UAH’s Invention to Innovation Center (I2C) hosted the “Defense Innovation Summit: Emerging Technologies for National Security” on Thursday, May 23.

The invitation-only gathering was created to facilitate stronger ties between individuals working in different sectors of the national security landscape.

“The primary aim of the summit is to establish a network that connects three key groups: startup innovators, investors, and stakeholders who are interested in leveraging new technologies for defense applications,” stated a release from UAH.

Of the thirty applications that were submitted for consideration, ten were selected for presentation at the Defense Innovation Summit. Each of the ten finalists were given half an hour to pitch their ideas to a panel of leaders in government and private industry. Panelists then had the opportunity to ask questions of the innovators, so that a true exchange of ideas could take place between the investors and the startups.

Red Cell Partners, a McLean, Virginia-based venture capital firm, sent high-level representatives to the conference to participate in the panel. Red Cell has three major areas of focus — healthcare, cybersecurity, and national security. The company invests in businesses that create solutions to meet the greatest demands in each of these three domains.

Veronica Daigle, President of the National Security Practice at Red Cell Partners, sat down with the Huntsville Business Journal on the morning of the 23rd to discuss her hopes for the summit.

“What we want to do is find those kernels of ideas that have tremendous potential. It has to check a couple of boxes. They have to have dual-use capabilities, they have to have potential to expand beyond just one agency,” said Daigle. “And then, can we scale it?”

Daigle and her colleagues at Red Cell believe that many of the most attractive opportunities today focus on places where AI can play an outsized role.

“Critical industries like National Security and Healthcare are characterized by vast amounts of data that require smart decision-making,” said Daigle. “AI is simply a tool that can help anyone — military or not — process and understand large amounts of data and make informed decisions for themselves and their organizations in a more efficient and expedited way than they were previously able.”

Many different perspectives are represented at Red Cell, whose talent has experience working in high-level roles at the Federal Reserve, the National Security Agency, and the Department of Defense.

Daigle said that when you put those former government leaders in the same firm — and at the same table — with people who have had great success in private industry, the conversations tend to be creative and wide-ranging.

“What we all agree on though, is that there is a critical role for AI to play. Looking forward, it’s going to be foundational. But it also needs to be managed responsibly. And the final decision-making has to be in the hands of the human,” said Daigle.

Daigle said that while she hoped that some innovators would walk out of the summit having reached agreements, the most important work of the day would be the exchange of ideas.

“How can we leverage all the different players within this ecosystem to help us create the best tools, the best products, that are going to help the nation,” said Daigle. “We have very real threats out there and those threats are constantly evolving and constantly advancing. So we need to make sure that we’re doing everything that we can to maintain our competitive advantage.”

The challenges facing the military and the national security apparatus at the moment are incredible, but so are the opportunities.

Daigle discussed the current tension between increasing threats and pressure on resources.

“Budgets are tight,” said Daigle. “We see what’s going on with the federal budget. We look down the road and there is an incredible debt that is going to have to be paid.”

Innovation will be necessary to ease the demands between seemingly competing needs. In Daigle’s view, the private sector will play a critical role in developing solutions that balance financial and security needs.

“We’re going to be putting together a handful of companies over the next six months to a year. Success, to me, would be getting companies off the ground that are meeting these needs,” said Daigle.

Event planners hope that the Defense Innovation Summit will become an annual event.