For Sandia’s Advanced Concepts Group, formed in 19 to harness the knowledge and creativity of diverse groups around the Labs, new approaches to national and global security issues are the organization’s trademark. And empowering others to pursue these ideas is their “coin of the realm.”
The future of warfare, the looming Asian influenza pandemic, the workings of the human mind under pressure, energy and water, transportation, aging, health care, or dealing with the social, political, and security issues along our nation’s borders are examples of subjects being tackled by this group.
Working in small information teams, supplemented by other collaborators, ACG staff and leadership recruit individuals and groups to test new ideas.
In a three-hour session in late 2006 at Albuquerque’s National History Museum, 20 high school students discussed future global problems or opportunities with Yonas and ACG staff members. Sitting under the museum’s towering ceilings with a huge prehistoric flying reptile suspended overhead, one group discussed what might be the effects of electronic communication that involved all five senses. Another group delved into alternative means of rising into outer space, while a third group brainstormed ideas to save polar bears, western pine forests, and coral reefs from extinction due to the forces of climate change. The small groups debated their ideas and then presented a briefing to the larger group afterward.