IN THIS NEWSLETTER
TEAM COMMENTS
Col William Waynick, CyberWorx Director
One of my Commanding Generals at the Joint Special Operations Command, GEN Scott Miller, instilled a culture in the command to “be whatever the nation needs us to be.” He recognized the need to proactively iterate because we face adaptive enemies, changes in leadership, accordion-like budgets, and other great unknowns. The Air Force needs CyberWorx to iterate for the exact same reasons. We do not want to fall into the Innovator’s Dilemma and rely solely on our past successes.
We were formed a few years ago by visionary USAFA alumni and Air Force senior leaders to focus on providing innovative solutions for cyber. Since then, the demand signal for our unique innovative methodologies to solve problems has increased drastically and broadened. Our portfolio has diversified from just cyber to C2, ISR, logistics, force development, missile warning, and even mental health to name a few.
We are going to continue to iterate so that we can be whatever the Air Force needs us to be (thank you GEN Miller). That includes a rebranding. The CyberWorx name has served us well, but stay tuned for a name change to reflect the awesomeness we provide to the Air and Space Force.
2020 GROWTH
This past year saw tremendous growth at CyberWorx with new team members, an expanded customer base, successful transition of 19 projects, and over double the number of new projects spanning a wide range of topics from mental health to talent management and beyond.
Six new team member positions increase our ability to meet and exceed the growing needs of our customers and work load! For more details about members of our team, check out our team page.
- Two more UX designers
- Resource Advisor
- Professor and subject matter expert in cyber engineering research and software development
- A8P Program Analyst
- FM Budget Analyst
- A second Collaborative Project Order (CPO)
Word of mouth regarding our talent and expertise has gone viral. We’ve graduated from a few sporadic projects to repeat customers with enterprise-wide projects and COCOM priorities.
- ACC
- Air National Guard
- US Space Force
- COCOMs
- System and joint project offices
- Spark & project groups at individual bases
- SkiCAMP
- Blue Horizons
- AFWERX
- And many more!
The scope of our projects has grown well beyond cyber. We are a problem solving organization dedicated to shining a spotlight on the user in every initiative, no matter what the problem is. Some of the areas we’ve expanded into include:
- Mental health problem solving with USAFA Cadets
- UI designs for training and command decisions
- Design sprints for talent management
- Research into using explainable AI
The number of projects and requests has grown exponentially. In 2019, we averaged less than one event a month with a few non-event projects. We more than doubled that number for 2020. We successfully transitioned 19 projects this year from 2020 and earlier. The team worked tirelessly to identify partners and advocate the transition of solutions to make warfighters more effective and efficient. Check out the 2020 Project Review to go more in-depth on the good work we’ve done this year.
While 2020 has been a difficult year, CyberWorx continued to pivot and find better ways to help our customers. Our capabilities help organizations across the DoD when and how they most need it to address their most difficult problems. We will continue to provide high-quality support in 2021, confident that we will deliver value to the DoD and solve any problem thrown our way.
REBRANDING IN 2021
As our organization continues to evolve, positioning our branding to distinctly encompass what we do and who we serve is critical to our 2021 marketing strategy. Updated branding assets, including a new name and logo, will clearly represent our services and impact across the DoD enterprise. Strong, intentional branding elements will increase awareness of our multi-discipline services, reach additional warfighters and industry partners, and drive new collaborations and solutions.
No matter what we are named, our team will continue to focus on the user and the mission. Strategic branding is a vital component in setting ourselves apart as a top industry leader. As we transition into this new year, we are excited to reveal more details of this project!
QUARTER 4 PROJECTS RECAP
- AF Gaming – We hosted AF Gaming and the US Space Force team for the CODE Bowl in our studio for a trans-Atlantic military eSports competition to promote connectedness amongst the force.
- The Other Airmen – Citizen Developers volunteered for a low code/no code experiment to prove viability and capability for AF-wide application development solutions.
- F-35 MADL and Link-16 – We are working with SkiCAMP to build a more user-friendly software tool to allow aircrew to accurately plan data link communications.
- Kinderspot – We’re optimizing the user experience for parents AF-wide to use base CDCs with temporarily empty childcare slots, Airbnb-style.
- USAFA Honor Code System Review – USAFA is reviewing the honor code to determine if any changes will help lower honor code violations.
- LUXE – The Chief UX officer for the AF is improving the user interface of several AF-wide applications and increasing the appreciation and understanding of human centered design.
- Weather AI Explainability – We are working with the MIT/Lincoln Labs AF AI Accelerator to build a tool that explains the confidence level for regional weather without radar coverage.
- Cyber Wingman – Our work with the AI Accelerator has also provided the opportunity to build an AI-driven cyber intelligence capability.
- 21st Century Drill – The Air National Guard is designing the drill weekend of the future with more effective ways for Citizen Soldiers to communicate, collaborate, and increase readiness.
- Missile Warning – N-NC is modernizing their missile warning toolset.
- Genisys – AFTC is streamlining their process pipeline to move useful, actionable, and meaningful data from the test range to production faster.
- USAFA FM – How might we improve the consolidated resourcing sight picture at USAFA?
- Winter is Coming – Grand Forks AFB and the University of North Dakota want to build a stronger culture of innovation and connectedness with Airmen.
COMING SOON
- USSF Cyber Talent Development – The USSF wants to develop their cyber officer force to maximum effect.
- COBALT – N-NC is exploring how best to fuse automated cyber intelligence data into the cyberspace operations ecosystem.
- SATIRE – We’re discovering how we can help develop a tool for the ISR community that explains the IW capabilities of the 16 AF.