Regina E. Dugan: Making

“Science is art. It is the process of creating something that never exists before. … It makes us ask new questions about ourselves, others; about ethics, the future.”

Regina E. Dugan

As quoted in Virginia Tech Magazine (Summer 2013) by Denise Young; also in Digital Da Vinci: Computers in the Arts and Sciences (2014) by Newton Lee

Art , Question , Science , Future

“It's always been that way. A small group of people choose to believe in something, and then they make it so. In that order.”

Regina E. Dugan

"The Future is What We Choose to Make", World Maker Faire, New York (September 2013) http://fora.tv/2013/09/21/the_future_is_what_we_choose_to_make
Context: We want to make things. We want to make things with our hands. We crave it. It sparks something in us, feeds our urge to create. That's why were here.
The future will be what we choose to build. We choose to build what we believe in. It's always been that way. A small group of people choose to believe in something, and then they make it so. In that order. They choose to believe in something, and then they make it so. That's the power of makers — the power to choose a new future, by believing, and making.

People , Way

“I do think that speed is part of the innovation process. If ideas aren't built on with a sense of urgency, time can pass you by.
This isn't just a problem for the government. It's a problem for everyone: The difficulty of making new ideas broadly available.”

Regina E. Dugan

Fast Company interview (2011)
Context: I do think that speed is part of the innovation process. If ideas aren't built on with a sense of urgency, time can pass you by.
This isn't just a problem for the government. It's a problem for everyone: The difficulty of making new ideas broadly available. And yet some ideas move quickly. Look at the progression of radio, television, the Internet, the iPod, Facebook. The acceleration in getting to millions of users has gone from 38 years to less than 4. That's something that we've paid a lot of attention to: How do we increase the speed at DARPA?

Idea , Problem , Thinking , Sense

“The DARPA model has three elements:
Ambitious goals. The agency’s projects are designed to harness science and engineering advances to solve real-world problems or create new opportunities. At Defense, GPS was an example of the former and stealth technology of the latter. The problems must be sufficiently challenging that they cannot be solved without pushing or catalyzing the science. The presence of an urgent need for an application creates focus and inspires greater genius.
Temporary project teams. DARPA brings together world-class experts from industry and academia to work on projects of relatively short duration. Team members are organized and led by fixed-term technical managers, who themselves are accomplished in their fields and possess exceptional leadership skills. These projects are not open-ended research programs. Their intensity, sharp focus, and finite time frame make them attractive to the highest-caliber talent, and the nature of the challenge inspires unusual levels of collaboration. In other words, the projects get great people to tackle great problems with other great people.
Independence. By charter, DARPA has autonomy in selecting and running projects. Such independence allows the organization to move fast and take bold risks and helps it persuade the best and brightest to join.”

Regina E. Dugan

“Special Forces” Innovation: How DARPA Attacks Problems (2013)

People , World , Nature , Problem