GovCIO Media & Research President Michael Hoffman kicked off the Uncle Sam Meets Silicon Valley program.

Leaders from Army Research Laboratory, DHS and In-Q-Tel spoke about programs to tackle national security challenges.

Dr. Jaret Riddick, director of the Vehicle Technology Directorate at the Army Research Laboratory, Douglas Maughan, director of the Cyber Security Division at the Homeland Security Advanced Research Projects Agency, and Paulo Dutra, a senior program manager at In-Q-Tel, spoke on a panel about the opportunities and challenges facing national security agencies try to collaborate with new technology companies.

Leaders from GSA’s 18F, Health and Human Services and Homeland Security spoke on a panel about the innovation hubs attracting new technology companies to government work.

Angela Colter, acting executive director of 18F at the General Services Administration, Sanjay Koyani, executive director for Innovation at HHS, and Nadia Carlsten, director of Commercialization at the Science & Technology Directorate at Homeland Security joined the panel.

Colter leads 18F,  the organization stood up by GSA to partner with federal agencies to build and buy digital services that improve the user experience of government. Koyani oversees new approaches like code-a-thons and accelerators to engage new tech companies to tackle Health and Human Services challenges. Carlsten leads the Transition to Product program in the Homeland Security Science & Technology Directorate where her team introduces cybersecurity research done in DHS labs to commercial companies

Officials from the U.S. Digital Service and the Veterans Experience Office spoke on a panel discussing new programs to improve digital services.

David Bao, deputy executive director of the Digital Service at Veterans Affairs and Barbara Morton, the deputy chief Veterans Experience Officer at Veterans Affairs spoke about initiatives such as the redesign of va.gov and the pursuit of new technology companies to tackle veterans’ challenges.