The 412th Test Wing hosted a technology symposium at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., Nov. 15, 2019.
The symposium is a way for personnel in the engineering field to further educate themselves on other aspects of their field from around the base.
“This is a networking time for you to get amongst your peers in the science and engineering workforce,” said Dan Osburn, 412th Test Wing senior technical director. “So get out there and talk some people and learn what they do and ask questions.”
The day’s event started with open-forum question and answer session with Osburn and three other senior engineers from around the wing on a panel; Chris Klug, 412th Operations Group technical adviser, Chuck Staley, 412th Engineering Group director, and John Grigaliunas, 412th Electronic Warfare Group technical director.
The engineers in attendance were able to ask the panel a wide-range of topics ranging from current challenges to long-term outlooks from their respective organizations. One of the topics discussed was cloud-based services and how the base’s engineers could utilize the technology and what benefits they could glean from it.
“We are working with the bigger Air Force on looking at those cloud services,” Osburn said. “There is a lot of discussion on where do we go for the cloud, especially in the classified area.”
The lead engineers also discussed upcoming or ongoing challenges they would like to tackle in the near-future. One such problem that Grigaliunas and 412th EWG would like to tackle is the challenge of conducting flight tests amidst growing security concerns regarding open-air ranges amongst other concerns.
The Joint Simulator Environment, which is currently in development, is one way to face that challenge, Grigaliunas said.
“What I’m really looking at is the role of modeling and simulation within the Test Wing enable flight, to answer questions that I can’t answer somewhere else,” he said. “So the challenge to the Test Wing and the EWG is, ‘how are you going to evaluate a system that you don’t physically have?’”
After the question and answer session, individual speakers then took the stage and further delved into other more technical aspects. Osburn also further urged those in attendance to also think about overcoming challenges in innovative ways.
“Rest assured, your leadership team has your back, because people are number one,” Osburn said. “We are doing things that we think will help this workforce and if you ever have any ideas, don’t hesitate to reach out.”