Regina Dugan, an alumna of the Virginia Tech College of Engineering and current director of the U.S. Department of Defense’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), championed imagination and daring over fear of failure during her Feb. 29 appearance at the TED2012 Conference.
Dugan, who earned her master’s and bachelor’s degrees in engineering at Virginia Tech, spoke at Session 4: The Lab, at the internationally famous event. “What would you attempt to do if you knew you could not fail?” she asked the audience, after flashing an opening (and later closing) slogan on a screen, “Be nice to nerds.”
The chance to speak at the event has been dubbed the “18-minute talk of a lifetime.” The TED (originally called Technology Entertainment and Design) Conference is a global set of conferences hosted by the American private nonprofit Sapling Foundation, formed to disseminate “ideas worth spreading,” according to the group’s website.
Previous speakers include Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, former Vice President Al Gore, Chicago Sun-Times film critic Roger Ebert, and Virginia Tech’s own Dennis Hong, founder and director of the Robotics and Mechanisms Laboratory. (Hong, in fact, watched Dugan speak via a webcast event sponsored by TEDxVirginiaTech at the Graduate Life Center on campus.)
To the delight of the California audience, Dugan quickly went through a history of aviation, all risk-takers who dared to repeatedly fail before capturing history-shaking success. She then unveiled a robotic-like hummingbird that flew around the TED stage, answered with gasps and applause from the audience. She also spoke of an in-development glider that military officials hope one day will lead to aircraft that can get to any destination around the globe in less than 60 minutes, among other astounding technologies.
Before closing, Dugan championed researchers, engineers, and scientists, “the nerds,” who dare to dream big with almost child-like imaginations and then change the world. The Internet, she said, was once a dream of several researchers. DARPA ones, too.
“We all have nerd power, sometimes we just forget,” she said, before adding that such thinkers are akin to super heroes, and we all need to “find our inner-superhero.”
Dugan was named the 19th director of DARPA in 2009, an appointee of President Obama. She is the sole inventor on a patent for refueling satellites in orbit, and has several additional provisional patents filed. She also holds a doctorate in mechanical engineering from the California Institute for Technology.
Dugan previously worked at DARPA from 1996 to 2000 before co-founding RedXDefense of Rockville, Md., in 2005. The company specializes in developing technologies to detect and counter explosives.
DARPA is the principal agency within the Department of Defense for research, development, and demonstration of concepts, devices, and systems that provide highly advanced military capabilities for the current and future combat force. In this role of developing high-risk, high-payoff projects, DARPA compliments and balances the overall science and technology program of the DoD, according to the agency’s website.
For photos and a more complete summary of Dugan’s appearance, which garnered a standing ovation from her audience, visit the official TED2012 blog.
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