AugSense, a company that focuses on AI-powered sensor and edge-computing systems, wins first place at the Griffiss Institute’s fifth HUSTLE Defense Accelerator Pitch Day.
ROME, N.Y. — The Griffiss Air Force Research Lab gave five startup companies a real problem to solve with up to $500,000 on the line.
Wednesday night was the Griffiss Institute’s fifth HUSTLE Defense Accelerator Pitch Day.
Out of 200 companies, Full Spectrum Research, Quantum Astra, AugSense, Archangel Research Corp. and Vigilare AI were selected for ‘Cohort 5’ based on the problem statement.
For this cohort, it was the use of artificial intelligence for Command and Control, as well as Command and Control of AI as it is used within the Air Force Battle Network.
“So when you’re in a conflict, sometimes it can be very difficult to know who’s doing what and so a lot of what they call C2, Command and Control, is about making sure that that communication and that coordination can happen whether it’s a conflict or not,” said Michael Feng, the Institute’s Senior Director of Innovation Partnerships.
Each company pitched their ideas to five judges. Each judge had $100K and could recommend how the money is distributed.
Colorado-based company, AugSense, won first place and $155,000 in SAFE note funding.
AugSense focuses on AI-powered sensor and edge-computing systems delivering support in bandwidth unlimited environments.
“I like to say we make it so you can access your favorite TV show in a tunnel or on a mountain when a signal starts to drop or get jammed,” said Bryce Randle, the CEO of AugSense.
Each company focused on different facets of the problem statement. AugSense’s project addressed connectivity in congested network areas.
Anant Singh, the president of the company, said a lot of what they do is sensor fusion and semantic compression to compress the “data feeds into tasked, relevant pipelines.”
Singh highlighted Google Maps as an example of sensor fusion. Although it uses GPS, it is not solely reliant on GPS; it also uses the phone’s accelerometer and gyroscope to get a pinpoint location.
As for semantic compression, Singh said to “imagine that you have to send a relatively large video file from your phone to your friend’s phone.”
He said sending over the entire file would mean a lot of data, but sending over only the parts that mattered to your friend would mean less.
“So essentially, that’s what we enable,” Singh said. “In battlefields today, across the globe, most networks are being denied [or] jammed actively. In order to get information across, we provide one of the robust mechanisms and a technologically efficient way to do it.”
With the funding that they won, they continue to develop a solution with the support of the AFRL and the Institute.
Feng said these startups bring the speed and agility for bringing new solutions and ideas to the military that is “lacking right now.”
He said they will also support Rome’s ability to support national security with AI playing a role.
“The ability to safely and effectively integrate that into military processes and procedures is extremely important, and these companies, in a lot of what they do, they’re doing exactly that,” he said.
AugSense said they’re excited to contribute to the Mohawk Valley’s “tech ecosystem” and the local economy.
Below is a full list of the five companies in the place they ranked and how much funding they received:
1st Place – AugSense (Aurora, CO) – $155,0002nd Place – Vigilare AI (Syracuse, NY) – $150,0003rd Place – Quantum Astra (Frisco, TX) – $125,0004th Place – Archangel Response Corp. (Syracuse, NY) – $75,0005th Place – Full Spectrum Research (Taberg, NY) – $45,000