Significant technological advances that have emerged during the past two decades have made our world interconnected and productive. Yet, it is these same advances that have also made the battlefield more complicated and dangerous for our Soldiers. Our goals are to understand the future operating environment for our Soldiers such as threat trends, extreme environments, and military conditions, and to use this understanding to develop technologies that will enable the Soldier to tackle the challenges with the right set of tools. New fundamental science, engineering, and management approaches are needed to develop the technologies and strategies that lead to materials that can effectively protect the soldier and empower them. The challenges associated with developing protective materials that are multifunctional, and understanding how to deploy them on the battlefield, requires not only the integration of the physical science or engineering disciplines, but also testing grounds in military labs that allow that complexity to be addressed. Our partnership with DEVCOM Soldier Center makes this testing possible. Such complex and intractable problems are termed as being wicked because they are challenging yet potentially transformative. Critical to this work is the engagement of students at the graduate and undergraduate level as well as military-affiliated students on our campuses, who we will train and equip with the skills necessary to address emerging science and technology needs for the Army Future Command.
