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        Policy UpdatesNewsroomReoptimizationBIOGRAPHIESAF Senior Leaders      Yokota AFWERX team seeks to invest, innovate, informU.S. Air Force Maj. Daniel Hughes, 374th Operations Group director of staff, looks at a head-up display devised for pilots at the Defense and Security Equipment International Japan exhibition in Tokyo, March 16, 2023. Hughes was among 20 members from Yokota Air Base who attended DSEI Japan to seek out new, cutting-edge technology in a trip organized by YokoWERX, an AFWERX spark cell at Yokota that helps innovative Airmen bring their ideas to life. (U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Natalie Doan)
                
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Yokota AB AFWERX team seeks to invest, innovate, informPublished March 22, 2023
                    
                    By Airman 1st Class Natalie Doan
                    
                    
                    374th Airlift Wing Public Affairs
            **YOKOTA AIR BASE, Japan (AFNS) --**Twenty members from**Yokota Air Base**attended the Defense and Security Equipment International, or DSEI, Japan exhibition March 16, in Tokyo, to seek out new, cutting-edge technology in a trip organized by YokoWERX, an**AFWERX**spark cell at Yokota AB that helps innovative Airmen bring their ideas to life. 
 With 66 countries represented, DSEI Japan is the largest defense exhibition in the country, attracting 178 companies vying for international business opportunities in the Asia-Pacific market. 
 Yokota AB representatives spoke with numerous exhibitors and learned about technology that could advance the installation’s ability to accomplish its mission as the premiere airlift hub in the Indo-Pacific region. 
 “There was some amazing technology for humanitarian efforts, forward deployment and augmented combat capabilities,” said Master Sgt. Sarah Hubert, 374th Airlift Wing religious affairs superintendent, andYokoWERX member. “We're definitely going to reflect on the products back at YokoWERX.” 
 ForYokoWERX, DSEI Japan served as an opportunity to expose Airmen to new technology as it aims to fulfill three lines of effort—invest, innovate, and inform. By investing its resources to attend conferences like DSEI Japan, the spark cell hopes to inform the base populace of new technologies that could deliver innovative solutions directly to their workplaces. 
 “We don't always know what's out there,” Hubert said. “So we might think we need one technology, but this event shows us capabilities that we may not be exposed to or may not be able to find so easily.” 
 On average,YokoWERX attends one trade show per quarter and appears at large base functions such as Liberty Fest, where they set up a booth and interact with potential like-minded innovators. 
 Recently, the spark cell made an appearance at the 2023 AFA Warfare Symposium in Colorado, where theYokoWERX team won the 2023 Spark Tank Championship March 8. Their idea centered on the employment of augmented reality to prevent accidental damage to underground infrastructure during construction. 
 For Hubert and theYokoWERX team, the win represented a substantial payoff after months of hard work. 
 “It was a very long and hard process,” Hubert said “We went from 235 ideas from across the Air Force to six finalists. Then, out of those six finalists, we ended up with a win. It felt good to bring it home for Yokota [AB].” 
 Continuing into 2023,YokoWERX hopes to generate its award-winning idea and expand it across the Air Force. They will also implement Project Kinetic Cargo Sustainment, another idea pitched by**KadenaAir Base**members at the 2023 Spark Tank Championship, which uses new digital processes to accelerate airlift operations by reducing cargo processing times. 
 Air transportation specialists at Yokota AB will begin training on this new system as early as April this year.LR 



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