News United States Air Force
 AFRL commander headlines digital summit in DaytonPublished Aug. 10, 2022
                        
                        By Marcus Morton
                        
                        
                        Air Force Research Laboratory Research Collaboration and Computing Directorate
                **WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Ohio (AFNS) --**
                The Department of the Air Force **Digital Transformation Office**, in partnership with the University of Dayton Research Institute, Sinclair Community College and several Dayton area businesses, co-hosted the Dayton Digital Transformation Summit at Sinclair’s downtown Dayton campus, Aug. 2-4.Air Force Research Laboratory Commander Maj. Gen. Heather Pringle explains the government-industry-academia partnership required to enable the Air Force to address rapidly evolving threats in the digital arena during the Dayton Digital Transformation Summit at Sinclair Community College in Dayton, Ohio, Aug. 2, 2022. The three-day event, held Aug. 2-4, educated the Dayton region and encouraged local and national parties to support Department of the Air Force digital transformation efforts. (U.S. Air Force photo / Kati Cospy)Maj. Gen. Heather Pringle, Air Force Research Laboratory commander, explains the government-industry-academia partnership required to enable the Air Force to address rapidly evolving threats in the digital arena during the Dayton Digital Transformation Summit at Sinclair Community College in Dayton, Ohio, Aug. 2, 2022. The three-day event educated the Dayton region and encouraged local and national parties to support Department of the Air Force digital transformation efforts. (U.S. Air Force photo by Kati Cospy)
            
            
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The three-day event served to educate and align the Dayton region and interested local and national parties to support the department’s digital transformation efforts. Headlining the summit was **Air Force Research Laboratory** commander **Maj. Gen. Heather Pringle**, who created AFRL’s Digital War Room earlier this year to digitally transform how business is conducted throughout AFRL.
“We are at a critical juncture in our nation and what we are doing in AFRL to adapt, to take some risks, to fail fast and get to the next problem that needs to be solved, is only one part of the overall solution,” Pringle said. “I want to underscore that we have a great team at AFRL, but in order to face and conquer the [accelerating] challenges our nation faces and the pace of technological change that we encounter, it is going to take each and every one of us – academia, the research institutes [and] industry – to keep up.”
Pringle’s remarks complement the broad-based government-industry-academia partnership required to fully leverage the advantages of digitizing data and reducing production time from concept to field operations to improve the nation’s defense posture.
“The bottom line is we need to work on all these challenges and overcome the digital and technological challenges that prevent us from collaborating, as well,” Pringle added.
Throughout the event, Dayton area businesses were given the opportunity to become engaged in DAF’s digital transformation efforts and enable the Air Force to face and overcome rapidly evolving threats. The summit provided product overviews and demonstrations in the areas of digital twins, digital design and digital engineering. Also included were panel discussions ranging from government vision to Original Equipment Manufacturer perspectives.
Two leaders from Pringle’s AFRL Digital War Room, Dr. Pam Kobryn and Andrea Mahaffey, were featured panelists during their respective discussions and echoed Pringle’s message while providing keys to transformation success.
“Leaders need to walk the walk ... lead by example, embrace digital means of communicating, become comfortable ‘being uncomfortable’ and give their workforce a peek inside their professional transformation journey,” Kobryn remarked.
Similarly, Mahaffey explained the need for digital solutions and continuous changes to information technology services.
“We need contract mechanisms that embrace agile methods,” Mahaffey explained. “We need to be able to divest, re-architect and pivot our core services at the same rate as the industry changes.”FS 



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