Elbit America, a fast-growing defense company, is seeking technology partnership with startups in various areas. The Director of Corporate R&D and his colleagues would be interested in meeting MIT-connected startups in the technology areas mentioned below, either virtually or in-person, in early-mid October.
Digital Transformation – Elbit America has jumped in with both feet on moving our workforce and processes into the “digital age”. We have a particular focus on bringing Model Based Systems engineering to streamline how we manage customer info, help guide manufacturing with new “smart” aides, etc. To the extent startups are offering innovative products in these areas or if they’d like an organization to play guinea pig, depending on what it is they might find us willing test subjects in the name of innovation.
Sonar / Acoustics – Elbit America recently bought Sparton Electronics, one of the two primary manufacturers of Sonobouys for the US Navy and various international partners. We would be interested in meeting sonar/acoustic R&D & startups as potential partners for developing our long term technology roadmap in this space.
HSA/DM – We have an area we call “Holistic Situational Awareness & Decision Making”. Elbit America is known for making both the sensors on aircraft and the helmet displays that keep pilots informed on what’s going on around them. What we’re looking to get into is the software side of managing all the information that comes from sensors, processing it so that it can be “understood” and then having software make various decisions on it for the pilot and/or getting the info in front of the pilot in an understandable format. 3D Map Databases, visual, multi-spectral, low light, LIDAR & MMW sensors are all part of different systems we work on.
Sensors – As a leading provider of sensor and seeker electronics packages Elbit America seeks innovative new sensor technologies that facilitate situational awareness and surveillance in normally degraded visual conditions. Innovations may include wider operating temperature ranges, smaller sizes, lower costs, higher sensitivities and new or expanded wavelengths capabilities. Elbit America's sensors are typically mounted an Airborne and ground and handheld military platforms and cover the full gamut of the EM spectrum from IR and LIDAR through low light, microwave and millimeter wave sensing capabilities.
Augmented Reality – Elbit America’s flagship products include the Helmet Mounted Displays for the majority of US Military Fixed and Rotary wing pilots. Elbit America is seeking to both enhance the capabilities of these products and lower costs to a point where they are affordable for a wider user base.
Artificial Intelligence / Machine Learning – Elbit America is looking for unique and novel approaches to object detection and classification in several areas including:
Optics – Innovate approaches to the fabrication or design of optics to provide higher quality, lighter weight, smaller size and/or lower cost optical elements for sensors and lasers. Examples would include GRIN lenses.
Non GPS Dependent Precision North Finding & Non GPS Dependent Precision Navigation and Timing – The title says it all. We need to navigate and North find in GPS denied areas.
Precision Line of Sight (LOS) Sensing – In addition to the above GPS denied navigation, a key additional component of many Elbit America products is our ability to determine precise LOS for various dynamic systems. Not just where we are in the world, but where we are looking… Innovations in this area that improve precision, sample rate and lower cost are welcomed.
Optical Communications – Elbit America seeks discriminating new technologies to partner with our emitter and sensor hardware to potentially market optical communications systems for airborne platform communication.
Advanced Video and Image Processing – Elbit America maintains a library of reusable proprietary and open source algorithms for the clean-up and processing of raw sensor data on imbedded / edge computing platforms. We are always seeking new and innovative algorithms to consider adding to this library for use by our developers.
Elbit America is a “Medium Sized” defense contractor serving the needs of all branches of the US Military as well as the Department of Homeland Security and other United States Government Customers. Our position as a nearly $2B/year company gives us a large existing customer base and the resources to invest in new and discriminating technologies while our relatively small size allows us to incorporate innovations into our products and bring new products to market with speed and agility that the larger defense contractors lack.
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