Ground-Penetrating Radar and AR Guide Airmen to Spark Tank Win
March 9, 2023 | By Patrick Reardon
AURORA, Colo.—No one wants to stand up in front of the entire Department of Air Force leadership team and own up to being personally responsible for cutting vital communications lines in a war zone, but Tech. Sgt. Raymond Zgoda turned that error into an example of a much-needed, winning innovation March 8 in the 2023 Spark Tank Championship.
Zgoda and Master Sgt. Sarah Hubert (the originator of the winning idea), both of Yokota Air Base, Japan, won the competition before an audience of about 2,000 Airmen and Guardians with an idea for using ground-penetrating radar and augmented reality goggles to more precisely map underground pipes, wires, and fiber-optic lines on military bases to prevent accidental breaks caused by construction.
Spark Tank is an annual AFWERX competition modeled after the “Shark Tank” TV program. Instead of entrepreneurs pitching investors for funding, Spark Tank enables DAF “intrapreneurs”—primarily Airmen and Guardians, but also including department civilians—to pitch innovative ideas and ask leaders to fund their projects. From an initial field of 253 ideas, or “sparks,” six finalists got to pitch their projects on the main stage at the 2023 AFA Warfare Symposium.
https://www.airandspaceforces.com/ground-penetrating-radar-and-ar-guide-airmen-to-spark-tank-win/
