TUCSON, Ariz. (13 News) – The University of Arizona is launching its Arizona AETOS Program in partnership with the Missile Defense Advocacy Alliance in a training initiative meant to improve the United States’ response to technology threats.

The College of Engineering will bring in 12 to 18 participants from across the country, mainly from the uniformed services, to participate in the eight-month, seven-session training initiative where they’ll work in teams to come up with policy or prototypes.

“If we can come and come to the table with our bright minds and help to solve a very real national security problem, that’s an exciting thing for us,” said David Hahn with the Arizona College of Engineering.

The program is meant to address gaps in military defense that the U.S. is struggling with right now.

“Our ability as a nation, and as a world, to be able to defeat low-flying drones that are cheap in massive scale is a challenge right now,” said Riki Ellison, founder of the Missile Defense Advocacy Alliance.

Ellison said countering those terrestrial operations is not the only gap. Countering near-space operations, like balloons and airships, is also a struggle.

“Bring in the military side – these bright, young officers – to partner with us so that these two minds come together. They bring the problems, we help bring some of the technologies, and together, we formulate solutions,” Hahn said.

The program will include formal classroom learning, then break into working groups to work on capstones with formal knowledge and guest speakers.

Students will work to improve data and analytic models to understand threats and new technologies, and come up with defense solutions at a cheaper and faster rate than what is being done now.

“We have to move away from 10- and 15-year design and prototype cycles for things that will last 50 years, right. This is dynamic; threats are changing weekly, monthly, daily,” Hahn said.

Hahn said the University of Arizona is a fit for this work between its proximity to the border and its faculty’s knowledge of space, drones and aerodynamics.

“Let’s use that aerodynamics and that understanding of flight and motion, coupled with some sensing technologies, bring in some AI on the back end – that we do all of those – and now you integrate those together to come up with algorithms that can detect a drone that’s coming to the border,” Hahn said.

The program will run from July to February. Leaders hope prototypes could turn into solutions used by the military, and capstone projects could result in congressional law.

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