{"id":956006,"date":"2026-07-24T10:51:17","date_gmt":"2026-07-24T10:51:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/956006\/"},"modified":"2026-07-24T10:51:17","modified_gmt":"2026-07-24T10:51:17","slug":"elephant-in-the-room-glimpses-from-the-defense-summit-philly-election-ruling-and-praise-for-boyle-and-fitzpatrick","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/956006\/","title":{"rendered":"Elephant in the Room: Glimpses from the Defense Summit, Philly election ruling, and praise for Boyle and Fitzpatrick"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pennsylvania companies, large and small, along with universities, strutted their stuff at the recent two-day Defense Summit<\/a> at the U.S. Army War College in Carlisle, hosted by Sen. Dave McCormick (R-Pa.)\u00a0<\/p>\n

Eagleville company ClearAlign, led by founder, president, and CEO Angelique X. Irvin<\/strong>, showed off her company\u2019s latest smart sensor, a robot named the Mamba.<\/p>\n

ClearAlign makes imaging technology, including infrared and advanced optical systems. Irvin, who was a Bell Labs scientist and holds a degree in business from Wharton, said the Mamba is \u201cbeing deployed by the U.S. Air Force for their base security. We\u2019re really excited to be supporting the Air Force. I come from an Air Force family so it\u2019s really great to be able to support them with the technology.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Mamba \u201cdoes autonomous tracking of an area and threat detection. So it tells you if you have an incoming aircraft, an incoming vehicle or drone, or people. It identifies them 24\/7.\u201d<\/p>\n

Then the Mamba sends out a notification about the intruders and can also deploy nets, lasers, or people to respond.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re really excited to be supporting the Air Force. I come from an Air Force family so it\u2019s really great to be able to support them with the technology,\u201d said Irvin.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Members of the University of Pennsylvania\u2019s General Robotics, Automation, Sensing and Perception (GRASP) Lab<\/a> manned a booth complete with a drone and a walking-dog robot.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Camillo J. Taylor<\/strong>, Raymond S. Markowitz, President\u2019s distinguished professor, and GRASP Lab director, said the Falcon autonomous UAV system (drone) was developed at the University of Pennsylvania.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Falcon is currently being used by the Army Research Lab, said Taylor. They are working to coordinate the Falcon with unmanned ground vehicles.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe do some of our testing on that at West Point, a collaboration we\u2019re very proud of,\u201d Taylor said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re one of the finalists in the DARPA [Defense Advanced Research Agency] triage challenge that works on coordinating air and ground vehicles,\u201d he said. We send the Falcon up, and it has all that\u2019s required for finding and locating people. From there we can send our ground vehicles in to do more accurate triaging.\u201d<\/p>\n

He hopes Falcon will save \u201ca lot of people.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

While there are some financial incentives with the DARPA challenge, \u201cfor us it\u2019s a great intellectual challenge and the opportunity to take technology further.\u201d<\/p>\n

Describing some of the work the GRASP Lab does, Taylor said, \u201cI have a colleague that makes the world\u2019s smallest robotic platform, something that can be actually injected. They\u2019re that small. They have amazing applications in things like neuroscience. You can use them to promote neural growth. We\u2019re looking at them for applications in dentistry. Robotics is at a very interesting point today.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The robot dog is from Ghost Robotics, a company whose cofounders were former Penn graduate students.CEO Gavin Kenneally<\/strong> and Avik De<\/strong> spun out of the university in 2015.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a vision-60, legged robot,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s a four-legged robot that goes into dangerous situations instead of sending a person.\u201d<\/p>\n

This could be for government defense uses, public safety, or commercial or industrial uses. For example, one of their robots was used when part of a garage owned by Children\u2019s Hospital of Philadelphia<\/a> collapsed in April.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe first responders actually used one of our robots to go in and find out if there were survivors,\u201d said Kenneally. \u201cThere\u2019s a camera with a high-level zoom and a thermal camera to go in and see if there were heat signatures, to try and see if they could rescue anybody from that partial collapse. And do all that without having to send first responders into the building and do all that without having risk of more collapse or danger.\u201d<\/p>\n

Their two main customer bases are government and commercial.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur lead government customer is U.S. Special Forces,\u201d said Kenneally. \u201cThey use the robots to send them out ahead of the Special Forces operators to get situational awareness, go through a building, look around a corner.\u201d<\/p>\n

He noted there is a \u201cconcept in breaching called the \u2018fatal funnel\u2019\u201d \u2014 meaning, the first person through a threshold is most likely to be injured or killed. The robot dog prevents those human casualties.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re keeping a person out of harm\u2019s way,\u201d he said. The robot dog has five cameras to see 360-degrees around it and also microphones to communicate with handlers and hear what is going on.\u00a0<\/p>\n

For private industry, the main sectors are oil and gas, construction and mining, he said.<\/p>\n

The robot dog can move around and over rough terrain. It also holds payloads, including sensors for chemical, biological, radiation, and nuclear (CBRN) threat detection.\u00a0<\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

Philadelphia Common Pleas Judge Jessica Brown<\/strong> ruled July 14 that the person with the most votes for committee person positions wins, whether their name is on the ballot or written in.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Brown held that Denise M. Fury<\/strong> was elected Republican executive committee person for Ward 37, Division 7; Nelson Reyes<\/strong> was elected Republican executive committee person for Ward 27, Division 10; Henry L. Lazarus<\/strong> was elected Republican Ward executive committee person for Ward 46, Division 19; and William Small<\/strong> was elected Republican Ward executive committee person for Ward 59, Division 9.<\/p>\n

J. Matthew Wolfe<\/strong>, a lawyer who brought the case against the Philadelphia City Commissioners, said, \u201cWe are pleased that the court recognized that the Election Code says, not surprisingly, that the one who gets the most votes wins. It is disheartening that we needed to go to court to have this enforced. If nobody appeals, we expect this ruling to be the foundation for additional litigation against the Republican City Committee.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kalie Baker<\/strong>, a spokesperson for the City Commissioners, said, \u201cThe Philadelphia City Commissioners are aware of the recent ruling. As this matter remains in active litigation, it would not be appropriate for our office to comment on the specifics at this time. Our commitment has not changed: we will continue to administer fair, secure, and nonpartisan elections for every eligible voter in Philadelphia.\u201d<\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

The Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia released a statement, applauding Congressmen Brendan Boyle<\/strong> (D-Philadelphia) and Brian Fitzpatrick<\/strong> (R-Bucks) for voting to \u201creject the reckless and irresponsible amendment to H.R. 8595 drafted by Rep. Thomas Massie<\/strong> that would have eliminated all U.S. security assistance, including crucial defensive funding, to Israel.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis proposal failed to distinguish between offensive and defensive capabilities, including lifesaving missile defense systems that protect Israeli civilians from terrorist attacks. Just as importantly, it would have signaled to Iran, Hamas, Hezbollah, and other Iranian-sponsored terrorist organizations that America\u2019s longstanding commitment to Israel\u2019s security is wavering. At a time of escalating threats across the region, such a message would have weakened deterrence, emboldened Israel\u2019s adversaries, and undermined America\u2019s strategic interests,\u201d the statement said.<\/p>\n

Representatives Madeleine Dean<\/strong> (D-Montgomery), Chrissy Houlahan<\/strong> (D-Chester), Mary Gay Scanlon<\/strong> (D-Delaware), and Dwight Evans <\/strong>(D-Philadelphia) all voted for the Massie amendment, which was rejected by a bipartisan vote of 314-104. Massie was the only Republican who voted for his amendment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pennsylvania companies, large and small, along with universities, strutted their stuff at the recent two-day Defense Summit at…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":956007,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5132],"tags":[17032,5229,384564,384565,83163,28109,384566,246238,49724,7732,384567,7733,384568,384569,99,113233,384570,384571,7735,384572,1802,384573,1448,2830,1311,80,5620,752,8118,67,586,132,5230,68,2969,327666],"class_list":["post-956006","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-2026-election","tag-america","tag-angelique-x-irvin","tag-avik-de","tag-brendan-boyle","tag-brian-fitzpatrick","tag-camillo-j-taylor","tag-chrissy-houlahan","tag-darpa","tag-dave-mccormick","tag-denise-m-fury","tag-dwight-evans","tag-gavin-kenneally","tag-henry-l-lazarus","tag-israel","tag-jessica-brown","tag-kalie-baker","tag-madeleine-dean","tag-mary-gay-scanlon","tag-matt-wolfe","tag-military","tag-nelson-reyes","tag-pa","tag-pennsylvania","tag-philadelphia","tag-politics","tag-republicans","tag-robotics","tag-thomas-massie","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa","tag-william-small"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/956006","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=956006"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/956006\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/956007"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=956006"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=956006"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=956006"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}