A DIGITAL DIVE


OUTSIDE-THE-BOX THINKING


David Gorsich, Ph.D., chief scientist at U.S. Army DEVCOM Ground Vehicle Systems Center (seen here speaking before the Automotive Research Center’s annual review at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor), was instrumental in identifying and establishing the PPTE program as a supportive activity that could increase the acquisition workforce’s digital acumen. (Photo by Christopher Estrada, DEVCOM GVSC)


Gorsich reflected, “Te first cohort from the program had a wonderful experience with companies that do digital engineer- ing well. Our employees who returned come back with industry best practices and lessons learned to inform our work processes.” He further commented that this program “is a tremendous opportu- nity to work directly with commercial industry and see how to do digital engi- neering. Te opportunity with Ford was to work with them on engineering and devel- opment of the F-150 pick-up truck. Who would not want to work on the develop- ment of that? And it is of great value to the Army to bring back that experience and look at how we do things in compar- ison. It provides a great perspective to the employee.”


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In fiscal year 2024, four participants in the PPTE digital engineering cohort were placed within Bell Textron, Ford, Te MITRE Corporation and Siemens.


A VALUABLE LEARNING EXPERIENCE Ivan Couvillon, a PPTE participant assigned to Bell Textron, shared his expe- rience as it relates to his current Army work, where he focuses on new tech- nologies and processes to improve the technical exchange of information from various functional groups, including engi- neering, procurement, manufacturing, project management and logistics. His PPTE assignment at Bell Textron “directly related to the interoperability of vari- ous commercial technologies [primarily


software systems] and some of the chal- lenges related to the exchange of technical information and data sets encountered during the product development cycle.”


Through this experience, Couvillon learned new approaches for investigating and testing software solutions that can minimize the loss in fidelity of technical data as it is exchanged between various software systems used by various user groups.


“My PPTE experience has allowed me insight on how to approach problems associated with using common data sets across unique user groups and functions.” Couvillon was also impressed by indus- try’s “flexibility to acquire and deploy new


Army AL&T Magazine


Summer 2025


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