2016 Wing Tech Day shows collaboration, successes

  • Published
  • By Gina Marie Giardina
  • 711th Human Performance Wing

WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Ohio -- The 711th Human Performance Wing hosted the 2016 Wing Tech Day July 21 at the United States Air Force School of Aerospace Medicine here.

 

The one-day event was open to 711 HPW personnel and included two keynote speakers, six oral presentations and a poster session with nearly forty posters from researchers across the Wing.

 

“Not only is this event an opportunity for our amazing experts to stop and say ‘this is what we’re doing and this is why it’s important to the warfighter’, but the success of this organization relies heavily on intra-wing collaboration so it’s also a chance to learn about what others are doing and brainstorm ways to link our vast areas of expertise for the betterment of warfighters,” said 711 HPW Commander Gen. Mark Koeniger in his opening remarks.

 

The morning keynote speaker was Dr. Patrick Mason, director of the Human Performance, Training and Biosystems Directorate in the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering. His keynote was titled “Innovation and Collaboration across the DoD Research Enterprise.”

 

The afternoon keynote speaker was Dr. Marvin Chun, Yale University psychology professor with research interests in cognitive neuroscience of cognition, attention, memory and perception. His keynote was titled “Using Brain Imaging to Measure Attention and Performance.”

 

Oral presentations included researchers from the Airman Systems Directorate and USAFSAM. They were Dr. Michael Jirjis, Dr. Leah Rowe, Dr. Michael Mendenhall, Dr. Darrin Ott, Dario Rodriquez and Dr. Ryan Kramer.

 

Best oral presentation carried a prize of $5 thousand for conference travel and was awarded to Dr. Michael Mendenhall.

 

This was the second year for this event and included a poster competition. The Wing Tech Board representatives chose the top three posters with awards funding for conference travel. First place awarded $10 thousand, second place awarded $5 thousand and third place awarded $3 thousand.  A People’s Choice Award was also chosen and awarded $10 thousand—also for conference travel.

 

First place was awarded to lead author Dr. Jen Martin. Second and third place were awarded to lead authors Dr. Chrissy Grabinski and Dr. Heather Pangburn, respectively.  The People’s Choice Award was awarded to lead author Michael Sedillo.

 

All poster prize winners were cross-mission unit collaborations.