Ep. 014: From Coalface to Creation, Why Bottom-Up Innovation Matters - Ed Ebbern

Warfighter Podcast

We know we talk a lot about innovation on this podcast, but this week we look into an interesting initiative to stimulate and grow ideas across all arms of the UK Armed Forces.

The military relies on harnessing the latest technology in order to gain an advantage of it’s adversaries, however this is often hard won. The pace of technological change is only increasing all the while.

These factors were part of the motivation behind the setting up of the UK Battlelab, and we are grateful for Ed Ebbern joining to tell us more about how it works, and some of the behind the scenes challenges and opportunities.

Ed talks about the concept of ‘bottom up’ innovation, where those at the coal face (irrespective of rank) are often best placed not only to understand the problem but also to develop and implement novel solutions.

The UK Battlelab is still in its infancy, however represents an incredible opportunity for inter-service and international collaboration with partners across defence, industry and academia.

As ever we are joined by our intrepid journalist Andy Fawkes from MST, covering some of the latest stories internationally - from latest DOD investments in training and simulation, to under-the-hood developments from NVIDEA and Epic for game engines and graphics rendering. Of course we couldn’t go another week without mentioning AI!

Episode Sponsor: Improbable Defence

Improbable Defence is a mission focused technology company working to transform the national security of our nations and their allies in the face of increasing global competition and evolving threats.

Today, national security is defined by technological superiority. We believe that software more than any other capability will redefine how war is fought and who will be on the winning side. Those entrusted with the preservation of our freedom, prosperity and safety deserve the best software-defined capabilities available.

Since the end of the Cold War, the UK, US and their allies have been unchallenged in military technological dominance. Today, we are facing a different reality: our adversaries are seizing the technological edge.

Improbable Defence chooses to stand up and not stand by. We are building cutting-edge software products to help our nations retake the technological advantage. We believe in defending our democratic values against those who seek to undermine them. Supporting those tasked with this mission is at the heart of all we do. We seek to radically transform the mission outcomes of those whose responsibility it is to keep us safe.

Hosts:

• Tom Constable: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tom-constable/
• Colin Hillier: https://www.linkedin.com/in/colinhillier/

Guest:

Edward Ebben: https://www.linkedin.com/in/edwardebbern/

Links:

• Website: https://www.warfighterpodcast.com/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/warfighter-digital/
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkgiH-cwmyc2I2Iyc8MLYtg
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/WarfighterPod

News Stories Related Links:

• MS&T - S&T Investments Competing with ‘Big Ticket’ Programs in FY24 DoD Budget - 16 March: https://www.halldale.com/articles/20913-mst-s-and-t-investments-competing-with-big-ticket-programs-in-fy24-dod-budget
• Unreal GDC - 22 March News about Unreal FAB, Metahuman and Unreal Engine for Fortnite: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Le5nHUNkcSs, https://youtu.be/WGck_8QNHTk, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pnaKyc3mQVk
• Nvidia Cyberpunk path tracing, + Omniverse - 21 March: https://blogs.nvidia.com/blog/2023/03/22/cyberpunk-2077-path-traced-visuals-gdc/, https://www.auganix.org/xr-news-nvidia-microsoft-announce-collaboration-to-bring-the-industrial-metaverse-ai-to-enterprise-users/
• OpenAI's GPT-4 Created a Playable Version of Pong in Under 60 Seconds - 17 March: https://uk.pcmag.com/games/145978/gpt-4-creates-a-playable-version-of-pong-in-seconds
• More Military Metaverse developments: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2023/03/11/inside-2m-military-metaverse-dedicated-training-future-soldiers/