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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

  • Spark Tank 2021 finalists announced

    It’s been nearly a year since Master Sgt. Gabrial Valenzuela, Capt. David Coyle and Lt. Adam Treece were selected as co-winners of Spark Tank 2020 for their Smart Weapons Loading Checklist and Low-Cost Threat Emitter concepts.

  • Innovative self-serve temperature check helps workforce during COVID

    Social distancing.  Six feet of separation.  Tapping elbows instead of shaking hands.  These are terms and actions society has grown accustomed to hearing and seeing during the COVID-19 pandemic. Another familiar occurrence since the outbreak of the virus is temperature checks at various entry

  • Innovation Rodeo finalist seeks to increase security officer efficiency

    Staff Sgt. Jordon Varnier, crime prevention program manager for the 30th Security Forces Squadron at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, will have a chance to help develop a more innovative Air Force as he was selected to be one of eight finalists for the 2021 Air Force Installation and Mission

  • 20th MXG improves AF loading lethality

    The 20th Maintenance Group weapons standardization flight was selected as the test-bed for the Air Force’s renewed Integrated Combat Turn weapons loading procedure starting in early 2019.

  • Cyber fellowship sparks innovative ideas

    Personnel from the Air Force Life Cycle Management Digital Directorate and Detachment 12’s Kessel Run are using their recent AFVentures Cyber Fellowship experiences to promote innovation and accelerate change within their programs. Kevin Kelly, technical director for PEO Digital, Capt. Lillian

  • Meet the 2021 I-WEPTAC MAWG Chairs

    JOINT BASE SAN ANTONIO-LACKLAND, Texas – Meet the 2021 I-WEPTAC Mission Area Working Group chairs. The teams they lead are charged with helping shape the future of Air Force combat support by finding innovative solutions to today’s installation and mission support challenges.

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.