t an issue that can be dealt with simply by using technology. It’s about working together to solve challenging puzzles, bringing together technology and people to solve complex problems.

This week’s guest on MindSET, Arlette Hart, Senior Technologist for Cybersecurity at Leidos, believes cybersecurity sits at the intersection between technology and people. For Arlette, if you want to protect against cybersecurity threats and vulnerabilities, both technology and people have to work together.

Of course technology is important, it creates an opportunity for us to better detect, sense and react to activities happening, and even predict them, but it also creates new challenges of having to then protect the things that you’ve just created. It’s a vicious cycle.

Joining Arlette in this podcast is MindSET host, Meghan Good, Cyber Solutions Lead for the Intelligence Group at Leidos. And what makes the conversation so rich is that, while they both have cybersecurity as their focus, including its challenges and innovations, they’ve come at it along very different paths.

On today’s podcast:

Cybersecurity sits at the intersection of people and technology
The various pathways to cybersecurity at Leidos
The biggest threat to cybersecurity today
The advancements in cybersecurity
The impact of COVID-19 on cybersecurity

Big Robot Boats with Donnelly Bohan Jun 04, 2020

On this week’s MindSET episode, Leidos Vice President and Maritime Systems Division Manager Donnelly Bohan talks about her work and experience in maritime autonomy, or as her team calls it “big robot boats.” Donnelly tells us about her role working with Sea Hunter, the Leidos designed and built Medium Unmanned Surface Vessel (MUSV), which became the first ship to successfully autonomously navigate from San Diego to Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, and back without a single crew member onboard, except very short duration boardings by personnel from an escort vessel to check electrical and propulsion systems.

Donnelly has been the division manager for maritime systems for three years, prior to which she had a 17-year career with the company stretching back to the SAIC days. And while she’s carved out this niche career, it wasn’t what she envisioned herself doing when she left school.

“I thought I would end up in a leadership role in a hospital portfolio, and that didn't come together quite as I expected. I did some internships and it wasn't as I thought it was going to be. I ended up transitioning to work for the state of Illinois on a technology challenge grant. So I jumped right into cutting edge technologies.”

And Donnelly has never looked back.

She is immensely proud of the work she does, the team she works with, the technology they develop, and the role their work plays in keeping Sailors safe via the ability to use autonomous vessels in dangerous missions.

On today’s podcast:

The range of future maritime autonomy technologies

How maritime autonomy supports the US Navy
AI/ML in autonomy development and COLREGs
Managing a diverse, dispersed workforce
The next evolution of autonomous vessels
Commercial uses for autonomy technology
Her advice for engineers or others wanting to get into maritime autonomy

Links:

Rapid Prototyping Success through an Exceptional Team May 21, 2020

How passionate are you about your work team? Are they the reason you joined the company and what makes your work exceptional? In this episode of MindSET, we are talking with Trip Ferguson, Director of Manufacturing at Dynetics, a Leidos company.

“I want to be surrounded by the smartest people in the industry, and I believe Dynetics provides that, and I feel very confident that the resources will be available for me to succeed.”

Trip leads the team responsible for safety, quality supply and manufacturing operations at Dynetics, and he’s very vocal about his belief in their capabilities, in particular their unique process for design, rapid prototyping and manufacturing.

And this team is exceptional. They have perfected a collaborative approach to designing, prototyping, and manufacturing incredibly complex solutions like weapon systems to cables and harnesses. Working together at the Huntsville, AL, location, the team is able to take their customers’ requirements from design to prototype and get them up to rigid government standards and international standards in an accelerated timeline.

“Our technicians are highly qualified. If there's one thing that separates Dynetics from everyone else it’s we have the best people. We have frontline employees that have full ownership in what we do. And they're all trained to meet and exceed industry standards.”

On today’s podcast:

How Dynetics uses rapid prototyping to solve complex problems
Core capabilities of Dynetics and its manufacturing operations team
What projects are best suited for rapid prototyping
The biggest opportunities and challenges related to rapid prototyping
What sets the Dynetics team apart from competitors

Digital Modernization with Doug Jones May 07, 2020

Today on MindSET we’re speaking with Doug Jones, Director of Leidos Digital Modernization Accelerator.

Doug has spent almost 20 years working in this arena. He started off with a focus on large scale, mission critical, software systems for the government, in particular for DHS and the FBI and delivering these projects. He then pivoted into information technology and cloud DevOps, before taking a sojourn into running cyber operations for DHS.

Now he’s working out of the Leidos corporate technology office, and has a focus on innovations and identifying innovations. He’s trying to centralize and get across the value of their various cross disciplines to all of Leidos’ customers, in order to accelerate their ability to deliver mission value.

On today’s podcast:

How Doug got into the technology field
Digital modernization only exists to support customers in their work
The high level challenges in digital modernization
Which technologies are getting the most attention from the industry and customers
Where the big transformations will be happening in the next 5 years
How Doug stays at the leading edge of innovations
The importance of listening for the creative process

Practical Measures for COVID-19 Prevention Apr 23, 2020

As many contemplate how to safely return to work, this week’s MindSET explains what proactive and preventative measures one company has taken to protect employees and customers from the transmission of COVID 19.

QTC, a Leidos company and the largest provider of medical disability and occupational health exam services in the United States, has continued to operate throughout the coronavirus pandemic to deliver its mission critical services.

In this special podcast episode, Grant Kim, CEO of QTC, describes the practical measures they’re taking in both clinical and densely populated office settings to ensure not only their staff’s safety, but the safety of their examinees too.

QTC has been implementing practical measures since the end of February - getting to practically zero transmission while still operating during this time of crisis. Grant credits their culture and innovation of their employees, who figured out ways to proactively implement prevention measures early on so that QTC could continue delivering their services safely.

“I think what we're most proud of as we reflect back on the month of March, where we performed well over 50,000 exams across 90 clinics throughout the country, we've had not one reported incident of infection between the veteran staff and providers.”

On today’s podcast:

Why the work at QTC is mission critical
What measures QTC took early on to mitigate the spread of the virus in both clinics and their densely populated office environment
The importance of being able to adapt, improvise and overcome
How QTC built confidence and combatted anxieties surrounding facing the unknown
Four key aspects of their management plan for dealing with COVID 19 going forward

Links:

https://www.linkedin.com/company/qtc-managment---a-leidos-company/

Software Factories and Maintaining a Great Culture with Mike Raker Apr 09, 2020

If great culture is what you look for in an organization, then you should look no further than Leidos. Today we talk with Mike Raker, Vice President and Chief Engineer for Leidos, specializing in C4 operations.

Mike has worked at Leidos for over 19 years and having been involved in a number of different positions, from modeling and simulation ops research, to software development, he considers himself blessed to have had such a wide ranging career with so many different opportunities working in lots of different technology spaces.

And his extensive experience is what we are tapping into in today’s podcast, because Mike is at the sharp end of bringing all the C4 systems together, allowing customers to make and execute better decisions.

On today’s podcast:

What C4 technology involves
What a software factory is and why it matters to DOD and other government agencies
The perfect blend of startup culture and entrepreneurship
Why universities with their talent influences where the next software factories are located
The culture within software factories
How to match the level of innovation in the software factories with the level of standards that need to be maintained
Future trends in software development
Why software factory isn’t a generalist term, but the best one to describe what they do

Combatting Coronavirus with Dr. Donald Kosiak Mar 26, 2020

The world is shutting down: travel is curtailed, socialising is taboo, shops are closed, COVID-19 has every community, globally, in a state of panic. And if there's ever a company designed to step into the void and say, “we're here to help”, it's Leidos.

“Because of the depth and breadth that Leidos can bring to the table, particularly around disease surveillance, the processing of new medications, new technologies to be applied in the healthcare space, we think we're at a unique advantage to help solve many crises, but this one in particular.”

Tune in and learn how Leidos is leveraging our 50+ years of helping our customers solve hard challenges, to try to unravel this particular riddle.

On today’s podcast:

The scientific basics of the Coronavirus
How Leidos is supporting the efforts to contain COVID-19
Why we should ALL be social distancing
The best practices to help limit the spread of COVID-19
The different risk levels for different age groups
The cyber security challenges coming out of the pandemic

Separating Science From Science Fiction in AI with Ron Keesing Mar 12, 2020

“I’ve always been fascinated with AI - an early opportunity for me professionally was to work with NASA on a spacecraft mission called Deep Space, where we built the first software that could actually control a deep space mission. It was such an exciting experience - it ignited a lifelong passion in me for working with AI.”

Ron Keesing, Vice President and Director of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning at Leidos is a huge advocate of AI and ML and today shares with us his passion for how we humans can best utilize this human like intelligence to solve our problems.

But he’s quick to point out that whilst AI systems can exhibit varying degrees of intelligence, they should be thought of more as assisted intelligence, where systems are helping humans in a non invasive way to do things like Netflix movie recommendations, or auditing, or to search the entirety of the world wide web.

On today’s podcast: