Booz Allen Looks Back on a Year of Innovation

What do advances in AI mean for federal agencies, national security, and tomorrow’s workforce? How can organizations leverage data, analytics, and emerging technologies to make themselves stronger, while protecting themselves against evolving threats?

Booz Allen employees are not only asking questions like these, but they’re also finding answers and shaping the future—and 2023 was a year full of highlights. Read on to learn more about our year of innovation.

Todd Burnett was a drill sergeant at West Point and served in Operation Desert Storm. Nicholas Free started a career in virtual simulations creating “edugames” like CowSim and Cattle 101 for the agricultural industry. Together at Booz Allen, they and their colleagues have been putting wearables, augmented and virtual reality, AI, and analytics to work to get soldiers ready for missions faster.

Todd is involved on the human performance training side, which combines traditional strength and conditioning, advanced data science, and immersive simulations to optimize physical and psychological readiness, wellbeing, and performance.

“We’re analyzing the data, viewing our soldiers as tactical athletes, and recruiting coaches who have been in this field and who can help drive them in the right direction,” Todd says.

Game designer Nicholas creates virtual scenarios and immersive simulations.

“Rather than soldiers experiencing their equipment for the first time with little or no training in the field or a hazardous zone, we’re now able to provide 3D-printed versions of critical equipment with the same form, fit, and function,” Nicholas says.

Both Booz Allen as a firm and the women who work here have played pivotal roles in shaping the U.S. space industry, from the early days of the International Space Station to cybersecurity and the Artemis mission today. For Women’s History Month, five women leaders from Booz Allen’s space solutions shared their stories and advice for getting into and flourishing in this growing field.

Toni Eberhart, communications lead and project manager for the NASA International Space Apps Challenge: “A career in the space industry can be intimidating. People sometimes think, ‘That’s for rocket scientists. I can’t do that!’ And that’s just not true. There are so many missions, challenges, and projects in the space industry that need diverse skills and perspectives.”

Karen Fields, the market lead for Booz Allen’s work with NASA: “The space industry has changed over the last 20 years, with more and more women in the mix and leading the industry. Find yourself a few mentors to lean on, men and women, throughout your career.”

Ginny Cevasco, who oversees systems delivery contracts for space ground processing and space situational awareness: “At Booz Allen, I am fortunate to work with many influential women leaders. It’s inspired me throughout my career—to have examples of women not just participating in scientific advancement, but truly driving it.”

Casey Thiesen, the aerospace NASA cybersecurity lead on Booz Allen’s CyPrESS contract: “I allow my team and leadership to see me as vulnerable. This practice creates a work environment where my team feels welcome to show up as their full, authentic selves, too.”

Nicole Loomis, Booz Allen’s chief engineer for the NASA Human Space Flight Communications and Tracking Network: “Play to your strengths. Find the things that you do well and make them your own. The field is wide open, especially now. There are opportunities everywhere—take advantage of them.” 

AI was never far from the headlines in 2023, with ChatGPT and DALL-E bringing generative AI to the forefront of the national discussion. But Booz Allen has been building its expertise in data science and AI for decades. The firm is the largest provider of AI services to the U.S. federal government, with an AI and data workforce of more than 4,000 employees shaping the future of model development, quantum information science technology (QIST), edge computing, and more.

What’s the secret to Booz Allen’s success, and what tips can organizations and individual employees apply in their AI journey?

Joe Rohner, a leader in Booz Allen’s AI business, talked about the firm’s efforts to map talent against future needs and support professional growth through AI readiness training for all employees, digital badges, and Technical Experience Groups.

“In a fast-moving area like AI, you need to get the people with the right skills into the right roles—quickly. But there is a very real ecosystem and foundation that need to be laid and fostered to recruit, support, and retain AI staff,” Joe says.

Meanwhile, members of Booz Allen’s adversarial AI team shared how they’re helping defend against the intensifying threats of weaponized AI.

Edward Raff, who leads the machine learning (ML) research team: “There’s a lot of anxiety that people have about how things can go wrong with AI. I’m excited to work with a team who’s helping all of us—including our federal clients—have confidence in how the algorithms are going to work.”

Amol Khanna, a lead ML scientist: “We’re enhancing the safety of sensitive training data while making government AI more flexible. This allows us to build solutions that are robust and don’t pose security risks.”

Andre Nguyen, a senior lead scientist: “We’re not simply reusing the same template each time. Every algorithm and use case requires a specific bespoke solution.”

Derek Everett, a lead scientist who performs research targeting the safety of ML systems: “I'm excited to advance the state-of-the-art for adversarial AI while increasing clients’ effectiveness in this space.”

Matt Keating, the leader of the firm’s adversarial AI practice: “As a team committed to enhancing the nation’s military readiness, intelligence, and citizen services, we are motivated to not only help our clients implement AI solutions but do so in a reliable and safe manner.”

In 2023, Booz Allen welcomed a new Chief Information Security Officer (CISO): Amanda Cody, a former Marine who directed information security at the American Red Cross and National Geographic and supported Booz Allen’s defense and intelligence clients from 2009 to 2015.

It’s the job of the CISO to address many complex questions. What technologies should Booz Allen invest in next to mature its security stack? How can the firm help its clients prepare for what’s next?

To answer these questions, Amanda turned Booz Allen into Client Zero in its information security efforts. Her team leveraged the firm’s client solutions for internal security efforts and created a feedback loop between information security specialists and the employees across Booz Allen who support the firm’s clients.

Examples include collaborating with Booz Allen’s quantum team to prepare for a post-quantum computing world and evaluating how AI capabilities developed for clients and commercial incident response practices can be used at Booz Allen’s own fusion center.

“Everybody is on this journey, figuring out what they need to do and how fast they need to do it,” Amanda says.

The past year marked the opening of The Helix, Booz Allen’s new Center for Innovation in Washington, DC. Amid its interactive digital displays and floor-to-ceiling screens is a curved wall with a more traditional feel. On it, visitors can discover a diagram of an aircraft and its digital twin, battleship sketches, handwritten quotes from the firm’s founders, and more, with augmented reality (AR) scanning points leading to more information.

The mural is the creation of Allie Miller, who’s also the center’s deputy director and a customer experience lead.

As opening day for The Helix drew closer, the team faced a blank wall—literally. They needed to create something for the vast expanse of curved space near The Helix’s reception area. Little did they know that Allie had earned a fine arts degree from Mount Holyoke College and a master’s degree in industrial and product design from the Georgia Institute of Technology before joining Booz Allen.

“I said, ‘I can paint the mural!’” Allie says. “No one knew what I could do as an artist, but my leadership and managers trusted me.

Over four months of planning and six weeks of execution, Allie brought the mural to life. She worked with branding and marketing to identify the stories Booz Allen wanted to tell, drew corresponding images, brought them all together into a collage, and projected the drawings onto the wall for the final mural. The result, she says, is “an homage to past, present, and future.”