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Abstract U.S. Army tactical innovation labs are at the forefront of addressing real-time challenges faced by frontline Soldiers. This paper explores a unique collaboration among the mechanical engineering Capstone design programs at University of Florida and Georgia Institute of Technology in partnership with the U.S. Army 3rd Infantry Division, the non-profit Civil-Military Innovation Institute, and the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command. The collaboration leverages an innovative process that sources problems directly from Soldiers and engages engineering students in short innovation cycle product development. This paper identifies underpinning elements of this partnership that led to its success to inform and facilitate future successful collaboration across organizations. Eight aspirational features crucial for successful civilian military collaboration were identified from the literature and are further categorized into Technology, Organization, and Personal levels. The collaboration intentionally incorporates these features, ensuring dual-use technologies; shared values and goals; well-defined parameters; a central administrative entity; and deliberately planned interaction between academic personnel, Army and government civilian personnel, and students. The partnership's success is exemplified through details of 1/6 scale vehicle camouflage deployers built by UF and GT for the Army. When tested, these systems exceeded the Army's time targets for mounting, deployment, and retraction. Illustrating the rapid product development cycle this collaboration enables, a full-scale deployer prototype was built, tested, and delivered to the Army within 12 calendar months of the project's initial conception.
Traum et al. (Tue,) studied this question.