Closing Remarks

I think this has been very, very productive.

Your efforts will provide DARPA with many of the good ideas that we're going to need for future research in this area.

I heard some words that really got me excited today. People are talking about "building." DARPA builds. DARPA has a tradition where scientists get together and build "things." At DARPA, it's not enough to get understanding, we build things. We always build things. And I kept hearing that this community wants to build something.

Secondly, this audience is so much more incredibly diverse than the ones I usually address. This is different. I think it's so exciting that we have this incredible diversity of people who've come here because they're interested.

I hope you all realize the potential that research in this area will have, I think, for National Security. As I said at the outset, I truly believe that, in the future, the military will have to deal with highly complex systems composed of biological systems - human beings - and non human beings networked together to try to get superior performance. I think we can learn from, and I think we can combine biology, information technology, and physical systems to help our military move into the future. And your work here over the last couple of days will help define the possibilities.

As Dr. Alexander, my Deputy, said yesterday, DARPA is already looking at potentials to be found in some of these things. You just spent 1-1/2 days thinking of new ideas and additional ways to do this, and we look forward to your ideas in this intersection of biological, physical, and information systems.

And it's going to be a growing research area at DARPA. Bring us your ideas, bring us your possibilities, and, also, respond with proposals to our solicitations. We want to hear from you. Don't let the dialog stop today. You've met my program managers. Contact them with your thoughts, and let's see what we can get going as a new area that DARPA can start.

That said, I want to make another offer: I want you to see which of you may want to be personally involved. Think about which of you may want to be come a DARPA program manager. DARPA is a small organization, we're people-intensive, and we rotate our people constantly. And we succeed by constantly having an infusion of people who bring in their ideas and then fund people on the outside to get the work done. We need people with excellent technical skills and ideas to come to DARPA and lead us into this future of the biological, information, and physical realm.

Those of you in industry: we were recently given authority by Congress for an experimental program that allows us to hire applicants to come for a term appointment at DARPA without having to go through the Civil Service System. We have the flexibility to offer salaries and benefits that are different than what you may have heard about in Government. And I think we can also deal with the issue of conflicts of interest in today's world. I can make an offer to you, now. I don't have to go through the Civil Service System, and you can come to work much more quickly.

Those of you from academia and non-profits: you can use the Intergovernmental Personnel Act to come and give us 2-4 years. You can come to DARPA, do your tour, and make a difference. Talk to my office directors, talk to my program managers to see if you can have a home here at DARPA for a while. For questions, contact Nick Lanzetta at (703) 696-2378.

DARPA is an opportunity-driven organization. Our programs - and I cannot emphasize this too much - come from the bottom-up. All I can do, as the Director, is to initiate an area. Whether or not we start to do active work in this area will depend whether programs are brought to me that I can fund. These are the program managers who are the heart-and-soul of DARPA. Good programs come from our program managers, not the directors.

We're at the stage, now, where we've all agreed that this is an important area. There's a lot to be done. Now I need program managers inventing programs that I can fund.

Get in on the ground floor if you want to make a difference! Now is the time to come to DARPA and do the things that happened in the 1970s in another area. This is when the initial work will be done, and the ground rules will be set to make the kind of difference that could really, really change things. I look forward to a continuing dialog.