MassRobotics at the 2025 AFCEA New Horizons Conference: Bridging Innovation with Defense Needs

At the 2025 AFCEA Lexington Concord Phase’s New Horizons Seminar, MassRobotics supplied a provocative session that transformed the limelight on the vital obstacle of searching for and financing ingenious innovations with dual-use possibility. While previous sessions had actually checked out updates from the Management, protection efforts, chances from the Program Exec Workplaces (PEOs) and AI’s transformative duty in armed forces capacities, this session moved emphasis to the often-overlooked facet of development– transforming innovative business innovations right into useful possessions for nationwide protection.

Regulated by Joyce Sidopoulos, Founder of MassRobotics, the session included 2 vital companies recognized for looking and moneying innovations with both business and protection applications: the Protection Advancement System (DIU) and J2 Ventures. Dr. John Griffen, Federal Government Involvement Lead for DIU’s Freedom Profile, and Jon Bronson, owner of J2 Ventures, together with Matt Goldman, General Companion at J2, supplied vital understandings right into the procedure of recognizing encouraging technologies and the financing devices that sustain them.

The session highlighted just how innovations initially created for the business market can be leveraged for protection, making an actual influence on the Division of Protection’s objective to give innovative remedies to warfighters. The objective is to link the space in between startup-driven development and the difficulties encountered by the Division of Protection, guaranteeing brand-new innovations get to the area where they are most required.

Adhering to these discussions, 10 ingenious start-ups from the MassRobotics’ technology community took the phase to pitch their remedies. As the biggest independent robotics center, MassRobotics is committed to speeding up the growth and fostering of robotics and physical AI innovations, offering business owners with the work area, sources, and links to scale their remedies around the world. This was among those chances for the start-ups to share their innovation with a protection concentrated target market of leaders and finish customers.

The business that pitched their technologies at the occasion consisted of:

AirShare: Counter Drone System
Brecourt Solutions: Immediate Drone Feedback
Dephy: Powered Shoes to Enhance Flexibility
Enigma Aerospace: Autonomous Aerial Logistics
Maglev Aero: Electric Propulsion System Leveraging Magnetic Levitation
Mesodyne: Power Generation
ModalAI: Advanced Robotics Solutions
Revolute Robotics: Autonomous Ground & Aerial Robots
Rhoman Aerospace: Drone Freedom Solutions
TargetArm: Drones On-the-Move

These start-ups stand for the reducing side of robotics development, varying from drone innovations to powered shoes remedies focused on boosting wheelchair for armed forces workers. After the pitches, the target market had the chance to choose their favored development making use of a ballot application.

And the victor of the 2025 AFCEA Innovator Honor (that consisted of $5000) was Dephy, a firm birthed in 2016 as a spin-off from the MIT Media Laboratory. Dephy is concentrated on equipping people by incorporating powered systems with shoes and garments. Their job is specifically impactful in severe armed forces problems, where wheelchair is an important obstacle. By partnering with over 20 international research study establishments, Dephy is pressing the borders of human wheelchair, boosting lives, and allowing armed forces participants and clinical people to go further by themselves 2 feet.

The session was complied with by a networking chance for the start-ups to talk even more concerning their innovations with the participants and prospective clients. This occasion showcased MassRobotics’ dedication to linking the protection market with ingenious start-ups, guaranteeing that brand-new innovations are not just created however are released where they are required most.