TurnRock Labs

Total value of prizes received through the CommanDING Tech Challenge: $200,250.
Phase 1: $7,500
Phase 2: $30,000
Phase 3: $110,000: First Place in Technology Demonstration
Phase 4: $52,750: Third Place and Best-In-Class Data Handling for a Category Not Listed

About the team

TurnRock Labs is a digital engineering and hybrid data company dedicated to building mission-focused solutions to reduce cognitive load on decision makers and expanding the human capacity to interact with the increasingly digital world. They are developing a comprehensive decision-support operations and forecasting environment called SpaceJamTM to support the mission of our nation’s Warfighters, First Responders and Law Enforcement. SpaceJamTM connects humans to visualizations of critical information, connect machines to virtual representations of real systems, and builds bridges between human experience and machine reality to provide a common operations environment so that all stakeholders can form consensus on the world around them and the rules they operate by so they can speak the same language and work together to accomplish the mission.

Key team members

Brenan Lundquist, Founder and Managing Partner, led the team’s efforts to develop SpaceJamTM Commander as a prototype dashboard and technology showcase for future incident command. Brenan is an engineer and innovator who has repeatedly led efforts to transition deep technology to practical dual-purpose solutions. Brenan received his first R&D contract with the Navy while an undergrad at the University of Washington, where he led a successful project to demonstrate an innovative, novel multi-mission UAS platform. Brenan ensured the team’s vision for the project went beyond the base competition’s requirements with the goal of producing a prototype that could one day transition to support first responders in the real-world.

Josh Devine, Co-Founder and Mechatronics Engineer, is a multidisciplinary engineer who has built a wide-ranging skill set and knowledge base for robotics, automation, human-machine teaming, data networks, and web development. Josh received his MS in Electrical Engineering from University of Washington and BS in Mechanical Engineering from Kansas State University. Always enthusiastic to learn new skills and adapt new technologies into his engineering repertoire, Josh recently completed a Machine Learning certificate program at the University of Washington. Josh made significant contributions to multiple elements of the project, including translating the prototype vision to a feature set and making significant contributions to the codebase. Josh also performed key roles in continual testing and problem solving.

Imran Peerbhai, Co-Founder and Principal Technical Advisor, is a senior software engineer and innovation leader. His 20 years of experience at Microsoft included leading teams on projects such as Internet Explorer, Windows Defender, and Windows Media Player. Imran is an expert in User Experience development, cybersecurity, data movement, artificial intelligence, blockchain, and lifecycle program management. Imran provided the team with cutting edge knowledge of the state of current technology. Imran’s contributions included facilitating rapid technical development through the management of software design best practices. Imran also contributed significantly to the UI/UX design and iterative test-development of their incident command dashboard.

Chief Steven Dirksen, Fire Chief at Fargo Fire Department, has served as Fire Chief at the Fargo Fire Department for over ten years. Prior to that, Chief Dirksen accumulated near 20 years of experience in various positions with Sioux Falls Fire Rescue. Chief Dirksen was deeply involved with every step of the process, meeting with team at least once per week throughout the entire challenge. Chief Dirksen provided the team with invaluable insight into the actions, mindset, and operational reality of Incident Commanders. Chief Dirksen’s knowledge and expertise was critical in shaping the design and testing process, and provided guidance for each feature showcased by the prototype solution.

The solution

SpaceJamTM Commander empowers the next generation of incident commanders to better serve their communities in the digital era. SpaceJamTM provides modular, scalable and collaborative dashboards connected to digital twin simulation modules. These tools capture and integrate all stakeholders, field operators, sensors assets and data in real-time, enabling digital commanders to cut through the overload of data to get to what they need to make critical decisions.  

Key highlights

• Virtual CommanderTM: an artificial intelligence (AI) decision support feature – an intuitive, customizable user experience that integrates human users and software agents to collaborate with incident command as if in the same room:
  • Actionable information for humans
  • Data environment for machines
  • Rules-based management of users and software intelligent agents
• The user interface consists of four primary elements:
  • the Data Pane: displays raw data as well as actionable information/insights, such as action timeline, asset management, video feeds, building information, responder vitals, victim status, record management and timeline detail
  • the Live Map: annotatable top-down view of the building, event space, and surrounding area
  • the Notifications and Communications Panel: ensures the most critical and up-to-date information and conditions are always accessible and in-view
  • the Action Pane: where emerging conditions prompt the incident commander to take action or consider AI-derived solutions to aid the incident commander in executing their chosen course of action.