Tech Companies Connect with Navy at Blue Tech Event

More than 30 technology companies showcased their products during the 2024 Blue Tech Demo Day, which was held at the Naval Undersea Warfare Center (NUWC) Division Newport and Sail Newport on 29 August.

The daylong event, hosted by Division Newport’s Northeast Tech Bridge, alongside nonprofit partner 401 Tech Bridge, connected innovative small businesses with U.S. Navy scientists and engineers and Department of Defense (DoD) stakeholders to facilitate rapid delivery of capabilities to the warfighter.

“At Division Newport, wartime readiness is a priority,” Division Newport Technical Director Marie Bussiere said. “As we aim to deliver undersea capabilities to the warfighter, we can’t do it alone. We must team up with outside organizations, including research and development centers, academia and industry. We can accomplish this through demonstration events like the one, where the scientists and engineers at Division Newport, as well as government agencies and non-government stakeholders, get a firsthand look at state-of-the-art technologies.”

Demonstrations were held at Division Newport’s Narragansett Bay Test Facility (NTBF) and at Sail Newport, a sailing school located at Fort Adams State Park in Newport, Rhode Island.

Bussiere served as one of the keynote speakers for the event. She was joined at Sail Newport by U.S Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse; Christian Cowan, executive director of the University of Rhode Island Research; Erik Brine, 401 Tech Bridge director; and Scott Bewley, deputy director of NavalX, which oversees the Navy’s tech bridges. Earlier in the day at Sail Newport before the keynote speeches, U.S. Rep. Gabe Amo stopped by as well to talk with demo day participants.

“From our perspective, our engineers were able to see technology firsthand that they otherwise might have had a hard time getting a hold of,” said Julie Kallfelz, director of the Northeast Tech Bridge. “They’re actually able to talk to the engineers of various companies, and nothing replaces a face-to-face discussion over a device or piece of equipment. Nothing better clarifies these capabilities and what’s in the development pipeline. These face-to-face interactions are very, very valuable to our workforce.”

One of those engineers paying particular attention was Brian Sperlongano, a senior undersea warfare analyst for Division Newport’s Undersea Warfare (USW) Engineering and Analysis Department.

“It’s always difficult to know what’s emerging out in the private sector. We don’t always get to interact with companies we don’t normally have defense contracts with,” Sperlongano said. “This lets us expose the needs we have or missions we’re trying to solve to companies that might not normally be in this space or might have commercial products that aren’t intended for military applications but could be if we make those connections. It’s also valuable to see if different companies might interact with each other to create a better piece of technology.”