DARPA Director Leaves Pentagon For Google

New submitter srussia writes with this quote from Wired: "DARPA director Regina Dugan will soon be stepping down from her position atop the Pentagon's premiere research shop to take a job with Google. Dugan, whose controversial tenure at the agency lasted just under three years, was 'offered and accepted at senior executive position' with the internet giant, according to DARPA spokesman Eric Mazzacone. She felt she could not say no to such an 'innovative company,' he adds. ... 'There is a time and a place for daydreaming. But it is not at DARPA,' she told a congressional panel in March 2011. 'DARPA is not the place of dreamlike musings or fantasies, not a place for self-indulging in wishes and hopes. DARPA is a place of doing.' For an agency that spent millions of dollars on shape-shifting robots, Mach 20 missiles, and mind-controlled limbs, it was something of a revolutionary statement. The shift was only one of the reasons why Dugan was a highly polarizing figure within her agency, and in the larger defense research community."

Comments

In more recent news...

[retech]

Guglielmo Marconi, Italian Scientist, invents a wireless telegraph that is able to send voice signals through the air via "radio" waves.

What's revolutionary?

[stms]

You don't dream the future you build it. Yeah sure you had to have an idea but ideas are the easy part the hard part is implementation.

Re:What's revolutionary?

[Trepidity]

There are various places you can live on the axes of basic versus applied research, though. DARPA traditionally spent a larger proportion of its budget on basic research than it does today; nowadays the vast majority of DARPA projects intend practical outcomes in the 3-5-year timeframe, often pairing universities doing near-term applied research with companies like Lockheed who're simultaneously implementing it, and expected to exercise considerable pressure on the university partners to focus their research on the near-term "deliverable". Traditionally, that was part of the DARPA budget, while blue-skies research, often in the form of block grants to e.g. a physics or CS research group, was another part of it. The relative percentages have shifted a lot towards the former.

Some of the justification is that the NSF is supposed to fund basic research, while DARPA is supposed to fund things of near-term practical use to the military. That makes some sense conceptually, but a shift in DARPA priorities without a reallocation in funds between the NSF and DARPA means that in effect science/engineering research funding is being cut in favor of something that leans closer to military R&D.

Congratualations...

[Anonymous Coward]

you now work for the doubleclick of the 2000s.

Real Programmer

[William Robinson]

WOW. She does calculation on her palms and knees. A Read Programmer

Google probably pays more.

[Animats]

It's probably because Google pays more.

It seems late to be going to Google to do research. Five years ago, yes. Today, no. Google's innovations lately all seem to involve more intrusive advertising.

I hope Google keeps funding the automatic driving effort. At least until some auto manufacturer picks it up. They're getting close to something usable. Now they need to switch from that rotating car-top Velodyne kludge LIDAR to multiple flash LIDARs like Advanced Scientific Concepts makes, and get the size and price down.

She is leaving Massive Dynamics?

[lucm]

Seriously she reminds me of Nina Sharp in Fringe.

so, the question is

[Anonymous Coward]

What did she get the government to do for Google while at DARPA which secured her this cushy position?

I firmly believe that no government officer above a certain position, or elected representative, should be able to work in the private sector for at least ten years after they have left government. I couldn't give a fuck if this means we have to increase their salaries or be seen as paying them to do nothing. It would be so much better than the current revolving door situation.

Re:so, the question is

[datavirtue]

Google's political moves are so cute.

Re:Can someone explain what "the shift" means?

[tomhath]

those exotic programs which are mentioned in the article ought to take a lot longer than 3 years to manifest

DARPA = Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency

Yes, DARPA's place is exploring wild ideas, pushing the envelope. But the current administration doesn't want to fund basic research if it's related to the military so they appointed her to merge her budget with routine acquisitions; that way it looks like research is still in the budget when it was actually cut.

It's just a coincidence that her leaving comes at a time when there's an investigation into some of those acquisitions that were no bid contracts to the company she founded and is still part owner of.

Embrace Evil

[Scareduck]

It is hard to imagine just how much this embraces the opposite of "Don't be evil". Bringing in someone from DARPA is pretty much a conduit to everything that is wrong and broken about American political life right now.

Re:Embrace Evil

[Smallpond]

It is hard to imagine just how much this embraces the opposite of "Don't be evil". Bringing in someone from DARPA is pretty much a conduit to everything that is wrong and broken about American political life right now.

Suuuuuuuuuuure it is. This is just the start of Google Defense. Its their plan to come up with a better, ad-supported military.

Re:Embrace Evil

[petsounds]

I guess you're under the impression that DARPA is just about killer robots and Mach 20 self-guided missiles. Maybe you forgot DARPA tried to create the Total Information Awareness program [Most TIA programs are still running under different names]. Maybe you didn't see Rugan's All Things D interview where she admitted to "working closely" with Google. What better way to make the DARPA-Google relationship more cozy than to install a DARPA director at Google's skunkworks arm?

Obama's response

[cashman73]

Prior to her departure, Ms. Dugan set up a meeting with President Obama to discuss her plans. At some point in the conversation Obama said: “Just tell me it’s not Google.” She told him it was Google.

At that point, President Obama picked up a chair and threw it across the Oval Office, hitting a table. Obama then said: “F**king Eric Schmidt is a f**king pussy. I’m going to f**king bury that guy, I have done it before, and I will do it again. I’m going to f**king kill Google.”

Re:Incest all around.

[bytesex]

It's more that it's a sign of the times of how 'top-people' are expected to be 'top-people' wherever they are. Take a 'top-banker' and make him head of the post office and before you know it, you have an extremely profitable post office. Or something. What the exchange of Petraeus and Panetta say, is that people don't believe in earning your spurs in your own line of business anymore.

the choice was probably get out or go to jail

[Anonymous Coward]

The Federal Inspector General is investigating her for funneling money into favored contractors, including a company she founded and still largely owns.

Internally to DoD, what Wired sees as "good politics" in closer coordination with the pentagon, others see as "misallocation of funds".

Under her tenure the politicization of DARPA has accelerated. Lobbying firms are on DARPA payroll to determine program directions and make funding decisions. Program managers are being selected from among Congressional staffers rather than academia or military labs.

DARPA is only a small part of DoD R&D. After enough of us have had conversations with internal auditors about possibly going to jail over the things we've done under her direction, she made a "choice" to leave... Sure.