IT STARTED WITH A WRENCH


HANDS-ON PROBLEM-SOLVING


Vanderbilt University faculty and representatives from the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) participate in a design workshop in the EAGLEWERX Innovation Lab at Fort Campbell targeted toward improving air assault operations. The two groups plan to hold similar events at multiple echelons, including quarterly innovation symposiums at the division level. (Photo by Capt. Daniel Vazquez, 3rd BCT)


Te 3rd BCT and Vanderbilt are collabo- rating to solve problems from the bottom up, with direct links between Soldiers and experts in academia. Tradition- ally, innovation in the Army has been defined by a top-down approach, whereby program managers and general officers direct efforts toward a small set of prob- lems. For example, the chief of staff of the Army has a set of six modernization priorities that meet this definition. Tese high-level directives do not describe every problem Soldiers can encoun- ter, however. Soldiers in 3rd BCT have access to much more localized problems that—while certainly of a smaller scope than, for example, future vertical lift


86 Army AL&T Magazine Fall 2019


platforms—still affect warfighters both inside and outside of the brigade. Tese smaller, Soldier-inspired problems are the target of the new partnership.


SCOPE What began with 3D-printed howitzer firing-pin wrenches now includes 12 (and counting) Soldier-inspired and Soldier- informed projects, including:


• Improving how Soldiers dig fighting positions. When Soldiers dig hasty fighting positions, they do so with small, collapsible entrenching tools that are difficult and time-consuming to use. A design class taught by Galloway is


tackling the issue with ideas like rapidly deployable fillable barriers and rede- signed shovels. They are partnered with the 3rd Battalion, 320th Field Artillery Regiment in the 3rd BCT.


• Lift-assisting exosuits. Dr. Karl Zelik, assistant professor of mechanical engi- neering, biomedical engineering and physical medicine and rehabilitation at Vanderbilt, discovered that more than 1,000 Soldiers are diagnosed with back injuries every day. He and his team are working on biomechanically assis- tive garments that can reduce load on Soldiers’ bodies and improve their effec- tiveness.


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