The First Development Cycle of IAI’s Innovation Center Completed Successfully
May 21, 2020 – The first development cycle of Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) Innovation Center was successfully completed this week. The Innovation Center operates in collaboration with Starburst, a global accelerator that specializes in aerospace, and just completed its first 13-week cycle. During this time, three teams completed Proof of Concept (PoC) ventures involving robotics, autonomous operation, and artificial intelligence for space and satellite applications. Following the accelerated development stage, the ventures will continue to evolve in the operational environment of IAI’s various groups.
IAI has already selected the ventures for the second cycle of the Innovation Center. R&D managers, aided by IAI’s Innovation Administration, screened the ideas submitted by employees based on business feasibility, market relevance, and applicability to the future battlefield. The shortlisted ventures will start their development by the end of the month at IAI’s Innovation Center.
Amira Sharon, Ph.D., IAI’s Corporate CTO – Executive VP of Strategy and R&D said, “IAI invests hundreds of millions of dollars every year in in-house R&D of innovative technologies. The Innovation Center is unique in its startup model, which exists inside a stable, well-established company, providing IAI’s engineers with a path for testing their ideas and developing a PoC within weeks. The Innovation Center adds to IAI’s technological capabilities that lay the building blocks for our future product lines. Open innovation and accelerated development have allowed us to launch dozens of different solutions to help the battle against COVID-19 and respond ‘here and now’ to the needs of the healthcare system. IAI will continue to stand at the forefront of technology, providing its employees and managers a range of ways to support the development of these technologies, advance growth, and reinforce IAI’s technological resilience.”
IAI’s Innovation Center uses open innovation methodologies to encourage technological diversity and in-house entrepreneurship. The development teams undertake a fast engineering process to create a minimum viable product (MVP) while attending a personal and group enrichment program, which covers accelerated development, team building and management, public speaking, creating collaborations, and more.
Photo courtesy IAI
