'I have been engaging with small companies because they're the guys that are suffering the valley of death,' she said. Outreach is one way she hopes to bridge the valley or fill it in. Shyu said the valley of death is still a problem. Too often, promising technologies get dropped in this period. Shyu is the latest DOD technology chief that wants to bridge the department's 'valley of death.' This refers to the time between development of a capability and its inclusion in a program.

I am a firm believer that by working together, we can solve the toughest challenges,' she said. Shyu wants to leverage the larger 'innovation ecosystem.' This includes defense contractors, university affiliated research centers, federally funded research centers, 'and, of course, our allies and partners. This is more than simply teamwork within the department - although that is important. It is more than simply hiring people, it also means building the laboratories, test areas, facilities and infrastructure needed to enable their work.įinally, the 'piece that's critically important for us to shape the future is teamwork,' she said. 'We've got to attract talent … (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) talent to build a future technical workforce,' she said.

To do this, Shyu wants to build a foundation to get the right people to work on these cutting edge projects.

Tichu strategy