Innovation Meets Mission

Innovation Meets Mission

Welcome to the Innovation Meets Mission podcast. Whether you’re a visionary starting on an innovation journey or a seasoned innovator, we hope these practical talks inspire you to think about innovation in new ways. In each episode government leaders and innovators share their stories, insights and experiences with mission focused innovation. Learn how trailblazers transform ambitious ideas into mission reality.

Episodes

March 18, 2026 14 mins

In this part 1 episode of a 2-part series for SAIC’s Innovation Meets Mission podcast, host Tricia Ratliff speaks with engineers Cresta Bateman, Steve Strong, and Gavin Barnes about integrating AI into digital engineering. They discuss using AI as a collaborative contributor to automate repetitive tasks like translating complex requirements, enabling engineers to focus on innovation. The team shares their passion for reducing toil,...

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In part 2 of this two-part series of SAIC’s “Innovation Meets Mission” podcast, Kevin Billings, honorary group captain with the Royal Air Force 601 Squadron and leader of the Global Air Forces Climate Change Collaboration, discusses the initiative's origins, emphasizing the importance of international collaboration to share best practices for combating climate change. He explains the structure of this collaboration, highlighting th...

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In this episode of SAIC’s “Innovation Meets Mission” podcast, Kevin Billings, honorary group captain with the Royal Air Force 601 Squadron and leader of the Global Air Forces Climate Change Collaboration, discusses the initiative's origins, emphasizing the importance of international collaboration to share best practices for combating climate change. He explains the structure of this collaboration, highlighting the decentralized, c...

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In part 2 of this 2-part series of SAIC’s “Innovation Meets Mission” podcast, Gabrielle Davidsen discusses the importance of total experience, which integrates digital, customer, user, and employee interactions to create seamless, valuable experiences across organizations. She explains the “watermelon effect,” where KPIs show success, but actual experiences reveal dissatisfaction, highlighting the need for genuine integration of al...

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In part 1 of this 2-part series of SAIC’s “Innovation Meets Mission” podcast, Gabrielle Davidsen discusses the importance of total experience, which integrates digital, customer, user, and employee interactions to create seamless, valuable experiences across organizations. She explains the “watermelon effect,” where KPIs show success, but actual experiences reveal dissatisfaction, highlighting the need for genuine integration of al...

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In Part 3 of our Innovation Meets Mission podcast, host Tricia Ratliff speaks with experts Doug Davis and Andrew Lacher about their innovative work on aviation regulation to support the integration of unmanned aircraft systems into the national airspace. You’ll hear how regulatory changes in an environment of innovation came from a large collective of different perspectives and value systems across the aviation population which wer...
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Part 2 of Innovation Meets Mission podcast host Tricia Ratliff speaks with experts Doug Davis and Andrew Lacher about their innovative work on aviation regulation to support the integration of unmanned aircraft systems into the national airspace. You’ll hear how regulatory changes in an environment of innovation came from a large collective of different perspectives and value systems across the aviation population which were essent...
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In this episode of Innovation Meets Mission podcast host Tricia Ratliff speaks with experts Doug Davis and Andrew Lacher about their innovative work on aviation regulation to support the integration of unmanned aircraft systems into the national airspace. You’ll hear how regulatory changes in an environment of innovation came from a large collective of different perspectives and value systems across the aviation population which we...
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In this "Innovation Meets Mission," podcast episode, host Tricia Ratliff interviews Erwin Godoy, a seasoned innovation leader within regulated enterprises. Godoy shares his passion for helping individuals and organizations unlock their potential through resilience, calculated risks and collaboration. He highlights the story of Billy Mitchell, showing the power of risk-taking in driving change. Godoy offers practical tips on running...

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In this Part 4 of a 4-episode series, Brendan McKinley shares a wealth of insight in his story about the challenges his team overcame to build an innovative product and deliver it in a new way as a DevOps/Agile team. Sit back and enjoy hearing the story unfold in each episode to gain practical ideas for your own efforts.

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In this Part 3 of a 4-episode series, Brendan McKinley shares a wealth of insight in his story about the challenges his team overcame to build an innovative product and deliver it in a new way as a DevOps/Agile team. Sit back and enjoy hearing the story unfold in each episode to gain practical ideas for your own efforts.

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In this Part 2 of a 4-episode series, Brendan McKinley shares a wealth of insight in his story about the challenges his team overcame to build an innovative product and deliver it in a new way as a DevOps/Agile team. Sit back and enjoy hearing the story unfold in each episode to gain practical ideas for your own efforts.

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In this Part 1 of a 4-episode series, Brendan McKinley shares a wealth of insight in his story about the challenges his team overcame to build an innovative product and deliver it in a new way as a DevOps/Agile team. Sit back and enjoy hearing the story unfold in each episode to gain practical ideas for your own efforts.

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Alli Banzon AI ethics scientist shares her perspectives on the importance of education and collaboration between diverse voices as we all navigate the challenges of AI ethics.

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Ravi Raghava talks about how the benefits of cloud can unintentionally turn into run away costs and how he has worked with his government clients to manage costs.

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Matt Hungerford joins the podcast this week to talk about the era of “next-generation space” that’s well underway, led by commercial space companies’ democratization of technology and missions. The government has taken notice of the domain’s evolution, according to Hungerford, from down-to-earth costs for building and launching miniaturized satellites to ubiquitous mission payload hosting that’s akin to ridesharing, all of which ha...

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There is no shortage of innovative ideas to propel next-generation federal, civilian, and commercial space missions. The key to agency-contractor partnerships, according to Joe Poist, is relentless focus on execution and innovation, having the infrastructure, a strategic plan, and the right people to take ideas from drawing board to reality. Listen to this episode for the traits of successful industry solution providers from the fo...

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In this episode, you’ll hear from Jay Meil how AI is being deployed in defense, national security and the intelligence community to reduce human cognitive load amidst the data deluge and to serve as a force multiplier for missions. He offers insights on natural language processing and building symbiotic human-machine teams.

Please help us spread wisdom on innovation by sharing this episode with your colleagues and friends on Linke...

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The government must be able to constantly respond to changing drone threats. In this episode of SAIC's Innovation Meets Mission, host Tricia Ratliff hears how Jeremy Davidson and Greg Fortier use a Modular Open Systems Approach (MOSA) to help the government reduce cost and remain open for future innovation in drone technology.  

 

Disclaimer: 

The o...

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In this premiere episode, Innovation Meets Mission host Tricia Ratliff speaks with SAIC Chief Innovation Officer Lauren Knausenberger about her passion for fostering collaboration between government, academia and private industry. Knausenberger talks about her background and career in innovation and how her commitment to outcomes influences the work she does today.

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Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this podcast are th...

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