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Welcome!

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What can we do to help you?

  • In-House  
    Assist and collaborate with your Airmen to identify a problem set (generate problem statement) & develop solutions in-house.
     
  • Collaborative Research  
    Connect Airmen with AFWERX, DoD, or consultant to further develop/accelerate project to solutions. 
     
  • Knowledge Exchange   
    Furnish your Airmen with academic opportunities for individual or organizational learning. 
     
  • SIF Management 
    Provide guidance to squadrons to meet CSAF intent and assist with squadron innovation funds supporting projects. 
     
  • SBIR Collaboration  
    Partnering with AFWERX to pair up your pain points with startups who can provide the solutions. 

Elevate Office

Educate explore exploit


INTRO TO 3D PRINTING
Are you interested in 3D printing and looking for a practical and compact entry-level course, but don't feel like reading or searching for information? Then this course is well suited for you! In this workshop you will learn all the basics you need to know in order to operate a 3D printer and create your own 3D printed objects. Start now with this professional, descriptive and step-by-step 3D printing tutorial, made by Elevate’s Chief Maker!  Sign up now!

 

Air Force Innovation ARticles

  • ACC gears up for Spark Tank 2020

    This year, Air Combat Command is hosting its third annual Spark Tank competition at the Creech Conference Center on Joint Base Langley-Eustis, Virginia, Oct. 16, 2019. Airmen pitch innovative ideas to Air Force senior leaders and a panel of industry experts during this annual competition.

  • Air Force integrates missions, strengthens information warfare capabilities

    In March 2019, Air Force leaders decided to create a new information warfare Numbered Air Force with enhanced missions and capabilities. Today, Sixteenth Air Force activated here, integrating Twenty-Fourth Air Force, to include Air Forces Cyber, and Twenty-Fifth Air Force into a single headquarters

  • CRW Airmen train on ATAK app

    The 621st Mobility Support Operations Squadron received training on the Android Tactical Assault Kit app they recently purchased for all of their Air Mobility Liaison Officers here Oct. 8-9.

  • AFRL reimagines tech development with virtual reality

    WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Ohio – In a move the Wright Brothers likely never anticipated but surely would approve, the Air Force Research Laboratory Aerospace Systems Directorate is using a bicycle to demonstrate how virtual and augmented reality could revolutionize aircraft maintenance, as

  • 786th FSS: Going green and making green with Spark Tank idea

    In 2019, the 786th Force Support Squadron purchased six environmentally friendly treadmills for use in the North and Southside fitness centers. These treadmills require no energy to function and as an individual runs on the treadmill, the machine actually transmits energy back into the power grid.

  • Sky Warrior TRON team offers innovative solutions to daily problems

    After four months of working with the Defense Innovation Unit in San Diego learning software development practices from industry leading commercial companies, the 15th Wing TRON team is up and running to help Sky Warriors streamline daily tasks and get back to the mission.

  • Kessel Run receives top honors

    The Air Force Life Cycle Management Center’s Detachment 12’s Kessel Run team recently received two Air Force-wide awards for its achievements.

  • C-130H radio training program becomes virtual reality

    On Sept. 24, 2019, Senior Master Sgt. Thomas Crider, an AFWERX Air National Guard Innovation team member along with Maj. Tom Guilebeau, the 189th Airlift Wing innovation officer and Maj. Justin Fitzpatrick, a 189th Operations Group navigator, presented the first phase of a virtual reality training

Motivation

Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR)

TED Radio Hour: Failure Is An Option

Difference Between Innovation and Invention

Why Innovation is Crucial to Your Organization

What Really Makes Something Innovative?

How Leaders Inspire Innovation

 

Leader's inspiration

"...We have to think about the technology and the innovation that we need 10 to 15 to 20 years from now. We have to start thinking about it and start building it right now." - CMSAF Kaleth O. Wright 

"Innovative Airmen find better ways of doing the mission... Their intrapreneurship makes us more lethal, more efficient — they must be supported by leaders who not only remove unnecessary barriers to success, but who also lift up and champion their ideas... And because we’ve shown them we believe in their ideas, I want them to keep swinging until we find the answer." - Gen David L. Goldfein 

"Innovation doesn’t happen by accident. It is fueled from a spirit of experimentation and driven by Airmen with the best training, the right tools, and a workplace environment that promotes innovation. The threat and environmental challenges presented by our adversaries require that we aggressively investigate mission-focused ideas involving machine learning, artificial intelligence, autonomy, big data analytics... AMC will make bold investments in innovation that increase readiness and posture AMC forces to remain effective in a fast-paced and challenging future." - Gen Maryanne  Miller 

“We are at the beginning of a big culture shift in the government. We woke up and said we are not the only funder or inventor of new technology anymore…we are a partner with those who do.” – Dr. Will Roper, Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics 

Take a 3D printing class!

 

Newsletter

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CONTACT US

Chief Innovation Officer
(vacant) 

Deputy Chief Innovation Officer
Mike Martinez

SEL/Lead Engineer
Master Sgt. Matthew Sabo

Innovation Specialist
Staff Sgt. Brad Vickers

Contact Us
Email: 375amw.safb.elevate@us.af.mil
Phone: 618-256-4802

Where are we located?
The lab is located on the second floor of the Warmer Fitness Center.


Elevate is an Airmen-led innovation office focused on connecting our Airmen's problems to those in industry, academia or government. 
We work closely with AFWERX, the Secretary of the Air Force's innovation arm, and the main conduit for executing Small Business Innovation
Research, or SBIR, funds for the Air Force.

Elevate is a grassroots innovation program whose mission is to bring tomorrow’s tools to the warfighter today while inspiring a bottom‐up culture of innovation. We create unique opportunities for external partners to work directly with military on interesting problems, which also allows for rapid fielding solutions. 

Have an idea?

Please send any innovative ideas or service requests to us via our intake form found at the below QR Code & link.