NEWPORT, RI – More than 30 technology companies will showcase their products during Blue Tech Demo Day 2024, taking place in part at Naval Undersea Warfare Center (NUWC) Division Newport on August 29.

Hosted by NUWC Division Newport’s Northeast Tech Bridge with nonprofit partner 401 Tech Bridge, the day-long event aims to connect innovative small businesses with U.S. Navy scientists and engineers and Department of Defense stakeholders to enable rapid delivery of warfighting capabilities.

“The goal of the event is to expose our campus scientists and engineers to the innovative technology of these small companies in a way that is relevant to their mission,” said Julie Kallfelz, director of the Northeast Tech Bridge. “Each company has a technology that is of particular interest to our engineers. This event will showcase the companies and their technologies, and then we will work to support next steps and further meaningful engagement.”

In-water demonstrations are conducted at operational areas in Narragansett Bay, including at the Newport Division’s Narragansett Bay Test Facility (NTBF). Indoor and outdoor presentations are held at Sail Newport at Fort Adams State Park in Newport.

The presentation is scheduled to begin at 10:30 a.m., with closing remarks and networking opportunities scheduled for 4 p.m. Speakers include U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, Marie Bussiere, engineering director of the Newport Division, Christian Cowan, executive director of the University of Rhode Island’s Division of Research, and Scott Bewley, deputy director of NavalX, which oversees the Navy’s technology bridges.

The companies involved will join forces to undertake a cross-domain mission to find and characterize an object of interest, bring the data to the surface and shore, perform data analysis of the object, and determine a course of action. Two teams will launch from the NBTF and four from Sail Newport. Each group will be assigned to one of the three operating areas and all will take turns executing the same defined mission.

When the mission portion of the event is complete, each company will have the opportunity to showcase its capabilities individually to an audience of more than 150 people, including representatives from the Newport Division, the Office of Naval Research, industry and academia.

The Northeast Tech Bridge 2024 Demo Day is the culmination of smaller technology showcase events held over the past few months, focused on four areas of focus – cross-domain communications in March, modeling and simulation/digital twins in April, persistent sensors and monitoring in May, and unmanned vehicles in June.

These demonstrations took place virtually at 401 Tech Bridge’s offices in Middletown, Rhode Island, where a broad cross-section of stakeholders had the opportunity to ask questions. A panel of government officials and other stakeholders evaluated the products using a rubric, and the top companies were invited to participate in the Blue Tech Demo Day event.

Space for Sail Newport is limited and pre-registration is required. The registration form, which does not guarantee admission, and more information can be found at 401techbridge.org/event/bluetide-2024.

NUWC Newport is the nation’s oldest warfare center, dating back to the Naval Torpedo Station established on Goat Island in Newport Harbor in 1869. Under the command of Captain Chad Hennings, NUWC Newport maintains major detachments in West Palm Beach, Florida, and Andros Island in the Bahamas, as well as test facilities at Seneca Lake and Fisher’s Island, New York, Leesburg, Florida, and Dodge Pond, Connecticut.

Join our team! NUWC Division Newport, one of the top 20 largest employers in Rhode Island, employs a diverse, well-educated and skilled workforce. We are always looking for engineers, scientists and other STEM professionals, as well as talented professionals in business, finance, logistics and other support areas who want to be at the forefront of undersea research and development. Please contact NUWC Division Newport Recruiting at this website: https://www.navsea.navy.mil/Home/Warfare-Centers/NUWC-Newport/Career-Opportunities/ and follow us on LinkedIn @NUWC-Newport and on Facebook @NUWCNewport.