Advertise on podcast: ATARC Federal IT Newscast

This episode features a conversation with Dr. Dianne Poster of the Office of Space Commerce and Fred Slane of the Space Infrastructure Foundation about the critical role open standards play in enabling interoperability, driving cost efficiency, and accelerating innovation across civilian, commercial, and defense space initiatives like Golden Dome. The discussion explores public-private sector collaboration models, resource allocation, architectural modeling, and how established guidelines and best practices can address emerging industry challenges in space cybersecurity and orbital debris mitigation.

This episode features Wes Herche of Prologis unpacking how AI, energy, logistics, and space are converging, as exploding AI workloads shift cloud economics from mostly fixed costs to massive variable costs tied to power, compute, and cooling. He explores how these pressures, combined with growing nimbyism around data centers, are driving interest in space-based cloud/compute, distributed renewables (especially solar), battery storage, and other technologies as tools for energy security, resilience, and defense missions on Earth and in orbit.

In this episode, host Brian Fox sits down with Dr. James Kirsch from the DEVCOM Aviation & Missile Center to explore how the military is modernizing its approach to technology deployment. They discuss the strategic shift toward rapid procurement, embracing calculated risk, and getting essential capabilities into the hands of warfighters faster. Learn why prioritizing speed and adaptability over long-term perfection is becoming vital to staying ahead of evolving battlefield threats.

This episode of the Space and Defense Innovation Launch Pad features Gordon Fogg and Brandon Frisco from MTSI discussing how to accelerate testing and evaluation for hypersonic and other advanced defense systems through better data sharing, interoperability, and metadata/standards. They explore the technical, policy, and cultural hurdles to breaking down data stovepipes across government, industry, and academia, emphasizing the need for organized, observable data as the true prerequisite for effective AI and large-scale analytics.

Department of Energy CIO Dawn Zimmer joins Tech Transforms to share how she’s modernizing legacy IT, breaking down decades-old data silos, and securely harnessing AI through initiatives like the Quanta data platform and Joulix. She explains her “speed of need” philosophy, baking cybersecurity in from the start while moving fast to deliver real-time decision support, cost savings, and smarter operations across the DOE.

This episode of Tech Transforms features Dave Raley, Chief Digital Business Officer at Marine Corps Community Services, unpacking Operation Stormbreaker, the Marine Corps’ cloud-native software factory and platform as a service. He explains how it slashes deployment timelines from 18 months to about 15 minutes per build by combining shared infrastructure, DevSecOps pipelines, and continuous authorization, helping federal mission owners and vendors securely deliver new capabilities faster.

This episode features Brian Monheiser discussing the rapid growth of the geospatial ecosystem in St. Louis, catalyzed by NGA’s new facility and long-term investment in related tech sectors. He explores how local universities, K–12 programs, nonprofits, and economic development groups are aligning around workforce development to support geospatial, defense, and advanced manufacturing needs in the region.

In this episode of the Space and Defense Innovation Launchpad Podcast, host Brian Fox moderates a panel with John Dr. John Rhoads (Lockheed Martin Skunk Works), Dr. John Schmisseur (UTSI), and Dr. Jeff Komives (MTSI) on accelerating hypersonic capabilities for U.S. defense. They explore near-term wins and deeper challenges across affordability, scalable manufacturing, testing infrastructure, and supply chains, while emphasizing tight collaboration between government, industry, and academia and treating hypersonics as an attribute to be integrated broadly across future systems.

This episode of the Space and Defense Innovation Launchpad Podcast features Chris Crumbly, Director of the Institute of Digital Enterprise Advancement and its professional education arm, DigitalWERX, as well as an instructor at Calhoun Community College, exploring model-based systems engineering (MBSE) and its role in digital engineering and Industry 4.0. He traces MBSE’s early use at NASA, explains why adoption is now being driven more aggressively by the Department of Defense, and describes how IDEA, DigitalWERX, and partner schools are building programs to grow MBSE talent across industry, government, and transitioning service members.

This episode features a conversation with Ben Garcia of Weber State University’s MARS (Miller Advanced Research and Solutions Center) about how academia can more effectively support the aerospace and defense industry, particularly in high‑temperature composites and hypersonic materials. The discussion explores technology and manufacturing readiness, industry–university collaboration models, and how intellectual property, factory-like training environments, and digital manufacturing can accelerate innovation from lab concepts to fielded capabilities.

This episode features Alex Morgan, a materials scientist and fire safety expert, discussing how material flammability and fire hardening are engineered across civilian and military aircraft and spacecraft, from aging aluminum airframes to modern composite structures and unmanned systems. The conversation dives into challenges like lithium-ion battery fires, high-oxygen spacecraft environments, reentry heat shields, and evolving regulations, highlighting how fire science adapts to new aerospace technologies to protect people, payloads, and missions.

In the inaugural episode of the Space Innovation and Defense Launchpad Podcast, Mark Giaconia of Vantor (formerly Maxar) shares his path from Army Special Forces into geospatial technology and software engineering, describing how GEOINT, coding, and data infrastructure have evolved over the past two decades. The conversation dives into tactical-edge geospatial intelligence, AI/ML for analytics, data fusion, UX and policy frictions in government and commercial environments, and how to turn massive volumes of sensor data into concise, actionable insights for users.

In this episode, host Tom Suder, Founder of the Advanced Technology Academic Research Center, sits down with Allen Hill, retired Chief Information Officer at the Federal Communications Commission, for a reflective conversation on four decades of service in federal IT. They explore the FCC’s cloud transformation, the shift to secure FedRAMP environments, and the importance of building technical teams that can both architect and execute modernization at scale. Beyond technology, Hill offers perspective on leadership, mentorship, and sustaining a mission driven career in public service. Whether you work in federal IT, lead modernization initiatives, or follow the evolution of government technology, this episode provides valuable insight from one of the community’s most respected CIOs.

In this episode of ATARC's Tech Transforms podcast, host Carolyn Ford sits down with Martin Stanley, Senior Advisor at NIST, to explore how AI is reshaping federal cybersecurity. They dive into NIST’s AI Risk Management Framework, the growing need for secure and resilient AI systems, and what it takes to build a “risk-aware” culture in government. Stanley shares insights on guarding against threats like model theft and prompt injection, how agencies are adapting zero trust principles for AI, and why explainability is essential in machine learning models. Whether you're new to AI governance or advancing your cybersecurity strategy, this episode offers practical guidance for navigating the evolving AI risk landscape.

In this episode of Tech Transforms, Daryl Haegley, Technical Director for Control Systems Cyber Resilience at the Department of the Air Force, shares insights from his nearly four decades of federal service, discussing the evolving landscape of cybersecurity for operational technology and control systems. He talks about the importance of creating a culture of security across government and industry, the challenges of modernizing legacy systems, and the urgent need to address cybersecurity gaps before adversaries exploit them. From developing a first-ever scorecard for facility cybersecurity to his mission of aligning cyber practices with national defense priorities, Haegley underscores the critical role of leadership, collaboration, and continuous innovation in securing the nation’s most vulnerable systems. For an even deeper dive, here are additional resources for your convenience: Annual Threat Assessment Report: 2024 DNI ATA and   2025 DNI ATA Cyber Resilience Office for Control Systems (CROCS): Watch “OT: Lock It Down” Music Video: Listen here Articles Referenced:Wired for Risk – SC WorldCyber Skills Gap – Federal News NetworkCyber OT TrainingCROCS website is accessible via govt CA! Send request via email at: [email protected] or by web at: https://usaf.dps.mil/teams/DAFCRoCSGroup  (CAC-enabled) Connect with Daryl via email: [email protected]