Ahh DARPA - On the lighter side

Well, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) tech fair started today. The catch entry page is worth a look. Registration is closed, but their is a job link for those wanting to become a program manager with DARPA.

Just out of curiosity, you might wonder what they are looking for in program managers:

Are you a scientist or engineer with a radical idea (or ideas) that you believe could provide disruptive change for the United States military? Would you like to lead the country's most capable academic and industrial experts to make that idea become reality in a period of just a few years? If so, you should consider joining the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) as a Program Manager.

Twisted geniuses please apply.

Whether because the vision of the future of "war fighting" is for a much smaller military, or whether it is easier to centralize control operations, DARPA's "big challenge" is a contest to produce an "autonomous vehicle" that can navigate in moving traffic. The contest is called the "Urban Challenge."

From what I can gather, they want a vehicle that can be remotely operated for supply transport operations. However, this vehicle is operating in urban environments. In other words - doing supply runs in cities. It would seem to me that if this is for use in a high conflict zone, that such a vehicle would be very vulnerable to hijacking. It also seems like a very expensive way to do delivery runs. However, maybe the commercial operations - like pizza delivery - will bring down the overall cost.

Well back at the DARPA conference, it looks like a combination show and tell and job fair.

Maybe I can get an invite for next year.